Frederick- Sleepy Hallow

Tim Burton takes inspiration from Washington Irving's short story, "Sleepy Hallow". The adaption is loose... the movie is not exactly similar to the short story. Certain important points are changed, like Ichabob's occupation, and that Braun Bone's death, but some things are the same. 

Ichabob is more attractive in the adaption than he was described in the text. This was a choice Burton made that is somewhat necessary to realistically have Katrina Van Tassel be physically attracted to him. The change in his job and the story line where choices Burton made to create a more interesting story. The Irving story is extremely short, and wouldn't make the most thought provoking movie. Burton of course is interested in the gory and gruesome underlying tale of the horseman, so to fit his esthetic, he builds off of that tale. He makes Ichabob's life more perilous and dark, even in his childhood. Burton's Ichabob lost his mother to cruel torture inflicted by his father. This scarred him, but in a way but also made him more brave that Irving's character. He had faced so much horror already in his life, that he was able to be hit in the head with a pumpkin by a seemingly headless man, and stay long enough to know it was a joke! He's even brave enough to stay after he sees the real thing. 

One thing that is similar between the two tales is their theme. The theme of the supernatural versus reason. The Ichabob Crane in Irving's tale is a school teacher, a man of books. Burton's Ichabob is a constable that announces how the law should depend of reason, and he states that everything can be explained through reason, even after he sees the ghostly horseman and the tree of death. They are both men of science, men of reason. They are both superstitious despite their claims to reason however. Irving's Ichabob is obsessed with and studies books about New England, and he sits around the fire with old ladies listening to their ghost tales. Burton's Ichabob has a darker pasts, with his mother being involved with magic, that causes him to have a childlike belief in the supernatural. Irving's supernatural world overpowers his Ichabob and causes him to flee Sleepy Hallow. He leaves all reason behind him. Burton's world is submerged into inexplainable supernatural occurrences. His Ichobab still tries to reason with some things, but ultimately he gives in to having to just believe even without explanation. He gains his faith back, in a way, which he said previously he had lost. He gains faith in Katrina that causes him to check her book, he gains faith in the supernatural, and in himself.