#11 The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

The final film of the package film era, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad ends things on a high note. Once again returning to two stories (retellings of The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) the writers, artists and animators are given more space to let stories unfold and develop characters, doing once again what Disney does best: telling timeless stories with their signature charm and talent.

"The Wind in the Willows" recounts the troubles of the manic Mr. Toad, and how his friends, Rat, Mole, and Badger, help him reclaim his home from a gang of weasels. The characters designs are all charmingly expressive, perfectly anthropomorphizing the animal cast. Mr. Toad himself is excellently voice-acted by Eric Blore, although Badger and Rat decidedly sound like Americans unsubtly trying to imitate a Scottish and British accent. The plot moves along at a quick pace, and the final scene of the escape from Toad Hall is fun, energetic and filled with slapstick.

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," meanwhile, excels at capturing the atmosphere of autumn in early America. Ichabod Crane himself is an amusing protagonist, though his (and by extension, the film's) attitude toward Katrina van Tassel of winning the girl to win her father's estate is solidly a product of the original story's time (though it doesn't detract too much from the film). Where "Sleepy Hollow" truly shines, though, is at its ending; Ichabod's ill-fated final ride through the forest builds suspense and tension like a horror film, culminating with the arrival of the Headless Horseman, Disney's most evocatively dark character design since Chernabog. The menace of the Headless Horseman lends the film an abruptly dark ending, leaving narrator Bing Crosby to close with, "I'm getting out of here," as the film fades to black.

Along with Fun and Fancy Free, Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a standout of the package film era. Despite being an occasionally rough period in Disney's history, some flashes of Disney's creative genius were still able to shine through. By 1949, though, World War II was over, and Disney once again had the money and prestige it needed to go back to making feature-length films. With the package films in the past, the Silver Age of Disney was about to begin.