There is a good deal of charm in the chemistry between Richard and Joanna while the conflict is suspenseful without getting too dark.
The adventurous elements are exciting and makes one feel a lot of affection and nostalgia for the action seen in other historical/adventures novels and adaptations. However, 'The Black Arrow' does do a good deal right. Like other Burbank animations, with condensing the source material into 50 minutes or so, 'The Black Arrow' inevitably does feel too short and some of the storytelling is erratic in pace, some events feeling rushed. There is atmosphere in the colours, nothing is too flat or garish here, and meticulous background detail, though some of the drawing and character designs could have been smoother and had more finesse. 'The Black Arrow' is a little uneven in the animation quality, though mostly it's not bad at all. On its own terms though, this 'The Black Arrow' is still quite good, not a completely straight up faithful adaptation (none of the Burbank animations are, though 'The Wind in the Willows' comes the closest in detail and spirit as an adaptation) but enough elements are recognisable and the spirit is relatively there. Burbank adapted both of those, as well as 'Kidnapped', and there is a preference for all three of those over this. As a book, 'The Black Arrow' is a pleasant enough read (personally think that it is better than its reputation, which is not high with Stevenson himself being the first critic) but is not among the best work of Robert Louis Stevenson, falling short of the classic status of 'Treasure Island' and 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'.
Burbank's adaptation of 'The Black Arrow' is somewhere in the high middle from personal opinion. Though there are some that have fallen into very good and really quite bad extremes, 'The Wind in the Willows', 'Peter Pan' and 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' being examples of the former and 'Don Quixote', 'The Odyssey' and 'The Prisoner of Zenda' being examples of the latter. This output is definitely very interesting, but it's a bit of a mixed bag, most ranging between average and good. Throughout the 80s Burbank Films Australia made a number of animated adaptations mostly under an hour of numerous literary classics.
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