The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

The story is set in and around London, England, United Kingdom between June 10, 1908 and January 1, 1909. The protagonist J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq. is introduced as an "incurable adventurer" who "never counted the cost". As the story's "one disturbing element", although he is the wealthy proprietor of the Toad Hall estate, Toad's adventures and "positive mania for fads" have brought him to the brink of bankruptcy. As a last resort, Toad's friend Angus MacBadger volunteers as Toad's bookkeeper to help Toad keep his estate which is a source of pride in the community.

One summer day, MacBadger asks Toad's friends Ratty (a water rat) and Moley (a mole) to persuade Toad to give up his latest mania of recklessly driving about the countryside in a horse and canary-yellow gypsy cart, which could accumulate a great deal of financial liability in damaged property. Ratty and Moley confront Toad, but are unable to change his mind. Toad tries to escape from them, but then sees a motor car for the first time and becomes entranced by the new machine, having been taken over by "motor-mania".

In an attempt to cure Toad's new mania, Ratty and Moley put Toad under house arrest. However, Toad escapes and is later arrested and charged with car theft. At his trial, Toad represents himself and calls his horse Cyril Proudbottom as his first witness. Cyril testifies that the car which Toad was accused of stealing had already been stolen by a gang of weasels. Toad had entered a tavern where the car was parked and offered to buy the car from the weasels. However, since Toad had no money, he instead offered to trade Toad Hall for the car. The prosecutor and judge show disbelief toward the statement, so Toad then calls the bartender Mr. Winkie as a witness to the agreement; however, when told by Toad to explain what actually happened (during which he believes he will be pronounced innocent, proceeding to dress fashionably and attempting to walk out the door of the court house) Winkie falsely testifies that Toad had tried to sell him the stolen car. Toad is found guilty on the spot and sentenced to 20 years in the Tower of London. As the months passed by, Toad's friends make every effort to appeal his case, but to no avail.

On Christmas Eve, Toad appears to have an epiphany about his careless ways, but once Cyril visits Toad in disguise as his grandmother and helps him escape by giving him a disguise of his own, all that flies out the window. Toad quickly runs to a railway station and hijacks a 2-4-0 train engine and drives out of the station heading toward the river bank without getting caught by the police on another train engine. Though seeming to drown due to his ball and chain dragging him down to the bottom of the river (having thrown himself into it in an attempt to give the police the slip), he then arrives at Ratty's house. However, while Moley is happy to see him again, Ratty is insistent that Toad return to prison and pay his debt to society (out of the fact Toad ignored their warnings to stop his carelessness), especially when they hear what they think is the police at the door. Instead, it is MacBadger who enters, informing them that Winkie is the leader of the weasel gang, and that Toad indeed traded Toad Hall for their stolen motorcar; Winkie himself is in possession of the deed. Ratty then apologizes to Toad for thinking ill of him.

Knowing that the deed bearing both Toad and Winkie's signatures would prove Toad's innocence, the four friends sneak into Toad Hall using a secret passage near the river by boat. Though Toad nearly louses up the plan by almost shooting the guard outside on the bridge, the four manage to sneak in. Finding the weasels and Winkie (who they see has the deed on his person) drunk and passed out, they attempt to lower Moley on a makeshift rope to swipe it. Unfortunately, Toad's actions from before had caused more damage than originally thought as the guard investigates, finds the passageway and wakes up the Weasels and Winkie. A grueling chase around the estate ensues to take the document, during which a number of antics happen, including Moley folding the deed into a paper airplane and then Toad producing numerous ones to confuse Winkie and the weasels and the quick switch-around with the hidden wall panel. Though the four manage to escape with their lives, they appear to not get the deed. However, Toad proudly produces said deed from his pocket.

The film then ends on New Year's Day with Toad exonerated and regaining his house while it is implied that Winkie and the weasels have been arrested and imprisoned. As MacBadger, Ratty, and Moley celebrate the New Year with a toast to Toad, who they believe has completely reformed, Toad and Cyril recklessly fly past on a 1903 Wright Flyer; Toad has not truly reformed and has developed a mania for airplanes instead.

Although the film introduces the story as Ichabod Crane, later individual releases retained the story's original title. (As a short story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was originally published in The Sketch Book with other stories, not as a single volume as depicted in the film.)

In October 1790 (fourteen years after the American Revolution and founding the United States), Ichabod Crane, a lanky and superstitious, yet charming dandy arrives in Sleepy Hollow, New York, a small village outside Tarrytown that is renowned for its ghostly hauntings, to be the town's new schoolmaster. Despite his odd behavior, appearance, and rather effeminate mannerisms, Ichabod soon wins the hearts of the village's women and forms good friendships with his students, though the latter is mainly in order to get invitations to suppers at said student's homes which he would not be able to afford on his meager salary. Brom Bones, the roguish town hero, does his best to bully and play pranks on Ichabod, such as interrupting his singing lessons with the town ladies choir by having a dog howl in the middle of Ichabod singing a series of notes, making it seem like Ichabod himself produced it. However, the schoolmaster is very good at ignoring these taunts and continues to interact with the townspeople. One day at a town picnic, Ichabod meets and falls in love with Katrina van Tassel, the beautiful daughter of the wealthy farmer Baltus van Tassel, and whom Brom is equally infatuated with. Despite being obsessed with Katrina's beauty, Ichabod mainly desires to take her family's money for himself. Brom, who has never been challenged like this, proceeds to compete with the schoolmaster, but Ichabod wins Katrina over at every opportunity and unintentionally makes a fool of Brom in the process. Unbeknownst to both men, Katrina is only using Ichabod to make Brom jealous and force him to try harder for her affections.

The two love rivals are invited to the van Tassel Halloween party since Ichabod had borrowed a horse from a farmer. Brom attempts to get Ichabod to dance with a plump woman who is a wild and impetuous dancer instead of Katrina, and later attempts to have him fall through a cellar door, but both attempts comically backfire. While both men dine, Brom catches Ichabod accidentally knocking the salt shaker over and nervously tossing salt over his left shoulder. Discovering Ichabod's weakness is superstition, he decides to sing the tale of the legendary Headless Horseman in order to scare him. The horseman supposedly travels the woods on Halloween each year, searching for a living head to replace the one he had lost, and the only way to escape the ghost is to cross a covered bridge. Everyone else, including Katrina, finds the song amusing, while Ichabod starts to fear for his life.

Riding home from the party through the very woods from the song on his old plowhorse, poor heartbroken Ichabod becomes paranoid of every sound he hears in the dark woods. While traveling through the old cemetery, poor Ichabod believes he hears the sound of a horse galloping toward him, and motions his possessed horse to move, but discovers the sound is being made by nearby cattails bumping on a log. He and his horse begin to laugh hysterically in amusement at being scared by something so small... ...when their laughter is cut short by the appearance of the real Headless Horseman, wielding a sword and riding what appears to be Brom's black horse. When being chased through the dark forest, poor terrified Ichabod, remembering Brom's advice, rides on his terrified horse, and races across the covered bridge to stop the ghost's pursuit. The horseman stops in superstitious Ichabod's tracks, and rises in his stirrups, and throws his flaming head, revealed to be a jack-o'-lantern, right at the terrified schoolmaster. Poor superstitious Ichabod just has time to scream, and tries to dodge the terrible missile by ducking, but is too late to hunch down when it hits him on the head in his face with a great crash, presumably knocking him out with a tremendous explosion, and tumbling him headlong from his poor old horse into the dust.

The next morning, Ichabod's hat is found at the bridge next to the shattered jack-o-lantern, but Ichabod himself is nowhere to be found. Sometime later, Brom takes Katrina as his wife, and leads her to the altar, but also marries her by and by. Rumors begin to spread that Ichabod is still alive, and is married to a wealthy widow in a distant county, and is living with her and many children, who all look like him. However, the superstitious people of Sleepy Hollow refuse to believe such nonsense about the schoolmaster and insist that he has been "spirited away" by the Headless Horseman.

• Bing Crosby as the Narrator, Ichabod Crane, and Brom Bones
• Pinto Colvig as Gunpowder, Brom's horse, and Ichabod Crane screaming
• Clarence Nash as Ichabod's horse
• Billy Bletcher as the Headless Horseman[2]

All lyrics are written by Larry Morey & Ray Gilbert; all music is composed by Frank Churchill & Charles Wolcott.

All tracks are written by Don Raye & Gene de Paul.

The New York Times praised the film, saying that "Mr. Disney, abetted by his staff, such perfect narrators as Bing Crosby and Basil Rathbone, and a pair of durable literary works, has fashioned a conclave of cartoon creatures, which, by and large, have the winsome qualities and charm of such noted creations as Mickey Mouse, Dumbo, et al."[15] Herman Schoenfeld of Variety felt the film "ranks among the best full-length cartoons turned out by the Walt Disney studios." On The Wind in the Willows, he commented that it "has a subtle, satirical edge on its comedy which will limit its appreciation to adult audiences. The Irving legend, however, is treated with splashes of color and broad strokes of humor and violence that will appeal in a fundamental way to all age groups. Together they comprise a solid package of varied entertainment."[16]

Life magazine wrote that Disney's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows "leaves out the poetry and most of the subtlety, but it still has enough action for the children and wit enough for everybody. It is deft and pleasant, and throughout, ironic and goodhearted. Although the Ichabod part of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is silly and bumbling, Mr. Toad's half is good enough to convince Disney admirers that the old master can still display the bounce and vitality he had before the war."[17] Time magazine overall felt the film was "an uneven doubleheader by Walt Disney, who has combined into one film two dissimilar literary classics". However, they particularly praised The Wind in the Willows, writing, "This lighthearted, fast-moving romp has inspired some of Disney's most inventive draftsmanship and satire." They were less receptive to Sleepy Hollow, writing it was "Disney at his facile best. The rest of the story, dealing with quaint, legendary people, is flat and prosaic."[18]

Disney film historian and film critic Leonard Maltin, writing in his book The Disney Films, wrote that the film was "one of Disney's most beguiling animated features: The Wind in the Willows in particular has some of the finest work the studio ever did." Altogether, he claimed "these sequences form a most engaging feature, with as the saying goes, something for everyone. The half-hour length seems ideal for each of the stories, with neither a feeling of abruptness, nor a hint of padding to reach that length. And somehow the two tales seem to complement each other quite well, providing an interesting contrast, notable in style and execution, and more obviously in the change of narrator."[19] M. Faust of Common Sense Media gave the film five out of five stars, writing, "Two classic stories told in the best Disney style".[20] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad has an approval rating of 93%, based on 14 reviews, with an average score of 7.25/10. Its consensus states "This Disney two-fer may not be the most reverent literary adaptation, but it's remarkably crafted and emotionally resonant."[21]

The film grossed $1,200,000 in domestic rentals in the United States and Canada. Cumulatively, it earned $1,625,000 in worldwide rentals.[1]

• Golden Globe Awards[22]
  • Best Cinematography Color – Won

The Mr. Toad segment of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was first screened on television, in edited form, as part of the inaugural season of the Disneyland anthology series, on February 2, 1955, under the title The Wind in the Willows.[23] It was paired with an edited version of Disney's The Reluctant Dragon[23] due to the fact that both cartoons are based on stories by author Kenneth Grahame.[24] The Ichabod segment of the film had its television premiere during the following season of TV's Disneyland, on October 26, 1955, under the title The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.[25] Notably, for this airing of Sleepy Hollow and subsequent reruns, a new 14-minute animated prologue was added, recounting the life of Washington Irving, the story's author. This prologue has never been released on home media.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was released on its own to theaters as a 33-minute featurette in September 1963.[26] This was the same edit presented on the Disneyland television series, minus the 14-minute prologue and the Walt Disney live-action host segments. Similarly, in 1978, the Wind in the Willows segment of the original film was re-released to theaters under the new title The Madcap Adventures of Mr. Toad to accompany Disney's feature film Hot Lead and Cold Feet.[27]

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow had a subsequent television airing, in truncated form, as part of the TV specials Halloween Hall o' Fame (1977) and Disney's Halloween Treat (1982).

Once it was split into two segments for airing on the Disneyland television series, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was not available for viewing in its original form for many years thereafter, but was instead screened as two individual items. When first released on home video, the segments retained their names from the Disneyland series (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Wind in the Willows, respectively), having taken their names from the original stories.

Some of the scenes were cut when the segments were split up for home video release. For example:

• The Wind in the Willows
  • Part of the introduction was cut because of the new music added.
  • The scene where Angus MacBadger confronts the angry townspeople who are suing Toad.
  • The newspaper scene regarding Toad's disgrace was shortened by removing the newspaper articles of his friends' attempts to reopen his case.
  • When Toad realizes he is underwater after unknowingly jumping into a river to elude the police pursuing him, there is a brief full-body scene of Toad frantically trying to pull out the ball-and-chain he is shackled to out of the floor of the river.
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
  • The only thing that was cut was the introduction in the bookcases.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad received its first complete home video release in the UK in 1991 and in the US in 1992, when it was released by Walt Disney Home Video on LaserDisc. A subsequent complete release on VHS followed in 1999 as the last title in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection line. In 2000, it appeared on DVD for the first time as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection line.[28]

The 1963 theatrical version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was released on VHS in 1982, 1990, and 1994. The 1978 theatrical version of The Wind in the Willows was released on VHS in 1982, 1988, and 1996. This same version of The Wind in the Willows was issued on DVD for the first time in 2009, as part of the fifth volume of the Walt Disney Animation Collection: Classic Short Films series. Both had been released to video separately in the US in the early 1980s as white clamshell releases even though Fun and Fancy Free had been released in its entirety around the same time.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was released on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD and in a two-film collection with Fun and Fancy Free on August 12, 2014.[29] It was also released as solely on Blu-ray, DVD and digital copy combo[30] and a stand-alone DVD[31] exclusively to Walmart stores.

The film was available to stream on Disney+ when the service launched on November 12, 2019.[32]