The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a 1949 American animated anthology film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It consists of two segments: the first based on Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's novel The Wind in the Willows and narrated by Basil Rathbone, and the second based on Washington Irving's 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and narrated by Bing Crosby. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen, and was directed by Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, and James Algar.
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad began development in 1940 as a single-narrative feature film based on The Wind in the Willows. After a series of production delays, the project was cut down to a short film and eventually merged with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (which was also originally conceived as a full-length feature) in 1947. It is the last of the studio's package film era of the 1940s; they returned to full-length animated films starting with Cinderella in 1950. Disney would not produce another package film until The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977).
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was released in theaters on October 5, 1949. Beginning in 1955, the two segments of the film were separated, and televised as part of the Disneyland television series. They were later marketed and sold separately on home video.
Plot
Both of the film's animated segments are introduced through live-action scenes set in a library as a framing device. The first segment (based on Kenneth Grahame's novel The Wind in the Willows) is introduced and narrated by Basil Rathbone; the second segment (based on Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow") is introduced and narrated by Bing Crosby. Both narrators preface their stories by mentioning various literary characters from both English and American literature, before settling on the characters of Mr. Toad and Ichabod respectively for their tales.
The Wind in the Willows
In Great Britain in 1905, J. Thaddeus Toad is the wealthy owner of the Toad Hall estate in London, England, whose adventures and positive mania for various fads have brought him to the brink of bankruptcy. One of Toad's friends, Angus MacBadger, volunteers as an accountant to help Toad keep the estate, which is the pride of the community. One summer day, MacBadger asks Toad's best friends, Water Rat and Mole, to persuade him to give up his latest mania of recklessly driving around the countryside in a gypsy cart pulled by his horse Cyril Proudbottom, which is accumulating financial liability in damaged property. Rat and Mole confront Toad and unsuccessfully try to change his mind. Toad then sees a motor car for the first time and is taken over by motor mania.
To keep him out of trouble, Rat and Mole lock Toad in his bedroom, but he escapes and is soon charged with car theft. At his trial, Toad represents himself, with Cyril as his first witness. Cyril testifies that the car which Toad was accused of taking had been stolen by a gang of weasels. Unaware of this, Toad found weasels in a tavern and offered to buy the car from them, but since he had no money, he traded Toad Hall for the car. The court shows disbelief at the statement, so Toad calls Mr. Winky, the barman from the tavern, to testify in his favor. When Winky instead implicates Toad in trying to sell him the stolen car, Toad is found guilty on the spot and sentenced to imprisonment in the Tower of London. His friends try to appeal his case, but to no avail.
On Christmas Eve, Cyril visits Toad and helps him escape by giving him a disguise. Toad hijacks an engine from a railway station and heads to the riverbank, where he hides in the Rat's house after escaping from the police. MacBadger visits to tell them that the weasel gang has taken over Toad Hall, with Winky as their leader, confirming that Toad had indeed traded his estate for the stolen car. To prove his innocence before the law, Toad, McBadger, Rat, and Mole sneak into the estate and narrowly manage to take the deed (bearing Toad and Winky's signatures) away from the weasels after a chase around Toad Hall.
Toad is exonerated and regains his house, but develops a mania for planes. As MacBadger, Rat, and Mole celebrate the New Year's Day, Toad and Cyril recklessly fly past on a Wright Flyer.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
In 1790, Ichabod Crane arrives in the small Tarrytown village of Sleepy Hollow to be the new schoolmaster. Due to his odd appearance and effeminate mannerisms, Ichabod becomes a target for the local bully, Brom Bones, but forms good relationships with his students and the village's women. Ichabod soon meets and falls in love with Katrina, the daughter of wealthy farmer Baltus Van Tassel, while also having one eye on her family's fortune. Brom, who intends to marry Katrina, proceeds to compete for her affection with the schoolmaster, but Ichabod wins Katrina over at every opportunity, with Katrina noticing Brom's increasing anger and jealousy.
Ichabod and Brom are invited to Van Tassel's annual Halloween frolic, where Brom tries in vain to keep Ichabod and Katrina separate. Discovering that Ichabod is superstitious, Brom tells the tale of the Headless Horseman who, every Halloween night, travels through the woods searching for a living head to replace the one he lost; the only way to escape him is to cross a covered bridge, at which point he will vanish. Katrina and all the guests find the story amusing, but Ichabod is left terrified.
That night, Ichabod rides his horse Gunpowder home through the Hollow where the Headless Horseman is said to appear; remembering the story, his fear and anxiety heighten and he is frightened by every sound he hears. Passing through the old European cemetery, Ichabod becomes convinced he can hear the sound of a galloping horse approaching, but bursts into laughter when it turns out to be cattails bumping on a log. His laughter is cut short when the real Headless Horseman appears, mounted on a fiery black horse and carrying a jack-o'-lantern and a sword. Ichabod and Gunpowder run off and, remembering Brom's story, ride towards a covered bridge with the Horseman in pursuit. They finally cross the bridge but as Ichabod looks back, the Horseman throws the jack-o'-lantern in his direction.
The next morning, Ichabod's hat and a shattered pumpkin are found near the bridge, but there was no trace of the schoolmaster. Subsequently, Brom marries Katrina, and rumors persist that Ichabod survived and married a wealthy widow in a distant county, though the Dutch settlers remain certain he was spirited away by the Headless Horseman. The ending of the story prompts the film's narrator to exclaim: "Man, I'm gettin' outta here."
Voice cast
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- Bing Crosby as the narrator of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment
- Basil Rathbone as the narrator of The Wind in the Willows segment
- J. Pat O'Malley as Cyril Proudbottom, Toad's jolly and eccentric horse
- John McLeish as the District Attorney who prosecutes Toad's case at the trial
- Colin Campbell as Mole, Toad's devoted close friend Harford also voiced the postman and jailer in the Tower of London. Leslie Denison voiced the judge at Toad's trial. Edmond Stevens voiced the policeman. James Bodrero, Denison, Stevens, and McLeish provided the voices of the weasels, a gang of small-time crooks who are Winky's henchmen. Billy Bletcher provided the laugh of the Headless Horseman.
Walt Disney was introduced to Kenneth Grahame's children's novel The Wind in the Willows (1908) in 1934, having received a copy from an English correspondent. Roy O. Disney acquired the rights to the novel during his European acquisition spree of properties for potential features in April 1938, but Walt was not interested, finding the story "awfully corny". After reading the book, story artist James Bodrero convinced him to put The Wind in the Willows into production, which was originally intended to be a single-narrative feature. The first story meetings were held by September 1940, with the film's production officially confirmed the following month. Disney commissioned Mel Shaw to create inspirational artwork, and James Algar was appointed to direct the film. Bodrero and fellow story artist Campbell Grant prepared the first storyboards and a Leica reel, which combined story sketches with rough dialogue performed by members of the animation staff.