The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

1949 "Two Tall Tales by the world's top story-tellers in one hilarious All-Cartoon Feature!"
6.8| 1h8m| NR| en
Details

The Wind in the Willows: Concise version of Kenneth Grahame's story of the same name. J. Thaddeus Toad, owner of Toad Hall, is prone to fads, such as the newfangled motor car. This desire for the very latest lands him in much trouble with the wrong crowd, and it is up to his friends, Mole, Rat and Badger to save him from himself. - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Retelling of Washington Irving's story set in a tiny New England town. Ichabod Crane, the new schoolmaster, falls for the town beauty, Katrina Van Tassel, and the town Bully Brom Bones decides that he is a little too successful and needs "convincing" that Katrina is not for him.

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Walt Disney Productions

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Reviews

Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever
Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.
FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Dalbert Pringle (*Movie quote*) - "Tally-ho!"This 70-minute, animated, Disney presentation contains 2, 35-minute stories of Technicolour fantasy, fun, and fright.Story #1 is based on the Kenneth Grahame tale - "The Wind In The Willows". Its main character is the exuberant mischief-maker, Mr. Toad.This story was narrated by actor, Basil Rathbone.Story #2 is based on the Irving Washington tale - "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow". It's main character is Ichabod Crane who, one dark night, crosses paths with the hideous "Headless Horseman".This story was narrated by actor/singer, Bing Crosby.Originally released in 1949 - This animated feature film is fairly entertaining, for the most part.
Delia99 I have mixed feelings about this movie. I really loved the story with the frog, and loathed the Ichabod one. So you'd think I'd give this a balanced 5, but instead I gave it a 7, because a) the animation's pretty good, and b) I really liked the frog story. I'm gonna review those two stories separately. The Adventures of Mr Toad: I don't know why I loved this one so much, I just know I did. Maybe because it combines a character who's flawed but still lovable and a whodunit - a whodunit I hope was explored more, but still a sweet, heartwarming story that I fell in love with. And it doesn't last too long. Some short stories just feel stretched, particularly when they have an extremely boring content, even for a short story, but this one was just fine. The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow: Oh god. Oh my God, where do I begin? This story tells the classic story of the Headless Dude. And though I love spooky stories (and I wold have loved this one if for what I'm about to say next) "The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow" was ruined in the worst possible way; by having a love triangle. Or rather no, not the triangle itself, but rather the protagonist. Ichabod Crane, or some sort, I honestly don't remember. Here's the thing; Crane goes to the Sleepy Hollow to teach the children there. He meets Katrina, a lovely unmarried young girl with many admirers, and falls immediately for her. So far so good. Unfortunately for poor Ich, Katrina has an admirer who's more ardent than the others, Brom Bones, aka the Gaston of the "Walt Disney is Around" era. We have some rivalry between the two for the woman's hand (apparently said woman has no opinion on that!) but what truly bugged me was Crane's feelings. In the scene where he basically day- dreams while he's class is a chaos (bonus sin; he's a terrible teacher) he practically states that the reason why he's after Katrina is her good looks and family wealth. That's it. Crane sees Katrina as a pretty face that can make him rich and nothing more. And though it's not unheard of a man making profit though women, what really annoys me it's that the whole thing is portrayed as positive. We're meant to side with Crane. We're meant to want Katrina pick him at the end, though it's clear he doesn't care about her. Do we ever seem him speak to her and get to know the real her? No. One could say that that's right about Brom Bones and all the other men, but at least they get the benefit of the doubt. They've lived in Sleepy Hollow their whole lives, so they actually do know the real Katrina. We're meant to see Bron Bones as the antagonist, but does he ever do anything bad? No, not once. There's nothing villainous about his and Crane's fights over Katrina. And there's the assumption that he dressed up as the Headless Horseman and killed Ich (drove him away?), but when Ich took a look inside the Horseman's collar, he was absolutely terrified, as if there was indeed no head in there. If he had seen Brom's face, he'd be angry and outraged, not horrified. So, no, Brom Bones' not the bad guy here, no matter how desperately the movie wants us to believe. Crane is not the good guy, even though he's framed as such. Actually, he acts as a gold-digger whose gold- digging nature is presented as good, maybe because he's a man. Imagine if the genders were switched. Would any viewer have any sympathy for female!Crane whatsoever? I don't think so.
utgard14 The best of Disney's combination/anthology films of the 1940s. It may be an odd combo of two unconnected stories but they're both so strong you don't really mind much. The first story, about a colorful character named Mr. Toad's crazy obsessions that nearly leads him to ruin, is an adaptation of part of Kenneth Grahame's novel The Wind in the Willows. It's narrated by Basil Rathbone and features fine voice work from Eric Blore and others. The second story, narrated by Bing Crosby, is probably the best screen adaptation of the Washington Irving story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow I've seen. It's light-hearted and humorous for the most part but the sequence with the Headless Horseman near the end is exciting and even frightening (particularly to little ones). Both cartoons are fun with good characters and beautiful animation and music. Bing Crosby sings some songs, as well. I always preferred the Ichabod story growing up but, as I grew older, I began to appreciate Wind in the Willows more. They're both wonderful cartoons made by Disney during the era they produced so many classics. Definitely worth a look for young and old alike.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is the 65-year-old Disney approach to the famous tale, which was obviously done long before Tim Burton got his hands on the material. And it is a success, I believe, because several components were competently done and this resulted in a pretty good overall outcome. First of all, the animation is nice and it is a half-hour cartoon which is truly atmospheric. Secondly, Bing Crosby's narration worked from start to finish adding the right mixture of drama and comedy to the scenes we see. And most of all: The school teacher. Now, he is a pretty memorable character and it almost makes me sad to see that the other guy got the girl in the end because I felt that the one who wins was so colorless and forgettable really. Some time later this half hour was picked, mixed together with another relative long short film and so they had a feature film out of this. It even won a Golden Globe and that makes up for the short film from 1949 running empty on the awards front. Anyway, that's how it goes I guess. I had a good time watching this and I recommend it. Of course this should not come as a surprise as this half hour was directed by the makers of "Cinderella", "Sleeping Beauty", "Alice in Wonderland", "Dumbo", "Pinocchio" etc. So from that perspective, it's more of a surprise that this did not turn out even better. But let's not be greedy here. Give it a watch."The Wind in the Willows" is a Disney animated short film, which runs for slightly over half an hour and was made over 65 years ago. I have to say from that duology I found the Ichabod part more interesting. This one here is basically about the adventures of a toad and it's again made in a way that it's not only for children, but also includes some more serious references here and there although not as many as Ichabod and also no horror references. I personally felt that this film here dragged on several occasions and did not really have too many memorable characters. For Ichabod they got Bing Crosby as the narrator and for this one here they got Basil Rathbone, a two-time Academy Award nominated actor who is today mostly known for his participation in the Robin Hood film and for his Sherlock Holmes performances of course. The rest of the cast here I am not familiar with. All in all, I must say the animation was okay, but the story just did not feel memorable at all to me this time. Not recommended.