The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a 1949 American animated anthology film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The 11th Disney animated feature film, it consists of two segments: the first based on Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's novel The Wind in the Willows and narrated by Basil Rathbone, and the second based on Washington Irving's 1820 short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and narrated by Bing Crosby. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen, and was directed by Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, and James Algar. The film began development in 1940 as a single-narrative, full-length feature based on The Wind in the Willows. After a series of production delays, the project was cut down to a short film and eventually merged with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which also began production as a full-length feature, into a package film in 1947. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is the last of the studio's package film era of the 1940s, following Saludos Amigos (1942), The Three Caballeros (1944), Make Mine Music (1946), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), and Melody Time (1948); they returned to full-length animated films starting with Cinderella in 1950. Disney would not produce another package film until The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977). It was released in theaters on October 5, 1949. Beginning in 1955, the two segments of the film were separated, and televised as part of the Disneyland television series. They were later marketed and sold separately on home video. Plot As the film's animated segments are based on literary works, they are both introduced in live-action scenes set in a library as a framing device. The first segment is introduced and narrated by Basil Rathbone, and the second segment is introduced and narrated by Bing Crosby.