Animation Artifacts &Story & Storyboards 09 Apr 2007 07:55 am
The Wind In The Willows
– Probably my favorite children’s book is The Wind In The Willows. There have been many animated adaptations of this book since it became a public domain item, but for years there was only one version, Disney’s Mr Toad half of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. The loudest most raucous parts of Kenneth Grahame’s delicate novel, blared their way onto this animated compilation feature.
We all know that the book was planned as a feature way back when Disney, in the late 30s, was buying up titles of famous children’s books to prevent other competing studios from turning them into animated features. Work began on adapting the book. 
They never quite broke it as they hoped, and it ultimately became a featurette with its primary focus on the loose cannon, Mr. Toad.
. . . .The film, as it exists now, has some positive elements and some fun animation, but the story was always a bit too quiet and British to successfully survive a proper adaptation in the Disney canon.
When John Canemaker loaned me his copy of the Pinocchio boards, he also brought The Wind In The Willows (not titled Mr. Toad). There are few captions here, but this obviously is designed for a full-out feature not an abbreviated featurette. The images on his original stats are small, so I’ve blown them up a bit and tried to marginally clean them up. It’ll take a little time to scan and post all 17 pages, but here we begin:
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(Click any image to enlarge.)
Disney’s Mr. Toad first aired on the Disneyland television program on February 2, 1955. You can buy the dvd of Ichabod and Mr. Toad on Amazon among other places.
If you’re interested you can read the entire book of Kenneth Grahame’s work (minus the beautiful Shepherd illustrations) here.
You can buy the book here.
Dave Unwin‘s version is my favorite adaptation in that it retains some of the flavor of the original book and isn’t afraid of being quiet at times.
on 09 Apr 2007 at 2:49 pm 1.Ward said …
Thanks so much for posting these, Michael! I love checking out storyboards, especially Disney’s from that period. A fascinating look at how they worked out their stories.
on 09 Apr 2007 at 3:42 pm 2.Jason McDonald said …
Wow! These a great! I’ll add them to my collection. thanks.
on 09 Apr 2007 at 5:09 pm 3.Brian Meyer said …
Just to let you know clicking the 3A storyboard is loading the image to the 2A storyboard.
on 09 Apr 2007 at 6:00 pm 4.Michael said …
Sorry, I fixed it. 3a leads to 3a now.
on 09 Apr 2007 at 6:37 pm 5.Eddie Fitzgerald said …
Woooowwww! Thanks so much for putting up this and the Pinnochio boards! Thanks also to John Canemaker for making them available!
on 10 Apr 2007 at 6:55 am 6.Stephen said …
These are wonderful. Did you see the PBS version on Sunday 8th? What did you think?
on 10 Apr 2007 at 11:59 am 7.Michael Barrier said …
Thanks for posting these very interesting boards. Some of the people who worked on this story before the war talked about making a very elaborate leica reel (a film strip, composed of still drawings, that was synchronized with a sound track), and I’d guess that these drawings were shot for that leica reel. There’s no dialogue showing on the boards, for one thing, and the drawings are more finished–more like character layouts–than you’d expect on a true storyboard. Imagine seeing these drawings one at a time, accompanied by recorded dialogue, and you’ll get a sense of how the leica reels worked. (Dialogue for Wind in the Willows was recorded in 1941, and Walt shelved the film after looking at the leica reel in the fall of that year.)
on 10 Apr 2007 at 12:49 pm 8.Michael said …
Thanks for the confirmation, Mike. I suspected that these might have been assembled for some such thing, however, I wouldn’t have made such a speculation without any backup. I couldn’t imagine any other reason for putting them up without the dialogue posted beneath them. This is the first time I’ve seen such.
on 18 Apr 2007 at 8:39 pm 9.Arlyn said …
Amazing artwork!! thanks 4 posting these very special pieces of art. It always makes my day to see some of that classic disney I love AND miss.