The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

This movie was just a pleasure to watch. Today’s feature is The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. While technically the last of the “package” films, the change in quality and tone is really apparent. This was a fun movie and this feels, in general, like a return to the Disney I used to know. With this entry, it actually feels like we’ve passed a dark time. From here on out, we’ll basically be hitting what people consider “Disney classics” for, at least, a long time.

Original Poster Sourced via IMDB

Summary: Like Fun and Fancy Free, this is a collection of two longer shorts. The first of which is The Wind in the Willows, which is based on the novel of the same name. It covers some of the story of the book, following Mr. Toad getting into trouble with a car that he traded his estate for, getting arrested, escaping prison, clearing his name and getting his estate back. The other half of this movie is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which is based off of the short story of the same name. While a bit more lighthearted than the original story, it actually covers the content of the story pretty well. For those that don’t know, the story follows Ichabod Crane, the new schoolmaster of Sleepy Hollow. He soon falls in love with a Katrina van Tassel, but has to compete against Brom Bones for her affection. At first, Ichabod seems to be doing really well. During a party that they both attend, Brom tells the legend of the Headless Horseman, who chases people through the wood. Later, as Ichabod is going home, he is chased by the headless horseman, which scares him enough to leave town. With that, Brom becomes the victor for Katrina’s attention and marries her.

The Wind in the Willows:

To start off, this is a great short. The art and color has this muted tone, which fits with the rural, English setting. The actual animation has a feeling similar to Robin Hood, but cleaner. There are also some hints toward the styling of The Great Mouse Detective, particularly the design of Mr. Toad’s friend, Ratty. It seems that they took Ratty’s design, removed his mustache and cleaned him up a little bit to make Basil from The Great Mouse Detective. Then, the mustache seemed to make it’s way to Dr. Dawson from that same movie. Fun Fact: This short is narrated by Basil Rathbone, who was famous for playing Sherlock Holmes and, as such, is the namesake for Basil of Baker Street.

Back to “The Wind in the Willows,” the whole short makes me incredibly sad, because of the “behind-the-scenes” drama that went on with it. Much like Alice in Wonderland, Disney had been planning to make a feature length film based on The Wind in the Willows since the time of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The project had a rocky production, going through long periods of pauses in the production. After World War II, the production resumed, but Walt Disney ordered that it be shortened down to 25 minutes. Based on the short we did get, I’d have really like a full length feature of “The Wind in the Willows.”

I had a great time watching this short. Mr. Toad is such a cheeky cad. It’s just fun to watch such a lovable scamp. The scene where Mr. Toad escapes from prison and the scene where the gang steals Toad Hollow’s deed back are really great cartoon action scenes. The short also has some great comedy scenes, such as the court scene. My only concern with this short is that the combination of the stronger accents and the middling quality audio recording, makes it a bit difficult to follow some of the conversations that happen. Eventually, though, you get used to it. Overall, just a great short, definitely worth the watch, either on its own or with the next short.

From cheers...

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

This next short is narrated by Bing Crosby and, as you’d expect, it’s a lot more musical. The songs are pretty good, especially the Legend of the Headless Horseman song that Brom sings at the party. Whereas the animation in “The Wind in the Willows” feels like animation from a feature film, the animation in this short is much more reminiscent of the shorts we’ve watched prior, particularly “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed” and “Pecos Bill.” I find it fitting, as this is another distinctly American story. At the party scene, the animation noticeably improves and things start to look more similar to what we’ll see in Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland.

This is probably to showcase what is the most memorable scene of this entire movie, the chase scene. Seriously, this chase scene is just a great bit of animation. The design of the horseman is actually pretty terrifying, though the scene stays lighthearted with some slapstick. This scene was also a huge influence in one of my favorite animated shorts, “Chicken Man and Red Neck” from Robot Carnival, which is basically a technological combination of this scene and “Night on Bald Mountain.” One day, we might do that movie. My only problem with the scene is that I wanted much more of it.

My only concern from this short is the thematic dissonance that is present within. When the short starts, our narrator talks about Ichabod Crane as if he’s some sort of folk hero. But throughout the short, we’re shown that he’s anything but. He’s a weirdo, with strange, lanky proportions. He is a bit of a glutton, stealing and eating any food around him. Though we are shown that he does love Katrina, the story explicitly shows that he’s interested in her fortune, hardly a noble endeavor. As we aren’t shown Brom’s perspective, we are only left to assume that his feels light be genuine. The worst problem he has, however, is that he is a coward. Craven. Now, don’t get me wrong here. Being chased by a headless ghost on a horse who wants your head is enough to terrify any person. But, by leaving town, never to be heard from again, he shows that he wasn’t worthy of the favor of Katrina. While Brom is not a good guy either, being a bit of a psychopath in his plan to get rid of Ichabod, he is shown as successful. And besides the mental trauma he gives Ichabod, he seems to be a pretty decent guy. I guess we’re just supposed to dislike him from the beginning, because he’s handsome and successful, but that’s a theme we’ll get back to in much more detail for Beauty and the Beast.

Overall, this movie is great and a definite return to form. Both shorts are good enough that they could’ve been full features in their own right. This was just a really fun watch and I would recommend anyone who hasn’t seen it to go out of their way to watch The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Next week, we return to something very memorable with Cinderella.

-CJ

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!

This week we finished off our last of the bundled films with The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. I went into this film mostly blind to it. As a kid I caught bits and pieces of this movie, but I’d never seen the whole thing through, so I was excited to look into this. I was a bit apprehensive about how this would play out, I didn’t think it was wise placing English and American stories side by side, but after viewing this, I think it works out really well, both story-wise and animation-wise.

The Wind in the Willows

Mr. Toad’s animation is really spot on, and is a really great opener for this film. The cuts we get from this are actually from a scrapped Wind in the Willows film that Disney had planned before the war, and their workers strike all but killed it. The quality of this piece reminds me of a cleaned and more detailed Dumbo. Similar to Dumbo, all the animals have a cartoony style, but there’s better definition, and better facial expressions going on here. There’s also fantastic work on how the lip syncing on the characters lines up with the heavy accents that are used.

There’s also a great deal of improvement here where characters fit into the backgrounds. Usually when cells are painted and put over the backgrounds, there’s a very bright and noticeable color change. Here, shadows and highlights play a more role, and the whole thing brings an extra sense of life to the entire feature.

Along with the grade A animation, the rest of this feature is fantastic. Basil Rathbone does a fantastic job of narrating the story. The plot is engaging, and it moves along at just the right pace. The characters are fun and empathetic. In the end, I just wish this could’ve been it’s own feature length film. It’s still nice to see what survived and, after viewing this portion, I wish there was more to it.

The only thing that does feel off about this is that there’s parts where it feels like a song is incoming, but nothing happens. Characters will start recalling events and we’ll get some background music that feels like it’s leading somewhere, only to keep going until there’s a break. It leaves the viewer a bit wanting and I could imagine that this may have had music in it at some time, but that it was scrapped.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

It’s pretty easy to see here where the animation takes a hard turn from the movie quality we saw in Mr. Toad, to something out of Melody Time. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” does have the stylistic art of “Johnny Appleseed” from Melody Time, but the animation is really cleaned up and, unlike “Johnny Appleseed,” the art style all matches up. The animation feels fairly sub-standard for the first half of the feature and takes a turn for the better half way through. Specifically, with the chase between Ichabod and The Headless Horseman.

... to beers!

The first half of the film is pretty one-note as far as animation and story goes. It does enough to keep you interested and there’s some parts where Ichabod's superstitious nature is foreshadowed. Ichabod and Brom Bone’s feud is the main center of the story and it plays out well enough. It feels like there could’ve been a bit more here, but it’s something I could either take or leave. When the feud for Katrina reaches a head, we get Bones telling Ichabod about The Headless Horseman in the form of a very catchy song. Afterwards, we view Ichabod riding home on possibly the laziest horse in all existence when things take a turn for the worst.

This is where I really found myself liking this film. We’re back to the haunted woods that Disney does so well and I’d say this puts up a decent fight to the woods from Snow White. All the little details here, from the broken reeds howling out Ichabod's name to the highlights on the trees that turn them into ghosts, everything about this scene is fantastic. Imagination runs wild through these few minutes of animation and it’s perfect. Something I really took notice of after the film and another nice touch is how well Ichabod and his horse go together. They’re both overly lanky in appearance, have enormous noses, and very expressive eyes. Their movements are over exaggerated and their walk and run cycles are very cartoonish. Meanwhile, those with standard appearances all have very realistic and detailed movements.

After our few moments in the woods with Ichabod and the horse, we’re met with The Headless Horseman. This character's movement and how he carries himself provides part of the horror here. The other part is the color usage we’re suddenly subjected to. The Headless Horseman is clad in these bright blood reds, purples, and oranges, while Ichabod is cast in blues, and yellow greens that paint him as a coward. The two run through the woods, and we’re again met with all sorts of contrasting colors. There’s a good amount of detail in the backgrounds and the highlights and shadows in this lend a great amount of contrast. This chase scene is easily one of my favorite Disney moments. Its got horror and comedy, and it keeps a good pace through the entirety of the film. The only thing I have to say is that I wish it was longer.

I genuinely have no complaints regarding this part of the film. I can see it being a bit boring for kids, but I also feel that there’s enough slapstick humor to keep things going. This feature fixed all of the artistic issues that “Johnny Appleseed” had and it really managed to improve on things. It even has a sense of film quality at the end and I wonder if that wasn’t an intentional decision made by Disney.

Overall, this was my favorite of all the bundle films. There’s not much to complain about, and even the small complaints that I do have can largely be ignored. I wasn’t sure how I initially felt about there being both an English and American story side by side, but in the end I think it worked out very well. Both Basil Rathbone, and Bing Crosby’s narrations add extra life to these films,and I’m quite happy that Disney made that choice. I would easily place this along side Dumbo, or maybe slightly ahead of it as far as our list of films go. This does it for the bundle films, and I’m glad to say it ended on a good note, instead of a multicolored nightmare filled with Donald Duck and human faces. Next week, we get back into feature length films with Cinderella.

-AJ

Time to get spooky