Directed by: James Algar & Clyde Geronimi
Written by: Kenneth Grahame
Music by: Frank Churchill & Oliver
Wallace
Released on: October 5, 1949
Running Time: 75 minutes
Budget: $
Box-Office: $ in the U.S., $ million worldwide
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Narrator... Basil Rathbone
Mr. Toad... Eric Blore
Cyril Proudbottom... Pat O'Malley
Prosecutor... John McLeish
Mole... Colin Campbell
Angus MacBadger ... Campbell Grant
Rat... Claud Allister
Winky... Ollie Wallace
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"The Wind in the Willows" is a concise version of Kenneth Grahame's story
of "The Wind in the Willows" (1908). In the story, J. Thaddeus Toad, owner
of Toad Hall, is prone to fads, such as the newfangled motor car.This desire
for the very latest fads lands J. Thaddeus Toad in much trouble with the
wrong crowd, and it is up to his friends, Mole, Rat and Badger to save
him from himself.
Kenneth Grahame was born Mar. 8, 1859 and died July 6, 1932. He was a Scottish
author best known for this classic which he completed in 1908. He wrote
the book for his only son, Alastair, while Kenneth was serving as a secretary
of the Bank of England. He wrote only three other books: Pagan Papers (1893),
personal essays that reflect his private frustrations, and the short-story
collections The Golden Age (1895) and Dream Days (1898). Noted for its
graceful charm, this book reveals the conflict between Grahame's aristocratic
background and the new social concerns.
The major theme of the story is the struggle between the noisy, common
way of life and the quiet and genteel. The Wild Wooders, including the
stoats and the weasels, epitomize the former, while the River-Bankers,
including Badger, Mole, Rat, and Toad, represent the latter. Toad is a
lovable rebel who does not fit well into either camp. Structurally, the
fantasy is a small epic in prose paralleling to some degree the events
in Homer's Odyssey.
Mr.
Toad's Wild Ride premiered in California's Disneyland on July 17, 1955.
Its refurbishment in 1983 included adding more room to the cramped floor
space, "Winkie's Pub" (with the spinning beer mugs), the real-working fountain,
the Prosector who yells "Guilty" as we go by, the prison, and a much more
demonic "Jaws of Hell" which includes the Prosecutor as the devil.
But in the October 22, 1997 edition of the Orlando Sentinel, Walt
Disney World sources revealed plans to close the Fantasyland staple Mr.
Toad's Wild Ride in favor of a trip through the Hundred Acre Woods with
Pooh and his friends. On October 23, 1997 a Save
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride campaign was launched, gathering a petition of
over 1,100 names to protest against closing the ride and distributing 13,000
free postcards to promote its cause. Unfortunately, Mr. Toad still
took his last Wild Ride in Florida on Monday, September 7, 1998. Disney
did not confirm this until less than a week before The Ride was scheduled
to close, "after lying to us for almost a year" states the campaign manager!
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