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» » The Night of the Headless Horseman (1999)

Short summary

In this classic tale based on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Ichabod Crane, the town's new schoolmaster, is instantly enamored with Katrina Van Tassel, but he must compete for her love with Brom Bones, who will stop at nothing to win her. Ichabod thinks that Brom is his biggest obstacle, but to his surprise, there is someone -- or something -- else out there who will change his life forever.

User reviews


  • comment
    • Author: Andriodtargeted
    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")
  • comment
    • Author: Kigul
    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!
  • comment
    • Author: INwhite
    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.
  • comment
    • Author: Manazar
    What a great take on the classic tale. The CGI is a great addition to it and I think it makes things better. The story follows like any of the other adaptations. But it seems better than all the rest. It has great action and the CGI is very well done. Overall, very good movie. A must see.
  • comment
    • Author: Opilar
    Sometimes i like to watch B-movies because its fun to see bad actors and bad effect just for fun.but....... I saw this movie Manny years ago when it come out, it whats a big CHOCK to me.

    I Didn't know a movie can be so bad! and boring to watch.

    The story is boring, its look like a bad game from 1984? It whats a painful to watch this. be care.

    I cant believe some people voted +++ for this movie They must know some1 who made this crap movie.

    So don't waste your time to see this crap. You never got it back. i hope this guys never made a film again.
  • comment
    • Author: Hbr
    **May Contain Spoilers**

    I never thought a network would ever show anything worthwhile so this winner came as a pleasant surprise. The over-familiar story is told via computer animation this time with the voices of William H. Macy as gawky schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, Luke Perry as big Brom Bones, and Clancy Brown as "The Tale Teller" who feeds the folk story to Washington Irving. Tia Carrere supplies the voice of Katrina Van Tassel and the bodice-busting rack on the on-screen Katrina surpasses that of Tia herself. (In one scene, Brom Bones sneaks up behind Katrina and puts his hands over her eyes. There's something wrong with this boy!) Other delights include characters freaky and geeky enough to rival Mr. Crane, inbred-looking schoolboys, a bloody battle scene, ghastly mutilated ghouls and ghosts in a graveyard, a haunted forest and, of course, the fearsome phantom of the title. The computer graphics made the picture so real I felt like I could walk into it, and I don't even have one of those new-fangled high-resolution TVs. The networks should concentrate more on stuff like this, and less on their usual tripe; and hopefully this will become a perennial favorite just as RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER is at Christmastime.
  • comment
    • Author: tamada
    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.
  • comment
    • Author: Silverbrew
    This movie had some of the worst computer animation ever. Sure, I didn't expect the movie to have as great animation as A Bug's Life, but I still expected this TV movie to have decent effects. Yet, once again, TV has disappointed me. The voices for the movie were totally miscast. The only convincing voice of the animated film was that of the narrator, voiced by Clancy Brown. The way Ichabod and Brom Bones looked was awful, especially Brom Bones. They were such atrocious designs. But the worst design of all was that of the Hessian/Headless Horseman when he had a head. Come on! Give us a facial feature a little more frightening than some bald guy with an extremely fat head. Ugh! The cast was absolutely wasted. Everyone had the worst dialogue. The worst part of the film was the "shock" ending. It was incredibly cheesy. The only part of the film that was half-decent was the beginning scene, where the Headless Horseman decapitated a frightened villager in the woods. The music was horrible and the directing was bad. The film destroyed a great story. This atrocious movie just makes me want to see the upcoming Sleepy Hollow movie all the more, which is also based on the Washington Irving story...well, sort of. I'm sure that movie will get it right, unlike this horrible little film. If you were waiting to see this movie on Fox and missed it, believe me, you didn't miss much.
  • comment
    • Author: Briciraz
    Half the artist on this production now work for Pixar and Image Works. 60 % of most 30 second commercial spots have more time and a bigger budget back then in 1998. It is what it is. Bad production with a great story. The 10 guys on this project killed themselves and I was proud of them none the less and we learn allot about what not to do and who not to trust. Everything that most people have said about this movie is true. Look at Ninja Toy on youtube.com. That was created with two artist and myself in 2 weeks. You live and you learn... sometimes the hard way. Ouch.

    SW
  • comment
    • Author: Reighbyra
    I saw this movie on video over Halloween and I have to say... it's not bad! It's obviously not the caliber of Toy Story or anything like that, but for a made-for-TV movie and the year it was made (when computer animation was really beginning to spread out more than just Pixar), i thought it told the story well and the animation was great considering the year.

    I enjoyed it and I would recommend it for a fun night with the kids around Halloween. It is cute and entertaining and you gotta love the voice cast... William H. Macy and Clancy Brown... two of my favorites! Anyhow, this one has my stamp of approval if you're looking for something you can enjoy with the kids... it's good and clean!
  • comment
    • Author: Bladebringer
    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.
  • comment
    • Author: Anardred
    The animation to this film was not the usual animation. It looks like something out of a bad Blair Witch video game. Obviously, it was not intended for the animation to look real, otherwise it would have been done much better. The dialogue is terribly horrid and stupid and there is some completely unfunny "humor".

    The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is told somewhat more accurately than in the wonderful SLEEPY HOLLOW only because they stick more to the story, keeping Ichabod Crane as the school teacher. The voice casting is not really all that good of choices, as William H. Macy plays Ichabod (this is a big difference compared to the great Johnny Depp playing him in SLEEPY HOLLOW).

    I do not recommend this movie unless you are looking for a family-friendly version of SLEEPY HOLLOW. This is not a high recommendation, but then again, I have seen worse films...

    NIGHT OF THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN gets 2/5.
  • comment
    • Author: Maveri
    My kids love it, the story is the best and the look adds to the creepy look of the animation. My kids have watched this on VSH every Halloween. The story is the real story with a twist. Not like all the new crap where Hollywood thinks they can out write a world famous classic writer like W. Irving. I mean please... They write scripts....not historical classics... big difference. All these new version are someone trying to show how they can outdo a master story teller. Its just silly. Make the film, let the books do the talking. I love the classic tales and they are a classic for a reason. They became masterpieces the hard way.
  • Credited cast:
    Jeff Bennett Jeff Bennett - Baltus Van Tassell / Washington Irving (voice)
    Clancy Brown Clancy Brown - Hessian Trooper (voice)
    Tia Carrere Tia Carrere - Katrina Van Tassel (voice)
    Debi Derryberry Debi Derryberry - Mrs. Van Ripper (voice)
    Bill Fagerbakke Bill Fagerbakke - Dolphus (voice)
    Mark Hamill Mark Hamill - Van Ripper (voice)
    William H. Macy William H. Macy - Ichabod Crane (voice)
    Luke Perry Luke Perry - Brom Bones (voice)
    Shawn Pyfrom Shawn Pyfrom - Schoolboy (voice)
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