It's Always an Adventure With Mr. Toad

In Arnold Lobel’s beloved Frog and Toad series, Frog is generally even-keeled, while Toad is passionate and impetuous. This seems to be a fairly common distinction. Kermit, known for his ability to sagely manage a theater full of loonies, is a frog. Then you have zany Mr. Toad, the wealthy troublemaker from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.

Mr. Toad doesn’t mean to make trouble. Really he doesn’t. But he brings it upon himself by being obsessed with the latest and greatest modes of transportation. He seeks adventure and doesn’t think much about the consequences. It’s a good thing he has some faithful friends to keep an eye on him.

In The Adventures of Mr. Toad, an adaptation of the Disney film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, this warty fellow’s obsession with riding about in his gypsy cart is leading to his financial ruin. He keeps breaking things while he tears recklessly down the road, and then he has to pay for them. The solution? Keep him quarantined. But you can’t keep a good toad down for long, and no sooner does he escape the confines of his bedroom than he finds a new and even more dangerous obsession. What’s worse, when he sets his sights on a shiny new motorcar, he gets mixed up with a nasty gang of thieves.

This book is a tersely worded version of the tale we get on the screen. You can’t quite get the full effect of Toad’s wild nature without the benefit of motion, but the vivid illustrations and the fast-paced text are certainly a step in the right direction. There’s humor in the clipped nature of the sentences. I especially love this, when Toad is being held captive by his friends, who have locked the door to ensure that he stays put: “It was a good plan. There was only one thing wrong with it. It did not work.”

Along with Mr. Toad, who is so clever in some ways and so incredibly foolish in others, the short book is filled with colorful characters. Most are Mr. Toad’s friends: mild-mannered Rat and Mole, cantankerous Toad Hall caretaker MacBadger, devoted horse Cyril. Some are enemies: the nasty Weasel Gang and their mustachioed cohort Mr. Winkie. And then there are the members of law enforcement. If only Mr. Toad could convince them that he didn’t commit the crime of which he is being accused!

The Adventures of Mr. Toad is an exciting tale that demonstrates both the exhilaration and danger of Mr. Toad’s lifestyle. Its old-fashioned English setting makes the vehicles and landscapes especially interesting, while the ways in which Rat, Mole, MacBadger and Cyril help Mr. Toad show that true friendship sometimes means overcoming obstacles, even if one of them is the friend himself. We all should be so lucky as to have such great pals. I know I am!