The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is an animated feature produced by Walt Disney Studios and released to theaters on October 5, 1949 by RKO Radio Pictures. It is the eleventh animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. This film was the final of Disney's 1940s "package films" (feature films comprised of two or more short subjects instead of a single feature-length story). Beginning with the next animated feature release, Cinderella, his studio would return to the feature-length stories that low income and World War II had caused a drought of during the 1940s.

Segments
There are two segments in the film both based upon popular works of literature:


 * The adventures of Mr. Toad from Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (narrated by Basil Rathbone). In this story, J. Thaddeus Toad, the proprietor of Toad Hall, is prone to fads, such as the newfangled motor car. As a result, this desire for the very latest lands him in much trouble with the wrong crowd, and it is up to his friends, Mole, Water Rat, and Angus MacBadger to save him from himself.
 * The story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman from Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (narrated by Bing Crosby). Ichabod Crane, a new schoolmaster, falls for the town beauty, Katrina Van Tassel, and the town bully Brom Bones decides that he is a little too successful and needs "convincing" that Katrina is not for him. (The character and visual design of Gaston in Disney's Beauty and the Beast is very close to that of Brom Bones.)

Titles in different languages

 * Cantonese Chinese: 伊老師與小蟾蜍大歷險 ("Mr. I and Little Toad's Big Adventure")
 * Danish: Søvnigdalens legende
 * Dutch: De Avonturen van Ichabod en Mr. Pad
 * Finnish: Herra rupikonna ja Iisoppi kurkinen
 * French: Le crapaud et le maître d'école (known as Contes d'automne et de printemps in French Canada; Respective translations are: "The toad and the schoolmaster" and "Stories of autumn and spring")
 * German: Die Abenteuer von Ichabod und Taddäus Kröte
 * Italian: Le avventure di Ichabod e Mr. Toad
 * Japanese: イカボードとトード氏 (Ikaboodo to Toodo-shi)
 * Korean (South Korea): 이카보드와 토드의 모험
 * Maltese: L-Avventura ta' Ichabod u s-Sur Toad
 * Mandarin Chinese: 伊老师与小蟾蜍大历险
 * Polish: Legenda o sennej dolinie
 * Portuguese: As aventuras de Ichabod e o Sr. Toad (Portugal); Dois sujeitos fabulosos (Brazil)
 * Spanish: La leyenda de Sleepy Hollow y el Sr. Sapo (Spain); Dos personajes fabulosos (Latin America)
 * Swedish: Det Susar i Säven och Ichabods äventyr

Trivia

 * The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was not seen in its entirety for many years after its initial theatrical release, the film's two component stories instead being separated for television and home video. The full feature was, however, eventually released on DVD.


 * Evidently, the only reason these two stories are linked together is the fact that their main characters are "prone to disaster".


 * The Chase sequence in the "Ichabod" segment is considered by many film critics to be some of the most vivid and frightening animation ever done by the studio.  With its frenetic pacing and demonic imagery the sequence has often been held up as an example of the Fear element that was pervasive in many of Disney's animated films.


 * In 2000 the Walt Disney Classics Collection, which is a collection of officially released Disney statue and pin merchandise (not to be confused with the other Walt Disney Classics Collection, which was a video series of Disney animated features in the 80s and early 90s), released 3,500 limited edition statue sets of the two main Sleepy Hollow characters Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. The figures were originally sold for $695 together as a set. The pair have since been retired from the collection and its value has risen dramatically each year.



Voice cast

 * Bing Crosby - Narrator ("The Legend of Sleepy Hollow") and Brom Bones
 * Eric Blore - J. Thaddeus Toad
 * Basil Rathbone - Narrator ("The Wind In the Willows")
 * J. Pat O'Malley - Cyril Proudbottom
 * Colin Campbell - Mole
 * John McLeish - Prosecutor
 * Campbell Grant - Angus MacBadger
 * Claud Allister - Water Rat
 * Leslie Denison - Judge; Weasel #1
 * Edmond Stevens - Weasel #2
 * Oliver Wallace - Winkie
 * The Rhythmaires

Directing Animators

 * Frank Thomas(Ichabod Crane)
 * Ollie Johnston (The District Attorney, Ichabod Crane)
 * John Lounsbery
 * Wolfgang Reitherman
 * Milt Kahl
 * Ward Kimball