 |
| Mr. Toad--in disguise--and friends. |
Mr. Toad is a loose adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's classic The Wind in the Willows. The main character is the wildly unpredictable J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq., who lives in Toad Hall, the grandest manor along the river bank. Toad's latest obsession is a horse-drawn cart, which he drives recklessly throughout the countryside, causing so much damage that he's on the verge of bankruptcy.
His friends Rat, Mole, and McBadger try to curb Toad's "adventures," but fail badly. Shortly after seeing his first motorcar, Toad is arrested for stealing it and sentenced to 20 years in the Tower of London. Can Toad's misfortunate change his frivolous ways? And though he may be guilty of "motor mania," did Toad really steal the car?
Viewers who have never read The Wind in the Willows may find Mr. Toad amusing. It's colorful, lively, and warmly narrated by Basil Rathbone. It's just a shame that Disney veered so far from Grahame's novel. Toad has been given an accomplice, a horse named Cyril, who is just as silly as his amphibian owner. Badger has been transformed in the Scottish Angus McBadger. The focus on Toad relegates Rat and Mole--the book's most charming characters--into supporting characters. It's all a shame because the source material was there for a true Disney animated classic!
 |
| The creepy Headless Horseman. |
At a harvest party hosted by Katrina's father, Brom notices that Ichabod is extremely superstitious, so he recounts the legend of the headless horseman who roams the country roads at night. On Ichabod's way home that evening, he becomes terrified as he is pursued by a...headless rider in a black cape on a black steed!
Most of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has a light air about it with Bing Crosby narrating the story and crooning catchy songs with Jud Conlon's Rhythmaires. However, it takes a delightfully creepy turn with the climax, which is probably the scariest animated sequence in Disney history. The vivid black, red, and orange palette serves as a stark contrast to the soft, rich autumn colors employed earlier in the story.
It's also interesting to note the similarity between the village scenes in Sleepy Hollow and Disney's much later Beauty and the Beast (1991). Additionally, Brom reminded me very much of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.
 |
| Brom from Sleepy Hollow and Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. |
Mr. Toad and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow were subsequently shown separately on television and in theaters. For its 1978 re-release, Mr. Toad was retitled The Madcap Adventures of Mr. Toad and shown with Disney's feature film Hot Lead and Cold Feet.
I read The Wind in the Willows in grade school. It was almost certainly the longest thing I'd read up to that point, and since the copy I was given (which I still have somewhere) wasn't illustrated, it also happened to be the first book I ever read that didn't have pictures. Though I don't remember this, according to my dad, as soon as I finished the book, I went back to the beginning and read it a second time, which should give a pretty solid indication as to how much I liked it. The stop motion Cosgrove Hall adaptation is much more in line with the spirit of the novel than what Disney did. However, as a cartoon afficionado, I also had a fairly serious fondness for the Disney version, even though it's likely I would have enjoyed it even more if they'd managed to retain more elements from Kenneth Grahame's story.
ReplyDelete