I’m not giving away much in the way of spoilers but the next film was also a package feature IOTL.
The Shuffled Disneyverse 2.0: Another Alternate Disney Canon Timeline
- Thread starter PGSBHurricane
- Start date
I just heard that Disney just confirmed the release for three sequels set to be released 2024-26, which my present a problem for this TL.
Well you could either re-shuffle everything post 1950/after 1946a, or include all three films but only re-shuffle some slots.
I think the problem is that in OTL there were films with sequels that probably would not get them here. Likewise, there are films IOTL that did not get sequels that would have them here due to butterflies and differing levels of success.
Well then it's up to you, I'm looking forward to see what you have in store regardless
Thanks. I've also decided that I'm probably going to reshuffle the remaining films after a certain amount of time and that The Snow Queen will be the stand-in for Frozen while Frozen 2 and 3 will become Frozen and Frozen 2 and will instead be based on original stories.
I've been considering reshuffling everything after the package era but I just decided that the re-shuffling would begin after 1964 because up to that point, I have a solid vision for what the films should look like.
To be honest I’m actually still deciding whether or not to shuffle everything after 1949, 1959, or 1964. I want it to be at the end of a period for Disney, either the Wartime Package Era or the Golden Age Part 2 (the 1950s part of the Silver Age or pre-Xerox). Now that I think about it, I think Snow White and Tarzan will be re-shuffled most likely. I really don’t want Snow White to plunge Disney into the Dark Age.
I think the Silver Age is from 1950 to 1959 as I also consider it to be the second part of the Golden Age. Everything beginning in 1961 is the Xerox Period. So probably everything after 1959.
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The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1946)
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1946)
Unlike the other two package films that came before it, there would be much less tying together of the featurettes other than a minor framing device in the form of a library. The reason for this was that the two films in this package film were originally meant to be full-length features in their own right. World War II would put the kibosh on these plans. Plans for the first segment (which would oddly correspond to the second titular character), The Wind In The Willows, went back to April 1938 during Roy Disney’s spree of acquiring several European properties for potential features. Walt had previously received an English copy of the Kenneth Grahame novel in 1934 upon receiving a copy from an English correspondent. But, even after acquiring the rights to the novel four years later, he had no interest in adapting it due to finding the story incredibly corny. It was only through convincing by story artist James Bodrero that The Wind in the Willows began production in 1940.
In September of that year, the first story meetings for The Wind In The Willows took place, and production was confirmed the following month. Six months later, animation for the film started, with writers and animators having come off the nearly-completed Snow Queen, including director James Algar, concept artist Mel Shaw, and story artists James Bodrero and Campbell Grant. In May 1941, the Disney animators' strike put the project on hold until October following the strike's conclusion. Simultaneously, after the box office disasters of The Jungle Book and Alice in Wonderland, the Bank of America issued Disney an absolute loan limit of $3.5 million and restricted Disney to producing animated shorts and finishing gestures already in production but nothing else. Early versions of future films were scaled back significantly. By January 1942, World War II and Disney finding the 3,000 feet of completed animation below feature quality led to The Wind In The Willows being shelved.
Disney revived production on The Wind in the Willows in October 1943 as one of only two feature films approved to proceed following Victory Through Air Power. At that time, Walt considered combining The Wind in the Willows with either Mickey and The Beanstalk (alternately titled The Legend of Happy Valley) or The Gremlins by Roald Dahl. His brother, Roy, initially disapproved of the idea out of fear it wouldn’t be able to earn back its budget, which the war effectively reduced to $523,000. [1] Walt then suggested pairing it with a proposed feature based on Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. During World War II, American Patriotism was at its all-time high, and Disney felt inspired to create various animations based on American legends. And what other way to celebrate American legends than with Sleepy Hollow? Roy said yes, and by February 1944, both The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow underwent significant story treatments, including significantly shortening the latter from 48 minutes. This new feature, entitled The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, was then set for a 1946 release date.
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad starts in a library as both segments are based on literature. The first segment, based on The Wind In The Willows despite coming second in the title, is introduced and narrated by Gracie Fields. Starring J. Thaddeus Toad, the owner of the famous Toad Hall, Mr. Toad is shown to be well-meaning but reckless and ultimately succumbs to his numerous obsessions. Consequently, he has a reputation for causing a large amount of property damage and thus acquiring a large amount of debt. This time, he develops an obsession for motorcars (or “motormania” as he calls it), and it drives him to trade Toad Hall for a new shiny car. When his recklessness leads him to jail, his friends must break him out of jail to clear his name. Meanwhile, Bing Crosby narrates The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which stars a lanky, gluttonous schoolmaster named Ichabod Crane, who is new to the town of Sleepy Hollow, New York. He immediately falls for the wealthiest woman in Sleepy Hollow, Katrina Van Tassel. Ichoabod competes with Abraham “Brom Bones” Van Brunt, a roguish hero and bully, for her affection, but Crane ends up biting more than he can chew and finds himself facing the Headless Horseman on Halloween night.
The premiere for The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was held in New York on April 20, 1946. It would later be released nationwide on August 15. It earned nearly $1.6 million in box office rentals worldwide, helping that it was the first Disney feature released after World War II. Critics universally praised the narration by Gracie Fields [2] and Bing Crosby alongside the voice acting, music, and animation for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Critics treated the animation for The Wind In The Willows more harshly because it, unlike Sleepy Hollow, started production as a full-length feature. Also worth noting was that critics and audiences saw the humor in the first segment as kid-oriented compared to the broader appealing humor in the second segment. The two featurettes would be re-released separately in the 1950s, and Disney would not pair them together again until Ichabod and Mr. Toad premiered on home video in 1996 for its 50th anniversary. The Headless Horseman sequence of Ichabod became one of the darkest and most iconic sequences in animation history. The Ichabod segment as a whole eventually grew into a Halloween staple.
Voice Cast:
- Gracie Fields as the Narrator of The Wind in the Willows
- Eric Blore as J. Thaddeus Toad
- J. Pat O'Malley as Cyril Proudbottom
- John McLeish (John Ployardt) as the Prosecuting Attorney
- Colin Campbell as Mole
- Campbell Grant as Angus MacBadger
- Claud Allister as Water Rat
- Oliver Wallace as Mr. Winkle
- Bing Crosby as the Narrator of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Brom Bones.
- Jerry Colona as Ichabod Crane
- Andy Russell as Ichabod Crane’s singing voice and the male villagers
- Dinah Shore as Katrina Van Tassel and the female villagers
[2] She was actually signed on before dropping out and being replaced with Basil Rathbone IOTL per The Vindicator
The music is pretty much the same as OTL except that the Rythymaries aren’t singing for Sleepy Hollow as they don’t exist yet as a group. I decided to replace Basil Rathbone as Gracie Fields signed on to narrate first and to give Bing Crosby an even bigger foil as a narrator for Wind In The Willows. And all three segments are produced IOTL in some capacity.
It’ll start that way but whether or not it remains that way I will keep secret.
In the meantime, here is a poll:
strawpoll.com
I ask because I'm still not fully sure who should voice him. I know someone suggested Cliff Edwards as he's the analog to Jiminy Cricket here. But at the same time, his design and personality more closely resemble Winnie The Pooh IOTL, hence Sterling Holloway. His zaniness and demeanor align with the March Hare; thus, I also listed Jerry Colonna in addition to hares and rabbits being in the same family.
Who Should Voice Roger Rabbit In Future Disney Projects? - Online Poll - StrawPoll
What's your opinion? Vote now: Cliff Edwards, Jerry Colonna, Sterling Holloway, Other (explain)...
strawpoll.com
I ask because I'm still not fully sure who should voice him. I know someone suggested Cliff Edwards as he's the analog to Jiminy Cricket here. But at the same time, his design and personality more closely resemble Winnie The Pooh IOTL, hence Sterling Holloway. His zaniness and demeanor align with the March Hare; thus, I also listed Jerry Colonna in addition to hares and rabbits being in the same family.
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Personally I feel like Holloway would work more as a narrator rather than voicing a Jiminy Cricket type mascot, and for Colonna his zany performance as the March Hare IOTL wouldn't really work with a mascot character, assuming if Roger Rabbit's personality is akin to that of Jiminy's. So I'm voting Cliff Edwards.