Animation Artifacts &Disney &Story & Storyboards 05 Dec 2011 07:18 am
Mr. Toad storyboard
- As every other animation blog out there will remind you, today is the anniversary of Walt Disney‘s birth. The difference between us and others is that this is also the anniversary of this blog. It’s the sixth year that we’ve been posting animation information, artifacts and ephemera on a daily basis. It’s been a real treat to continue doing so; I’ve learned a lot in the process and really do enjoy it. I wouldn’t mind going another six years.
- Hans Perk has just started posting the draft to the featurette, The Fabulous Mr. Toad, on his blog A Film LA. I can’t think of a better time to repost the original storyboard for the film. I’ve combined the several parts of the past posts into one longer piece.
– 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.
As suggested by Michael Barrier, this board was probably assembled to produce a preliminary Leika reel. The giveaway is the lack of dialogue and commentary underneath the drawings. The assembly was made to be photographed.
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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.
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on 05 Dec 2011 at 7:56 am 1.Stephen Macquignon said …
I can not wait till my desktop is back from getting repaired. So I can enjoy this post to the fullest
on 05 Dec 2011 at 10:51 am 2.David Levy said …
Happy 6th year of the Splog!
on 05 Dec 2011 at 2:37 pm 3.Mark Mayerson said …
Having blogged for more than five years, I am in total awe that you have managed to keep up daily postings. Congratulations on the milestone and needless to say I enjoy my daily visit.
on 05 Dec 2011 at 4:35 pm 4.Mark Sonntag said …
Happy 6th to you and Happy 110th to Walt.
on 05 Dec 2011 at 5:19 pm 5.Hans Perk said …
What both Marks said – and sincerely!
on 05 Dec 2011 at 5:28 pm 6.docnad said …
Congratulations on six years of a wonderful and unique animation blog!
on 05 Dec 2011 at 8:59 pm 7.Sandro Cleuzo said …
Hey Michael,
Congrats on the 6 years blogging, it’s amazing specially posting on a daily basis.
Thanks for all the great material you have been providing to us all these years and I hope for many more.
Best.
on 05 Dec 2011 at 10:18 pm 8.Jenny L. said …
Congratulations on six marvelous years of posting jaw-dropping, rare and always well-accompanied artwork. And quite apart from animation but just as great are your personal photo essays and observations on city life. All of it’s been a great boon to the internet. Thank you!
on 06 Dec 2011 at 11:47 am 9.Elliot Cowan said …
I read and listened (I had an audio book) to Wind in the Willows about a million times when I was a kid.
I’m sure you have also seen the Cosgrove Hall stop motion adaptation that does a lovely job of maintaining the gentleness and Britishness of the original story.
on 06 Dec 2011 at 12:35 pm 10.Michael said …
The brilliant 2D version directed by David Unwin is, I think, the best version out there. I link to it above. It really captures the mood of the book and is beautifully animated.
on 06 Dec 2011 at 10:23 pm 11.David Gerstein said …
At some point, years ago—at a Disney publications building that doesn’t exist anymore—I saw a set of storyboard stat sheets for an intermediate version of the Ichabod/Toad package feature.
It dated from a point where the two stories were already featurettes and packaged together, but hosted and narrated by Jiminy Cricket rather than Bing Crosby and Basil Rathbone.
Has anyone else seen this version? Frustratingly, I didn’t take any copies when I was there…
on 10 Dec 2011 at 2:16 am 12.DB said …
Happy belated birthday!
I’ll take this as an opportunity to thank you for the great blog – you assemble so much fascinating material.
I know I’ve seen the Mr. Toad featurette but for the life of me can’t remember it. Judging by the storyboard I’d say it was a good call for Disney not to make a feature of Wind in the Willows – I find their Mr. Toad to be pretty annoying in a way that I’m fairly sure was not intentional (a la Chuck Jones’ Michigan J. Frog).