The Adventures of Ichabod & Mr. Toad Discussion

[dvdjunkie]

The best thing about all the 'package' films that Disney gave us was his voice overs, which were almost always done by the bigger stars in Hollywood at the time. Walt Disney had this inate ability to attract the big stars to his animated films and make them that more attractive to the viewing audience. Again I remember seeing this in the movie theater, and being scared silly by The Headless Horseman in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Bing Crosby was the story teller for this fine segment, and of course the unmistakeable voice of Basil Rathbone was the narrator of 'The Wind in the Willows'. When I was working at Disneyland as a projectionist I had not seen these films separated from each other, and in the Mickey Mouse Theater in Fantasyland the Disney folks had created a special introduction by Mickey Mouse for each of the segments. (This was true of most all of the shorts from Fun and Fancy Free, Make Mine Music, and Melody Time). The biggest audiences I remember were for "The Wind in the Willows", but the loudest reactive crowds were there for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" which was show each year during Halloween week. Again this is a must have for the true Disney collector, and I give this one a strong 8 rating also.

[musicradio77]

Hmm, that's an interesting film. "The Adventures of Icabod & Mr. Toad" was the last Disney film to included package features including "The Wind And the Willows" and "Sleepy Hollow". This was Bing Crosby's only film for Disney where he played the narrator. Early in his career, he made a success with his all-time holiday classic "White Christmas". He was in movies like "Going My Way", "Holiday Inn" and a number of "Road" films co-starring Bob Hope. Basil Rathbone on the other hand was also starred in that film. Basil played Sherlock Holmes in the movies and even on radio shows from the 1940's. The film was not bad as well as other package films from the mid and late 40's like "Melody Time", "Fun and Fancy Free", "Make Mine Music" and "The Three Caballeros".

[Timon/Pumbaa fan]

Great movie! Definetely a battle between this and The Three Caballeros as my favorite package film.

I've always loved The Wind in the Willows as a child. I just adored the story, and of course Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at both Disneyland and Magic Kingdom(R.I.P ) were two of the coolest rides ever created(way better than that dumb Peter Pan ride ) so this might very well be my favorite Disney short, EVER. The voice actors, the sense of humor, the animation, the music, the story and the characters are all at perfection. I just can't imagine making this short better.

I must admit in being in the minority that didn't care for The LEgend of Sleepy Hollow. That short always felt boring for me. It never really picked up until "The Headless Horseman" song. It's still a fun short that I enjoyed though, just not one of my personal favorites.

But it's still in my top 20 favorite Disney classics because of good ol' childhood memories of Toad.

[TheSequelOfDisney]

Once again, I feel really stupid. I have never seen this movie. Is it any good?

[MinnieMe]

I bought this as a blind buy a few months ago and really love it. Could do with better treatment but I'm not surprised it got the release it did as a package film. I was surprised at how much I liked it and it brought me back to the days of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at WDW!

Once again, I feel really stupid. I have never seen this movie. Is it any good?

Well there's about two pages of people's opinions... so you could probably read those to start.

Everyone has a different opinion, but obviously many like the film. So... best option would probably be to rent or buy it and see for yourself!

[mr jinx]

my review

During World War II, Disney made a series of lower cost anthology features including Melody Time, and Make Mine Music. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad marks the return toward full length animated features, preparing the way for Cinderella. This film contains just two 30+ minute films focusing on "famous characters in literature."

First up is Mr. Toad from the Wind in the Willows. J. Thaddeus Toad is introduced as are his friends Badger, Rat, and Mole. Mr. Toad loves riding his horse and carriage around, until he finds a new "mania"- the motor car. His buddies lock up Mr. Toad until he gets the lust for the motor car out of his system. You see, Mr. Toad is running up huge debt with his hobbies. Next we see, Mr. Toad is arrested, accused of stealing a motor car. Did he do it? That is what the rest of the film seeks to discover through various courtroom shenanigans, jailbreaks, and a showdown with Winky and the weasels. One of the greatest things about this film is that it served as inspiration for the awesome Disneyland attraction Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

The second story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, tells the tale of Ichabod Crane the Colonial schoolteacher and his courtship of the beautiful Katrina. This adventure is narrated by none other than Bing Crosby. The characters themselves for the most part remain silent. Things are going great for "Icky" until after a Halloween party when he come face-to-face, or rather face-to-neck-hole with the Headless Horseman. It is during this scene that the film really justifies its existence. As Ichabod rides down the path through Sleepy Hollow, he is confronted by various shrieks, creaks, and moans, and the animation helps to add to the chilling mood.

Watching these two segments did not really leave me feeling like I had just been entertained by a full length movie. While the stories were both fine, they were not spectacular by any means. Only the encounter with the Headless Horseman was really great, establishing the Headless one as a truly frightening monster. Still, there was not anything in this film that I hated. Thus these adventures take home a C+.

[MichaeLeah]

I really enjoy this film. I really enjoyed the plot twist the first time I watched The Wind of the Willows. I think it is also the stonger half of the feature.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a good film, but as some other people mentioned, I think the pace of the film slows down way to much when Ichabod spends his time thinking about Katrina. The atmosphere at the end part of the film, however, is fantastic.

[slave2moonlight]

This is easily one of my favorite Disney animated films (not just from the package films). I think it has some of Disney's best comedic moments, one of the hottest Disney girls, and the fantastic voice overs really make the movie! My particular fave is the Headless Horseman half. Bing Crosby has always been a favorite of mine, and it wouldn't be Halloween without viewing at least that half of the movie once. They do seem an oddly matched pair, Sleepy Hollow and the Wind in the Willows I mean. Perhaps two Halloween stories should have been grouped together, and Toad could have been matched with something else (perhaps a Christmas story), but I still find this film to be among my favorite Disney works.

[blackcauldron85]

I had seen the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" segment growing up, but I had never seen "The Wind in the Willows" in full until today.

My thoughts on "The Wind in the Willows":

* It was sometimes hard to understand the narrator's and some of the characters' accents (at least for me).
* Right after "The Merrily Song", when Toad is talking to Rat and Mole, his mouth is barely animated, and then that happens to Rat a little, too. But then all is well after that little bit.
* It's clever how the animals live in a world with the humans- I like how they have to climb on chairs and whatnot since they are human-sized chairs.
* I really like the perpectives used (like during "The Merrily Song", or when the judge looks down on the crouching Cyril, or during other road scenes.
* at Mr. Toad inhaling car fumes- what a bad example! I love old Disney! (and later when the police officers ride on, not in, the train!)
* There's definitely grain and "pops" (green and pink circles that pop up for a second)- it very badly needs to be restored.
* Oh, Winky, that bad man! I knew what happens, but it still made me mad at him!
* I like how Mr. Toad's friends' faces appear, looking at him, in his puddle of tears.
* It's so funny and clever (there are lots of examples, but two are: 1. when MacBadger says that he wishes that Toad were there, and then Mr. Toad falls in his lap, and 2. when Mole makes the deed into a paper airplane, and then Mr. Toad makes lots of paper airplanes. Very exciting and fun.
* Does Rat remind anyone else of Basil?
* At 43:57, we see Mole by himself in the frame- right before and right after, we see Rat and MacBadger on either side of him, but when he's alone on screen, there is too much space on either side of him, like Rat and MacBadger stepped away for a second...that really bothered me for some reason.

My thoughts on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow":

* I like how the ladies like Ichabod, even though Brom Bones is more handsome- he also reminds me very much of Gaston.
* Ichabod dancing on the pumpkin at the VanTassel party is obviously foreshadowing the Headless Horseman. And earlier, when Ichabod is walking, he doesn't walk under the ladder and he turns the black cat around- those first show us how superstitious Ichabod is.
* If everyone (but Brom) likes Ichabod, it makes me wonder why they all are getting enjoyment from Ichabod's fright about the Headless Horseman story. Maybe because they're all used to (and not scared of) Brom's yearly Halloween tale, and they can't believe that Ichabod believes and is scared of the story...?
* There are definitely influences from Snow White and "The Old Mill", with the forest "coming to life" and scaring Ichabod and all.
* It's interesting how times have changed- would Disney ever dare to make a headless character now? Especially such a violent one?

General thought:

It's interesting that Nathan mentioned this:

Perhaps two Halloween stories should have been grouped together, and Toad could have been matched with something else (perhaps a Christmas story

I wonder how much cheaper creating these two featurettes was than making a one-story feature-length animated film. It's understandable that the other package films (except for Fun and Fancy Free) were cheaper, since a lot less development goes into a 10-minute (or so) short (even though some of the shorts in the package films are longer than others). "Mickey and the Beanstalk" and "The Wind in the Willows" weren't initially conceived for package films; they were originally supposed to be a full-length films.

[Thomas, Bob. Walt Disney: An American Original. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976.]
P. 177 (talking about 1941):

With the market for cartoon features at its lowest point and the studio staff facing depletion by the draft, it seemed prudent to cut back on features, except for Bambi, which was still making tedious progress. Walt abandoned preparations for Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan and shut down animation on Wind in the Willows. A favorite studio legend concerns the animator who was assigned to Wind in the Willows, depearted to serve in the Army, then returned four years later to resume animating the same sequence in the same film.

[Thomas, Bob. BUILDING A COMPANY ROY O. DISNEY AND THE CREATION OF AN ENTERTAINMENT EMPIRE. Minneapolis: Disney Editions, 1999.]
P. 149 (also about 1941):

The Bank of America had vetoed any work on a new feature. So Roy and the production staff worked out a program for production:

1. Regular short subjects.
2. The South American short subjects [which were compiled into two features, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros].
3. Completion of Bambi.
4. The completion of the Mickey feature [Mickey and the Beanstalk, released as part of Fun and Fancy Free] or The Wind in the Willows on a slow schedule.
5. A very modest story development program.

P. 154 (same book):

Before the war, Walt had been engaged in the early stages of two classics, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Those projects had been indefinitely postponed. Walt suggested combining a short feature starring Mickey Mouse and The Wind in the Willows. Roy advised Walt that they couldn't afford to spend more than $400,000 to $450,000 on the picture.

"The very nature of this picture- combining two stories in one- is a different type of presentation, and nobody can say what sort of an experience we will have with it," Roy reasoned in a memo. "To me it seems certain, however, that it will not be as salable as a feature comprising one story of a conventional type." The project was abandoned, and the two segments were later packaged into other feature presentations.

Do any of you wish that those two featurettes ("Mickey and the Beanstalk" and "The Wind in the Willows") had been full-length films? Wonderlicious has already said:

If the film has a flaw, it's to do with Mr Toad's story; I can't help but wonder if this was better suited to feature length.

What about other shorts or featurettes from the package films- are there any that you wish had been made as full-length films instead? I think that some wouldn't work as full-length films (as much as I enjoy them, I don't think that "Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet" and "Little Toot" would). "Johnny Appleseed" and "Pecos Bill" probably could, and maybe even "Paul Bunyon".

[yukitora]

heh this thread makes me want to go buy the dvd! (given that it's on sale)

I enjoyed ALL of the package films, a great deal in fact. They were like more enjoyable versions of fantasia. They were short, funny, and did not have to rely heavily on storyline. Although I still think Make Mine Music is the superior package film, it's quite different in nature to TAOIAMT. Comparing this film and Fun and Fancy Free is a lot more justifyable. And this one definitely wins.

[Wonderlicious]

Do any of you wish that those two featurettes ("Mickey and the Beanstalk" and "The Wind in the Willows") had been full-length films? Wonderlicious has already said:

If the film has a flaw, it's to do with Mr Toad's story; I can't help but wonder if this was better suited to feature length.

What about other shorts or featurettes from the package films- are there any that you wish had been made as full-length films instead? I think that some wouldn't work as full-length films (as much as I enjoy them, I don't think that "Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet" and "Little Toot" would). "Johnny Appleseed" and "Pecos Bill" probably could, and maybe even "Paul Bunyon".

I think that a lot of shorts in the package features were best as just that; slight stories about talking hats and boats really only work as little 10 minute pieces. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow works okay in a 30 minute run-time, as it was based on a short-story to begin with, and unless the plot was significantly changed like in Tim Burton's version might not have been too great as a full-length feature. Thinking about it, the American folklore stories could have been turned into feature-length films, but they would in all fairness have to be somewhat different in style as to what actually ended up on the screen.

Whilst I have no serious qualms of it being a 30 minute piece, The Wind in the Willows would have really worked very well as a feature film. The original book is long enough to adapt without too much hassle into a feature film, and as I've said, various story points in the final version seem a bit rushed. It was planned to be a feature at the start, but for whatever reason it got chosen to be a chunk of a package feature (I'm guessing the fact that it wasn't as marketable as Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland etc had something to do with it).

Mickey and the Beanstalk could have done with quite a bit more adding to it (as was probably the case, the post-war budget probably caused some limitations ). The first act seems a bit rushed (Mickey isn't even shown selling the cow!), and the ending is also rather abrupt. Yet at the same time, I'm not sure that it would have been extremely engaging if it had passed the 60 minute mark. In some ways, it's a shame that there isn't much of a market for medium-length films (aka 40-60 minutes as opposed to short films under 30 minutes or so and feature films of any length over 60-70 minutes), because even the likes of Mickey's Christmas Carol or The Prince and the Pauper might have benefited from having a bit more meat to them, but not so much to make them a feature-length film.

[PeterPanfan]

I always much prefered "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" to "The Wind in the Willows," and that's probably because I enjoy frightening stories rather than "cutesy" ones. I still love TWitW, though, although I usually fast forward through it.

[Flanger-Hanger]

The Disney Keepsakes does a good job in outlining the various points of production for Mr. Toad and some ideas that never made it (including finding Toad a mate).

The author of The Art of Walt Disney wonders what it would have been like of Toad had not been rushed and I wish it wasn't too. Really from the very start it was meant to be a stand alone feature and had it the production values of Pinocchio, Bambi or even Cinderella it would have been a real classic.

I still love the final film and wished it got better recognition. It's 60th anniversary this yea,r but I doubt any after hours event at Disneyland is begin done to celebrate it like they did for the 50th.

[Barbossa]

Since this thread was resurrected, I was kind of hoping someone posted an anouncement about a new edition of the movie. But unfortunately, we are still stuck with the Gold Collection version.

[blackcauldron85]

Since this thread was resurrected, I was kind of hoping someone posted an anouncement about a new edition of the movie. But unfortunately, we are still stuck with the Gold Collection version.

Sorry to burst your bubble! Just trying to get some much-needed Disney discussion going!

[Owlzindabarn]

I have a bad feeling that Toad & Ichabod is far down the list of flicks Disney wants to restore for BluRay, but...it would be nice.

[The_Iceflash]

I have a bad feeling that Toad & Ichabod is far down the list of flicks Disney wants to restore for BluRay, but...it would be nice.

It needs a proper DVD release first.

[Flanger-Hanger]

Apparently Disney started scanning their 30s-50s films at 4K resolution last year so I guess maybe it won't be so far off until a Blu-ray release is coming. I guess they'll be a DVD to go with it or a separate release at the same time.

[Pluto Region1]

Well, next to SW this is my favorite Disney film. It is the only film that I have purchased for all of my nephews and nieces. Usually you can pick this up pretty cheap (like $14) from places like Discount DVD etc.

I do have a question - someone here mentioned Johnny Appleseed. I recall seeing the "Ichabod" half of this film as well as Johnny Appleseed several times in grade school. I loved when they'd play these 2 films, no matter that I'd seen them so many times before. Ok, my question - I also recall seeing some film about "peter and the wolf." Can anyone tell me on what DVD I might find Peter & the Wolf and Johnny Appleseed? I've never seen these offered for sale on DVD. Are they buried in a compilation DVD that I could purchase?

I really enjoyed the Mr.Toad segment and it help me understand the character's place in Mickey's Christmas Carol. Mr. Mole and the Rat. And the song Lol that he sings even though the segement is total nonsensce.

I love that song! It's full of English townships and towns or whatever. It's great to listen to it in French or Spanish .

Yes! Great song - thanks for posting the lyrics! Wonder who wrote that song.

[JDCB1986]

Well, next to SW this is my favorite Disney film. It is the only film that I have purchased for all of my nephews and nieces. Usually you can pick this up pretty cheap (like $14) from places like Discount DVD etc.

I do have a question - someone here mentioned Johnny Appleseed. I recall seeing the "Ichabod" half of this film as well as Johnny Appleseed several times in grade school. I loved when they'd play these 2 films, no matter that I'd seen them so many times before. Ok, my question - I also recall seeing some film about "peter and the wolf." Can anyone tell me on what DVD I might find Peter & the Wolf and Johnny Appleseed? I've never seen these offered for sale on DVD. Are they buried in a compilation DVD that I could purchase?

Peter And The Wolf is on Make Mine Music.

Johnny Appleseed is on Melody Time.