The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

What’s the Story?

Reviewed by M. Faust

This Disney double-feature offers animated adaptations of two children's literature classics: Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, and Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. In the first tale, Thaddeus Toad, adventure-loving master of Toad Hall, becomes enamored of a shining motorcar and falls afoul of a group of scheming weasels. Friends Rat, Mole, and Badger try to save Toad from himself, and from losing Toad Hall. The second story is set in a colonial New York village, where gangly schoolteacher Ichabod Crane and roughneck Brom Bones vie for the hand of heiress Katrina Van Tassel. Just when it seems that Ichabod has won with his refined grace, Brom plays on his rival's superstitious nature with a Halloween tale of the headless horseman, a legend that terrifies Ichabod on a long nighttime ride home.

Is It Any Good?

Often overlooked even by Disney fans, this is classic Disney animation at its best and features Basil Rathbone and Bing Crosby as narrators. With a cozy Edwardian setting, a dollop of slapstick violence, and a variety of British stereotypes, the tale of Mr. Toad is an endearing foray into Merrie Olde England.

The American tale is a bit more ambitious, and not without its drawbacks. Some of the animation and design owe as much to Van Gogh as to Disney's own Fantasia. With his long limbs and oversized ears and nose, Ichabod Crane is certainly a memorable creation; Katrina and Brom Bones seem dull by comparison. The climactic sequence of Ichabod and the pumpkin-headed horseman is truly gripping, making it too intense for younger or more sensitive children. The Bing Crosby songs that pad it out are by far the weakest part of this otherwise first-rate tale.