| “ | Odds bodkins! Gadzooks! Look at that old spook of spooks! | „ |
| ~ Brom after seeing Ichabod for the first time. |
Brom Bones is the secondary antagonist in the The Headless Horseman segment of the Disney animated picture The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. He is Ichabod Crane's obsessed love rival that is determined to win over the heart of Katrina van Tassel.
He was voiced by the late Bing Crosby.
Appearance[]
Brom is a large, muscular man with black hair. When he is first seen, he is wearing a light-green undershirt, a dark-green vest, dark-red pants, long grey socks, black shoes with buckles, and a brown raccoon cap. At the party he wore a fancy red button-up jacket, a yellow button-up undershirt, a white handkerchief with a white collar, and same clothing on the lower half of his body.
Personality[]
| “ | Indeed, with his waggish humour and prodigious strength, Brom Bones was quite the hero, all the country round. | „ |
| ~ Narrator's summary of Brom's personality. |
Brom is described by the narrator as the lovable prankster who loves having fun. He is the self-appointed leader of his friend group, the Sleepy Hollow Boys, a "burly roistering blade" that was always ready for a fight or anything relating to it. Despite loving his pranks, he had never had any ill-intentions behind his actions, everything he did was all in good fun. Using a mix of strength and experience, he is a skilled horse-rider who is very good at articulating his body, being able to balance/walk on a barrel. He's not afraid to get himself dirty, using his teeth to get the quark off the barrel and using his bare fists to open the rest of the barrel.
Brom is very open about his feelings towards other people, most notably people he doesn't like. When he first laid eyes on Ichabod he instantly made a judgment call, vocally expressing his feelings and giving him a dirty look as he walked by. Later, at Katrina's party, he put no effort into sparing Tilda's feelings when she first introduced herself to him, making a disgusted noise as he did so.
Brom is very intimidating and greedy, not hesitating to take advantage of his built physic to scare away those who got in the way of what he wants. Brom doesn't take well to anyone who stands in the way of his desires, pushing Ichabod into the mud after taking Katrina from him. It didn't take a lot from Ichabod to completely infuriate Brom, taking teaching Ichabod a lesson over priority of Katrina, having thrown her belongings to the ground. He got so enveloped with rage that he tried to pry Katrina's door open with force. The amount of force he applied with his blow meant for Ichabod was enough to punch a hole through a tree, showing that his short-tempered emotions are not limited to the ignorant. Brom persisted Ichabod until finally he succeeded, showing his dedication towards finding love.
Biography[]
Brom Bones is first seen riding into town on a black horse, coming to greet his friends and share drinks with them. He breaks open a barrel shortly after arriving and pours the previously bored men a drink. He breaks open the rest of the top so that his horse and a pair of dogs can as well indulge. They all take cheers and begin to drink, when suddenly Brom spots Ichabod walking into town, verbally expressing that he though the man a sight. As Ichabod walked by his table, Brom looked at him with an angry and confused expression.
Later, while Ichabod was helping small group of women with their singing, Brom stood outside with his friends and convinced a Dog to howl during their melody. Just as Ichabod was delivering his lines, the dog delivered his line, and Ichabod feared that he was the one who made that noise.
Eventually Katrina van Tassel made her way into town, instantly stealing the heart of every man in town, including that of Ichabod and Brom. Brom decided to make his first move shortly after a sequences of daydreams had by Ichabod, whom was coincidentally about to make his first impression on her as well. Brom arrives and scared away all of the love-seeking men assisting her, dropping the luggage they were carrying for her in the progress. Katrina came out displayed a shocked expression as she looked upon all of her baggage now on the floor. Brom and his horse bowed to her, but she turned her back to them. Ichabod came into the scene right after this, picked up her luggage, and took her by the hand implying that he wanted to escort her home. She took it, and gave Brom another annoyed look as he picked his head back up with a large smile painted across his face. He watched Ichabod escort her on her way, using his jacket as a bridge across a puddle. Watching him do this infuriated Brom so he made his horse charge in their direction, put Katrina on the back of his horse, put her luggage in his arms, and knocked Ichabod to the ground all in one instance. Ichabod looked on in shock as Brom headed off in the direction of her home, Katrina looking back at Ichabod with a smile. She tossed a handkerchief to him, the love of which caused him to run with a speed faster than that of Brom's horse, arriving in front of Brom and kicking up dust.
He took Katrina by the arm and walked her to her home. Katrina looked back at Brom, whom was struggling to see what was going on past his handful of baggage. She leaned in closer to Ichabod, making Brom very distressed and causing him to run in their direction. Ichabod closed the gate behind him, causing Brom to trip over the door and spill everything he was holding all over the ground. Brom came to his senses and began walking towards Ichabod, but was interrupted as Ichabod loaded all of the boxes back into Brom's arms. This caused Brom to snap, throwing everything he was holding back to the ground. This turned out to be a bad idea as the containments of one of the bags/boxes turned out to be hazardous, causing Brom to fall once again and having a bag of flour fall on his head. Ichabod went to check on the loud noise, finding Brom on the ground with the flour covering his face. Ichabod began loading the spilled containments back into their bags, but then accidentally pulled on Brom's nose. He brushed the flour off Brom's eyes to reveal them now infuriated, immediately brushing it back onto his eyes. Ichabod ran back to the entrance as Brom's fury made the flour explode off of his face. Ichabod gave Katrina a parting kiss, began to head away but then headed back into the home as Brom attempted to grab him in both his hands. He closed the door just before Brom lunged at him. Inside, Ichabod offered Katrina a bouquet of flowers (which were already potted in the home). Katrina noticed Brom spying through the window, and pulled Ichabod in to make him jealous. Brom began trying to pry the door open, only to be stopped once he heard the sound of kissing. This only turned out to be Ichabod kissing a flower given to him out of the bouquet, but Brom assumed this kiss to have been between Ichabod and Katrina. He looked through the keyhole, noticed that Ichabod was about to leave and hid behind the door so that he could surprise him. Ichabod ended up opening the top of the door with a large amount of force, which smashed Brom against the home's wall. Ichabod noticed his mistake, and closed the top of the door again. Brom jumped onto it, so Ichabod snuck out of the bottom part. Brom noticed shortly after that Ichabod had left, and walked after him. He grabbed Ichabod by the hair and prepared to punch him in the face. Katrina called to the, and so Brom tried to play it off as nothing. Once she ducked back inside, Brom delivered his blow but ended up sticking a tree rather than Ichabod, whom had already walked off. Brom ran at him, lunging but to miss at the last moment as coincidently Ichabod had bent down to pick up a horse-shoe. Brom fell into a well, crawled back out, and had the horse-shoe Ichabod had found thrown onto his head. This made him very dazed, and he watched Ichabod walk away (appearing to be two people due to his dizziness).
Katrina, being very amused by the rivalry between the two lovers, invited them both to her annual Halloween dance she and her father were hosting. Ichabod arrived, and became Katrina's first dance partner. Brom sat on a bench in the back of the room, looking on in an angered expression as they danced. He looked to the other side of the room to see a lady by the name of Tilda, seen prior entertaining Ichabod. She saw him and smiled, only to be met with a look of disgust causing her to dip her head back down. Brom suddenly sprouted the idea to use Tilda as bait, thinking he would be able to switch her for Katrina. He called her over and she through herself into him with an ample amount of force. He danced over, switched her out, and had a few moments with Katrina to himself. Using his nimbleness, Ichabod was able to pop up between the two and switch back. Katrina waved at him as they danced away, causing Brom to panic. He struggled to look for them inside of the large crowd of people, once seeing them he picked up his partner and ran to where they were. He chased them around and around but to no avail. He realized this plan wasn't going to work, so he tried to let go of Tilda, but she stuck to him like glue. He ended up having to trap her in a closet so that she'd stop coming back. Shortly after this, Brom noticed that Ichabod was preforming a dance that caused him to dance backwards onto a trapdoor in the floor. Brom snuck to it, opened it, and waited for Ichabod to fall. Ichabod just barely missed, and after he did, Tilda broke out from another trap door on the other side of the house and ran towards Brom. Brom tried to back way but instead fell into the trapdoor himself, confusing her. He popped out of the otherwise which led to the outside of the home. He looked on through the window outside with anger as all of the women flooded him with attention.
Later inside, Brom spied on Ichabod behind a wooden beam while he ate a sandwich. The party was about to tell ghost stories, and Brom noticed that Ichabod had superstitious beliefs, spilling salt and then throwing it over his shoulder. When the party gathered around, Brom began to tell his ghostly tale in song form. This particular tale was of a local menace, The Headless Horseman. He sang about the Horseman's appearance, his motives, and how he just so happened to appear on this very night. The only way to escape this menace was to run across a distant bridge where he could not pass. Throughout this story, Ichabod became very frightened, biting his nails and sweating profusely.
Ichabod ended up meeting the Horseman later that night, made it across the bridge but then had the Horseman throw his head at him. All that was found of Ichabod after this was his hat and a broken pumpkin. Now having Ichabod out of the picture, Brom ended up wedding Katrina.
Trivia[]
- It is heavily implied that Brom is in fact the Headless Horseman.
- Supporting reasoning for this would be the similarities between Brom's horse and the Horseman's.
- Reasoning against this includes Ichabod seeing nothing when he looked down the Horseman's neck-though then again it's possible he may not have seen anything due to the darkness, as well as the fact that Ichabod was so paranoid he was seeing and hearing things prior to his encounter with the horseman.
- His horse's name is Daredevil.
- In the original story, Brom Bones is a nickname, his full name being "Abraham van Brunt".
- Brom was animated by Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Wolfgang Reitherman, John Sibley, Hal Ambro, and Hal King.
- Brom Bones is the first Disney villain to ever have succeeded in his plans by the movie's end without consequence.