The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
A toad and a group of weasels, a gangly schoolteacher and a headless
horseman. It seemed an odd fit, but somehow Walt Disney made it work. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad combined two classic tales, Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows and Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, into one feature.
The first segment, from Grahame’s novel, stars the impulsive Mr.
Toad, owner of Toad Hall and a sucker for new fads. Toad’s friends
Mole, Rat and Badger try to talk some sense into him, but it doesn’t
work. Toad sells Toad Hall to a pack of shady weasels in order to buy a
new motorcar. When the reckless amphibian finds himself arrested, he is
obliged to make a lively escape in order to reclaim his home.
The second featurette is a spooky story set in the colonial New
England hamlet of Sleepy Hollow. Newly-arrived Ichabod Crane falls
instantly in love with the comely Katrina Van Tassel. Unfortunately,
local bully Brom Bones also has his eyes on Katrina. At a party at the
Van Tassel’s, Brom tries to scare Ichabod off with a frightening tale
of the Headless Horseman, a night rider with a flaming Jack-o-lantern
head. Successfully terrified, Ichabod leaves the party and rides home
through the menacing woods, only to find the Horseman himself.
Both segments featured famous narrators—Basil Rathbone on The Wind in the Willows and Bing Crosby on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow—and both men helped turn The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
into a Disney favorite. The two featurettes were repeated countless
times, both together and separately, on Disney's various TV programs,
and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has become a Halloween perennial. The Wind in the Willows was even converted into a popular Disneyland attraction, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, still drawing crowds today.
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