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Thomas the Tank Engine and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is another upcoming Thomas & Friends/Disney Crossover film to be created by 76859Thomas. It will appear on Pandora.TV in the near future.

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. Decca Records issued an album called Ichabod – The Legend of Sleepy Hollow featuring Bing Crosby in 1949 to tie in with the release of the film.

The Wind in the Willows[]

This segment is based on The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame. The story is set in and around London, England, United Kingdom between June 10, 1908 and January 1, 1909. The protagonist J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq. is introduced as an "incurable adventurer" who "never counted the cost". As the story's "one disturbing element", although he is the wealthy proprietor of the Toad Hall estate, Toad's adventures and "positive mania for fads" have brought him to the brink of bankruptcy. As a last resort, Toad's friend Angus MacBadger volunteers as Toad's bookkeeper to help Toad keep his estate which is a source of pride in the community.

One summer day, MacBadger asks Toad's friends Ratty (a water rat) and Moley (a mole) to persuade Toad to give up his latest mania of recklessly driving about the countryside in a horse and canary-yellow gypsy cart, which could accumulate a great deal of financial liability in damaged property. Ratty and Moley confront Toad, but are unable to change his mind. Toad tries to escape from them, but then sees a motor car for the first time and becomes entranced by the new machine, having been taken over by "motor-mania".

In an attempt to cure Toad's new mania, Ratty and Moley put Toad under house arrest. However, Toad escapes and is later arrested and charged with car theft. At his trial, Toad represents himself and calls his horse Cyril Proudbottom as his first witness. Cyril testifies that the car which Toad was accused of stealing had already been stolen by a gang of weasels. Toad had entered a tavern where the car was parked and offered to buy the car from the weasels. However, since Toad had no money, he instead offered to trade Toad Hall for the car. The prosecutor and judge show disbelief toward the statement, so Toad then calls the bartender Mr. Winkie as a witness to the agreement; however, when told by Toad to explain what actually happened (during which he believes he will be pronounced innocent, proceeding to dress fashionably and attempting to walk out the door of the court house) Winkie falsely testifies that Toad had tried to sell himthe stolen car. Toad is found guilty on the spot and sentenced to 20 years in the Tower of London. As the months passed by, Toad's friends make every effort to appeal his case, but to no avail.

On Christmas Eve, Toad appears to have an epiphany about his careless ways, but once Cyril visits Toad in disguise as his grandmother and helps him escape by giving him a disguise of his own, all that flies out the window. Toad quickly runs to a railway station and hijacks a 2-4-0 steam locomotive and drives out of the station heading toward the river bank without getting caught by the police on another train. Though seeming to drown due to his ball and chain dragging him down to the bottom of the river, he then arrives at Ratty's house. However, while Moley is happy to see him again, Ratty is insistent that Toad return to prison and pay his debt to society, still believing he'd stolen the motorcar. Meanwhile, MacBadger discovers that Mr. Winkie himself is the leader of the weasel gang, and that they have indeed taken over Toad Hall; Winkie himself is in possession of the deed. Ratty then apologizes to Toad for thinking ill of him.

Knowing that the deed bearing both Toad and Winkie's signatures would prove Toad's innocence, the four friends sneak into Toad Hall using a secret passage near the river by boat. Though Toad nearly louses up the plan by almost shooting the guard outside on the bridge, the four manage to sneak in. Finding the weasels and Winkie (who they see has the deed on his person) drunk and passed out, they attempt to lower Moley on a makeshift rope to swipe it. Unfortunately, Toad's actions from before had caused more damage than originally thought as the guard investigates, finds the passageway and wakes up the Weasels and Winkie. A grueling chase around the estate ensues to take the document, during which a number of antics happen, including Toad folding the deed into a paper airplane and then producing numerous ones to confuse Winkie and the weasels and the quick switch-around with the hidden wall panel. Though the four manage to escape with their lives, they appear to not get the deed. However, Toad proudly produces said deed from his pocket.

The film then ends on New Year's Day with Toad exonerated and regaining his house while it is implied that Winkie and the weasels have been arrested and imprisoned. As MacBadger, Ratty, and Moley celebrate the New Year with a toast to Toad, who they believe has completely reformed, Toad and Cyril recklessly fly past on a 1903 Wright Flyer; Toad has not truly reformed and has developed a mania for airplanes instead.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow[]

The second segment is based on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving. Although the film introduces the story as Ichabod Crane, later individual releases retained the story's original title. (As a short story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was originally published in The Sketch Book with other stories, not as a single volume as pictured in the film.)

In October 1790 (fourteen years after the American Revolution and founding the United States), Ichabod Crane, a lanky and superstitious, yet charming dandy arrives in Sleepy Hollow, New York, a small village outside Tarrytown that is renowned for its ghostly hauntings, to be the town's new schoolmaster. Despite his odd behavior, appearance, and rather effeminate mannerisms, Ichabod soon wins the hearts of the village's women and forms good friendships with his students, though the latter is mainly in order to get invitations to suppers at said student's homes which he would not be able to afford on his meager salary. Brom Bones, the roguish town hero, does his best to bully and play pranks Ichabod, such as interrupting his singing lessons with the town ladies choir by having a dog howl in the middle of Ichabod singing a series of notes, making it seem like Ichabod himself produced it. However, the schoolmaster is very good at ignoring these taunts and continues to interact with the townspeople. One day at a town picnic, Ichabod meets and falls in love with Katrina van Tassel, the beautiful daughter of the wealthy farmer Baltus van Tassel and Brom's unofficial fiancée. Despite being obsessed with Katrina's beauty, Ichabod mainly desires to take her family's money for himself. Brom, who has never been challenged like this, proceeds to compete with the schoolmaster, but Ichabod wins Katrina over at every opportunity and proceeds to (albeit mostly unintentionally) make a fool of Brom. Unbeknownst to both men, Katrina is only using Ichabod to make Brom jealous and force him to try harder for her affections.

The two love rivals are invited to the van Tassel Halloween party. Brom attempts to get Ichabod to dance with a plump woman who is a wild and impetuous dancer instead of Katrina, and later attempts to have him fall through a cellar door, but both attempts backfire. While both men dine, Brom catches Ichabod accidentally knocking the salt shaker over and nervously tossing salt over his left shoulder. Discovering Ichabod's weakness is superstition, he decides to sing the tale of the legendary Headless Horseman. The horseman supposedly travels the woods on Halloween each year, searching for a living head to replace the one he had lost, and the only way to escape the ghost is to cross a covered bridge. Everyone else, including Katrina, finds the song amusing, while Ichabod starts to fear for his life.

Riding home from the party through the very woods from the song, Ichabod becomes paranoid of every sound he hears in the dark woods. While traveling through the old cemetery, Ichabod believes he hears the sound of a horse galloping toward him, but discovers the sound is being made by nearby cattails bumping on a log. He and his horse begin to laugh hysterically in amusement at being scared by something so small... when their laughter is cut short by the appearance of the Headless Horseman, wielding a sword and riding what appears to be Brom's black horse. After being chased through the dark forest, Ichabod, remembering Brom's advice, rides across the covered bridge to stop the ghost's pursuit. The horseman stops and throws his flaming head, revealed to be a jack-o'-lantern, right at Ichabod's face, presumably knocking him out.

The next morning, Ichabod's hat is found at the bridge next to the shattered jack-o-lantern, but Ichabod himself is nowhere to be found. Sometime later, Brom takes Katrina as his wife. Rumors begin to spread that Ichabod is still alive, married to a wealthy widow in a distant county with children who all look like him. However, the superstitious people of Sleepy Hollow insist that he has been "spirited away" by the Headless Horseman.

Trivia[]

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