31Days of Horror Recommendations: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

Year: 1949

Country: U.S.

Subgenre: Ghost/Halloween/American Literature

Runtime: 68 minutes

Directors: Jim Sharpsteen, Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi & James Algar 

I grew up with this being an annual television event just before Halloween. It still holds a warm place in my heart around this time of year, even after all these years.  In reality, it is two Disney animated shorts woven together to make (barely) a feature length film.  The first is The Wind in the Willows based on a Kenneth Grahame story, narrated by Basil Rathbone. The second (always my favorite, of course) is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, with Bing Crosby, based on the Washington Irving story.  Both of these were released on their own, for use with other Disney productions, around the same time as the feature was sent to theaters. The shorts were kept for use "in house," but the feature was a RKO release. And it was always this version that I saw as a kid; the fact that it that Mr. Toad story came first both annoyed and kinda of thrilled me, it was the appetizer for what I head truly tuned in for: the Headless Horseman and that fiery Jack-o-Lantern! I was not alone, kids older and younger than me did much the same. In fact, so much of that section of this film was a huge influence on Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow of 1999; obvious that though Burton is quite a bit older than me, he had a similar experience as a kid with the Halloween rite of passage as all us other dark little souls out there (though, most of us never went on to work for Disney animation!). It's a trip down memory lane for many of us, a dark Halloween ride and just a lot of fun! Also, among the many animations that Disney released, this has received the most complaints from parents about it scaring the be-jeeezus out of their kids (and to think Disney fired an up and coming Tim Burton for making his Frankenweenie in 1984--a film that endeared kids, not scared them). Cue the headless horseman song!!! 🎃🐴