The Night of the Headless Horseman

So, me and my friend went out to hire a video and we found this one. We read about it and it sounded really cool, they were bragging about how good the FX was and that it was really scary.

OK so we hired it and started watching... First i thought that the beginning was some kind of lame intro that someone had made in like 2 hours of work and that the movie should begin soon. But when i realized that this was in fact the movie and that it really was this ugly i almost laughed until i started to cry.

It looked like a bad intro for some game from 1993! I'm not kidding, this movie was uglier and the characters moved more unnatural than in any game release after Doom II. The story is about sleepy hollow and after the movie there were some additional footage from behind the scenes. I got really shocked when i saw that they called themselves experts and that they said something about how this movie should set the standards for the next coming 3d animated movies, NO WAY!

There have been much better 3d animated movies released YEARS ago! Even Eric Schwarz 2d animations from 1990 is much MUCH better than this!

So i warn you! don't hire this movie because it's a waste of time and a waste of money. The only good thing was that on the backside of the movie it said that it should be 1h30minutes... but it was like 50m only, and that was good, because i would not want to waste another 40m on that crap!

The teacher Ichabod Crane arrives at Sleepy Hollow town and immediately falls in love with Katrina Van Tassel. Ichabold is intelligent, but weak and coward, and he finds a competitor, the strong Brom Bones that has been wooing Katrina for a long time. Soon begins a competition between the two men for Katrina, but Ichabold's greatest problem is the Headless Horseman that haunts him.

"The Night of the Headless Horseman" is an animation about the classic tale "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" but with a different conclusion that is not clear. It seems that Bones made a deal with the Headless Horseman to get rid off Ichabod Crane. Unfortunately in Brazil this animation was only released in a dubbed VHS, and the viewer loses the original voices in English. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "A Noite do Cavaleiro Sem Cabeça" ("The Night of the Headless Horseman")

This a classic retelling of Irving Washingtons "The Headless Horseman" story. William H. Macy as Icabob Crane was a darn good choice in my opinion because he actually sounded like the way I always visulized Crane sounding like. I love computer animation too but this piece felt a bit awkwardly put together to me. It was like they never really took the time to place the body movements of the chracters in a beat that matched the pace their voices were going. Their mouths weren't moving at the pace their voices were going either. This the only real problem I have with this little movie. Otherwise it's pretty good. They background was dark and convincing, but wasn't designed to scare little children off. I give this movie a 8 out of 10.

The dialog and "acting" was pretty normal, and what one would expect out of a close adaptation from Washington Irving's book. I liked it, specially Ichabod's voice, it's supposed to be that way I think, somewhat pretentious and assuming because his character is that way, he's a schoolmaster! I admit, the animation could have been better, but as an animator myself (since 1998), I can tell you firsthand that this is not a cheap production, and it seems to me that this was done under a year, which would mean to me that they really did a great job at rendering all that in less than 365 days. All the digital characters were from actual performers done with motion capture, so... trust me, this was not your typical kid with a new computer. This was a heavy project, and I watch it very often, I taped it on it's first airing and I was not disappointed, you'd think that if I we're a sleepy hollow fanatic I'd get my hopes up and be disappointed, but... I am a Sleepy Hollow fanatic, and this TV special did meet my requirements for entertaining storytelling. I just forget about the occasional jerkiness (it was 1999 for god's sake), and enjoy the ambiance it creates.

P.S. You gotta give them credit for the scenery, the sound and the hair... the HAIR!!! And most of all, for the story adaptation itself.

Terrible film. Looks like a bad game or intro to a game, the people doesn't look alive. The new "Sleepy Hollow" is a much better choice. The story is not very good. The movie is stated to be 1.30 hours, but was somewhere like 55 minutes.