DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020.
As we finish up the 40's we end with the last of 6 packaged films. Disney's packaged film started a result of WWII when money and man power were in short supply. Even after the war ended Disney kept releasing these short films. In doing a bit of research for this film I came across something about Bank of America loaning Disney money with restriction that Disney could finish making whatever Features they had started but couldn't make any new features till the loan was repaid. I wasn't able to find much else on this so not sure of the entire story but it would explain why Disney kept making Package Films even after the war ended. Whatever the reason, Ichabod and Mr. Toad would be the last package film Disney released for a while.
The film is similar to "Fun and Fancy Free" in that it contains two shorter stories in one feature film. Both parts of the film are based on popular stories. Mr. Toad is based on the book "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahme, and Ichabod Crane is based on the short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving. While I haven't talked about framing device much in the previous package films this film has one that I feels adds to the overall quality of the film. The framing device in this one kind of pits a British literary character against an American literary character. In keeping with that idea they had legendary British Actor Basil Rathbone narrate the Mr. Toad segments and legendary American singer Bing Crosby narrate the Ichabod Crane segment. Keeping the introduction to each film short and concise works better than the weird transition that "Fun and Fancy Free" had. "The Wind in the Willows" was originally going to be a feature film and production started in the early 40's. But it was eventually pared down and was going to be released with "Mickey and the Beanstalk" but things got switched around and "Mickey and the Beanstalk" got released in "Fun and Fancy Free" with "Bongo the Bear". Somehow I think this works better. Mr. Toad and Ichabod Crane don't have much in common but they work well as companion pieces.
Overall: As far as the package films go they ended on a good one. You can tell Disney is starting to get back to form. The animation is more consistent and the stories are more interesting. Basil Rathbone and Bing Crosby are both really great narrators and bring their unique charm to the stories. "The Legend of Sleepy Hallow" has always been one of my favorite short stories so I tend to like the Ichabod Crane segment better but the Mr. Toad segment is a fun story also. As we head in to the 50's we start to see some more iconic Disney films starting with Cinderella in 1950 this was a good teaser of things to come.
Random Facts:
Mr. Toad might be more well known to Theme Park goers for the ride based on him than the film itself.
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