The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

Written by Erdman Penner, et al.
Directed by Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, & James Algar

It’s 1949...the War has been over for four years. The Walt Disney Animation Studio was gearing up to finally, after a long seven years, begin producing the full-length features they were known for. They had one last “package film” to release, that would give the Studio the last bit of income they needed.

That film is The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. This film is closer to Fun and Fancy Free than Make Mine Music or Melody Time, in that it’s just two extended shorts combined together. Both are marked by a peculiar leading character...one, a teacher, and the other, a toad.

“The Wind in the Willows”

Toad and his awful horse

I’ve read “Wind in the Willows” once before, as a child on a road trip up to the Bay Area. I don’t recall much about it, other than the characters, so this fuzzy memory, and, of course, the “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” Attraction at Disneyland were all I really had to go on.

My overall thought was, this is nothing like the ride. There’s bits and pieces, but while the other Fantasyland dark rides follow their film’s plots, this one really isn’t all that close. That obviously isn’t the fault of the film, just an interesting observation.

The plot is easy to follow, and Toad is interesting to watch, for a while. Considering that, by the end, he hasn’t learned a lesson, it almost gives a “what’s the point” quality to the segment.

Oh, Cyril is a bad horse. Just throwing that out there.

Segment Grade: B+

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

He’s right behind me, isn’t he?

I think Bing Crosby got paid by the number of times he said “pedagogue” in his narration, because he says it ALL THE TIME.

This segment would be really great if about five minutes got trimmed from it. For a story based on “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, the Headless Horseman isn’t even mentioned until there’s less than 10 minutes to go. One could make the argument that all the extra time is used for Character Development, and I whole-heartedly agree, except the characters don’t end up being any more one-dimensional than they are when we meet them...all the extra time isn’t ADDING to what we already know about them.

The Headless Horseman sequence is sufficiently creepy, but I kept finding myself getting annoyed by Ichabod’s horse, which fails at basic horse tasks through the sequence. Also, I’m a fan of cheesy Halloween music, and every year, I listen to the TV Radio that has a Halloween channel (much to Chuck’s dismay)...I’d heard Bing’s song about Sleepy Hollow, but had no idea it was from this film!

Segment Grade: B

Overall, this film does a fine job of wrapping up the “package film” section of the history of Disney’s Animated Films. Each segment is enjoyable on its own, but a bit of editing could make them both really excellent.

FINAL GRADE: B