James Algar (1912–1998)

A collection of two literary classics that follow Mr. Toad, a high-flying schemer whose desire for a motorcar lands him in trouble, and Ichabod Crane, a bumbling schoolteacher who falls in love and soon discovers the terrifying truth of the Headless Horseman.

One of Disney's rather strange "package" films, in which multiple shorter segments are strewn together as one of their animated features, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a clear example of why such films don't work. The lack thereof of any connective tissue to make these stories somewhat intertwined makes it a complete conundrum as to why they're paired together. The Wind in the Willows story is actually pretty fun and, if given the full runtime of a feature film, might have been a terrific entry in the old Disney catalog. The animation itself is great and Mr. Toad is just fun to watch as he gets into different shenanigans. The Sleepy Hollow portion, however, is more drawn out and dull than it has any right to be. The last 5 minutes or so are great -- it really captures the eerie feeling of the horror of the original story, but so much of the rest of the story is just... nothing. As a whole, it's not as bad as I remembered from my one and only viewing as a kid, but the disconnect between the stories is just too big to ignore. I'm just left wishing that this was a Disney Wind in the Willows instead.

Story: C+
Acting (Voice): B
Design: B
Music: C
Content: A+… (more)

My family enjoys Fantasia. When my two children were young, maybe 3 and 4, they were completely entranced by it. The 8 year old is now interested in other things than watching Disney movies with us, but my 7 year old is still entranced. She really enjoys movies that seem heavy on the music (Sing, Trolls, etc) and even though this is sort of different, it still held her attention. The first song, with the interpretive art, was a little difficult to keep interested in, and the dinosaur one was not up her alley, but from The Sorcerer's Apprentice through the rest of the movie she was enthralled. I enjoyed the whole thing.
Will update when we watch Fantasia 2000… (more)