Made at the end of the first age of Disney animation, "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" consists of two separate animated adaptations of classic stories. The Ichabod of the title is Ichabod Crane from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", and the Mr. Toad is J. Thaddeus Toad from the "Wind in the Willows". Each is short, running only about 35 minutes apiece, and is narrated by top of the line actors, Basil Rathbone doing the honors for "The Wind in the Willows", and Bing Crosby for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". I've not read either story so can't judge the adaptations accuracy, but it doesn't matter. Both stories are highly entertaining, and if you like the old school Disney animation, you won't be disappointed.
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gbheron10 October 2002
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bkoganbing1 December 2012I guess you describe this Walt Disney classic as a cartoon/cartoon. Two separate stories done to fill out one barely over an hour film. After 63 years it still has enough magic to entertain.
Why Disney reversed the order of The Adventures Of Ichabod and Mr. Toad I've not figured out since the Mr. Toad story comes first. Basil Rathbone narrates this part and Eric Blore is delightful as that rascally scamp J. Thaddeus Toad who has the finest estate on riverbank. But he's a spendthrift and really needs a keeper. Which his friends the badger, the rabbit and the mole supply.
Blore reached back to his own career in interpreting Toad and I think Disney and his staff of animators must have seen him in The Road To Zanzibar and his character of Bates the valet to The Lone Wolf in that series. In Zanzibar Blore has a brief but memorable part as an eccentric millionaire who sells Crosby and Hope and diamond mine, but he's also the family idiot and he has no mines to sell or rights to sell them. And seeing how his Toad character escapes from the law reminds me so much of Bates making fools of the law in helping Warren William outwit them.
Washington Irving's Legend Of Sleepy Hollow is the basis for Ichabod and Bing Crosby narrates and sings with Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires backing him up and occasionally providing a voice. Ichabod Crane the new schoolmaster is cutting in on Brom Bones and his wooing of the richest girl in town Katrina Von Tassel. We all know how Brom Bones got Ichabod out of town on a stormy Halloween night, but you have to see the fine animation that Disney did for this film to really appreciate it.
Bing gets three songs to sing in this film, Ichabod Crane, Katrina, and The Headless Horseman. The last is really memorable and a great song for kids of all ages on a Halloween night.
Remember folks, you can't reason with a headless man. -
barnabyrudge1 August 2007Two classic works of children's' literature are presented in this animated double-header from the Disney folks. First up is a splendid adaptation of The Wind In The Willows (by Kenneth Grahame); the second half features a slightly tedious but climactically quite creepy rendition of The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow (by Washington Irving). From the point-of-view of animation, the film is absolutely gorgeous, with richly designed characters and places and seamless movement. From the point-of-view of entertainment, the film is generally charming despite losing its way during the mid-section of the Sleepy Hollow segment.
Toad of Toad Hall is an extravagant creature whose obsessive interest in adventurous pursuits threatens to cost him his stately home. His friends Ratty, Mole and Badger try to help him put his affairs in order, but to little avail. When Toad is falsely imprisoned for car theft, Toad Hall falls into the hands of a bunch of unscrupulous weasels and the devious Mr Winky. Reinstating Toad Hall to its rightful owner rests on the heroes snatching a deed that proves Toad's innocence....
Ichabod Crane, an odd-looking school master, arrives in the peaceful community of Sleepy Hollow to begin work in the local school. He catches the eye of the village beauty Katrina, but this proves mighty irritating for the local hunk Brom Bones. After trying various schemes to get rid of Ichabod, Brom finally hits upon the idea of scaring him out of town by telling the story of the Headless Horseman that roams the nearby woods. Then one night, poor Ichabod personally comes face to face with the ghostly horseman....
Each section is narrated by a big star - the Mr Toad half is brilliantly told by Basil Rathbone, while Bing Crosby uses his soothing, absorbing tone to narrate the Ichabod Crane section. Overall The Wind In The Willows part is the better of the two sections. It has many fabulously funny touches (Cyril, the Yorkshire accented horse, in particular has some great moments) and is vibrantly exciting. The climax, in which the heroes attempt to seize a deed that proves Toad as the rightful owner of Toad Hall, contains moments that are ingeniously funny in the best Disney tradition. The Sleepy Hollow section starts promisingly, but the mid-section becomes repetitive and tedious. Having said that, the finale in which Ichabod flees from the Headless Horseman is absolutely great. The crescendo of dramatic music and the foreboding colours and forest silhouettes make the sequence genuinely hair-raising. On the whole, The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr Toad is an entertaining and pleasing-to-the-eye film with a sufficient variety of pleasures to keep kids and adults alike engrossed. -
Finally Walt Disney Home Video has got their act together and released "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" in its entirety (the two stories have been available in separate forms for quite some time). I'll admit that the clunky title doesn't inspire much more enthusiasm than it did back in 1949 (the film tanked, from what I've heard), but I hope some people will give this a chance just based on the Disney name. "The Wind in the Willows", narrated by Basil Rathbone, is a delightfully comic adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's classic novel, keeping the proper British tone (children may not get some of the UK slang used) while still remaining a lot of fun. The highlight is the courtroom scene, featuring a bullying prosecutor (voiced by Disney animator/voice artist John McLeish, who also narrated the Goofy "How to" shorts) going toe-to-toe with a wonderfully insolent Toad (a great performance by Eric Blore). "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", based on a story (not a novel, as the film suggests) by Washington Irving, is even better, making the most of its American colonial setting with some especially interesting layouts and backgrounds. The humor found in the rivalry between schoolteacher Ichabod Crane and local roughneck Brom Bones for the hand of the manipulative tease ("coquette", in the film) Katrina von Tassel is some of Disney's best. The Halloween sequence leading up to the Headless Horseman's appearance is the most skillfully directed piece of animation I have ever seen outside of "Fantasia", conveying a magnificent sense of dread through both sound (the chilling echo of whistling and laughter, crickets chanting Ichabod's name, frogs croaking "headless horseman" over and over) and image (fireflies inside a tree trunk forming the eyes of a shrouded ghost, Ichabod's sweaty, nervous terror, the subtle cloud effect of hands closing over the moon). This is far more frightening than any horror film I have seen. All in all, a smart (listen to the narration and learn some new vocabulary words) film in every way. One final note: I have not seen this film in years (I saw it plenty of times on The Disney Channel during the 1980s), and I noticed the many scenes involving both alcohol and weapons, particularly in "The Wind and the Willows" segment. I accepted the scenes back then as a child and had no problem with them now, thanks to the general tone of the picture. Although the concept of Toad being restrained from blasting a bayonet-wielding weasel with a shotgun and seeing Toad and his friends running from various flying knives, swords, and axes sounds like something to stay away from, it is all harmless fun. Give it a chance.
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lagudafuad2 January 2013The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a 1949 animated feature produced by Walt Disney himself. It comprises of two segments, one of which is based on Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's book The Wind in the Willows and the other story is based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow which is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is the 11th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. Disney had shifted from making full length animations and started making short package movies due to the involvement of America in the ongoing World War II at the time. War saw some of his (Walt Disney) animators being drafted to the it and due to the heavy cost of making full length features on a single story, package shorts were released during the period and a total of six were done, and there were Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time and this movie The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is the last.
Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes) and Bing Crosby were cast as narrators in order to pull viewers. The movie plot is quite similar to the stories that they were adapted from, with Mr. Toad's story (which is narrated by Basil Rathbone), has the charismatic J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq. who was ready to do anything to fulfill his fun craze for adventure, giving up everything and getting into trouble for purchasing a stolen motor car.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is also close to its story (narrated by Bing Cosby), it tells the tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. As Ichabod's selfish desire to claim the wealth of Katrina Van Tassel father by marrying his daughter led him to cross fire with the towns bully Brom Bones, who eventually scared Ichabod off with his stories of the headless horseman (which Ichabod later met).
Ironically both stories, The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow were initially planed to be full length animations, the work on The Wind in the Willows started in 1941 but was halted during the war and done as a short but kept awaiting a suitable pairing. The production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was done in 1946, but when they noticed how short the movie will be, Disney then decided to pair it up with The Wind of Willows and released together under the name The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.
The movie is a critical acclaim, and it is a nice watch for both adult and kids alike. There is no moral in these stories just good old cartoon fun.
www.lagsreviews.com -
Ron Oliver15 September 2003From English and American literature come two fabulous characters who will forever excite readers with THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD.
This was the last of Disney's compilation or anthology films - a form necessitated by the exigencies of the War years - and is actually a double featurette. Both halves would eventually be spun off into individual short subjects and work very well independently of each other. Their connections are quite tenuous: besides featuring 'fabulous characters' each story showcases a celebrated wild ride - one of which would, indeed, provide a long-lasting 'dark show' attraction at Disneyland.
First up is THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, which gives a drastically shortened & much revised view of Kenneth Grahame's classic book, focusing entirely on the chapters dealing with the exploits of the marvelous Mr. Toad and the troubles arising from his fixation with motorcars & speed (although much more time is spent showing him in his canary-coloured gypsy cart). As such, it is a fine introduction to Toad Hall, but one can only wonder what Disney would have done with a feature length animated film that included the bucolic charm of the novel, the glories of the Riverbank & the terrors of the Wild Wood as well as the high jinks. The production values are excellent, with narration by the inimitable Basil Rathbone, and Eric Blore & J. Pat O'Malley obviously have a high time voicing the wanton Toad and his equine pal Cyril Proudbottom, but a true fan of Grahame's original creation can't help longing for a little more...
Washington Irving's famous story, THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, comes alive in the second half of the movie. Bing Crosby's singing narration and the top-notch animation tell a tale of humor and genuine fright. Ichabod Crane, the pedantic pedagogue, is a triumph of the animators' art, while the film's climax - the ride through the Hollow & the appearance of the hideous Hessian - is a celebration of pacing and stylistic understatement. Based on material much shorter than Grahame's, the plot fits into the half hour time slot more easily and still has the luxury of introducing a wholly original & hilarious minor character in the chubby little Tilda, who completely steals the dancing sequence. It is the Horseman, however, who should remain the longest in the viewer's uneasy dreams - the embodiment of every Halloween nightmare. -
IonicBreezeMachine3 September 2021Two sets of narrators, Basil Rathbone and Bing Crosby, narrate stories featuring popular characters from their respective countries. Rathbone reads an adaptation of 1908's The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame from his native Britain wherein spendthrift and manic Mr. Toad is swindled into making an idiotic deal for a stolen motorcar for which he is then framed for the theft, necessitating intervention from his friends Mole, Ratty, and MacBadger. Bing Crosby then narrates an adaptation of 1820's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow buy Washington Irving which tells the story of a schoolmaster named Ichabod Crane who uses his social connections and community prestige to indulge his appetites as he competes for the affections of a wealthy farmer's daughter named Katrina against the bullyish town hero Brom Bones until one Halloween night, the superstitious Ichabod finds himself pursued by the Headless Horseman.
The final package film produced by Disney during the 40s. Originally intended to be its own feature length film, Wind and the Willows was truncated to featurette length not only because of resource scarcity at Disney studios at the time, but also because Walt Disney did not think the material was strong enough to justify a feature film. Initially intended to feature three segments, the third segment, and adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Gremlins never made it to production with only Sleepy Hollow and Wind in the Willows now comprising the release. While it still has many issues that plague Disney's other package films, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is far and away the best of these package features by virtue of showcasing literary characters from the U. K. and United States in grand manner with its library set framing device carrying a dignity and weight that really hasn't been seen in these film's since Fantasia (though admittedly it falls short of it).
The first segment, an adaptation of Wind in the Willows where we follow the madcap hijinx of Mr. Toad as he squanders his inherited fortunes of expensive misadventures whose fallout he leaves to his trusted friends to clear up is well told with Basil Rathbone's voicework giving weight and authority to a largely comic narrative with Toad's misadventures landing not only himself into trouble, but also those around him. At its core it's a decent story about friends helping a troubled friend out of trouble, but the ending where Toad reverts to his foolhardy ways blissfully unaware and unrepentant for the trouble he caused himself and his friends is definitely an odd note to go out on (but probably appropriate). The short features clever dialogue exchanges and strong animation with this world of humans and animals not only interacting, but set to scale in a unique and visually striking creative choice.
The second segment is really good and is a strong ghost story. What really fascinates me about the adaptation of Sleepy Hollow is in how our protagonist is when you step back and look at him a pompous, avaricious, and opportunistic character who is often ill remembered as an innocent who falls into the supernatural fate that befalls him. While on the surface it seems like the rivalry between Brom Bones and Ichabod would ordinarily favor Ichabod as the default "good guy", Ichabod when he falls for Katrina is fantasizing more about her inordinate amount of wealth and her father dying than he is about Katrina herself. Brom Bones is certainly a very brutish character who seems to have more muscle than brains, but at the same time he does seem to be interested in Katrina purely for herself rather than her money as Ichabod is making an interesting character dynamic where the Headless Horseman payoff feels more like comeuppance. The one drawback I'd give this short is in the casting of Bing Crosby who's fine I suppose, but his rather campy approach to the narration coupled with his upbeat singing that breaks the tone of the short (particularly in the ghost story set up for the Headless Horseman) creates a jarring disconnect. Unlike the rather silly Wind in the Willows where Basil Rathbone's was played probably more serious than the material called for, here Bing Crosby overly camps up the material in a rather head scratching manner that while it doesn't undermine the short that much still is rather head scratching in the creative choice.
Like other package films from this era of Disney there's some good elements and some weak elements. I still say this is probably the strongest of the package films produced during this particular era of Disney film history thanks to the film's focus on literary classics and attempting to give the audience well-constructed featurettes, but in the case of Wind in the Willows the material was okay if unremarkable, and with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow it creates a memorable set of characters but undermines itself with Bing Crosby's rather distracting presence that feels like it was added solely to cater to contemporary tastes. Mostly positive if messy experience. -
The Adventures of Ichabod is an October favorite for us; this year we watched both together. The adventures of Mr. Toad is a bit slower, and mostly of interest because of the wonderful Disneyland ride. Seb seems to have loved "Mr. Winkie," and seemed surprised that he was evil, despite the name.
Reviewing in 2020, the first time we watched it after a fabulous weekend in Sleepy Hollow last year. I was struck by how much they laughed at the first part of the show, which is almost entirely slapstick/romantic comedy, followed by a sudden shift in mood at the Halloween party, where Brom Bones sings his song about the horsemen, leading into terror for the rest of the film. My kids made a great observation: there's no dialogue in Ichabod, only the voice of the narrator, Bing Crosby, and Brom Bones' song. -
CuriosityKilledShawn24 October 2010They got the title wrong. It should be "The Adventures of Mr. Toad and Ichabod" as the Wind and the Willows story comes first. And what a great story it is.
Set mostly at Christmas, the Mr. Toad story has a wonderful festive feel and really does stand on its own. It's such a shame that the dull, boring Legend of Sleepy Hollow story bogs it down.
I wasn't particularly entertained by the Tim Burton film but at least stuff happened in it. More than 25 minutes of this version is dedicated to Ichabod romancing some woman and only 60 seconds from the end to we get to see a headless horseman. Since I bought the DVD after the halloween-ish cover caught my interest I was kinda annoyed that it failed on this promise but delivered a nice Xmas story, if entirely unexpected.
This was my first encounter with a Disney "Package" film and I have to admit that Mr. Toad should have been released independently as a short and Ichabod forgotten about completely. -
southdavid2 March 2021The next film alphabetically on Disney Plus is "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad" which is more interesting than truly successful. The Wartime effort left Disney short on resources and with many films and ideas too short to be cinematic releases, two of which were then glued together here and released as a feature. This is the first time I've ever seen these two films, as opportunities to see if have been scarce - They've almost never been on network TV and a VHS version didn't appear to be available when I was age appropriate.
Basil Rathbone narrates an animated and abridged version of Kenneth Grahame's "Wind in The Willows" in which the rich and excitable Mr Toad loses his ancestral home to a pack of Weasels and must count on the guile of his friends to help him retrieve it. Then Bing Crosby introduces Washington Irvine's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow". A schoolteacher moves to a New England town and falls for the town's most eligible maiden, but he has a rival for her affections, Brom, who comes up with an intriguing way to use a local legend to his advantage.
The animation for both stories is really good, as you might expect from this period of Disney. Crosby's narration is a little livelier than Rathbone's but he has more to do as the "Sleepy Hollow" half of the feature has very little other dialogue. I found that both stories struggled to hold my attention but of the two I enjoyed "The Wind in The Willows" a little more. Maybe it's just that I've seen more adaptations of that one and was more familiar with the narrative, but it actually worked as a story - whereas the Sleepy Hollow aspect is a romantic slapstick comedy that just suddenly switches on a dime when it introduces its most famous character.
It's interesting from a completist standpoint but ultimately there's a reason that it hasn't been dragged back into the light, prior to its residence on Disney Plus - it's just not that entertaining. -
I am a huge Disney fan at 17, and while The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad is not the best of the Disney canon, it is hugely enjoyable and definitely worth seeing. While I would rank both The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow a 9/10, personally if I were to say which was better, the latter but only marginally. Merely because it holds more of a nostalgic value.
The Wind in the Willows is a condensed but very faithful 30 minute or so cartoon, based on the Kenneth Graheme literary classic. While it does drag in places, it does very well with what it crams into such a short running time. It is very lovingly animated, with some rich backgrounds and lovely colours. I also liked the music, it was lyrical, rousing and fun, the sort of music you will find in a Silly Symphony. Also the voice acting is very expressive, Basil Rathbone who I know best as Sherlock Holmes(well one of the actors playing the fictional detective) is brilliant as the narrator and Eric Blore is a lot of fun as Toad. Other characters I liked were Badger, who is very firm and gruff and Cyril, the Horse, a character who featured in one of the more memorable scenes from the cartoon, second only to the hilarious Courtroom scene.
On the other hand, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a terrifying yet worthwhile classic. One of my favourite moments in anything to do with Disney along with Willie the Operatic Whale. Bing Crosby is sublime as the narrator, never overdoing it, it was just right. The animation has an appropriately dark visual style, and the music is also memorable and fitting. The famous story features a schoolmaster named Ichabod Crane, and his love for Katrina and rivalry between him and Brom Bones, who like Gaston is a handsome tower of strength. Perhaps the most memorable moment of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is the part when Ichabod meets the Headless Horseman, a character that was so scary he gave me nightmares when I was little. The Headless Horseman is the sort of character who is imitated in stuff like Scooby Doo yet never as well, the very look of him here makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.
Overall, this is an excellent binding of two classic stories. 9/10 Bethany Cox -
Two handsomely-presented featurettes from Walt Disney could maybe use more of the studio's patented cute humor. The adaptation of "The Wind in the Willows" is a bit high-brow for little ones, though it has an appropriate clipped wit, muted colors and a delightful narration by Basil Rathbone. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", with Bing Crosby narrating, is brighter and faster, featuring some spectacular, scary animation. A virtually slapstick-free package, though the second chapter is a lively one! **1/2 from ****
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pkzeewiz9 May 2010The first segment is about the toad from The Wind In The Willows and how he is always getting into trouble because of his fascination with things and his love for adventure. He becomes obsessed with a car and ends up trading his house to the car, only to then get busted for stealing it. The second story is from Washington Irvings "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow" and one of its characters, one Ichabod Crane. Ichabod is a school teacher who comes to town and gets obsessed with the prettiest girl in town, and all of the people love her. Soon he comes face to face with the headless horseman and his adventures in this town are soon over.
So during the war Disney was lacking funds and did a lot of these mix ups with short stories adding them together to make a full length film out of it. These two stories have been done to death and Disney brought nothing new to the table. It was rather boring and hard to set through for me. In fact I hated it.
The animation was okay and the narrators Basil Rathbone and Bing Crosby did okay. There was way too much music that is very dated and I think only a select type of kid could enjoy this film.
I liked the headless horseman bit near the end of the film, and it was the only thing worth watching it for, and even that didn't carry the film...someone may enjoy, but not I...
1/10 stars -
jimjo121631 August 2013It seems like the best Disney animated classics opened with a shot of a hardcover storybook, and that's doubly true for this film, which ties together literary classics "The Wind in the Willows" (narrated by Basil Rathbone) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (narrated and sung by Bing Crosby). Each segment runs just over 30 minutes. Both stories are entertaining and fun for all ages, with excellent character animation from Disney's Old Men.
"Sleepy Hollow" has become a Halloween favorite, but I feel that "The Wind in the Willows" is the stronger short. It's just great, with Eric Blore's enthusiastic Mr. Toad, a Cockney horse, motor mania, devious weasels, a prison escape, and a brilliantly madcap free-for-all at Toad Hall. "Sleepy Hollow" takes a while building to the famous Headless Horseman climax, and the anachronistic Ken Darby pop tunes don't feel right with the colonial setting. The library framing device ties the two animated segments together nicely, and the celebrity narrators do a commendable job. A great little movie. -
La Gremlin29 June 2000I remember seeing this compilation feature many times on the Disney Channel. The Wind in the Willows segment is great fun although a great deal of the book is ignored. The Sleepy Hollow segment, on the other hand, is awesome! The scenes when Ichabod is desperately trying to survive his journey through the Hollow is one of my favorite animated sequences of all time.
By the way, I haven't yet seen Tim Burton's take on the story, but it will take a lot to outdo this version! -
supremekingdan10 December 2011The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a rather obscure effort from the Disney catalogue, and that's a big shame, because I really do love it.
When I was around 5 or 6 I owned a VHS copy of Disney's 1990 The Prince and the Pauper film. I remember watching it quite a bit, but I always stayed behind for the extra short film put on the cassette; it was The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, narrated by Bing Crosby, and I'm pretty sure I thought this bonus short was better than the main feature. It was funny, spooky, and just plain entertaining. And it was later that I found out it was in its own movie.
So what we have here is basically a cartoon double feature, with both cartoons being adaptations of classic stories. First we have The Wind in the Willows, narrated by Basil Rathbone. It's the classic story of Mr. Toad, a character who develops a mania for anything new and hot, and would give anything for the latest car model - even, perhaps, his mansion. It's a very well paced adventure with a brilliant voice choice for Toad (Eric Blore, most famous for playing the butler in the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical series), and some amusing supporting characters (I loved Cyril the Horse). On the whole it's a nicely done adaptation with a good climax and some pleasing animation.
Then we have The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the famous horror tale here narrated by Bing Crosby. While the previous cartoon was going more for charm, this one is edging more towards comedy, despite its story. It tells the tale of the mysterious disappearance of Ichabod Crane, a schoolmaster who attempts to marry a beautiful and rich woman in order to get her money. He's up against the school bully Brom Bones who also wants to marry her. But everything goes dark when Ichabod takes his horse down through the woods of Sleepy Hollow at night-time...
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a macabre tale which manages to be both highly amusing and distinguishably Gothic, with Bing Crosby giving us his effortless charm, holding the story together brilliantly. Perhaps the most memorable moment is the climax, with the nightmarish Headless Horseman chasing the helpless Ichabod through the woods. The build-up of the Horseman is intensely creepy, and the reveal is no disappointment. Sleepy Hollow will give kids a good fright, but it's just about silly and light enough to prevent them from sleeping with the lights on.
Really, kids will enjoy both stories. I myself prefer Sleepy Hollow, but only because I didn't watch The Wind in the Willows as a kid. They're both fun and kid-friendly, but there's nothing there to prevent grown- ups from liking them too. Overall it's a fun double bill with some excellent animation and superb voices, with both stories entertainingly told and working well back-to-back. -
medic249a227 July 2004Having never seen 'Mr. Toad', I can only comment on the 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow', having seen it many times as a child when 'Disney's Wonderful World' was running on the CBC. This has got to be some of the greatest work of Walt Disney. Washington Irving's original story is closely followed, unlike Tim Burton's 1999 version (still an awesome movie in its own right). The sequence involving Ichabod Crane's terrifying ride through the woods is undoubtedly the best, from the toads croaking 'Ichabod' to the Headless Horseman chasing Ichabod through the woods - it's alternately funny and frightening. It always appeared at Halloween on the Disney show, and I can't remember ever missing it.
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Foux_du_Fafa28 January 2010For all those not in the know, Walt Disney relied heavily on European revenue to make his films, and with that market pretty much cut off by the Second World War, wonderful yet lavish films such as "Fantasia" and "Pinocchio" did not bring much income and left the studio close to bankruptcy. Needing to bring out feature films yet at that moment unable to make a lavish fully-animated fantasy, Disney turned to the idea of jumbling shorts and featurettes to make feature films. The material in the films consisted of both new projects and things that had been on the drawing board for years. Due to their fragmented nature, the films were subsequently cut up into separate shorts, and they have only been re-released in their original form during the past ten or fifteen years, arguably due to Disney scraping the barrel for films to release as "timeless masterpieces".
"The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad", released in 1949, was the very last of these package features, and it does signal the return to a more classic style that would be found in the studio's next two animated films, "Cinderella" and "Alice in Wonderland". Yet it should be noted that "Ichabod and Mr Toad" is still a bit uneven. Its segments, respectively based upon "The Wind in the Willows" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", are very different in tone, and have not much in common aside from them being literary adaptations (the live-action library bookends seem to give the impression of a post-war Anglo-American friendship, highlighting samples of their own literature and storytelling). It is equally true that the low budget brings about some slightly dull animation compared to the early 40s or the 50s. Regardless, the film is certainly one of the better package features, with perhaps "The Three Caballeros" only just beating it.
Opening in the aforementioned live-action study, we hear Basil Rathbone bizarrely favouring Mr Toad of "The Wind in the Willows" above the likes of Robin Hood and Sherlock Holmes as the greatest character in English literature, thereby leading into an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's classic children's novel. This segment is quite good, and had supposedly been in animation since the beginning of the decade. However, it generally seems a bit under-polished and rushed. It is said that this was originally planned as a feature-length film, and it would have certainly benefited from not having its story condensed so much. The backgrounds also seem a bit lacklustre. Had they been given a "Pinocchio" or "Bambi" level of detail (impossible as it would have been considering the studio's financial state at the time) or a more stylised look, they would seem more believable and less pasty.
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", narrated and sung by Bing Cosby, works better. Its origins as a short story no doubt seem better for adaptation into something that lasts around half an hour, and the piece as a whole works well within the financial constraints. Mary Blair, who had been the stylist on the South American films and would later help with the visual style of "Cinderella", "Alice in Wonderland" and "Peter Pan", creates a relatively simple and folksy style that suits the story and the colonial setting very well (moreover, the stylisation works well within a tight budget). Furthermore, the fact that the story is told with essentially just Bing Cosby's narration and music allows for wonderfully expressive animation. The climax to the film also stands as a pure triumph of colour and of animation.
Overall, "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad" is worth watching, either as one film or as two shorter subjects. It's certainly not up there with the likes of "Pinocchio" and "Dumbo", but that is not the film's objective anyway; it is a fun, unpretentious way to pass an hour or so. -
BrandtSponseller4 November 2007Generally underrated, or at least relatively overlooked, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a favorite of mine that just keeps getting better with each viewing. I've seen it probably ten times over the years, yet I keep noticing subtle visual jokes and layers of meaning that I previously missed. For just one example, only on this last viewing did I finally notice the weasel sleeping in Toad Hall who is supported by a woman in a painting. My appreciation of the beautiful animation in general also seems to grow with each viewing.
The film consists of two halves, the first a Disneyfied version of Kenneth Grahame's "Wind in the Willows", the second a Disneyfied version of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". While both can be read as light, often surreal, sometimes goofy, and always-funny stories (and hence kids, young and old--time for me to raise my hand--can appreciate them), adults can easily read various "deeper" meanings into the tales.
For example, Mr. Toad's fickle manias and the predicament they lead to could be seen as a criticism of consumerism. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow could be read as an exemplification of the value of Taoist or Zen-Buddhist mindfulness and "going with the flow"--as well as a warning about letting delusions take hold instead. This isn't to say that these interpretations were intended by Grahame, Irving, or Disney's artists, or that they're the "right" interpretations, just that they're made possible and plausible by the depth of the material. -
SnoopyStyle7 October 2017The narrator reads from two stories; The Wind in the Willows and Sleepy Hollow. The first story has Toad becoming obsessed with the new motor cars. He is arrested for stealing one and imprisoned to his friends' dismay. It's actually a scam to take over Toad Hall. The second story has Ichabod Crane arriving at Sleepy Hollow to be the new schoolmaster. The town's eligible bachelors including the hulking Brom Bones and the superficial Ichabod are pursuing the wealthy heir Katrina van Tassel.
The two Disney stories are approximately half hour each. It's old school animation with plenty of charms. The problem is that neither stories are my tastes. Toad is foolish almost to the annoying extreme. The animals are cute and I can excuse his foolishness. On the hand, Ichabod is not appealing at all. He is basically a male gold-digger. He is finicky, greedy, and gross. He's not in love with Katrina. She is nothing more than a trophy and a pot of gold to him. Granted, she's very two dimensional. It might work as a horror but that's not what Disney is going for. The animation work is solid but I don't like these stories or characters. -
Well if the Disney studio couldn't have gotten any worse back then well check out this piece of work! Clearing running out of ideas, Walt Disney clangs two classic novels together and turn them into a brand, new piece of storytelling the Disney way (similar to Fun and Fancy Free's "Mickey and the Beanstalk") but this whole movie lacks the heart, movement and the ordeal than all the other Disney adaptations. Like in "Sleepy Hollow" why do they turn Ichabod Crane into a long-nosed, clueless moron who is frightened of his own shadow? And in "The Wind in the Willows" how is it that Toad's horse-pulled caravan can easily jump over rivers? ANSWER THAT ONE! The animation is below Disney standard of the time and the voice-overs are so lame that they make you want to vomit but with the expection of Eric Blore who makes a brilliant Toad. Bing Crosby and Basil Rathbone are brilliant narrators. Overall, this Disney movie stinks and I'm not putting it in my favourite movies league in a hurry!
1/10 -
edboles20 July 2002Excellent feature comprising of 2 half-hour segments. The animation is first rate, particularly on Ichabod's journey home through the woods, which is the highlight of the film. The quality of the direction and storytelling is excellent, and though both are quite short, they are remarkably concise and fully formed, and actually feel like they are both feature length. They are both highly atmospheric, and the characterisations are top-notch. There are some aspects of the film which have dated it somewhat, but you get past that soon enough. This film is also notable for it's fine use of colour. Anyone with an interest in animation should see this film.
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gavin69424 December 2017An animated adaptation of "The Wind in the Willows" followed by an adaptation of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".
If this film is to be criticized, it is for the cheap attempt to make a feature-length film from two unrelated stories. Either of them could have been a full 70-to-90 minutes, and films such as "Sleepy Hollow" have proved that. Instead we get two short films packaged together to create a full film... which it clearly is not.
That concern aside, the stories are both good and done with excellent animation. It has been said that Brom Bones was an inspiration for Gaston. If he was not, it is quite a coincidence because the two have a great deal in common despite living indifferent eras and countries. -
aizbennett4 March 2021The stories are good enough, but they were way too long and boring. Mr Toad related badly to its source material and instead made The Wind in the Willows a drawn-out court case. Ichabod was far more enticing with the headless horseman, but still dragged on too long.
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Doylenf25 June 2004The Disney animators were still at the height of their genius when they made this double featurette based on classic American folklore. The clever humor and artful animation brighten both tales, but it's likely to be the Ichabod tale based on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" that you're going to remember...especially for that final confrontation of the frightened Ichabod with the Headless Horseman! And there hasn't been a funnier minor character in a Disney film than the chubby Tilda who finds herself being whirled onto the dance floor by Bram Bones when he seeks revenge on Ichabod. This sequence is one of the funniest ever in a Disney film and is followed by the payoff "fright" sequence as Ichabod makes his way home after the party.
The toad story is a bit ponderous but is also brightened by clever animation and bits of humor with some droll voice overs supplied by Eric Blore and Pat O'Malley.
It's pure fantasy with all the Disney magic on hand. And that final encounter with the Headless Horseman makes this ideal for viewing on Halloween!