Le Crapaud et le Maître d'école

Having 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.

The 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!

It 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.

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.

From 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.