Allan-a-Dale is a rooster who is also an accomplished minstrel and balladeer.  He has a pronounced southwestern American accent and a quaint, if perhaps subtle, sense of humor (as well as a relatively carefree personality).  It is he, serving as a narrator, who introduces us to the tale of Robin Hood and his struggles against Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham.  True to his calling, he also sings for us an occasional and whimsical little ditty or two while telling the story.

However, Allan also appears within the story itself, serving as a supporter of Robin Hood.  He is often seen alongside of Friar Tuck, attempting to frustrate the efforts of the Sheriff and his men.

In this animated version of the Robin Hood story, the character's name is spelled "Allan-a-Dale" (as seen on the Internet Movie Database page for the film), rather than the more frequently-seen spelling of "Alan-a-Dale" or "Alan a Dale".

Origins of the Character: Alan-a-Dale was not one of the original characters to appear in the very earliest versions of the Robin Hood legend.  According to The Robin Hood Project, by the Robbins Library of the University of Rochester (New York):

"...he is first mentioned in a seventeenth-century ballad in a story where Robin and the outlaws save a young man’s beloved from being married to an older wealthy man, and in a tricksterish spirit they supervise her marriage to Alan himself. With his name variously spelt, he became a minor and intermittently recurrent member of the outlaw band, but his romantic heroism was not forgotten, and occurs in some nineteenth-century fiction and subsequent story. Later Alan gained the characteristic of bringing music into the outlaw band, being used as a musical commentator in some elements of the film tradition, with the honour of being played by Bing Crosby in the 1964 musical Robin and the Seven Hoods. More recently he recurs as just one of the outlaws, but his musical capacity has re-emerged in the 2010 film starring Russell Crowe."