Here we have two short films, both narrated by Bing Crosby. The first is the tale of Mr. Toad, a rich toad whose obsession with shiny vehicles leads him and his friends into a great deal of trouble. The second is the tale of Ichabod Crane, which leaves the viewer with two mysteries: 1) what happened to Ichabod, and 2) more importantly, how does he manage to eat so much yet stay so darn thin?!
Eli
Rating: 7/10
Reaction: So these two stories, while not Disney classics, are still pretty fun to watch. The first of the bunch is "The Adventures of Mr. Toad", who's story was the basis of the Disneyland (and old Disney World) ride! At least we can enjoy it in California. Although, in the ride, Mr. Toad is killed by a train and goes to Hell with a bunch of demons and stuff running around. Scary. This however does not happen in the film. All ends well, and he regains Toad Hall (and an airplane) for his pleasure. It reminds me a bit of Real Housewives of Toad Hall, with Mr. Toad being one of the wealthy ladies who just runs around in a dress spending money and doing ridiculous things. I mean, he was able to run really fast in heels. And has a nice butt. (Wait...that was his ball and chain.)
Nextly (a new word) we have The Adventures of Ichabod. This is scary. He's a kinda-fugly school teacher who arrives at a new town, and is immediately wooed by the sexy rich girl of town (who may work at the bakery?) Anyway, Gaston - eh, I mean, Brom - doesn't like this much, so tells the tale of the headless horseman. Scary! And then Ichabod meets him. I felt bad for the fat girl in green, cause nobody wanted to dance with her at the party. I was afraid she may pull a Carrie on everyone. But all in all, these two stories were pretty fun to watch.
Regan
Rating: 6/10
Reaction: Both of these were enjoyable, I guess, but the writing wasn't very good (despite being based on two classic stories). The main problem was that because the tales were entirely narrated, with the narrator also voicing the various characters, the characters themselves were not very distinctive and weren't all that likeable. Mr. Toad's insanity leaves you wondering why anyone would care if he wound up behind bars--that would probably be safer for the world. I did like the evil Mr. Winky, though, whose hair and mustache were identical. The Ichabod segment was very reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast--there was a Gaston figure, a wild flight through a forest at night atop a less than reliable horse, a "bonjour bonjour bonjour!" moment (practically), and the evil asylum owner from Beauty and the Beast actually made an appearance as a ghost figure! They're both strange stories with protagonists who are so farfetched it's impossible to care much what happens to them.
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