Ichabod and Charlie Brown: Great Pumpkin and the Headless Horseman

 So my daughter was wanting us to watch the critically maligned "Hubie Halloween" later, but before that my son and I sat down for an early evening of the "Headless Horseman" segment of the Disney Blu of The Adventures of Ichabod Crane and Mr. Toad (1945), a marvelous classic about the point-nosed, bird-like Ichabod, who vied for the hand of the classic Walt Disney blond all the guys go googly-eyed for, Katrina (with a wealthy farmer father), encountering the Headless Horsemen when riding his horse for home at the Witching Hour. If Ichabod could just make it past the bridge, the Headless Horseman ghost's power supposedly would cease...and yet, what happened to ole Ichabod Crane? Nowhere to be found, nor his horse, Ichabod was gone. Did the Headless Horseman nab him? And what about the horse? I liked how Bing Crosby narrated the special with that ever-recognizable voice, with those clever and witty tones that complement Ichabod's behavior, presentation, and personality. I told my son that I loved how Disney animators gave horse reactions, especially fright and boredom. Brom Bones' ghost story during a dance on Hallow's Eve gets the superstitious Ichabod all riled up. That Brom gets the girl and Ichabod is just *gone* is typical of such a story as this. 

Let's be honest: even as a kid, I knew why I tuned in for the adventure of Ichabod Crane and that was for the final chase through cemetery, dark wood, and lake, to get to the bridge when the Headless Horseman. That chase--where Ichabod finds himself on the backside of the Horseman's own red-eyed, black-as-midnight horse, riding backwards on his own horse, moving just close enough to the bridge to get accidentally turned around and heading right back towards the Horseman--was quite sinister and creepy to me as a kid. I can remember sitting in a library and the librarian having the big tube television on the rolling contraption that had levels to it for VCR and videos, as she pulled a Disney video from the box, pushed it into the girthy rectangle VCR, and with some white noise and ripply interference Ichabod's adventures came into view. I thought Ichabod was a hoot, how he is oblivious to Katrina's "stoking the animosity" of beefcake Brom, who can't seem to undermine his rival despite so many attempts, only whipping up the Headless Horseman mythos in the hopes of rattling the schoolmaster always out for a meal and attention wherever it might derive. 

Of course, a favorite during every season, I continue to discover a Peanuts special from Charles Schulz way back in the late 60s/early 70s. As with every October, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) gets a revisit. I didn't have a tradition of watching this every year actually as many other families, but I happened upon a Holiday's Edition at Walmart sometime a few years ago (because of Apple +, thanks to corporate greed's way of saying "Fuck you, Tradition", this great Charlie Brown special set on Halloween won't be available to families on broadcast television or cable) and sort of started an annual watch of the seasonal Peanuts specials. Now, I did watch the Christmas and Halloween specials of Peanuts occasionally, it wasn't every year. I could go on a spiel about these streaming platforms buying up rights and exclusively showing certain popular titles, but I'll save it. It was inevitable. I checked out of curiosity the price for the Holiday Special I own and on Amazon, it is going for $129.00. It is a sobering reminder that what is so available at one time of the year could very much disappear. I'm a physical media advocate because I realize that at some point what was once so easy to find, won't be. Anyway, I'm always pleasantly returned to poor Linus and his enthusiastic belief that if Santa will provide gifts to kids on Christmas, his Great Pumpkin will do so on Halloween, despite how Charlie Brown and the gang (particularly, Lucy) try to talk sense into him. While the others (except Sally, who takes Linus to task for robbing her of trick or treating, reminding him of how "a woman scorned" is something you definitely want to avoid) go house to house trick or treating (poor Chuck with his ghost sheet full of holes due to "getting carried away with the scissors" gets rocks instead of candy!), Linus waits it out, even falling asleep while the other kids eventually have their Halloween Party and go home. Linus, to his own detriment, refuses to accept that next year the Great Pumpkin will disappoint.

Both Ichabod and Great Pumpkin keep that inner child very well pleased during this time of year.