Ichabod Crane

Ichabod Crane is the protagonist of Disney's 1949 short The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, segment from the 1949 animated feature film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.
==Personality==
Ichabod is a suave and self-supporting man who uses his charm and manners to get by. He is a strict teacher who believes in corporal punishment when necessary, but restrains himself to stay on good terms with his students, and more importantly, their parents. Though he is a poor man who lives in his schoolhouse, he presents himself as an elegant gentleman to impress the ladies of Sleepy Hollow and win free food and hospitality from them. Though skinny he has an enormous appetite and sometimes steals in order to feed it, as seen when he opens a gate for a female pie-seller, only to steal one of her pies. When he begins courting Katrina he relies on his charm and manners, hoping it will be stronger than Brom's physical strength to her. He cleverly avoids Brom, who tries to physically fight him several times over Katrina. Though Ichabod is arguably more suave and clever than his rival, his one weakness is his extreme superstition. This is revealed on his first appearance in Sleepy Hollow, as he avoids walking under a ladder and stops a black cat from crossing his path. Brom discovers his superstitious nature when Ichabod spills salt and nervously throws it over his shoulder, and uses his belief in ghosts and spirits as an advantage to scare Ichabod off.
==Appearances==
===The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad===
Ichabod Crane is the schoolmaster who arrives in Sleepy Hollow to teach kids at the school. He charms many women in the town with his smooth manners and frequently dines at their homes. He also teaches women in the village to sing. Brom Bones pranks him by making a dog howl while he is singing. Soon, Ichabod meets a beautiful girl named Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of a rich farmer and falls in love with her, and begins to dream of inheriting her wealth and valuable property. Though Katrina prefers Brom, she pretends to flirt with Ichabod to tease him, allowing Ichabod to carry her groceries home for her. Brom sees this, and knocks Ichabod down into the mud, and carries Katrina and her groceries home on his horse Daredevil. However, Ichabod manages to catch up and takes Katrina and her groceries home. When they arrive at Katrina's house, Ichabod kisses Katrina's hand, but just as he's about to leave, Brom shows up. Ichabod runs into Katrina's house and gives her some flowers to which Katrina puts one in Ichabod's shirt pocket. Just as Ichabod is about to leave again, Brom grabs him and is about to hit him, but Katrina manages to distract Brom by waving at him, and Ichabod escapes happily dancing and playing around on his way home.
Soon, Katrina's father is having a Halloween party to which Ichabod attends with an old broken down plow horse called Old Gunpowder that he has borrowed to travel on. At the party, Ichabod dances with Katrina, and as Brom tries to steal her away from him, Ichabod manages to get Katrina back and steals the whole dance floor with her causing everyone to clap for them at the end, much to Brom's jealousy. Later on at the party, Brom, discovering Ichabod's superstitious nature, tells a scary story about a Headless Horseman who rides every Halloween night in the Sleepy Hollow forest looking for a new head. The story frightens Ichabod so much that he manages to put too much red hot pepper on his boiled egg without realizing it, causing his eyes to begin to water really badly and smoke to come out.
That night, as Ichabod rides home through Sleepy Hollow on Gunpowder, he is haunted by Brom's story and hears animals such as frogs, crows, and owls screaming, "Headless Horseman! Headless Horseman! Headless Horseman! Turn back! Turn back! Beware! Beware! Beware!" Soon, Ichabod hears hooves approaching and realizes that it's not Gunpowder, which has stopped dead in his tracks. Ichabod wonders if someone is following them, and tries to get tired old Gunpowder to move, but now soon learns that the sound wasn't hooves, but cattails beating on a log while he was urging the terrified Gunpowder to get going. He and Gunpowder start to laugh until they hear someone else laugh. Then, they turn to see that it's none other than the Headless Horseman himself with a sword in one hand and a burning pumpkin in the other. Dizzy with fear, Ichabod gets on Gunpowder, and as the schoolmaster gives some showers of kicks and blows on his terrified horse, they ride away with the Headless Horseman chasing them.
Soon, Ichabod sees the bridge that Brom said, "Once you cross that bridge, my friends, the ghost is through, his power ends." Ichabod urges his steed to run toward the bridge, but ends up getting his steed accidentally turned around, then runs back into the direction of the Headless Horseman where Ichabod sees that the evil Horseman really doesn't have a head. Ichabod and his terrified steed run once again with the Headless Horseman chasing them, but finally, make it across the bridge where Ichabod looks back to see if he is safe and screams as the Headless Horseman rises in his stirrups and throws his pumpkin at him and poor old Gunpowder. It hits him with a tremendous crash and explodes into flames.
The next day, Ichabod's hat is found next to a shattered pumpkin, since that is the only trace of the schoolmaster. Shortly afterwards, Brom Bones marries Katrina. Rumours spread that Ichabod is still alive and married to a wealthy widow in a distant county with seven kids. However, some of the people of Sleepy Hollow do not believe these rumours since they say that he must have been spirited away by the Headless Horseman.
===House of Mouse===
Ichabod Crane appears as one of the guests in House of Mouse.
In the beginning of "Halloween with Hades", Mickey tosses a Jack-O-Lantern towards Ichabod Crane who is shaking (since he's seated with the Headless Horseman and his pumpkin head). The pumpkin lands on Ichabod's head, covering it. The Headless Horseman screeches and runs away leaving Ichabod turning his head with a very confused look.
===Walt Disney anthology series===
Ichabod made a cameo appearance in "This is Your Life, Donald Duck" of this series along with some other characters.
===Once Upon a Studio===
Ichabod appears outside the Disney Animation Studio building, ducking his head to avoid the ladder that was being carried by Goofy to set for the group photo, which made it look like he lost his head. He later joins in the group photo with Katrina standing beside him.
===Wish===
Ichabod Crane was among the Disney animated characters that appeared during the credits.
==Disney Parks==
Ichabod made his first live appearance in 2017, in the Frightfully Fun Parade at Disneyland. He appears in the pre-parade with two Sleepy Hollow "townspeople" being followed closely by the Headless Horseman.
Additionally, a sign hanging outside Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom advertising music lessons implying him to be in charge of the Music Shop section of the store. In 2024, an animated silhouette of Ichabod Crane was added to one of the windows.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*Unlike in other older Disney animated films where the final fate of the villain is unseen or unclear, in this case is the fate of the protagonist that is left to be theorized or deduced.
*Ichabod is very similar to Belle, both love to read and are considered "strange" in their villages but still have admirers, specifically from the opposite sex. Although unlike Belle, he is very greedy and clearly only wanted Katrina for her money, whereas Belle loved the Beast regardless of his looks and status.
*Some consider Ichabod to be the true villain as he wanted Katrina to gain access to the Van Tassel fortune. Brom's villainy, however, seemed more obvious in the film through his bullying of rival suitors. Brom also had impure interests in marrying Katrina, liking her for her looks and feeling she should be on his arm because he is the town's strongest man.
*Though not explicitly confirmed or stated, it could possibly be noted that Ichabod Crane was the inspiration for Lumiere, in his human form.
*In the original story, the schoolhouse fell into disrepair as Sleepy Hollow could not hire another school teacher after Ichabod's disappearance, and when some kids believed that Ichabod's ghost haunts it, it is true that, however, another Sleepy Hollow resident claimed that he happened to see Ichabod alive in New York City, where he got on with his life, getting a job as a lawyer, and eventually appointed to the bench as a judge in small claims court.
*In the Headless Horseman scene, Ichabod's screams sound like Pluto, whose voice was provided by Pinto Colvig.
*His only known spoken lines were during a song in which he introduces himself. Other than that, he remains silent for the rest of the film, aside from a few hums and screams.
*In the original story, after the party is over, Ichabod proposes marriage to Katrina, but she turns him down, leaving him heart broken and believing she was using him to make Brom jealous. This was never seen in the film and it remains unknown if Walt had intended to show this in the film but decided not to for a reason. It is most likely Ichabod didn't propose marriage to Katrina at all in this version he just left quickly after the party because as he is seen riding home he doesn't appear to be sad or heart broken just nervous and scared about what he heard in Brom's story about the headless horseman.
ar:إكابود كرين
es:Ichabod Crane
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it:Ichabod Crane
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