The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Two very different stories that have two very different endings, all coming from one beautiful VHS from the 80s. Well, this didn’t come from a VHS tape, rather the original material, but my memories of both come from a VHS that my parents must have hid at Blockbusters at some point. I rented the heck out of that thing.
Anyway, starting with Mr. Toad, which is where the ride comes from at the Disney parks — and a fan favorite of Europeans (went to Disney for my honeymoon during the off-season and this was the only ride packed), this is a wondrous story of obsession and greed wrapped into a single feature. Mr. Toad, a fanatic of everything new, comes in contact with the automobile for the first time and goes nuts! He ends up getting in a wreck, which could land Toad in some serious trouble. Dazed and confused, Mr. Toad swears up and down he is innocent, though his track record for telling the truth and getting into trouble isn’t that great. This time, though, he might be in the right, but he has to prove his innocence. His friends, a rat and mole, help him solve the mystery of a possible framing by the hands of some real weasels…no, seriously, they’re weasels.
While not a long story, the story of Mr. Toad is a fantastic one for children. Not only is absolutely silly, but it has strong morals embedded about the need to take one’s favorite thing in moderation rather than all at once. It also has a side moral about listening to your friends, more specifically advice, when it comes to them keeping out of trouble.
I really enjoyed this after 20+ years away from it and my son, who is turning six tomorrow, actually hooked onto it immediately. Trying to get the rest of this Blu-ray wrapped up has been a chore because of his need to watch the silly toad crash his car again. It’s amazing that this story is effective after all these years with a new generation, but it is. That speaks volumes about its longevity and how good the simple, short story of Mr. Toad can be.
On the Blu-ray side of things, I’m impressed with the clean-up job, but much like the Aristocats release, there are some artifacts due to the animation style. Still, it’s a lot cleaner and vibrant than its DVD counterpart and it shines in certain areas, especially when Toad is out and about in the country. There is no compression issues or color banding, which is great, but the artifacts do get in the way of general Disney animated perfection.
Does that mean you shouldn’t get this? Heck no, its’ worth the watch and, again, it’s better than DVD quality.
Humor aside, The Adventures of Ichabod is a horse of a different color.
Far off from the animation of Mr. Toad, The Adventures of Ichabod, which is really just one adventure that ends tragically, has a different animation style and tone to it when compared to Mr. Toad.
What seems to start off as a fun loving, innocent story of a goofy school teacher trying to start a new life in the town of Sleepy Hollow, and there is singing involved to set up said innocence, soon turns dark and scary when the story of the Headless Horseman is presented to Ichabod. Disney used to show this on Halloween night every year when I was younger and the Headless Horseman was the best part of it. Watching the Horseman chase poor Ichabod through Sleepy Hollow’s creepy forest is something to behold, especially when it ends the way it ends. There’s a lot of beautiful darkness attached to this that only rears its head at the end, and the ending is certainly worth the wait. I have to admit that the first two acts of this story really are a bit boring, but again that ending is worth all of that boredom.
Anyway, if you want to scare your kids a bit without blood/guts involved, check this out and show it on Halloween.
As for the Blu-ray side of this story, it has been updated a bit better than Mr. Toad. For those of you who grew up on late 80s/90s Disney animation, you will find a lot of colors and style that is reminiscent of that time period. With little to no artifacts or graininess, especially in the end chase scene, you’ll find a lot of visual HD love transferred with this story.
Fun and Fancy Free
The second half of this Blu-ray is a mixed bag of nuts. You get two very wonderful cartoon features, Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk.
Bongo is about an adventurous circus bear trying to find and impress a lady bear. He gets out of his circus confinements and finds himself in the wild. For a bear that has never seen anything other than a three-ring circus, it’s a bit much. I enjoyed the first act and third act of this story, but thought the second act ran a bit long. It’s funny in some places and a little tragic if you think about Bongo’s situation too much. The humor comes in spurts as Bongo is discovering the difference between the circus and real life. It’s a good cartoon to include in the Fun and Fancy Free story set, though.
The quality of this cartoon did much better than Mr. Toad, but again, much like Ichabod, it had to do with animation style and colors. The Blu-ray version of Bongo sports a nice 50s/60s style to it with a large amount of red being the focal point of the color scheme. It comes to you nearly artifact and graininess free, but isn’t perfect. Again, it’s much better than Mr. Toad, but not quite the near perfection of Ichabod.
It’s a good fit with everything, though.
The last cartoon, and the most impressive of the bunch, is Mickey and the Beanstalk. Taking the old tale of Jack and the Beanstalk and replacing it with Mickey, Donald and Goofy, the tale does a great job of taking a frightening children’s classic and making it a bit less of a scary story with the Disney humor firmly intact. It seems to be the most even storytelling of the bunch, though the human interaction and narration makes it stumble just a bit with the flow. Regardless, a competent, humorous version of the beanstalk tale is told properly and it ends well for everyone (even the giant). Definitely is a timeless classic.
Mickey and the Beanstalk is the oldest animation of the bunch and Disney did a fantastic job of getting it as clean and crisp as possible for this Blu-ray set. It looks spectacular for its age and makes this set worth owning.
As for the features of this release, you get two wonderful things:
– The Sleepy Hollow Storybook
– The Reluctant Dragon
While not a lot in terms of quantity, the storybook is amazingly cool and if you’ve ever had the chance to see The Reluctant Dragon, well, you know how great that story is and how amazingly humorous it can be. Again, not a lot here, but enough to say there were good bonus features. ‘Value added’ folks.