Disney Daze: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

For Halloween, I thought it would be fitting to review a Disney film that is (partially) set on Halloween night. This section, about Sleepy Hollow, is often regarded as one of Disney's spookiest and most unsettling stories.

And if you ever watch it, you'll find out why...

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

Disney Animated Classic Number 11

Starring: Bing Crosby, Basil Rathbone, Eric Blore, Pat O’Malley, Colin Campbell, Campbell Grant & Claude Allister

Directed by: Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi & James Algar

Rating: ★★★

Ever heard of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad? I hadn’t.

Released in the late 40s, as the last of Disney’s ‘package’ anthology films, this movie places two ‘seminal’ children’s stories side by side: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, on the assumption that both are about the greatest characters in literature: one from England and one from America.

The Headless Horseman makes an incredibly terrifying appearance in the second half...

To say that Mr Toad and Ichabod Crane are two of the best, if not the best, literary characters in two nations’s fictional history would probably bring tears to the eyes of literary critics across the world, but Disney dares to.  The mix is clearly a rather usual one, as one story is about a mentally deranged frog and the other about a psychotic headless horseman, and placing them back to back is odd to say the least, but unlike some of the other package films of the 40s, at least both stories are watchable and compelling.

Ratty and Moley from The Wind in the Willows segment

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad has a chequered production history. Just after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfswas released in 1938, Disney acquired the rights to The Wind in the Willows and by 1941, the concept for this movie was complete and production had begun. But, just like several other Disney productions, the Second World War instantly interfered, and The Wind in the Willows had to be put on hold, as Disney began to make propaganda pieces, beginning with the little known gem Saludos Amigos.

Everyone wishes they could be like Mr Toad apparently...

After the war ended, Disney decided that the animation to The Wind in the Willows was not good enough for a feature length film, and decided that it too would become one of his packaged productions and so cut a lot of the content to make it shorter. Originally, the film was going to be known as Three Fabulous Characters and would contain The Wind in the Willows, Mickey and the Beanstalk, and The Gremlins. The Gremlins would be based on a book written by Roald Dahl explicitly for Walt Disney as a promotional device for a full length animated film that they had intended to make. Unfortunately, due to legal problems, they shelved the idea of a Gremlins movie, although a much more famous incarnation based on this idea was made in the 1980s by Disney rivals Warner Brothers.

The film was then changed to Two Fabulous Characters, but Mickey and the Beanstalk was cut to be paired with Bongo for Fun and Fancy Free, as Disney decided that they were a better pairing. And we all know how that turned out.

Ichabod uses women to fill his stomach...

Simultaneously, Disney had begun to start production on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, an adaptation of the book with the same name about the now legendary Headless Horseman. After it had been made, Disney discovered that the running time was too short for a full length film, and ultimately made the decision that it too would become a part of a package film. So finally, in 1947, Disney decided to pair The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow together under the new title The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and cast well known celebrities as narrators to make it more appealing.

The film opens with our first narrator Basil Rathbone telling us that we are indeed about to watch a movie about two of the greatest characters ever written. He will narrate the first story which is from England, and so begins to tell the tale of a frog with a personality disorder who is impulsive and gets himself into a variety of dangerous situations because he can’t control himself. Mr Toad’s (Blore) friends include a Mole (Campbell) and a Rat (Allister) who try to help him and his faithful horse Cyril Proudbottom (O’Malley) who goads him into these terrible circumstances. Mr Toad is tricked by a group of Weasels (who are almost exactly the same as the ones from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) and a tavern keeper and is sent to prison so that they can steal Toad Hall from him. His friends then have to break him out of jail and try and set things right.

Mr Toad and Cyril open the movie with a good sing song.

Although I’m no Wind in the Willows fan, this story is much better than I thought it would be and on the whole I rather enjoyed watching it. You have to take Mr Toad for what he is and either ignore or revel in his many obnoxious habits to really appreciate him. There’s a good song that Mr Toad and his horse Cyril sing, and the ending in Toad Hall is surprisingly violent, tense and funny. The entire plot is set around Christmas, so this really is a festive first half. Even though Mr Toad learns nothing from his mistakes, the narrator tells us that we all wish we could be like him, and that is what makes him a great character. I hope that no child watching this actually does wish they could one day act entirely recklessly without thinking of or dealing with the consequences like Mr Toad, as unfortunately too many people do.

Mr Toad's section is Christmas themed, and so catches you off guard for what will follow it...

The second half, surprisingly narrated by Bing Crosby, is obviously a Halloween themed movie, so it might have made more sense to switch the two around, as this change would have possibly avoided nightmares for everyone watching since they wouldn’t have had as much time to reflect on the event in the final part of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, while they watched Mr Toad gallivanting around the countryside.

Most people probably know Ichabod Crane from Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, and would be surprised to know that Disney did it first. They would also probably assume that Disney wouldn’t make it as scary as Tim Burton, but they would be horribly wrong, like I was.

Ichabod sure likes to eat...

The first two thirds of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is about notorious womaniser Ichabod Crane, and his attempts at securing Katrina Van Tassel’s hand in marriage. You see, although Ichabod may be the ‘hero’ of the story, he is by all means not a nice person. He uses women for their many ‘gifts’ (mostly food) and only wants to marry Katrina, not because she is an attractive and fuller figured beauty, but because she is rich, and he would no longer have to work as a school teacher. Even Bing Crosby is surprised by this, as he describes one of Katrina’s charms by saying that she is ‘ripe’ for the plucking. Obviously being a virgin is what gets our narrator, and the rest of the townspeople, going, but not Ichabod. He just wants her for her money.

Katrina is ripe and ready to be picked apparently

So Ichabod tries his best to woo Katrina, only thinking about her wealth, which annoys local bully Brom Bones, who also wants Katrina for his own. Brom is very reminiscent of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast and as revenge against Ichabod for stealing his dame, sings a spooky song at the local Halloween party about the Headless Horseman, which terrifies Ichabod.

Up to this point, the film is basically a comedy, and is fairly steady in its pacing. Then, as soon as Ichabod leaves the Halloween party to go home, the movie solely focuses on an incredibly creepy and scary wood that he is chased through by the Headless Horseman, who wants his head.

That flaming pumpkin is heading straight for Ichabod,,,

Disney sure knows how to scare the crap out of children, and although elements of this chase are comical, it is very intense and frightening, and ends with the Headless Horseman throwing a flaming pumpkin at Ichabod’s head, which knocks him off his horse, so that he can be dragged into the woods and beheaded. Oh yes, you read that right, Ichabod gets killed at the end, and the bully Brom marries Katrina, and they have a happy ever after. Bing Crosby laughs this off by saying that perhaps Ichabod didn’t really die after all, as some people had heard rumours about him being alive and well, and living several towns over. But I think we all know what really happened to the poor fellow…

And on that rather disturbing note, the film finishes, with Bing Crosby laughing and telling us not to have nightmares, which is pointless as every young child watching the film is probably traumatised for life.

You should be terrified Ichabod, because you aren't going to make it to the end credits...

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow isn’t particularly great as it takes a long time to get to the bit we want to see, and I probably preferred The Wind in the Willows, as it is shorter and snappier. But on the whole, the film is pretty good, and is very successful at being both funny and distressing at the same time.

You might like to know that the success of the six 1940s package films, ending with The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad,  helped fund Cinderella, and in turn Cinderellaallowed Disney to begin work on more feature films, television productions and even Disneyland. Also, one of the directors, Clyde Geronomi went on to co-direct the next six Disney classics, most of which are regarded as some of the best in the canon.

Reflecting on the legacy of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a much happier and positive note to end this review on.

Rather than focusing on Ichabod Crane being dragged into a wood by a ghost and decapitated, let's think happy thoughts.

Although, it is Halloween, isn't it?