The 1940’s at the Walt Disney Studios produced six animated package films. These films contained a number of short segments strung together to be released as a full length feature film. It was a way to cut back on costs during the economic problems the Studios faced due to World War II. The last of these films produced was The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, released on October 5th, 1949. The featured segments were retellings of the stories The Wind in the Willows written by Kenneth Grahame (author of The Reluctant Dragon) and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. The working title for this film was Fabulous Characters and both Ichabod Crane and Mr. Toad are still referred to as “fabulous characters” in the final film.
Since this Animation Monday takes place on Halloween Eve, this blog post will focus on the Sleepy Hollow half of the film but stay tuned for future posts about the fabulous J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is narrated entirely by Bing Crosby, who provides the voices for the only two speaking characters, Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones. The story starts off looking at a map of New York State in the year of 1790. Just north of the Manhattan market town was the small village of Tarry Town and even further north was the glen of Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow is known for its ghostly tales and local superstitions. A new schoolmaster arrives by the name of Ichabod Crane who is a funny looking man with a large appetite.
Even though he is a bit odd, he soon wins the affection of the women of the village, much to the displeasure of Brom Bones and his Ye Olde Schnooker & Schnapps Shoppe pals. Ichabod keeps on the good side of his students in hopes of being invited over for dinners and keeps up with social events for similar reasons. He soon falls in love with Katrina van Tassel, the daughter of the rich Baltus van Tassel. Brom is also in love with Katrina and tries to win her affection over Ichabod. However, she seems to enjoy all of the attention and flirts with them both. Ichabod day dreams about Katrina but wavers between thinking of her beautiful smile and thinking of her wealthy farm inheritance.
Ichabod is invited to the van Tassel’s farm for a Halloween Party where he outshines Brom with his dancing skills by dancing with Katrina all evening. Brom witnesses Ichabod toss salt over his left shoulder after spilling some on the table and concludes he is very superstitious. Baltus van Tassel wants his guests to share ghostly tales so Brom jumps at the chance to play with Ichabod’s fears.
Brom sings a spooky tale about the Headless Horseman, who has a flaming pumpkin as a temporary head, and is in the woods looking for a new one. When Ichabod travels home on his lazy horse, every sound and shadow spook him into thinking the Headless Horseman is near. After finally realizing that every noise in the woods has a logical explanation, the real Headless Horseman appears and chases Ichabod through the graveyard. He races towards a bridge at the end of the cemetery and remembers what Brom said at the party: “Once you cross that bridge my friends, the ghost is through, his power ends.”
Ichabod makes it and turns back to see that his chaser indeed cannot crosss the bridge. However, the Headless Horseman does throw his flaming pumpkin head at Ichabod and all that is left is Ichabod’s hat. Ichabod Crane cannot be found and Brom Bones then marries Katrina van Tassel. The story ends with two explanations to where Ichabod might have disappeared to. Either he escaped and ran away to a new town to marry a wealthy widow or he was spirited away by the Headless Horseman.
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was directed by Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, and James Algar. The directing animators were: Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Wolfgang Reitherman, Milt Kahl, John Lounsbery, Ward Kimball, and Eric Larson. The music was by Oliver Wallace and included the songs “Ichabod”, “Katrina”, and “The Headless Horseman” for the Sleepy Hollow sequence. Many of the animal sounds were done by Clarence Nash, who was the original voice of Donald Duck, and Ichabod’s screams were done by Pinto Colvig, the original voice of Goofy. The Disneyland T.V. show released this sequence under the name The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on October 26th, 1955.
Though this film is not the most well-known Disney animated feature, many elements of Sleepy Hollow reminded me of other past and future films.
The character of Katrina van Tassel is very similar to Slue-foot Sue from the Pecos Bill segment in Melody Time (1948), to Grace Martin from The Martins and the Coys segment from Make Mine Music (1946), and also to Cinderella, whose film was released one year later in 1950.
Ichabod’s lazy horse looks very similar to Cyril Proudbottom, who is Mr. Toad’s horse in The Wind in the Willows.
The sequence in the woods with the spooky sounds and shadows has recycled animation from the Silly Symphony The Old Mill (1937). This sequence also reminded me of the scene in The Aristocats (1970) when Duchess and the kittens fall into the swamp and also when Snow White is lost in the woods in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
There are also two characters in the town of Sleepy Hollow who are very similar to characters from Beauty and the Beast (1991). A guest at the van Tassel party looks exactly like Monsieur D’Arque, and Brom Bones and Gaston share a similar look and personality.
For more information about The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, please listen to my friends’ spooky podcast episode at Cartoonin’in about both segments and their backstories!
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