Headscratchers / The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

• Why did the barkeeper character lie on the witness stand about the contract? He could only lose by that. If he'd told the truth, Toad would have been exonerated for the theft charge, but the barkeeper would have had full legal right to Toad Hall - it was a binding contract - so he would have come out on top. Instead, by lying he put himself in a lose-lose-situation: he'd denied the existence of the contract on the stand, so his inhabiting Toad Hall would eventually exonerate Toad, and make Toad get back Toad Hall.
  • Because he was the real motor-car thief, and Toad was the perfect fall guy for the crime. Everyone was aware of Toad's borderline-insane obsession with motor cars, and had reason to believe he'd get one at any cost, even if it was theft. Thus, Winkie would be free of all accusations.
• During the Headless Horseman song, Ichabod's got a pile of... pink mush on his plate. What was that supposed to be? Mashed potatoes? Hasty pudding?
  • It's gelatin dessert. The story is set in 1790 and the dessert was around as early as 1747.
• Also, how DID Toad manage to get out of his cell unnoticed? Yes, he's Disguised in Drag, but unlike the book, there's no reason for a woman to be hanging around a prison cell.
  • Maybe the prison guards thought it was a conjugal visit?
  • In the original book (and early versions of the film) the jailer thought he was a washer woman visiting the jail.
  • He swapped places with Cyril, who was wearing an identical costume. Never mind how the guards overlooked that "Granny Toad" had shrunken from horse-size to toad-size while visiting her "grandson", or how Cyril got out of the cell after Toad had left...
• In the court scene, with the conflicting testimony between Cyril and Mr. Winkie's events of the Car case, and with the court believing Mr. Winkie's story, shouldn't Cyril have gotten in trouble for perjury?
  • Cyril's testimony was a secondhand account since he stayed outside the pub when Toad went inside to make the deal. The court would've assumed that Toad had lied to Cyril about what happened, which means his testimony doesn't qualify for perjury.
• It wasn't necessary to get the deed. The very presence of the Weasels in Toad Hall confirms the Defense's story.
  • The deed was necessary because it contained Mr. Winkie's signature, proving Toad and Cyril were telling the truth and that Winkie lied on the stand.
• Crane briefly looks down the collar of the Headless Horseman, and shivers as it laughs up at him. What did he see, and what produced the laugh?
  • The fact that you don't know how it's produced makes the laugh even more terrifying.
  • Probably the top of his neck. The Horseman can laugh anyway because he is a ghost/specter. The Brom theory was Jossed in Once Upon a Studio.

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