Happy Halloween everybody!
And in honour of All Hallows Eve I’m taking a look at a short film that
completely freaked me out as a kid.
That can seem odd considering that child friendly and family
entertainment are the first things that come to mind when one thinks about what
Disney is, but seriously this thing was so creepy and scary to me as a young
kid that I refused to watch it again until I was in my late teens.
Well, that was my loss because this is a wonderful short
film. The animation is top notch as
usual for Disney of course, with the occasional flub like an extra mug of
beer, and Brom’s invisible sandwich, but still wonderful. Especially the headless horseman chase, that was
wonderfully animated, by the action animator if you will of the Nine Old Men,
Woolie Reitherman. The shots of the
horseman galloping towards the viewer in particular give the scene great
tension, also the flaming pumpkin flying at the audience at the end is a very
memorable image. (And mad props to
whoever gave the headless horseman his voice.
They have a cackle to rival that of Vincent Price.) For the rest of the
movie the colours are a nice fall palette complimenting the Halloween theme of the story, and watching the film many times
lets the little details of the animation sink in too, like that the background
artists kept consistency between Katrina’s house the first time we see it when
Ichabod takes in her shopping, and the way it looks at the Halloween party
later. The stairs remain in the proper
spot and they kept the two-way door too.
Bing Crosby provides a wonderful narration of the tale, and
now that I know who Bing Crosby was this actually was an interesting comment on
the movie industry. By that I mean that
it is interesting to watch older movies and realize that what is sometimes
thought of as a modern problem in films, having a celebrity in your work to
increase ticket sales whether they are appropriate for the project or not, is
actually something that’s been around for a long time in Hollywood. Maybe the reason we don’t notice it as much for
older films is because a modern audience isn’t as familiar with older stars, or
that older filmmakers used celebrities that complimented their movies better? Thinks about Richard Pryor in Superman III…well so much for the latter
theory; in any case Bing Crosby works well because he was a very talented man
and his talents were used to great effect here.
This is a musical so it makes sense to have the narrator be a singer. I also find it funny that a long lanky
character such as Ichabod has such a deep voice. Like Sleeping
Beauty dance moves are incorporated into character movement to further cement the song and dance style. For example Ichabod walks in fifth position
when he enters Sleepy Hollow for the first time, and slides into third position
when he stops the black cat from crossing his path.
I like that the mystery of Sleepy Hollow is maintained in this
version. We see in the opening scene
that Brom is a skilled horseman, and that his horse is black like the headless
horseman’s is. So, the audience is given
some clues that the man terrorizing Ichabod on his way home from the Halloween
party is really him, supported by the fact that Brom told the story of the
headless horseman knowing it would set Ichabod on edge. But we also see Ichabod look down the
horseman’s jacket and see apparently nothing, and the horsemen jumping with his
horse in that gorgeous shot against the moon that isn’t physically possible,
leaves us with the impression that this is all supernatural. In the end we can’t totally be sure what
happened and that’s part of what makes it such a good story.
Watching this film where I no longer hide behind the couch
I’ve noticed something else I love as an adult about this movie: all the
characters are jerks. Now normally I
would hate this kind of story choice.
Anyone who has read my review of Star
Trek can plainly see that, but here it works. Brom is the most obvious example of jerk-ass
behaviour with playing pranks on Ichabod, and possibly killing him, but Ichabod
isn’t just a victim of Brom, but a man who looks down at the people of Sleepy
Hollow, thinking of them as country bumpkins.
He is biased as a teacher and he is also greedy, in wanting the Van
Tassel farm and fortune; and shallow in that he seems to love Katrina for her
looks and nothing else. He daydreams
that he will protect the ‘poor little rich girl’ as if she is nothing more than
a china doll he can put in a display case.
In reality though Katrina isn’t just some pretty prize for
the boys to fight over, totally clueless as to their antics; as is so often the
case in love triangles, but is instead a person who deliberately inflames their
rivalry for her own amusement. As the
lyrics say: “Katrina will cut and run, to her a romance is fun. There’s always another one to start.” Leading
to the hilarious scene of Brom and Ichabod at her house where Brom gets smacked
by the door. I think having the characters like this counts as a positive for
me because this is a short film based on a short story. There are no sweeping character arcs or great
revelations in worldviews, there doesn’t need to be, and so these negative
qualities enhance the characters; giving them dimension, rather than making me
want to punch them. Having a character
with flaws is fine. It’s when the character
was supposed to change and the arc was unconvincing to me and yet I’m still
supposed to sympathize with assholes that I have a problem with jerk-ass
behaviour, and that’s not the case here.
In closing, what was once a film to be avoided like the
plague has now become one of my annual Halloween staples. It has wonderful music and a great narrator, rich
fall colours, wonderful animation, terrific voice acting and the terrifying visuals of
the headless horseman still truly invoke the spirit of this spooky holiday.
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