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The Night of the Headless Horseman
Features :
Color
NTSC
Directors :
Shane Williams
| Release Date: |
05 September, 2000 |
| Manufacturer: |
20th Century Fox |
| Availability: |
This item is currently not available. |
| List Price: |
$9.98 |
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 Customer Reviews 
It Was Visually Flawed and the Flaw Looks Even Bigger Today
Rating: 2
"The Night of the Headless Horseman" is the 3D animated version of Washington Irving's famous story, and this made-for-TV film follows the original story pretty faithfully. It also has interesting voice cast - William H. Macy as Ichabod Crane, Luke Perry as Brom Bones, Tia Carrere as Katrina Van Tassel, Mark Hamill as Van Ripper and Clancy Brown as Hessian Trooper, or the titular horseman.
However, you might find the film's visuals disappointing by the standard of today (I means, 2007). You know you cannot have the quality of Pixar here, but even so, the computer graphics of the film are not up to the standard we now expect. The characters' facial expressions fail to express their emotions even with the capable voice acting, and they sometimes move their limbs and heads very awkwardly.
I know time is not kind to the computer graphics (no one would say the same things about Disney's classic `Fantasia' created with traditional 2-D images), and probably it is not fair to complain. But this Washington Irving film is released in 1999, one year after `A Bug's Life `and two years before `Monsters Inc.' and if you compare the two films (both my favorite), you notice during three years we have seen tremendous technological progress in the field of CGI-based animations. Sadly "The Night of the Headless Horseman" seems to be unaware of the technologies in visuals, or - this is more serious - the tactful skills of storytelling and imaginative visual designs that these films are proud of.
Probably this film would have been better with more creative designs. The horse chase scenes at the climax are fairly thrilling, but the daytime scenes are sometimes terrible, especially the scenes of the kids in Ichabod's school, who look like badly sketched figures on the video games. Ichabod retains the original's image as lank person and "worthy pedagogue" as Irving wrote, but perhaps the filmmakers took the writer's words too literally as he wrote Katrina as a "plump" "country coquette."
The film's horseman claims `Any head will do,' but the fact is in animation that is not simply true. This animated film needs improved visual technology, or at least better storytelling and wild imagination.
Not a Bad Version
Rating: 4
As far as I know this only played on TV one time, back in 1999 and never played again. At least I don't remember it being on again. I picked this up on clearance at MediaPlay last year for $2.99 and it was well worth that. It is, of course a retelling of Washington Irving's first, great American Ghost story but updated with CGI computer animation. You know it isn't a kiddie movie when the Horseman attacks a poor night traveler right at the beginning which leaves and ever-expanding pool of blood.
The prominent cast featured William H. Macy as Ichabod Crane, Tia Carrere as Katrina Van TAssel, Mark Hamill as Van Ripper, Luke Perry as Brom Bones, and Clancy Brown. The animation was average as far as computer animation goes, I've seen worse but this was definitely not on the level of something done by Pixar or Dreamworks, that's for sure. The animation did do a good job of capturing the eerieness and general creepiness of the old New England Sleepy Hollow setting and the voice actors did a a credible job. All in all a pretty decent production, especially since it was made for TV.
Pretty good computer generated version
Rating: 4
If you are reading this, you probably know there are almost a dozen versions of this story on film. There are 4 fairly modern live action versions, a old silent film, about 4 that are traditional animation, 2 that are pictures from storybooks or paintings with narration, and this one that is 3 dimensional computer generated animation. This version was made as a television special. Fans of the original Washington Irving short story know the story very well, and grade it on a number of levels including -
Authentic atmosphere: the clothes and buildings fit the period very well, pretty authentic.
Actors or Voice characters: Very good here, including Mark Hamill, William Macey, Tia Carrere, and Luke Perry.
Spooky factor: Might be too spooky for some kids under 10, but spooky enough for the older crowd. Also the chase scenes and images of the headless horsmen are much longer than other versions.
Quality of visuals: Some people like or don't like the computer animation. The characters look a little stiff at times, it is definately not a $133 million Pixar movie. But the weirdness actually helps make it more creepy in the scarey parts.
Music: Pretty good.
Story/plot: This one follows the original story pretty well,it is entertaining.
Very fun story overall and I am glad I bought it.
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