The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad

A Disney Tale: Two tales of adventure are relayed to us by Basil Rathbone and Bing Crosby: The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Disney Hero: For The Wind in the Willows, the principal cast of four familiar characters are our heroes - Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad.  It's difficult to decide if Toad is really a hero, though, as it is only due to the efforts of his friends that he is able to win back Toad Hall from the Weasels and Mr Winkie.

In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, our 'hero' is Ichabod Crane but, again, it is actually rather tricky to apply that term to him due to his rather unlikeable actions throughout the story and the fact that, at the end, he doesn't actually 'win the day'.

Most Disney films have a clear 'hero' character - even in previous package films there have been characters featured such as Pablo (the little plan), Mickey in Mickey and the Beanstalk or even Donald in The Three Caballeros who fulfill the hero role more obviously than either Toad or Ichabod Crane do.

Toad is a fun character and, although impetuous and foolish, has his heart in the right place and is ably supported by his friends, Ratty, Mole and Badger.  Ultimately it is also Toad who manages to reclaim the title deed to Toad Hall.  But Ichabod Crane is much, much harder to like.
Ichabod, a school teacher, comes to Sleepy Hollow and is welcomed into the small community.  He soon sets his eyes on Katrina Van Tassel, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy farmer.  It is made quite clear to the audience that one of his main motivations for pursuing her is her father's money which doesn't endear himself to me.  This is followed by a series of scenes where he is seen to get the better of another suitor of Katrina, Brom Bones.  Now, the Disney Wiki describes Brom as 'the town bully'.  This suggests they paid little attention to the narration of the story where it is clearly stated that, whilst he sometimes plays practical jokes on people (such as pulling his horse up very close to a sleeping man and shocking him awake) it is done with no malice and he is shown as being quite a generous, friendly guy who just happens - like every other man in the village - to fancy Katrina.  Brom's physical appearance is similar to Gaston from Beauty and the Beast - which may be why modern viewers make the villain association a little more easily - but whilst watching this story I couldn't help but feel sympathy for Brom whilst hoping Crane got his comeuppance.  (To be fair to Disney Wiki it does mention a fan theory that Brom is hero and Crane is only after Katrina's money, a theory I definitely subscribe to).

And indeed he does.  At a village Hallowe'en dance, Brom - thwarted yet again in his attempts to woo Katrina (and rather horribly using another woman to get to her) - tells a ghost story of the Headless Horseman.  Crane, who is incredibly superstitious, is terrified and goes home that night, through the woods, flinching at every moan of the wind or crack of a twig.

His fears prove justified though, when he is confronted by the Headless Horseman, who proceeds to chase him from the village for ever.  Is it Brom pretending to be the Horseman to get rid of Crane, or is the spirit real?  We, as the audience, are never told but Brom ends up marrying Katrina and no one knows what happened to Crane (apart from rumours he married a widow...(after money again, we wonder?)).

In a way, Brom is almost the hero of this story as he not only (possibly) gets rid of the rather unlikeable Crane, but also ends up marrying the heroine of the piece.

Disney Heroine: In this film, the only character who really fits the heroine role is the aforementioned Katrina Von Tassle.  The Wind in the Willows doesn't feature any women at all (not even those featured in the original novel by Kenneth Grahame).  Katrina doesn't speak at all (but then neither do any of the other characters except to sing) and spends the film seemingly amused by the antics of Crane and Brom is trying to win her hand.  That she seems happy to spend time with either lends weight to the suggestion that Brom is not the villain of the piece by any means (and it is who she ends up marrying after all).  In the sequence at the Hallowe'en party, Katrina is also shown to laugh at Crane's increasing discomfort and terror at Brom's ghost story.  There's a distinct possibility that she is leading Crane on for her own amusement (and it is clear from earlier scenes that she is happy to use the men who adore her to wait upon her hand and foot as they follow her around the village at her beck and call).  I wouldn't say she's the nicest of Disney heroines.

Disney Villain: The villains of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad are much more easy to identify than the heroes.  In The Wind in the Willows the villains are very clearly Mr Winkie, the pub landlord, and the Weasels, who con Toad out of the title deed of Toad Hall.  There is also the prosecutor at Toad's trial who is very aggressive in his interrogation of the various witnesses (although one could argue he is merely doing his job).  It's interesting, though, that he is presented far more villainously in the Disneyland ride, Mr Toad's Wild Adventure, sending Toad to Hell (but more on that in a later post).

Mr Winkie is actually a surprise villain as his treachery is only revealed at Toad's trial.  Winkie's appearance is similar to that of Tapper, another barman/landlord seen in Wreck-It Ralph.  Aside from betraying Toad at the trial, he also seen at Toad Hall celebrating with the Weasels, falling asleep with the title deed and then being part of the manic battle scene for Toad Hall.  At one point he even tries to chop off Mole's head!  Mr Winkie doesn't, incidentally, appear in the original The Wind in the Willows novel.

The Weasels, who do appear in the novel and are the principal villains in that, take a more supporting role here, being little more than henchmen to Winkie.  Depicted with cigars and flat caps, shady looks and with vicious weapons, they take great delight in attacking Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad as well as lazing around Toad Hall, vandalising and mistreating the house.

In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the main villain is the Headless Horseman.  Whether he is Brom Bones in disguise or not is open to discussion, but the Horseman as depicted is terrifying.  Dressed in black with no head and a vicious sword for decapitating his victims, he is probably the darkest villain since Chernabog in Fantasia.  He is supernatural, unrelenting and, technically, wins in that Crane is chased from Sleepy Hollow forever (or is spirited away by the Horseman as some of the villagers believe).  His horse has glowing red eyes and an evil expression whilst the Horseman, along with his sword has the ability to throw burning pumpkin, Jack-O-Lanterns.
As Disney villains go, despite his relatively brief appearance (and possible 'Scooby-Doo-like' reality) he is easily one of the scariest and most clearly evil from the canon.

Disney Sidekicks: The Wind in the Willows has a classic Disney sidekick in Toad's horse, Cyril Proudbottom.  His scenes with Toad are fun as he encourages Toad's worst excesses.  There is a real WTF moment when he appears at the jail dressed in drag and pretending to be Toad's grandmother.  Cyril is loud, brash and ever so slightly obnoxious.  He is voiced by J. Pat O'Malley and is instantly recognisable as the voice artist behind Tweedledum and Tweedledee from Alice in Wonderland.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow doesn't have a sidekick as such although Crane has his horse (not named or voiced) and Brom has his gang of Sleepy Hollow Boys.

Disney Creatures: The Wind in the Willows is, of course, wall to wall Disney Creatures - a toad, a rat, a mole, a badger, a horse and lots of weasels.  They are all anthropomorphised to varying degrees (Cyril is more horse-like for example, than Toad is toad-like; he's also the only character not named after his species having a 'proper' human name.  This is probably because he isn't from the original novel).  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is mainly populated by horses - Brom's, Ichabod's and the Headless Horseman's.

Disney Magic:The conceit of The Wind in the Willows is that the animals can talk and interact with humans on an equal level.  This isn't really magic and is from the original novel.  In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the magic derives from the appearance of the Headless Horseman.  It's very much dark magic and easily the darkest Disney has got since the evil doings of Snow White's stepmother, the Evil Queen.

Disney Land: The Wind in the Willows is set in an idyllic England.  It's the England that the USA imagines; beautiful countryside with winding country lanes and large mansions nestled closely to a bustling city (it's never clear if it's supposed to be London or somewhere more generic).  It's all very 'biscuit tin' and quaint and roughly set in Edwardian times.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is set in the 18th Century in a Dutch settlement (the original short story is set in Tarry Town, based on Tarrytown, New York).  The Dutch influence is seen in the names of Katrina and her father, Von Tassle.  The buildings and outfits are match the 18th Century fashions for America at this time very early in their history.

Disney Songs: The principal song of The Wind in the Willows is The Merrily Song.  It is a jaunty tune sung by Toad and Cyril as they career through the English countryside in Toad's canary yellow gypsy caravan.  I rather like it and clearly so do Disney as it features on two sing-a-long video releases.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has three songs, all named after a character - Ichabod Crane, Katrina and the Headless Horseman.  The first two are sung by Bing Crosby to introduce each character.  Neither is particularly catchy and the lyrics of the Katrina song are slightly questionable.  The Headless Horseman is more of a rhythmic poem performed by Bing as Brom Bones.  It is suitably spooky and I'm surprised it doesn't feature on any Disney Hallowe'en music albums.

Disney Finale: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad is a partner piece to Fun and Fancy Free.  Both are package films made up of two distinct stories.  However, whereas Fun and Fancy Free has a much stronger tale in Mickey and the Beanstalk and a much weaker one in Bongo, this film has two strong stories both of which are equally entertaining.  Both could easily have been made into full-length features (and have been by other filmmakers - there are various versions, stage and screen of The Wind in the Willows; and there is the Johnny Depp film, Sleepy Hollow) and it's a bit of a shame that they've been done as half hour shorts.  In particular, I'd love to have seen a proper Disney adaptation of The Wind in the Willows.  It's also the first Disney feature to be clearly set in the UK which appeals to me a little.  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is less easy to like for the reason that the supposed hero of the piece, Ichabod Crane, is rather unlikeable.  However, it does provide the canon with one of it's most evil, and sadly overlooked, villains.  As part of our family's slow marathon through the Disney canon, we have watched The Wind in the Willows, but I've stopped short of watching The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as my son, in particular can get a little nervous with scary things.  One for the future maybe.