October 9, 2014
D23 Screening: The Adventures of Ichabod and
Mr. Toad Review
By Justin J. Thaddeus Toa...er Smith
2014 has brought a lot of notable anniversaries for
the Walt Disney Company. From the 55th anniversary of Sleeping
Beauty, to the 50th Anniversary of Mary Poppins to even
the 25th Anniversary of both The Little Mermaid and Disney Hollywood
Studios, but one anniversary you may have overlooked, which occurred
on October 5th, is the 65th Anniversary of The Adventures of
Ichabod and Mr. Toad, the delightful animated classic that was
Disney's 11th full length animated film that combined the stories of
Kenneth Graham's The Wind in the Willows and Washington
Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

On September 13th, D23 decided to have a celebration
of the film by screening it at the Walt Disney Studios lot. As
someone who considers Mr. Toad my favorite Disney character, and
considers Mr. Toad's Wild Ride to be in my top 3 favorite
Disney attractions, I jumped at the chance to attend this screening,
even going so far to update my D23 membership from the Free to
Silver just to attend the event. It may not have been wisest
decision financially, but I know its what Mr. Toad would've done. So
in the spirit of him, I giddily purchased a ticket and began my ride
that was merrily on its way to nowhere it particular.
Honestly, the real draw for me was seeing this
underrated gem of a film on the big screen. The fact I was going to
walk on the Disney Studios lot (which I had never done before) was
icing on the cake. Even more exciting still was the fact that they
were to discuss some of the behind-the-scenes of the making of the
movie. Because there strangely isn't a lot known about the making of
this movie. If one ever wanted to know how Walt Disney and his crew
of artists brought Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs,
Pinocchio or Mary Poppins to life, there's endless
amounts of stories, photos, audio-recordings, books, documentaries
and even an entire bio-pic that explain the precise details of how
those movies were made. For Ichabod and Mr. Toad though? If one just
takes a look at their laserdisc, DVD, or even the newly released Blu-Ray
they'll find no bonus features of any sort (besides a silly game).
No commentary, no deleted scenes, no making-of documentary, not even
a trailer. Absolutely nothing. Unusual even for Disney's "package
features" of the 1940s, as Fun and Fancy Free, for instance,
has a behind-the-scenes documentary that managed to appear when the
movie came on VHS! The 2009 documentary Walt & El Group,
informs one more about the making of Saludos Amgios and
The Three Caballeros than one ever really needed to know. But
Ichabod and Mr. Toad, despite its popularity with fans (most
everyone agrees its the best of the "package features"), has very
little that's known about its making, or perhaps more accurately:
little that Disney actually releases about it making. So the fact
Disney had this screening where they were going to share
behind-the-scenes stories about the movie which included a choir
performance from a song deleted from the film (a song was deleted
from the film? Again, who could've known) made me particularly
ecstatic.
The day was a nice sunny day for Burbank, CA. In
fact, it was 104 degrees. I had no problem with the weather, in fact
I loved the weather (10 years of Colorado will do that to you) but
my fellow Californians weren't quite as overjoyed. Arriving at about
12:00 I was just amazed I was being allowed to park in the parking
lot of the Disney studio (the parking garage was the Zorro parking
garage as it was built on the part of the backlot where they shot
Zorro many years ago). I got to see many of the iconic locations of
the studio up close such as the Mickey Mouse water tower and
"Pluto's Corner" where "Mickey Ave" and "Dopey Drive" intersect (the
sign was built for the 1941 movie The Reluctant Dragon and
has remained ever since).




Once you signed it, they gave you four complimentary
postcards!




I grabbed a seat and waited an hour. To pass the
time they played Disney songs ranging from
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," "Be Our Guest," and "Friend
Like Me," to "The Time of Your Life" and "If I Didn't Have You."
They also showed stills from the movie and Disney-themed trivia
(which I knew all the answers to).



After all the waiting, Becky Cline (president of the
Walt Disney Archives) welcomed us to the event. She made fun of the
heat by saying "Close your eyes, we can see if your peaking, and
just imagine that instead of a hot summer day, its a cool fall day
with Halloween and Christmas right around the corner." She then went
on to explain how both The Wind in The Willows and The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow were both intended for feature-length
films, but because of WWII, money was cut short and it was
ultimately decided that both stories would work better as short
films than feature-length movies. She explained that as The Wind
in the Willows was being prepared for a feature-length movie,
four songs were written for the film by Frank Churchill and Oliver
Wallace (who worked on the music for Snow White, Pinocchio,
Dumbo, Bambi). They were "Merrily On Our Way To
Nowhere it Particular" (which actually made it in the film), "The
Wind In The Willows," "Four O'Clock Tea Time," and "The Bells of St.
Mary." Finding the lyrics and melody for "The Bells Of St. Mary,"
they had the MeloD23 Singers (a volunteer choir consisting of studio
employees) sing acapella complete with bells.

The song was fine. It sounded like a generic
Christmas carol, but otherwise a fine song. I couldn't for the life
me figure out why they couldn't record this for the Blu-Ray (not to
mention be endlessly curious about the other two songs deleted) but
it was still pleasant and fascinating experience none the less. The
most interesting tidbet about the song is that the melody of the
song actually can be heard in the movie during the scene Mr. Toad is
in prison.
She then introduced Disney historian and author
Mindy Johnson, who also is a film teacher in Valencia and an expert
on Bing Crosy (she even contributed to the Bing Crosby edition of
"American Masters" which will air on PBS in Dec. which will coincide
with "White Christmas"'s 60th anniversary) who delivered a power
point presentation called "Walt and Bing." While I snickered at
first, thinking like it returning to college, it was pretty
interesting even if the parallels between Walt and Bing weren't the
strongest; the most interested comparison was how Bing was a driving
force to build a sports complex in L.A. intended to rival Madison
Square Gardens. While the project never actually came into fruition,
it did show Bing was a big thinker, and was comparable to how Walt
envisioned Disneyland. In addition to showing a clip of the Silly
Symphony short Who Killed Cock Robin?, they did point out
that Walt and Bing did eventually meet, even playing a clip of their
first encounter with each other at a media event promoting Pinocchio
on radio (and featured among the very few times you'll hear Walt
actually singing!). Walt and Bing instantly bonded and became good
friends (always fascinating when two larger than life figures from
two different fields interact with one another). When The
Adventures of Ichabod And Mr. Toad came out, the big selling
point was in fact that Bing Crosby narrated the Ichabod segment.
Even the tagline on the poster featured the tagline "Hear Bing
Sing!" Only speaks to the power of Bing's star power as there was no
bigger star at the time(heck "White Christmas" still holds the
record for best-selling single worldwide). Ultimately, it would be
the first and last collaboration between Walt and Bing. (Bing Crosby
was originally supposed to star in The One and Only, Genuine,
Original Family Band, but Walt passed away and the film got
delayed to the point Crosby's schedule didn't work so Walter Brennan
got cast instead).


The presentation also included moments such as
featuring a clip of the actor who was the model for Ichabod Crane
and gave a shout out to Don Lusk, the Disney animator who helped
animate Ichabod and who is alive and approaching his 101st birthday.
It was very neat to learn at least somebody who worked on the movie
was still alive as we were about to enjoy the movie.
Finally, the movie started. It was, in fact, just
the new Blu-Ray projected, as opposed to a 35mm print, which was
fine by me only as I had yet to purchase and enjoy the Blu-Ray. I
will say, as someone who has watched this movie countless times on
VHS and DVD, I can certainly say the movie had never looked better.
They clearly did a great restoration as all of the grain was gone,
even the obnoxious purple holes in the film print that managed to
remain on both the VHS and DVD was finally fixed. I even noticed a
couple small details I never noticed before. The sound, on the other
hand, was a tad awkward as the sound-effects/score actually
overpowered the dialogue. As someone who's seen the movie a lot I
didn't mind, but I did worry of anybody there who was seeing it for
the first time. I couldn't but wonder what sound-system they were
using as the average AMC theater has better sound(seems weird for a
theater where directors and crews screen their own movies wouldn't
have superior sound). It wouldn't surprised me if they added new
sounds to this film to try to make the film adequate for 7.1.
surround sound systems (there were several sounds throughout I don't
recall ever being in the film). Despite this technical glitches, the
audience seemed to enjoy it, laughing at the right moments and even
applauded at the end (of both The Wind of the Willows segment and of
the entire movie).


After leaving, they allowed us to shop at the Studio
Store for an hour, which sounded more fun than it was. For one,
aside from the Blu-Ray, there were no items related to Ichabod and
Mr. Toad (what I would do for a Mr. Toad shirt), and honestly, most
of the stuff was things you would find at your local Disney store, a
fairly big chuck of it exclusively for little kids. Not that I was
expecting a 3-disc limited edition of Song of the South, but
seeing how the screening was unanimously made of adults (there
weren't more than two children there) it seemed weird they couldn't
supply more adult related items. But most of the customers happily
obliged and bought stuff clearly intended for younger relatives of
theirs. I got a neat pin exclusive to the Disney Studios (I also
couldn't help but notice the "Remembering Roy E. Disney" books they
sold actually came autographed by the authors, which was neat).
Overall I'd be lying if I said there was no
disappointments throughout in the event, but all in all my ride
merrily on my way to nowhere in particular was still a fun adventure
I'll cherish forever. What can I say? It showed me the world!
Travel! Change! Excitement! Ha! Ha! Ha!