The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

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The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

7/10

Starring the voice of

Eric Blore

Pat O’Malley

Narrated by Basil Rathbone, Bing Crosby and Sterling Holloway

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a 1949 animated feature produced by Walt Disney himself. It comprises of two segments, one of which is based on Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's book The Wind in the Willows and the other story is based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow which is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is the 11th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. Disney had shifted from making full length animations and started making short package movies due to the involvement of America in the ongoing World War II at the time. War saw some of his (Walt Disney) animators being drafted to it and due to the heavy cost of making full length features on a single story, package shorts were released during the period and a total of six were done, and there were Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time and this movie The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toadis the last.

Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes) and Bing Crosby were cast as narrators in order to pull viewers. The movie plot is quite similar to the stories that they were adapted from, with Mr. Toad's story (which is narrated by Basil Rathbone), has the charismatic J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq. who was ready to do anything to fulfill his fun craze for adventure, giving up everything and getting into trouble for purchasing a stolen motor car.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is also close to its story (narrated by Bing Cosby), it tells the tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. As Ichabod's selfish desire to claim the wealth of Katrina Van Tassel father by marrying his daughter led him to cross fire with the towns bully Brom Bones, who eventually scared Ichabod off with his stories of the headless horseman (which Ichabod later met).

Ironically both stories, The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow were initially planed to be full length animations, the work on The Wind in the Willows started in 1941 but was halted during the war and done as a short but kept awaiting a suitable pairing. The production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was done in 1946, but when they noticed how short the movie will be, Disney then decided to pair it up with The Wind of Willows and released together under the name The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.

The movie is a critical acclaim, and it is a nice watch for both adult and kids alike. There is no moral in these stories just good old cartoon fun.