Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Forget about Charlie Brown and his “Great Pumpkin” this year, as it’s time to make a new annual Halloween tradition, of a tale older than the Peanuts, more pleasing to the eye, and a lot more chilling to the bones. Seems that many of us have forgotten about Disney’s 34-minute animated adaptation of Washington Irving’s 1820 gothic tale “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and how it has long been the definitive Halloween classic that deserves your autumnal attention.
The project was near and dear to Walt Disney’s heart, as he even personally visited the surrounding areas of Tarrytown, New York in search of authentic looks and feels to bring to his animated feature. The Irving yarn, about an odd-looking pedagogue named Ichabod Crane and his unforgettable Halloween encounter with the Headless Horseman, was a perfect match for the House of Mouse, and has been entertaining and scaring both young and old since its release in 1949.
The Adventures Of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, directed by Clyde Geronimi and Jack Kinney, even took hold of a future Disney employee named Tim Burton, as it was his first “introduction” to the material. He “always liked how spooky it was,” and “in fact, that cartoon has probably inspired me for lots of things” including his own take on the material with the 1999 Paramount Picture Sleepy Hollow.
Let’s revive our love and appreciation for this classic and take a look at Ten Things about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow that make it the perfect Halloween treat…
Bing Crosby
“Sleepy Hollow” marks the one and only time Harry Lillis Crosby (aka the Old Groaner, aka Bing) lent his talents to Walt Disney and company, and they both really made it count. This pairing of these mammoth talents even got Bing top billing on some print advertisements – “Bing (Crosby, that is) and Walt (Disney of course) team up on The Headless Horseman!” His velvety voice acted as both the story’s narrator, and naturally as the singer of a trio of silly and sumptuous songs. Bing wasn’t alone in the music department, as he had backing help from The Rhythmaires, writers Don Raye and Gene de Paul, composer Oliver Wallace, and even his sons, who joined him in the recording studio. These tunes tell the story, and will have you singing them in your head well beyond watching the movie, and beyond October.
"The Wind in The Willows"
While “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was initially eyed to be a full length animated feature, it was actually packaged and released together with another classic, yet unrelated tale that was ALSO supposed to get its own longform picture – Kenneth Graham’s “The Wind in the Willows.” The grand, yet truncated adventure about Mr. J. Thaddeus Toad (voiced by Eric Blore) and how his motorcar obsession almost brings him and his friends to ruin. It was narrated by Basil “Sherlock Holmes” Rathbone and opened the 1949 film, released under the title The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, which went on a year later to win a Golden Globe for Best Cinematography Color. The “Toad” short is an utter delight on its own, and even gave birth to a popular Disneyland attraction, “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.” Mr. J Thaddeus later made a cameo appearance in Who Framed Roger Rabbit‘s Toontown.
Fall In Love With Its Visual Depiction of Autumn
While the “Legend” of Sleepy Hollow is born on Halloween night, the lead up to that fateful evening encompasses weeks within autumn season, in the rural farmlands just off the Hudson River. From the moment we enter “Sleepy Hollow” we are spellbound by the luminous red, orange, and yellow hues of the changing leaves, and again and again, scene after scene. If only every fall season in our actual reality looked as beautiful as it does in this cartoon. These incredibly detailed background settings and lush surroundings came to life thanks to Disney legend Mary Blair, who along with John Hench, Don DaGradi, and Claude Coats, created concept art with the color and style that gave “Sleepy Hollow” its legendary look.
Ichabod Crane's Insatiable Appetite
Halloween kicks off the eating season with endless candy, takes us through Thanksgiving, Christmas and culminates with Super Bowl Sunday. In “Sleepy Hollow,” Ichabod Crane kicks off the eating season in his first scene when he steals a pie, hides it in the book he’s nose deep in, and eats it as he walks out of the frame. From there he shows kindness to his students so he can be invited to dinners cooked up by his pupil’s mothers. He eats leftover drumsticks in bed. He downs a giant bowl of salad after singing practice. He has so many eating appointments that his social calendar is overstuffed with one giant meal after the other. In fact, the only thing that ever distracted him from eating was hearing the tale of the Headless Horseman, which caused him to over-red hot pepper his hard boiled egg and turn him red after eating it. Oh, and the time he first laid eyes on Katrina, where he thought his chicken was his hat, and he wore his chicken, and ate his hat.
Brom Bones, Such a Jerk
Ichabod has a rival, who is also his polar opposite — “a burly, roistering blade always ready for a fight, or a frolic” — Brom Bones. Brom serves beers to his buddies by holding the barrel keg in his hand, is an expert horse rider, and devilish spinner of scary ghost tales (hmmmm). He’s also a giant jerk who will do anything to win the heart of Katrina, although a lot of his shenanigans end up biting him in the ass. One comeuppance in particular that was most enjoyable is when he employs the use of a heavyset woman in order to cut into a dance between Ichabod and Katrina, only to end up being whirling dervished right into a cellar, and covered in sausages.
Mr. Bones apparently served as an inspiration to the animators of 1991 Disney’s feature Beauty and the Beast, when they were conjuring up what the arrogant Gaston should look like.
Ye Olde Schnooker and Schnapps Shoppe
Is there a better name for a tavern than the “Ye Olde Schnooker and Schnapps Shoppe”? Is there a better name for ANYTHING on this earth than the “Ye Olde Schnooker and Schnapps Shoppe”???? I don’t think so!!! The only thing wrong about the “Ye Olde Schnooker and Schnapps Shoppe” is that there is not a bar at any Disney theme park with that name. The best you get is a “Sleepy Hollow” waffle and funnel cake pit stop modeled after author Irving’s own home Sunnyside (which is just south of the actual Sleepy Hollow).
Dutch Treat Katrina Van Tassel
In the olden Disney days, they objectified women in their cartoons, but also gave them brains, charm and whimsy. Sleepy Hollow’s “little coquette” Katrina Van Tassel was “a blooming lass, plump as a partridge. Ripe, melting and rosy-cheeked.” When she appeared in town, in her innocent white bonnet and parasol, she made every man stop in their tracks (and in one case, stop eating watermelon), to take notice of her. She quickly became the main prize of our hero Ichabod and his rival Brom, as they two duked it out for her hand.
If you’re a Disney fan, you may feel her alluring looks look familiar. The “Hollow” animators used Grace Martin from “Make Mine Music” as a model for Katrina, and the two both resemble Slue Foot Sue from their “Pecos Bill” short.
Daydream Believer
If you want to know what love is, let Ichabod Crane show you. After he falls for Katrina, he cannot even be bothered to do his day job — shaping the minds of yesteryear’s youth. He needs time to daydream about her, and sets up a trick visual that makes it appear that his hands are holding a book at the podium in his classroom. With that ruse in place, he fantasizes about her comely face, all while plucking feathers from his duster. And he also fantasizes about all the riches that come with being her husband. He sees gold in hay, cash in cabbage, a barn exploding with treasure, and even a gold tooth in his own mouth. How gangster! But wait, was Ichabod Crane really the bad guy here — out digging for gold??? Well, at least he wasn’t daydreaming about his next meal, for once.
Spooky Sound & Vision
Some of the most haunting sights and sounds of any Disney film, or of Halloween-themed film for that matter, can be found in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” When Ichabod heads home after the big dance, with his slow moving horse Gunpowder not really leading the way, the sky is ominous and foreboding, as the wispy clouds form hands that encapsulate the moon. A hollowed out tree becomes an encroaching ghoul, thanks to eyes formed by two hovering fireflies. From there, the sound design by C.O. Slyfield starts to play tricks on both our hero and our own minds.
Crickets chirping and toads a croaking echo the calling of his name, while owls and birds add to the cacophony of the madness. It all comes to a head when cattails hitting a log mimic the sound of a horse fast approaching, and when Ichabod and Gunpowder realize this, have a temporary laugh before the real horror begins. The Headless Horseman, with his flaming pumpkin in hand arrives on the scene, causing Ichabod to scream like Goofy. Yep, Goofy, as the voice actor who provided Ichabod’s scream was delivered by the same one who handles Goofy’s vocal goofing, Pinto Colvig.
Smashing Pumpkins
Ichabod’s story comes to a crashing halt when the Horseman throws a flaming pumpkin at him as he desperately tries to escape out of town, through a covered bridge in the dead of night. That flaming pumpkin illuminates perhaps only a second of screentime, but it creates a lasting image of this cartoon, and the lengths of how scary Halloween can truly be.
The next morning, Ichabod’s whereabouts are unknown. Did the Horseman take his life or are the rumors true, and he left the sleepy Hollow, married a wealthy widower, and is eating giant legs of turkey at a table with children that look exactly like him? All we are left with is the visual of a smashed pumpkin in the morning light. Halloween is over. The lovely leaves of autumn have fallen from the trees, and winter is soon coming. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” has just been told, and we should already be reminding ourselves now to watch it again next Halloween, and the one after that.
Michael Palan is a New York based writer and multimedia producer. He got an A+ in bowling at a midwestern university, and once handed Kurt Vonnegut his coat. In his free time he enjoys Edward Hopper paintings and eating fried chicken.
