THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN
WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!
For some time now, it's been a Halloween tradition that
before I call it a night and cry a little that Halloween and the month
exploiting the holiday and season is all over; I watch the Disney version of
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". Sometimes if I have more time I'd
watch the cartoon featured before it "The Wind in the Willows” not only
because it's a fun cartoon, but gets me ready to embrace the Holiday season
since there is some beautiful Christmas visuals in it. But usually, I'd just skip ahead
to the cartoon that closes the double feature. However as iconic of a Halloween
classic that this short is, we don't really start getting to the Halloween
visuals until we see Ichabod dance with Katrina at the Halloween party. Before
that we just gaze at a colorful sleepy little town in the fall. But even when
we do enter the party, the dark Halloween atmosphere doesn't begin until the
dance scene is over. And right when the party starts to look dark and spooky,
that's when our ghostly villain is first mentioned!
As soon as Brom figures out that Ichabod is superstitious,
he smiles and winks, and begins to tell a ghostly tale by the fireplace about
the worst specter of all that haunts "Sleepy Hollow" the Headless
Horseman who seeks a head to replace the one that he's lost, and how he escaped him
by crossing the bridge that the Horseman will dare not cross. Only he doesn't
narrate the tale, he SINGS it, leading to a song sequence that I feel is
underrated nowadays by modern Disney fans, and being one of my (I kid you not) all-time
top 5 favorite villain songs! Why, you probably are wondering? Well
first of all, I love the Halloween visuals supporting the scene. You have black
cats, jack-o lanterns, ghost-like shadows, and the overall environment being
drenched with the colors black, orange and red. Furthermore, I not only love
seeing Brom look more scary and menacing when he reenacts as the Horseman as he’s
telling his tale, but I love how all the guests (with the exception of Katrina)
start to look and act creepy, as if the friendly towns people who we've met earlier
aren't as nice as they appear to be. They all swarm up uncomfortable close to
Ichabod as they sing with Brom as if they're coming after him and deliberately
taunting him then just having fun; create dark and monstrous shadows towards
Ichabod; and how they just lifelessly stare at Brom when he tells his story in
the background with look of fear in some shots just makes them and the scene
itself appear to be even more creepy. Let's also not forget the party guest who
doesn't look like that he's alive for how ghoulish he looks, sounds and acts.
We never even see him again after we first see him appear!
The song is sung by "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas"
himself Bing Crosby, who puts plenty of fun, class, and terror when singing
this song. This was my favorite Halloween song growing up as a kid that I would
sing countless times, even when being way out of season, for how creepy and
bouncy it sounds. I'll even say that it's my favorite Bing Crosby song for how
much I love it and the Holiday itself! I know some people don't find the song itself to be scary since
it sounds way too upbeat, and I can see why, but honestly I can never understand
why they don't see the spooky material to come out of it. Not just in terms of the
visuals, but just how dark some of the lyrics are (particularly that the song
itself centers around a ghost who wants to chop-off any innocent he finds); the
choir of towns people that help make the song catchy but also sounding like a choir of ghouls and banshees singing (especially the wailing noise that we hear from the
women's choir); and how the music goes from eerie to dramatic as Brom's tale
builds and builds. For me the song is like "Grim Grinning Ghosts"
from "The Haunted Mansion" (another song that I couldn't stop singing
as a kid). It's not supposed to flat out scare you, it's really more supposed
to be just good spooky fun, and I definitely get that when listening to this
song.
Speaking of "The Haunted Mansion", do you know who was originally going to sing the song?
The great deep voiced Thrul Ravenscroft, who sung the famous ghost song as one of the singing busts. Though I love Crosby's version much better, if his version doesn't give you any kind of chills, then Ravenscroft's version will, especially for how he hits that final note!
After getting a song that effectively sets-up our villain,
what follows is a nerve racking sequence that builds-up to his presence. Unlike
the song, and the chase sequence with Ichabod and the Horseman where it
balances out the horror and comedy, this scene (aside from when Ichabod tries
to pull his horse when he hears the sound of galloping of hooves drawing near) is
drenched in complete darkness and suspense. Right when the scene starts where
we gaze at the moonlit sky to seeing this Gothic forest where the only sounds
we hear is the eerie wind blowing and animal noises as Bing Crosby's narration
sets ups Ichabod's nervous ride into the hollows, you are pulled into the
atmosphere as if you are going on this nightmarish ride with Ichabod. Images
such as the old spiral trees looking like ghosts that want to grab Ichabod, the
cloud in the shape of a claw covering the moon, and the woods appearing to
close in behind Ichabod with no way of turning back, as we hear animals and insects
making sounds that sound like they're calling Ichabod's name and the horseman
is so petrifying and surreal that just gets more and more scarier and intense
until Ichabod discovers cattails bumping on a log that are making the sound of
the hooves, realizing that all his fears are in his head. And we feel
comfortable and laugh along with Ichabod and his horse after being scared
silly...that it is until we hear a maniacal voice laughing with them, which
causes the two to sweat as the strings in the score builds, and gasp when they
see the horseman himself!
There are two important elements to the horseman that make
him to be so memorable. The first is his evil laugh! For the majority of evil
laughs that we hear in animated films, as scary as they can be, we always
remind ourselves as we get older that it's just the actor in a booth laughing
into a mic as a sense of comfort. But with the horseman on the other hand, not
many audiences get that. It doesn't at all sound human, it sounds like the kind
of laugh that you'd here in your nightmares or if you were to enter Hell. It
just never sounds like that this is coming from an actor's voice, almost as if
Disney somehow manage to summon the actual devil himself and persuaded him to provide
the laughter for the horseman to make him really scare audiences that would see
the film.
The second is his design! Though I was never frightened by
his design (or even his laugh believe it or not as a kid) it's still a cool and
blood-curdling design! He's a tall and muscular headless figure drenched with
the colors black and purple; rides a dark and vicious demon like horse with
red eyes; wields a long and shiny sharp sword; and carries a flaming pumpkin
with an angry frown on it! He's the kind of specter who you wouldn’t want to encounter
alone in the woods at night for how big, scary, and quick he moves where your
head is as good as his if you don't have a horse to save your skin. And even if
you do, you still may-not have a ghost-of a chance for how tricky and powerful
he is. And here's another fun fact about the Horseman that was also a scrapped
idea that was never used, did you know that the Horseman was originally going
to appear in a ride where you would have to escape from him to save your neck?
And not a ride based on the story, but in "The Haunted Mansion" at the Graveyard? As out of place as the Horseman would've been since the ride's
story has nothing to do with "Sleepy Hollow", it sounds like an
incredible idea to bring such a frightful villain to life. I'd be down to experience
a ride at a Disney theme park where I'd be riding for my life away from the
Horseman!
The entire sequence involving Ichabod being chased by the
horseman is some of the scariest and funniest imagery that Disney has ever
brought where you find yourself to be screaming and laughing all the way
through. One moment you're laughing at how long the lead attached to Ichabod's horse is,
the next moment you find yourself in fear when he's now off his horse when
holding on to the rope and right up against the horseman's horse and his
blade. One second you feel safe for Ichabod and his horse when they hug
thinking that they’ve lost him, but then you're back to being in terror when
they find themselves back in front of the horseman, until they go sliding into
the river below them where you start laughing again! It's an overall insane and
exciting roller-coaster of thrills and laughs. My favorite moment that always
makes me laugh is when Ichabod hits a tree branch that knocks him on the back
of the horseman's horse, and doesn't notice that he's literally right behind
the horseman as the chase goes in circles, until Ichabod and his horse notice
that they are apart from each other, which causes them to gasp until Ichabod is
knocked back on to his horse by the very same tree branch. As for the moment
that scares me the most, its when Ichabod looks inside the horseman's neck to see
nothing but darkness and the sound of his evil laughter coming out of it.
Again much like the Devil in "Fantasia", every
single frame and image of the horseman is so frightening and iconic that pointing out each of those moments are practically endless! There are just so many great shots of him, such as the image of him riding after
Ichabod through the spiral woods where the sky above now appears to be a maroon
color. Or when he jumps right in front of Ichabod swinging
his sword in front of a bright moonlit background! Or how his horse leaps
almost as high as the moon! I can go on forever! Let's not forget that big,
loud, and intense score that supports the chase scene and the Headless
horseman's presence. It plays a huge factor of the thrills and chills that we
get from the horseman as this scene plays out, especially when they mix the
music with the horseman's laughter! But out of everything that makes the
horseman so scary is how wildly ruthless he is. Since this evil and powerful
spirit is desperate for a head, no matter if it's a good face or an unusual
face, he has to have it in his possession, and he never gives up as he chases
after Ichabod with full speed blocking him at almost every turn, and violently
swinging his sword whenever he's near his head.
And just when Ichabod passes through the bridge stopping the
horseman in his tracks, the horseman pulls one last attempt at taking Ichabod's
head by throwing his flaming pumpkin at his head! After we see the pumpkin hit
the screen and burst into flames, we cut to the next morning to see Ichabod's
hat and a shattered pumpkin beside it with no trace of him or his horse!
Normally in a Disney film the villain would usually have some kind of downfall
or weakness where the hero would win and live happily ever after, and with
Disney's name attached to a story as scary and mysterious as "Sleepy Hollow",
you'd think that Ichabod would simply just escape the horseman and leave the town safe and sound. But surprisingly enough, they stay true to the source material by
keeping Ichabod's fate a mystery. We don't know for sure if he was
"spirited away by the headless horseman" or married a wealthy widow,
all we know is that Ichabod won't be returning to the hollow. How often do
Disney villains actually get away with their supposed crimes in the end or live
on to still carry on what they're doing? Almost never. Sure we never discover
if the Horseman really took Ichabod's head, but his evil spirit still remains
where he'll more than likely search for another one.
What's also fascinating about the horseman is that it's
never clear if it's Brom or not. Some of the clues that it could possibly be Brom
are certainly there. We never hear any mention about the horseman until Brom
discovers that Ichabod is superstitious, and uses his fears to make him
petrified for when he rides into the hollow and as a means to embarrass himself in front of
Katrina. Brom uses Jack-o'lanterns, and a sword to act out the horseman, which
the horseman also carries. And both Brom and the horseman ride a dark horse. There
is enough evidence in the film that can hint that it was Brom who dressed up
the horseman and chased Ichabod, but there are also other implications that the
horseman that Ichabod encountered could be real. The horseman's horse has red
glowing eyes; the horseman himself is muscular like Brom, but less bulky; and
the most notable indication that the horseman could be real is when Ichabod
looks down his cloak and sees absolutely nothing. However, it is possible that
Ichabod could possibly be imagining the horseman's appearance differently since
he was already suffering from a bad case of hysteria when he entered the hollow
by seeing and hearing things. But then again he did reach into his cloak deep
enough to see practically nothing.
You may even notice during the chase that the horseman for
the most part doesn't carry his flaming pumpkin with him. We see the pumpkin in
his first appearance; and see a silhouette of him holding it as Ichabod tumbles
down into the river; but until Ichabod crosses the bridge it's pretty much
absent and just magically appears in his hand when he tosses it at him. How on
earth can Brom possibly do that?! Well say if it was really Brom as the
horseman, my only explanation to that is it could be a continuity error. I
do love the animation in "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad", but I'm not going to act like that it doesn't have its noticeable
inconsistencies because it has plenty of them. Ichabod's eye color changes throughout
the short. In the climax Ichabod's jacket and hat change colors; Brom's
coonskin cap appears and disappears in a few shots; and sometimes people or
things would change poses and positions in the next shot (like the men at the
tavern sleeping, to having a few being awake in the next shot; or the barrel's
cork going from one side to the other). Some of those are pretty big noticeable
errors and that's just to name a few out of the many other mistakes. I'm not saying that those errors are distracting or anything,
because the designs, imagery, movements, pacing, slapstick, story, narration, songs, characters, and
what-not are all so great that it's easy to overlook those errors (even the major ones). I'm just simply implying that it's possible that the horseman's
pumpkin could have been a part of those errors. However, since it's never quite
clear if the sudden reappearance of the pumpkin was intentional or not, it helps
add into the mystery of the horseman. And that's overall why I had a change of
a heart for this villain. Will never know for sure what the horseman truly is,
or what happened to Ichabod. Even if we used the pieces of evidence that we
were given, we still wouldn't have a definitive answer, and that's what truly makes him out to be such a scary and intriguing villain.
The horseman will always be an enigma for how mysterious
he is, and though he doesn't appear much, everything revolving around
him is horrifying; from his build-up, to the atmosphere surrounding his
presence, to his design, to his evil laugh, to his violent cravings of taking
Ichabod's head, to the ending that leaves us all into thinking. He and the
Devil from "Fantasia" do have their differences, but for me they
share so much in common that I simply don't have the heart to separate those
two as my number 1 favorite Disney villains of all time!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!!!
And remember...
"With a hip-hip and a clippety clop. He's out looking for a head to swap. So, don't try to figure out a plan, you can't reason with a HEADLESS MAN!!!!!!"
"Man I'm getting out of here"
-Bing Crosby
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