1949 cartoonRating: 12/20 (Abbey: 5/20)
Plot: "The Wind in the Willows" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in animated form.
File this in one of the lesser Disney tiers. Not much magic here. I'm betting it has something to do with World War II, but the animation looks much cheaper than the classics that preceded it, and the entire production looks somehow incomplete or half-assed. There are moments in Ichabod's story (the main character's movements, the use of sound effects to create the mood in during the climax) where it's almost great, but there was almost nothing at all that I liked about the Mr. Toad half of this. Bing Crosby's voice (especially when singing) for Ichabod sounds wildly inappropriate, and Basil Rathbone, whose voice I usually like, doesn't do anything for me as the narrator for Mr. Toad's adventures. The animation isn't colorful, the backgrounds are flat, and nothing moves on the screen except for the characters which makes it look like a second rate production. It's actually hard to believe that this came out nine years after Pinocchio. Worst of all, the characters aren't even likable. Mr. Toad is annoying, and Ichabod is greedy and manipulative. I'm actually happy that he (spoiler alert) got his dome busted open by a jack o' lantern at the end. The peripheral characters aren't much either. The headless horseman is menacing enough, but he sort of zips by. Brom Bones, Ichabod's antagonist, is a lot like that bully in Beauty and the Beast. What was that guy's name again? If only there was a song about him or something so that I'd remember his name.
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