ReFrederator Blog

The theme around here is Book Report Week, so excuse us as we peruse some library shelves for musty dusty classics that have been transmogrified into jolly, vintage cartoons.

First off is the 1934 version of “The Headless Horseman”, an Ub Iwerks’ ComiColor interpretation of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” — released a full 15 years before Walt Disney got around to the same subject matter. This trip out, the whole story has been squished down into eight and a half minutes, focusing on the love triangle of Ichabod, Bram and Katrina, with just enough time for a new twist ending! The Carl Stallings music track is lively, but notice how the Iwerks team is still doing all their storytelling through pantomime (these guys just plain didn’t like dialogue!) I kinda dig the way Katrina is designed, not as a standard issue flapper, but plump and pretty just like Washington Irving’s pus sized original. And what do you think about that great swivel close-up of Icky in the schoolhouse? Snazzy stuff!

More page turners on the way from ReFrederator!

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Dave Kirwan