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Title:	The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad: Gold Classic Collection (1949)
Studio Line:	Disney In the tradition of grand animated classics, Disney's 11th animated masterpiece, The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr. Toad, presents two unforgettable children's classics. Through award winning Disney animation wizardry, The Wind In The Willows and The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow come together in one fabulous adventure - in its original theatrical format. Hang on for the wild motorcar ride of J. Thaddeus Toad as he drives his friends Mole, Rat and Angus McBadger into a worried frenzy! Then meet the spindly Ichabod Crane, who dreams of sweeping beautiful Katrina Van Tassel off her feet, despite opposition from town bully Brom Bones, who also has his eye on Katrina. The comic rivalry introduces Ichabod to the legend of the Headless Horseman, resulting in a heart-thumping climax! Wonderfully narrated by Basil Rathbone and Bing Crosby, The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr. Toad brims with high-spirited adventure, brilliant animation and captivating music you'll want to share with your family again and again.
Director:	Directed by James Algar and Clyde Geronimi
Cast:	Bing Crosby-Narrator; Basil Rathbone-Narrator; Eric Blore-Mr. Toad; Pat O'Malley-Cyril Proudbottom; John McLeish-Prosecutor; Colin Campbell-Mole; Campbell Grant-Angus MacBadger
DVD:	Standard 1.33:1; audio English Digital Stereo, Spanish & French Digital Stereo; subtitles none; closed-captioned; single sided - dual layered; 24 chapters; rated G; 68 min.; $29.99; street date 10/3/00.
Supplements:	Mr. Toad's Wild Ride Destination Trivia Game; "Lonesome Ghosts" Cartoon; "The Merrily Song" Sing-Along Song; The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow DVD Storybook.
Purchase:	DVD

Picture/Sound/Extras: C/C+/C+ Finally we reach the last release of Disney's 1940s "meat and potatoes" animated films. As I've noted in other reviews, Walt scaled back the ambitions of the animation department after a few glorious films that didn't inspire the requisite box office takes; the studio was running low on money and though these more basic titles didn't offer great movie-making, they did help Disney get back on their financial feet. To be sure, the animation in these films isn't bad, but it's just not up to the levels set in classics like Pinocchio or Bambi. The main difference between the "meat and potatoes" movies and the more elaborate productions that preceded them, however, came from the nature of the storytelling within them. The movies generally regarded as Disney's best work were full narratives, whereas the "M&P" titles are collections of different tales. Most of these pack in a slew of shorts, but a couple are split into two "long shorts". 1947's Fun and Fancy Free did this, as does the title spotlighted in this review. 1949's The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad ended that era; it was Disney's final film not to offer a single narrative until 1977's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. However, the latter was not designed as an anthology; it simply gathered three previously-released shorts into one package. This means that the only true multi-story movie from Disney since Ichabod is Fantasia 2000. These anthology features are best viewed for what they are: modest efforts that can't be expected to match up with the finer offerings from Disney. Some are pretty good (Fun and Fancy Free), some are fairly lame (The Three Caballeros), but most are simply okay; they provide moderate entertainment for an hour or so, and that's that. None of the projects present the depth, complexity and magic of the studio's stronger films, but they all can be seen as intermittently fun programs. Happily, Ichabod stands as one of the better of the compilation films; in fact, it may well be my favorite of the lot. As previously mentioned, the 68-minute movie is split into two separate tales. We start with an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows that focuses on a certain J. Thaddeus Toad. This 34-minute feature condenses the book into one quick story that offers a fairly hectic but entertaining experience. In a way, "Mr. Toad" reminded me a lot of 1951's Alice in Wonderland. Both films share a certain anarchic energy about them, and those are two of the very few older (pre-Nineties) Disney pictures that made me laugh; while I find many of those movies entertaining and charming, they rarely seemed funny. That wasn't a problem with "Mr. Toad", which included quite a few genuinely amusing segments, such as when the "auto-mania" strikes Toad; scenes like that are very well-executed and amusing. At times "Mr. Toad" feels like a rushed story, but I generally found it to be satisfying and entertaining. If anything, the brisk pacing suits the tale's "wild ride" and helps make it that much more energetic and frantic. "Mr. Toad" surprised me in that it offered a very fun and delightful experience. I also liked 31-minute "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", but not nearly as much, partly because of the manner in which the tale is related. As with "Bongo" on Fun and Fancy Free, "Sleepy Hollow" features no voices other than those provided by a narrator; here we hear Bing Crosby as our storyteller. Der Bingle does a good job with the part, but I must admit I'm not especially wild about the format; it worked pretty well with "Bongo" because the characters displayed a lot of visual charm, but "Sleepy Hollow" lacks similar presence. In fact, "Sleepy Hollow" offers some of the least-likable characters to be found in a Disney tale, at least as they're depicted here. Ichabod Crane, our protagonist, is nothing more than a selfish jerk who uses his completely-inexplicable appeal to women to get what he wants, while his erstwhile foe, Brom Bones, is a burly bully who thinks might makes right. In the middle of a love triangle is sexy young Katrina Van Tassel, a buxom hottie who clearly likes to utilize her ample charms to get attention. Surprisingly, though he strongly reminded me of the evil Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Brom came across as the more acceptable of the two male characters. Ichabod really seemed like an objectionable character, and since Brom ends up suffering because of Icky's behavior, I felt a bit more compassion for him. (Not a lot, mind you, but a bit.) Despite this roster of less-than-pleasant participants, "Sleepy Hollow" makes for a generally entertaining experience. It drags at times, and I could have lived without Bing's crooning, though I can't quibble with the latter element too much; after all, what's the point of hiring Bing is he won't sing? In any case, I thought "Sleepy Hollow" seemed less entertaining than the thoroughly terrific "Mr. Toad", but it works pretty well in its own right. Overall, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad serves as a moderately satisfying piece of classic Disney animation. Though the program doesn't match up with the studio's better fare, it offers enough solid entertainment to merit a look. The DVD: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.33:1 on this single-sided, single-layered DVD; due to those dimensions, the image has not been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. While the movie generally looked acceptably strong, it had enough flaws to qualify it as one of the weaker Disney animation presentations. Sharpness usually appeared pretty crisp and detailed, with some differences that existed between the two segments. "Mr. Toad" looked slightly more accurate and well-defined, whereas "Sleepy Hollow" came across as slightly fuzzy at times. However, sharpness generally seemed to be the strongest aspect of the image, and I found relatively few concerns about the area. I noticed no examples of moiré effects or jagged edges. Print flaws, however, presented more significant problems. Light grain could be seen throughout much of the movie, and I also detected moderate white speckles and black grit quite frequently. Other defects were less prevalent, but they appeared nonetheless; the movie featured various blotches and spots, plus a couple of scratches and hairs. At times the picture seemed slightly jittery as well. Colors usually came across as fairly pleasant but they could appear somewhat bland. Again, this issue seemed more prominent during "Ichabod". "Mr. Toad's" hues generally were slightly muted but largely accurate and distinct; they definitely should have looked fresher, but I had no genuine complaints about them. The same cannot be said for "Ichabod", which offered fairly dull colors throughout the short. These were not seriously pale or flat, but they lacked the lush and vibrant tones to which I've become accustomed during other Disney animated features of the era. Black levels could appear quite deep and rich at times; some of the characters of "Mr. Toad" displayed very solid dark tones, such as the appearance of Mr. Winkie's hair and the judge's cloak. However, during that short's second half, we see a lot of nighttime sequences, and these showed somewhat flat black levels, and the shadow detail appeared slightly heavy and murky. The same held true for "Ichabod", which presented a similarly muddy and foggy appearance in the low-light situations. Frankly, most of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad seemed to have a light film over the image. There was a vague sense that something interfered with the overall image, and although it could look quite good at times, the DVD never lived up to the standards set by their other releases from the period. If I compare Adventures to other non-Disney releases of the era, it fares pretty well. However, I acknowledge that I maintain a higher standard for Disney's titles, mainly because they've done such a nice job with them. None of the 1940s films merited less than a "C+" rating from me, and most are higher; 1948's Melody Time was so lovely I actually gave it an "A-". I should note that the other two 1940s Disney films that fell into "C+" territory were not pure animated titles. 1943's Saludos Amigos mixed cartoons with live-actions shots, and lost points due to the relatively-weak quality of the latter; the animated sequences provided more accurate images. 1945's Three Caballeros also featured live-action segments, but it did so in an even more technically-complex manner, as it placed both cartoon characters and human actors in the same frames. Those factors are what downgraded its image, which still remained fairly satisfying. Adventures doesn't feature any of those complicating factors. Actually, each of the two tales is introduced by a few seconds that show a library and ultimately focus on the books in question, but these pieces are very minor. Why does Adventures look so flat in comparison to the other Disney DVDs? I have no idea, but it's a disappointment. Make no mistake: the movie remains very watchable at all times, and it's not a bad image by any stretch of the imagination. However, it simply has more flaws than I would expect, and merits no more than a "C" rating. Somewhat better but not special is the film's Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack. No, that's not a typo; the movie actually features a five-channel mix. Why in the world they altered the original monaural track is a mystery to me, but the results remain fairly modest; the audio doesn't tamper much from the mono blueprint. Strangely, "Sleepy Hollow" presented a more aggressive mix than did "Mr. Toad". Both focus most of the audio in the center channel. All of the dialogue and most of the effects stay in the middle speaker; most of the time, we hear only music from the side channels in a modest stereo mix that added a little breadth to the track. The surrounds contributed light reinforcement of the score during "Mr. Toad" but this became much more prominent during "Sleepy Hollow"; the music seemed significantly louder, and some effects - particularly in Ichabod's late-night traipse through the Hollow - echoed in the rears. Although I'm occasionally a fan of multi-channel remixes from mono sources - I really liked the 5.1 tracks done for Jaws and Chinatown - I generally prefer to hear material presented in its original format. This remix isn't bad since it usually sticks closely to the mono source, but I would have rather heard the mono track. Unlike the other remixed movies I mentioned, the additional use of channels didn't seem to offer any extra depth or fidelity to the track; although I didn't think the 5.0 version really detracted from the material - though the sound for "Ichabod" became somewhat distracting at times - since it didn't add anything, why bother? In any case, Adventures presented fairly average audio quality for the era. Dialogue sounded intelligible and occasionally seemed fairly warm and distinct, but it also displayed some edginess and light distortion at times; the speech featured a moderately brittle and rough quality during some of the film. Effects were slightly thin but they appeared clear and largely accurate without any signs of shrillness. Music fared best of all, as the score showed some richness and depth; it didn't come across as terrifically well-reproduced, but the songs were fairly smooth and clear. The track lacked any sign of background noise or other exterior flaws. All in all, the audio seemed quite listenable and adequate for its era. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad packs in some of the standard Disney Gold Classic Collection supplements and presents a few nice pieces. Although it's not immediately evident from the set-up, Adventures includes two vintage Disney short cartoons. Listed on the menu is 1937's Mickey Mouse effort, "Lonesome Ghosts". This feature co-stars Donald Duck and Goofy and lasts eight minutes and 45 seconds. I have no idea how much this cartoon influenced the makers of Ghostbusters, but the stories are quite similar. In "Lonesome Ghosts", Mickey and the gang play "ghost exterminators" who are actually called by the eponymous spooks in question; they're bored because they have no one to scare, so they figure these jokers will offer them some entertainment. It's a decent short that provides some good gags at times. And anyone who doubts the Ghostbusters connection will be interested to note one line of Goofy's: "I ain't a-scared of no ghosts!" Not as obvious is the second short, 1952's "Susie the Little Blue Coupe". To get to this cartoon, you have to play "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride Destination Trivia Game". If you get at least 15 questions correct, you'll see "Susie". Unlike the game found on The Tigger Movie - which required a perfect score of 16 accurate replies to obtain your "reward" - you're allowed to miss three questions on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride; if you get four "flat tires", the game ends. However, if you've seen the movie, the contest shouldn't be too difficult, and you'll make it through without much trouble. "Susie" lasts eight minutes and 10 seconds and proves to be a fairly charming and entertaining short. Yet again we observe the Disney talent at making inanimate objects - cars, planes, even hats - come to life with grace and vividness. Narrated by Sterling Holloway, "Susie" tells the tale of a little auto's life and sure makes me feel like I'd better give my old clunker a good wash and wax sometime soon. Some more standard Gold Classic Collection features round out this DVD. We get a "Sing-Along" tune for "Mr. Toad's" "The Merrily Song"; this presents the tune and its corresponding segment from the film along with lyrics at the bottom of the screen so you can easily croon along with Mr. Toad and his horse Cyril Proudbottom. Actually, the video portions of this segment extend the original film sequences and make the song longer. Also note that the subtitles with the lyrics don't appear until mid-way through the tune; if you don't see them immediately, this doesn't mean your DVD is flawed. The DVD also includes a "DVD Storybook" for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". As with other efforts in this vein, little ones - or big ones, if they choose - can relive the tale either by reading it on their own or by having it read to them by a narrator. These "Storybook" features do little for me, of course, but I think it's a nice way to encourage kids to read. Yes, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad includes those much-despised "forced trailers" also found on most other Disney DVDs released since early 2000. We find ads for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, Fantasia 2000, Toy Story 2 and Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure that appear prior to your arrival at the DVD's main menu. If one wants to skip these, this is easily done either by pressing the "skip" button on your remote or just through the use of the "menu" button. While The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad won't ever qualify as one of Disney's all-time great animated films, I thought it provided a generally satisfying and entertaining experience. Of the two segments, I definitely preferred the witty and delightful "Mr. Toad", but "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" also was fun and intriguing. Unfortunately, the DVD is one of Disney's weaker animated releases; the picture can look quite good at times but it usually displays a fair number of different problems, and the sound is slightly above average at best. We get a small smattering of supplements that add a little to the overall value of the package. Despite my disappointment in the quality of Adventures, I still recommend the DVD to fans of Disney animation, as it's clear and watchable enough to make it worthwhile. Menu: DVD Movie Guide | Archive | Top