Review of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) by Nat G — 21 Aug 2008

This film brings animated versions of two literary works . The first is 'The Adventures of Mr. Toad', based on the characters from Kenneth Grahame's 'The Wind in the Willows'. The second is based on Washinton Irving's masterpiece 'The Headless Horseman', in which schoolteacher Ichabod Crane, smitten with Katrina Van Tassel, attends a party hosted by her father. Town thug Brom Bones, who also has his eye on Katrina, tries to intimidate Ichabod with the chilling story of 'The Headless Horseman', a ghost of a soldier in the revolutionary war who lost his head in a fight. When Ichabod rides home through Sleepy Hollow late at night, he finds himself confronted by the Headless Horseman who wants Ichabod's head for himself!

This is the last film from Disney to be a combination of different stories, and it seems they pulled all the stops out. The first story of Wind In The Willows is very funny, it is a very good version of the story. It is a shame Disney didn't make a full length version of this story as I reckon it would have been great. The second story is ok but it's very strange, and a little scary for children. It's very strange that Disney decided to put these films back to back together, why didn't they make two separate films. Anyway this is classic Disney and is well worth checking out.