The Headless Horseman
We all know Walt Disney’s iconic and masterful version of the Washington Irving short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in the 1940’s. But time has forgotten that 15 years before the Disney version another good and underappreciate take on the story was made. "The Headless Horseman" was created by the legendary animator Ub Iwerks through his animation studio during the 1930's. It was part of his Comicolor series that used for its films the Cinecolor process, which rendered the colors in a two color process of Reds and Cyans as opposed to the full three way color process of Technicolor. This was done as a consequence of Walt having an exclusive contract for a few years with Technicolor much to his competitors' dismay. This is why you only see colors in the red and blue scheme but not with the green hues included. If you know the Iwerks universe then you will know it is an extension of the Disney style which he helped designed and animate, only zanier and crazier than the former. Chuck Jones said it best of his time under him when he said Iwerks is backwards for screwy. As such Iwerk’s adaptation of the story is not a dramatic and scary retelling of the tale but rather a comedy with jackassery humor which comfortably runs in the animator’s backyard.
