My Review of The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr. Toad (1949)

 

Written by Erdman Penner And Winston Hibler And Joe Rinaldi And Ted Sears And Homer Brightman And Harry Reeves

Directed by Ben Sharpsteen And Jack Kinney And Clyde Geronimi And James Algar

Narrator: "Don't try to figure out a plan. You can't reason with a headless man."

Delving into much earlier Disney era with a movie that up until yesterday, I had never actually seen before. Yes, there are some classic Disney films even I need to watch for the first time. This one was interesting enough.

I'm not sure why but for some reason, this movie decided to take two very different stories and decided to splice them together in a way. One half covers a children's classic and the other half, something more appropriate for Halloween. As you do.

Tackling the first half of the movie, you've got The Wind In The Willows. Yup, J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq (Eric Blore) has his head turned with many a thing and his determination to drive a car became a source of contention for his friends, Angus MacBadger (Campbell Grant) and Water Rat (Claus Alister).

Of course, Toad stole a car to drive, having grown tired of his horse, Cyril Proudbottom (J. Pat O'Malley) and ended up in court where he then ended up in the Tower of London instead. However, even that wasn't enough to keep Toad down as he managed to get away by the end of this story. It's an okay adaptation of that story.

Much better handled for me was the adaptation of The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow. Yes, we've got Ichabod Crane (actor) coming to the titular town and immediately becoming a target for the bully Brom Bones (actor). There's also a love triangle involving farmer's daughter, Katrina (actor) that did seem to go in Ichabod's favour.

As for the Headless Horseman (Billy Fletcher) segment. The story was told in a nice creepy fashion with Brom using it to scare the bejesus out of Crane. The latter then actually encountering the Horseman was rather satisfying. However by the end of it, it seemed that both Brom and Crane won in different ways, given the outcome of this one.

- We got narrations in this movie with Basil Rathbone for The Wind In The Willows and Bing Crosby for The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.

- Both of these were intended to be separated movies before they were eventually merged.

- Standout music: The Merrily Song, Auld Lang Syne, Ichabod Crane, Katrina and The Headless Horseman.

- Chronology: 1905 London during Christmas Eve for the first part and 1790, Sleepy Hollow, New York during Halloween for the second part.

While a bit of mixed bag, I did find The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr. Toad to be mostly enjoyable. I did like the second part more than the first one.

Rating: 7 out of 10