Legendary Short Story turned Disney Movie

Tonight, I revisited my childhood. I sat down with my son and we watched the Disney movie "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". It was great to sit down and watch a movie that I watched as a child with my 5 year old son. He was enthralled! His eyes never left the screen. I had seen this movie a few times as a child but it is interesting the way that things are interpreted differently as an adult. As a child, I thought this movie was merely a scary Halloween movie. Now that I have read the actual story, I find it amazing the way that Disney was able to turn the story into a Halloween movie for children. It was really pretty cool. Most of the movie was an accurate portrayal of the story by Washington Irving. However, I do not believe that when he wrote it he intended for it to be a Halloween movie. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Halloween wasn't even celebrated when the story was written.

Another interesting tidbit was the way the made Ichabod and Brom Bones look. When I read the story, I could not recall what the characters in the movie that I had seen as a child looked like. After viewing the movie again, I chuckled at the appearances of the main characters. To me, Ichabod looked like a frail old man and Brom looked like a dumb jock that was in his 30's. And Katrina..... Well let's just say I expected her to be much more beautiful than that. She looked like a little Danish girl who was ready to go out and milk the cows. Ichabod was certainly not someone you would expect a girl to be swooned by.

All in all, It was a cute movie and I was glad that I had the opportunity to watch it again. It was also pretty neat to be able to share the experience with my son. I tried explaining to him that the movie was a book before it was a movie, kind of like "The Cat in the Hat" was a book before they made the movie. He wanted to hear the story so I began reading it to him. After about the sixth paragraph and no pictures, he said, "it's ok Mommy, you can stop now. I get what you are saying." I guess it just proves that books aren't really just books anymore.

Children's books titled after the famous Sleepy Hollow story

After watching the "Sleepy Hollow" tv show, I was excited to find out what other "spin-offs" there were! So, I went to the library at the school where I work. I found a few different books by Washington Irving but only one book that wasn't the exact "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" story. It was a book titled "The Headless Horseman Rides Tonight- More Poems to Trouble Your Sleep" by Jack Prelutsky. It is a book of poems geared toward children. The poems are a little on the scary side from a child's point of view but I thought that each different poem offered a different perspective on the Headless Horseman. It also provided a variety of types of poems. They didn't all rhyme and I thought that was great. Many times, children feel that all poems have to rhyme but this book shows them that a poem can still be interesting and catch a reader's attention without rhyming. The last poem in the book is called "The Headless Horseman". It is the most similar to the story written by Washington Irving but still has a uniqueness about it that makes it interesting. I can't wait to see what else I find in other libraries!

Can a book really be a tv show?

I just finished watching the first few episodes of the tv version of Sleepy Hollow. It had many of the same characters as the short story but it was made modern by adding many modern day elements. It goes like this: Ichabod, who has been dead since 1781 after decapitating the Headless Horseman, awakens in the town of Sleepy Hollow, New York. He is accused of decapitating the local sheriff and is arrested. The only police officer who believes he is innocent sends him to a cave and he is resurrected. He finds an old bible that is marked at Revelation 6:8 and that leads him to believe the headless horseman is the horseman named Death. After having a dream in which his wife tells him that the horseman's head is buried at her grave and if he doesn't find it before the horseman does, his power will return and bring about the Apocalypse, Ichabod and Lieutenant Abbie Mills race to the grave to recover the head. Officer Andy Brooks, who is collaborating with the horseman, also leads him there. Ichabod beats them there and recovers the head and the horseman flees as the sun comes up. Andy was arrested by Abbie and was later killed in his cell by a demon before Ichabod and Abbie have a chance to question him. And that was just the first episode.....

The next episode was a little less involved. Ichabod has another dream where his wife, Katrina tells him of things he needs to prevent from happening. Abbie is assigned to work with Ichabod and they break into the secure archives where the investigation of the sheriff's death is located. This is where Ichabod realizes he is supposed to stop the resurrection of Serilda of Abadon. The demon who killed Andy brings him back to life to help revive Serilda so that she can use the ashes of the descendants who killed her to restore her power. Abbie and Ichabod realize that she has completed the resurrection but are able to kill her again with old explosives found in the tunnel the used to break into the archives. Serilda tells Ichabod that his wife's soul is trapped in a "world between worlds" and Abbie has a dream where the sheriff tells her not to be afraid of 49. 49 ends up being the room number at the mental facility where her sister Jenny lives.

I do see some of the same elements of the story here but the modern twist makes it seem a lot less like the original story. At first I wasn't sure I would like it but I am kind of excited to watch the next episode. Even though I don't think it is anything like the real story, I do think it is interesting.

Books aren't just books anymore

Many great books have been written throughout history. I, for one, am not an avid reader like some. However, I have enjoyed a few selections I have read recently in my American Literature class. I have thoroughly enjoyed the stories I have read by Washington Irving. I have found that once I get into a book, I love it and can't put it down. The problem is finding the time to "get into a book".

Because of this class I have found that I have no choice but to make time for reading. My first "really enjoyable" reading from this class was "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving. I had always heard people use the name Rip Van Winkle but I had never actually read, or heard, the story of Rip Van Winkle. While reading the story, I felt like I was reading a story about my parents. My dad is so laid back and easy going. He never meets a stranger and people generally like him from the time they meet him. My mom, whom I love very much, is much like Dame Van Winkle. She is a control freak and it seems that she is never satisfied with anything my dad does. One day, my dad decided to cut a few trees down that were getting ready to fall down at the edge of the woods. He and a friend began to take the trees down but his friend had to leave before they got the last tree cut down. My dad decided he could do it himself..... Bad idea! When he was cutting the tree, it started falling towards him. He ran. It fell on top of him. Luckily, he escaped with a broken thumb, a few broken ribs, and stitches in his head.

After sharing the story of Rip Van Winkle with my parents, my mom laughed and said, "Well, your dad went to the woods to escape from my harshness but instead of falling asleep for several years and coming back to life after I died, all he got was injuries! I guess that'll teach him to try and get away from me! Haha" I found it very ironic that as I was reading this story, the first thing that came to mind was that incident in the woods with my dad and the first thing that came to my mom's mind was the same thing. I guess that means she admits to being a nagging wife!

When I finished Rip Van Winkle, I was excited to read the next selection by Washington Irving. So, I read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Again, I was reminded of an earlier time. I was in third grade and my entire class got "A's" on our spelling tests so we were rewarded with watching the Disney movie The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I remember being captivated by the movie. I was so scared of the headless horseman but couldn't take my eyes off of the television. We weren't allowed to watch the entire movie in one day so we had to stop halfway through it and continue the next day. I couldn't wait to go to school that next day to see what happened.

When I finished reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, I remembered hearing about a new show on tv called "Sleepy Hollow". So, I decided to go online and look it up. I was amazed at the number of different "Sleepy Hollow" movies that were out there. I guess it just proves that Washington Irving was a great writer and at least one of his books was film-worthy. I know I was impressed!