1973: Pyramid Films Sleepy Hollow Cartoon

Well, here we have an odd cartoon short to add to the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" variants. The characters generally have the monochrome look of characters that you see in Witch’s Night Out, only they keep changing color. Ichabod is blue in one scene, then white in the next and orange in the next. It makes for an odd style. Ichabod’s long and spindly limbs make him look like a spider (which would actually an interesting way to portray ol’ Ichabod), and his chin and nose look like a couple of penises. Many viewers might be turned off just by the look of the thing.

But this faithful adaptation - including references to the “Indian wizard,” the “woman in white,” “major Andre’s tree,” and other urban folklore of Sleepy Hollow included in the original story but seldom mentioned in adaptations - has a lot a going for it. The spooky sequences are really cool, and remind me of the trippy sequence in A Boy Named Charlie Brown where Shroeder plays Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata. The marker and watercolor-style illustrations are genuinely ominous and may scare the heck out of little kids.

Less successful, though, are the sequences in between the scary parts, with montages of Ichabod singing, eating, and dancing. These just seem like bad Sesame Street sequences to me. Also, the bouncy country score under the “midnight ride” sequence doesn’t quite seem to fit with the visuals. 

Originally produced in 1973 (presumably as a film strip to be played in schools?) and shown on HBO in the 80s, this is an odd little entry to the Sleepy Hollow cartoon canon. Not the best version out there, but the “dark” sequences make it memorable. 

Now available on youtube: