For a while, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was a holy grail of mine to track down. They did re-release it in the late 90s and early 00s. However, before that, the VHS of this double feature was quite hard to come by and could be expensive! Thankfully, Disney has re-released this a few times now so it is much easier to come by, plus it is also on Disney Plus!
How to Download The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. If you like the Sleepy Hollow part of the movie, check out also the famous film from 1999.
The Movie Review
As I said, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a double feature and this was actually something Disney did a lot back in the day. It would see many re-releases, sometimes as a double feature and other times split up. Mr. Toad is still well known to this day thanks to Toad Hall Restaurant which is at a few of the parks.
The start of the feature is really cool as it starts with a live-action scene in a library. British thespian, Basil Rathbone handles The Wind in the Willows and music legend Bing Crosby takes on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Two iconic stories that have been around for generations get the Disney treatment here.
The Wind in the Willows is a pretty insane story. I had heard of the book as a kid, but never paid much attention to it! Had I known it was about a crazy guy called Mr. Toad that had a thirst for adventure, getting into trouble, and car racing, I probably would have paid more attention.
This classic story sees Mr. Toad go on one wild adventure too many. Mr. Toad’s friends try to help him out, but he does not listen and ends up in jail for stealing a car after being tricked by a gang of weasels! It is a fun and charming story that had I seen when I was a kid I am sure would be a firm favorite of mine.
The second part of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a Disney retelling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Even though this is a kids/Disney version of this classic tale, it still has one of my favorite incarnations of The Headless Horsman. It is a pretty dark tale for a Disney film, especially with the way that it ends. It is actually one of my favorite versions of this story.
If anything, I feel like they could have gotten away with making The Legend of Sleepy Hollow a full 60, maybe 80-minute movie on its own as it goes by really fast. I would actually love to see Disney take another stab at this (no pun intended) to see what they could do with this classic tale!
While I had a hard time tracking down a VHS copy of this back in the day, thankfully it is very easy now. You can get this on DVD or Blu-Ray, but I would recommend the double pack that comes with Disney Fun and Fancy Free. Fun and Fancy Free features another double feature of Bongo and the awesome Mickey and the Beanstalk which was one of my favorite Mickey stories as a kid!
