The Night of the Headless Horseman review

 The animation's crappy: 3 word review.

Full review...

Years ago, I covered The Haunted Pumpkin of Sleepy Hollow, one of many animated movies geared out by Porchlight Entertainment in the 2000s. Constant viewings and getting through revisits had made me a fan of it.

In it I teased the existence of a movie that came out before. For a lack of better ideas for Halloween-themed reviews, I figured I'd retrieve this from the depths of the forgotten (forgotten by my standards, people have reviewed this before me.)

History

The Night of the Headless Horseman was produced and aired on Fox in 1999. Around this time they began airing holiday specials, with the previous one being Ollie the Other Reindeer which doesn't leave as good of a taste as it did back then for me. Or maybe I'm just grumpy.

The movie was directed by Shane Williams, as one of the only films to his credit, the other being a documentary in relation to UFO sightings in Stephenville. He had more credits as an animator, one of which includes for Barney and Friends (and I don't think it's cool to hate it anymore, I believe a former victim of BlackBusterCritic resurfaced and got away with a documentary.) though he also did work on Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius having also did work on an old Steve Oedekerk special beforehand and Sausage Party.

Apparently he also did work on Last Ounce of Courage, I think Cinema Snob covered it and I haven't seen him in a long time, but him going full banana sandwich on a political basis is sounding legit. But back on that he also worked as an assistant editor. Since he's credited for that and the animation department it's safe to say it's the same guy. To round out his work, he got his start on Werewolf, which was covered in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

This was the only credit to its animation studio, Computer Animated Technologies, and I assume Williams helmed that. The only other company credited to this aside from Fox is Cinematek Productions. They were based in Texas and were supposedly active until 2014, primarily producing advertisements. Given the correlation between Cinematek's location, Williams' involvement in that documentary and his potential conservative lean, I'm gonna assume this movie was produced entirely in Texas.

Given that this was during an era where CGI was considered cutting edge, big names were secured for this movie. We have William H. Macy as Ichabod Crane, Clancy Brown and Bill Fagerbake are in this together, and I was willing to guess this was another Campfire Stories type meeting between both, but SpongeBob SquarePants was already out. Luke Perry was in this too, and he seemed to be willing to do anything, from this, to starring in a low-budget movie put out by York Entertainment and Maverick Entertainment Group (code for, releasing anything for a quick buck)

Only other actors I recognize are Debby Derryberry (who I assume to have been based in Texas at the time as she starred in another Texan production Jay Jay the Jet Plane), Jeff Bennett (at least it's not Charlie Adler) and Mark Hamill. It aired in 1999, had been released on VHS but thankfully isn't lost.

Plot

After getting an implication the animators were proud of how they did the background (alright they use this to show the opening credits, guess that's why), like Haunted Pumpkin, this begins as someone is getting chased and promptly slain by the Headless Horseman. While not as awkward as Ichabod in Haunted Pumpkin, the guy here has a bigger ass in this movie. Admittedly there's no holes to the guy getting slain, he's ran to the point of exhaustion and moves according to how much energy he has left, that's actually a pretty nice sense of attention to detail.

However, unlike Haunted Pumpkin where the means of Ichabod's death was shown, it cuts just as the blade of the Horseman's sword strikes the neck. You could say this was aimed for a younger audience, but we see blood, a puddle of it. Maybe it's the lesser of two evils and the implication is kept, but unlike people who freak out over something being too extreme for kids, I know where I stand. Oh, and we see the Horseman part with Ichabod's head in hand.

On one hand, it's not wise to start your story toward the end because it kills any suspense you might have. On the other, it'd show faith in people who know about the gothic horror tale and perhaps the story, characters and motives could affect your perception of the ending. Back to Haunted Pumpkin, if you hadn't heard of the original story, Ichabod's death is meant to showcase the plot of the gothic horror and establish his motives. This is just a near retelling. I was gonna guess the man was Ichabod, but I could be wrong.

Speaking of retelling, we get our framework, where two men are discussing the events of the killing, and there is a twist, I'll save it for later. And in case you didn't get the idea at first, you're given backstory on the Headless Horseman, and, hate to bring it up again, Haunted Pumpkin did this as well. I don't know why I'm bringing it up when nobody knows what I'm talking about, but nobody ever comments so, screw it. I'd question if Hessian Mercenary is redundant since Hessian coincide with German soldiers who aided the British army, but I could be wrong.

After the catch-up, we meet Ichabod (Who looks like an ancestor to Hugh Neutron. I'm starting to think me bringing up Williams' participation on Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is more than just a piece of trivia)

Just look at that chin.

Anyway, Ichabod is riding alongside Hans Van Ripper. I'm not entirely familiar with the original tale, but something tells me his name is a giveaway. All that occurs from here is banter in regards to Sleepy Hollow's history in regards to slayings, leading up to that of the Headless Horseman. Thankfully we don't get a retread here, but an idea of a path he favors.

Katrina Van Tassle is soon brought up, and I had to bring her up by name because she does have significance in the original story, nothing much, aside from being a key driving force that I'm close to spoiling. Anyway, it seems this was either not made for kids or the writers had too much faith in them, Katrina has cleavage, and I should be thankful I don't use Twitter anymore.

Along with her, we are introduced to Brom Bones, and are given an additional idea on whom will get the dominos to fall. Brom's convincing in terms of his performance, he can pull off someone who's on the spot and desperate to save face in front of a girl he likes, but Katrina sounds forced. It's no wonder I never heard of the actress that played her. Ichabod arrives, and immediately Katrina favors him, though something tells me she wants to get Brom off her hands. If the best way to get to a man's heart is through his stomach, poetry is the best way to get to a woman's heart through her brain.

What seems like needless padding in the form of bickering between Ichabod and Brom works to establish their dynamic. Ichabod and Katrina solidify their bond with a performance of Amazing Grace, and I'm thankful this is taking place in Sleepy Hollow and not Harmony (Night Visions reference, plugging an underrated series)

After dinner at her home, we get more insight to the Headless Horseman, and everyone knows these creatures come during the dark, which is what this warning amounts to here, also Ichabod may even be an ancestor to Shaggy Rogers, food comes to mind stronger than the warning he receives.

Anyway, speaking of random cartoon characters, Bill Fagerbake comes in as Dolphus, and while he was able to mask his better known voice when he acted in Jumanji: The Animated Series, here, it sounds like Patrick Star trying to be dramatic. And once more we get a discussion on the Headless Horseman. We have a lot of different perspectives, but they only truly work with different interpretations. Sure it's told differently each time, but it coincides with one common interpretation. Now sure these tellings aren't for nothing, but I guess they wanted to try and make it to an hour with commercials however they could, though this time they lay the hessian terminology redundancy to rest, even if they throw in a definition of a mercenary. Oh, and while they're too afraid to show someone's head getting chopped off, they sure aren't afraid of showing someone getting shot and stabbed. Priorities.

Sidenote, the Horseman pre-headless is voiced by Jeff Bennett. If you had to pick someone to do a faux German accent, I guess he was the best option, and I appreciate them trying to keep with the original tale. You can't give a Hessian a British accent. By the way, the guy that was stabbed was responsible for beheading the Horseman, done by cannon. And take back what I said about being too afraid to show the head being removed, we barely get a glimpse of it happening here. So with a proper establishment of the Horseman's motives, the tale ends with Ichabod wanting a kiss, and an implication of where a commercial would be placed on initial broadcasts.

Brom creeps in to creep on Katrina, and his presence causes a plate to shatter (you could say low data real estate might've prevented them from simulating the effect), but shattering had been possible since The Christmas Light in 1995, and even here during a second break. I blame poor modeling for ruining the illusion. Brom comes off less as someone violent and willing to carry out a crime, and more as someone who's pathetic at best. Either setting up for a twist, or a tragic villain origin story.

To Ichabod, we learn that back then there were 13 states, can you name three? We get an allusion to populating the land to the west and the fear many had of doing so in the first place. Now let's see, Chaz, Portland, California... I say just stay away from the west coast. Though it seems Ichabod fears Iowa, hey I feel ya, that's where Quinton Reviews comes from. If Iowa's untamed, Missouri's schizophrenic (it's a southern state yet it's set within the midwest.)

Brom messes with Ichabod, and we get the scariest thing in this movie. Debby Derryberry. Okay I'm effing with ya, she's not scary, but this is meant to test Ichabod's courage to likely keep him from Katrina. But it doesn't work and he's told who actually did what was done done (that wasn't a typo by the way.) Brom confronts Ichabod, threatening him to stay away from Katrina, and it's jarring from when he was just messing with him, though it seems his threats have no true weight to them. Brom is shunned by Katrina's father and Ichabod is considered his best option for a suitor to Katrina.

Hijinks ensue as Brom attempts to suffocate Ichabod and everyone at church with smoke. Though this is meant to clear all but Ichabod out as Brom arrives disguised as the Headless Horseman to scare him, and it works, but he gets knocked out and that deal went the way of the hessian mercenary, or so I thought. With the idea that Katrina may settle for Ichabod, Brom wants to confront him as the Headless Horseman, knowing that he'd believe what he sees. But this turns out to be a setup for Brom summoning the demon himself, no doubt with a grim price to pay.

After an admittedly decent nightmare scene, Ichabod is visited by Dolphus who pitches a faux invite from Katrina to lure him to the Headless Horseman's breeding ground, and that would've been too obvious, so such an event actually happens. Nothing more to say about the party other than that the lighting's so muddy a violinist looks like he's playing with air. For the next few minutes we see Ichabod and Katrina dance, okay it's not the most awkward thing in this movie, the movement's good enough, you don't need to rub it in.

After this, Ichabod meets with the males to discuss stories, as specified with what the party involves, though this is used as a ploy to keep Ichabod away from Katrina, and guess what? It's another tale in relation to the Headless Horseman. As Ichabod is shown out of the manor by Katrina's frankly indecisive father, a run-in is imminent. Suspense is performed, dialog is made and... something comes of it. Even a long chase scene isn't a bad thing here because suspense is maintained. But then you hear Ichabod declare a plea for sanctuary, and if you remember Haunted Pumpkin, or better yet the original tale, you know how it'd end for him.

At this point, the death of Ichabod threw a spike in my spokes. It's something you have to see to believe. If you thought the animation was decent up until now, this seemed like it was finished last and within a few minutes.

Now about that twist. First off, Brom actually manages to wed Katrina, and that deal he made with the Horseman brought him to the grave. Now for the twist, the storyteller was, in fact, the Headless Horseman himself. Apparently the Headless Horseman is a bit egotistical as he had to explain himself multiple times, and, get this, the man he told the story to was Washington Irving. I haven't seen something this meta... ever really, so good on them.

Animation

The animation's crappy... but not to the extent you imagine. It was okay for the time, nothing outside of the movies really topped this. There seemed to have been some ambition when this movie was made, they used their tools to whatever extent they could. Unlike Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa where it was clearly cobbled together within hours, unlike The Christmas Light where it was made in only the second year CG became streamlined, unlike The Littlest Light on the Christmas Tree where it's just low budget against a good story, it seemed like time was put into this.

But obviously the animation holds up poorly nowadays, such is the way with 90s computer animation. While traditional is timeless, CG reflects the power of computers at the time. An aura is present with the animation however, and it mostly goes with the more horrific aspects of the movie, but it seems close to the finish-line they either ran out of time or stopped caring.

Halloween specials are the perfect places to have dated CG animation, it could amplify the unnerving nature of their movies. I mean unless it's Where the Dead Go to Die where it's all just sheer desperation.

Overall

It's a shame the animation held up poorly, because this actually had a decent story. William H. Macy did great as Ichabod, and he had been known for lesser roles since then. The others should go without saying, they can pull through no matter what. The animation admittedly adds to the atmosphere, it looks so creepy and lends wonderfully to a sense of dread that increases as the movie goes on.

For a low-profile studio in their one and only hurrah, it wasn't too bad at all, and I'm glad the director found some form of work after this. Compared to Haunted Pumpkin, both stand on their own, Haunted Pumpkin is fun for kids, while this is what you'd go for if you want a grimmer tale, well in terms of animation past the 30s-40s.