The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

The 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.

As near as I can tell, there is no connection of any kind between these two films. It was probably a method by which a couple of expensive products of the Disney studios could get people into the threaten to see them. It was war time and they had to cut budgets. Anyway, we have two classics. One is a segment from Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows." It involves Mr. Toad of Toad Hall, a rich character who has a fixation on expensive gadgets. He buys himself a motor car and proceeds to terrorize the countryside. Eventually, getting put in prison. The question is, "Does he learn a lesson?" The second is probably the most famous Halloween story: Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." This, of course, is the story of Ichabod Crane, the scrawny schoolmaster who falls in love with Katrina Van Tassel. Unfortunately, a man known as Bram Bones, a huge man and a bully is also vying for the fair maiden's hand. There is also a legend of a headless horseman which permeates the story. Great narration and fine filmmaking. See these if you can. Both are delightful.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)*** (out of 4)This here is a pretty good Disney film that takes two famous stories and adds that magical touch to them. The first story is based on The Wind and the Willows with the second being based around The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR. TOAD isn't the greatest film to come from Disney but it certainly has enough great animation to make it worth sitting through. It's really strange that the studio would put these two stories together since they're so different and apparently in the years that followed it was the second film that got released on its own. I'd agree that the adaptation of Sleepy Hollow was the better of the two films but at the same time there's some better animation to be found in the first.Again, this is Disney so the animation skills are extremely high and I especially thought that the background work in the first film simply jumped off the screen. This is especially true in the scenes where there's a lot of action moving around in the front. Just take a look at the background and see how much sharp detail is there. The second film also looks beautiful and contains some terrific images and especially the scene where the pumpkin head is thrown towards the camera.Neither short has that much character development and I'd say that the direction of both is rather laid back at times. Still, there's no question that there's some very good vocal work and the animation is top level.

ONE MAY SEARCH for hours, days or even longer and they will no find such a story anywhere in the annals of the English language. And this would be for good reason; for you see, the title is an invention of convenience and necessity for this Walt Disney Production, NOW, AS WE know, just about all of the great Disney animated features are adaptations from some literary, folk tale or actual historical occurrence. So why this bizarre and otherwise meaningless handle?SIMPLY STATED, THIS title is an incorporation of two names, or at least a portion thereof, of two separate, disparate literary works adapted within the framework of this single "movie". The first segment is of Englishman, Kenneth Grahame's THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS; with the second half's being devoted to Yankee author, Washington Irving's, THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW.THE FIRST SEGMENT gives us a look inside the world of "eccentric/mad" Mr. Toad and his anthropomorphic friends, Mac Badger, Rat and Mole; as they do their best in standing by their obviously slightly insane, upper class friend. Toad's insatiable desire for high times and adventure lead him to carving out a destructive path across the English countryside aided by a cart-pulling horse named Cyril. Eventually Toad is framed for "Grand Theft Auto" and looses the Deed and clear Title to ancestral home, Toad Hall to a gang of (both literally and figuratively) Weasels.THE SECOND HALF of the picture moves to early 19th Century New York State for our encounter with the gangly schoolmaster with the voracious appetite, one Ichabod Crane. The story relates about how this scarecrow-like appearance caused a great disturbance to the locals in the village of Sleepy Hollow. The kindly man of letters eventually finds himself at odds with roughneck leader, the broad-shouldered Brom Bones, over the affections of the lovely Trina van Tassel.OF COURSE, AS we all know, the highlight of the story is Ichabod's encounter with the legendary Headless Horseman, the local ghost of some hapless British soldier killed in the American Revolutionary War. We can personally testify of just how well done and truly frightening is the sequence where the two meet In the woods at night. (It really and truly scary it was to this writer, then about 7 years old in circa 1954,not original release) ALTHOUGH THIS TWO completely different stories in one film may seem like a new way for presenting us with a Disney Animated feature, the company had done some multi-segmented films previously. One only need to look at MELODY TIME, MAKE MINE MUSIC and even the much praised, even cult status "concert feature", FANTASIA, in order to see that the principle had been applied previously.* THE PRODUCTION(S) SPORTED a great cast of actors such as Eric Blore, Claude Allister, J. Par O'Malley and even Pinto Colvig (long time voice of Goofy and Pluto).DOING THE NARRATION for the stories are Basil Rathbone (WIND IN THE WILLOWS) and Bing Crosby, who also sang (for THE LRHEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW).FUNCTIONING AS SORT of an in betweener bridge and opening to the film is a beautifully done sequence in a library. In this way we are introduced to the stories via copies of the books being conveniently on display on the book shelves.NOTE: * THE STORIES TOLD by being combined in this manner were most likely combined as more of a pragmatic and cost saving measure. Our guess is that the two stories were sort of middle ground films. That is, they were too short to make as a feature, but too long to be produced as short subject cartoons.