Number Eleven: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

1949

I have a question. What would possess someone to name their child Ichabod? That has to be the worst name in the history of names, including Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii. I did not just make that up. I’d rather name my child that than something that reminds me of a fish for some strange reason.

Speaking of fish, the first part of this movie is about Mr. Toad, a classic character from The Wind in the Willows. Shut up, toads and fish are totally similar subjects, and it reasonable for my brain to make that jump. Anyway, Mr. Toad is a rich adrenaline junkie, which is pretty much never a good combination. One day he spots one of those “new” automobiles, and immediately he decides he must have it. So he hunts down one, finds the owners and trades his whole estate for the car.

Unfortunately, the owners of the car are weasels and do live up to their name quite well as they stole the car and are more than happy to part ways with it. This leads to the police capturing Mr. Toad for car theft, and sentencing him to jail time for a very, very long time.

One day, Christmas day in fact, Mr. Toad receives a visitor. It is his old horse. He brings Mr. Toad an outfit to wear as a disguise and together they break Mr. Toad out our prison. In order to fully get away, he sees a train and decides to steal it. Off he goes home, where all his friends help him clear his name, by obtaining the deed to Toad Manor. He is exonerated and goes on to bye many a crazy contraption more.

After this tale, we move on to a little town called Sleepy Hollow, where a school teacher with a gigantic nose who goes by the name of Ichabod Crane lives. He sucks. Really, he’s quite boring and ugly, and I don’t know why any female would ever be interested in him. Well, I guess it can be hard to judge the attractiveness of a cartoon sometimes. However, I am fairly sure this dude would still be vomit inducing ugly.

But not to Katrina Van Tassel. She quite fancies Ichabod, and he returns the feelings. There is one problem. Every male in Sleepy Hollow also is enamored with Katrina. It could be because she is pretty. It probably is because her father is the richest man in the town.

One night at a Halloween party, Ichabod and Katrina dance, maddening one of the rival suitors. This rival goes on to tell a story of the Headless Horseman who haunts those parts. It’s a story that could very likely scare you out of your skin. It certainly does that for Ichabod, which was the plan of this rival. The party ends and Ichabod must bravely ride home through a creepy dark forest, alone.

Really, he should have known better. Everyone knows forests are full of things wanting to kill you, like a headless horseman who rides around with a sword trying to cut people’s heads off. This is exactly what Ichabod runs into. After a long chase, Ichabod spies a bridge not too far from him. Remembering that if he passes the bridge the horseman cannot get him, Ichabod makes a run for it. He successfully outruns HH. Then HH throws his head, a pumpkin lit on fire, at Ichabod. The next day no one is able to find Ichabod, only his hat. Rumors say he skipped town and married a wealthy widow, but the citizens of Sleepy Hollow know better, they knew he’s dead. The end.

Yay!  A Disney movie that actually killed off the main character, just like in the book! Not even the Tim Burton version of Sleepy Hollow would do that, and if you’ve seen anything by Tim Burton, you know that is saying something. It just makes me so happy when a movie sticks closish to the book.

This two part film was awesome. It reminded me why I love Disney movies in the first place, and why I wanted to do this crazy blog in the first place. It was hilarious, haunting, happy, and any other adjective you can find that starts with an H. Mr. Toad has always been one of my favorite characters, mainly because he’s a lunatic. Lunatics can be pretty awesome. Unless they do something crazy like try to eat your socks. That’s just weird.

Movie Watching Budd(y)(ies): Katie, who I still love, despite all the havoc she wrecks on my life.

Best Song: The Headless Horseman song. Talk about heebee-jeebees.

Best Part: The stout woman with the bad haircut. Every scene she was in was simply amazing. Someone does need to tell her she needs some hair gel though.