The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow Movie And Book Comparison Essay

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, one of the most classic books of all time, written by Washington Irving, was remade into a movie in 1999 by Director Tim Burton. Surprisingly there are many differences between the book and the movie, and little to no similarities. One of the major differences was that in the movie Tim Burton made Ichabod Crane a detective, while in the story he’s a nerdy teacher. Tim Burton did this to make the movie more interesting and for there to be a reason why Ichabod is so good at finding clues and solving the headless horseman case. Also they made Ichabod a little bit more brave in the movie so that there would be more action and drama in the movie. A total different between the story and the movie, is that they give a background of young Ichabod and his mother, but none of that was

portrayed in the story. They did this so that the audience gets more of a feel of why Ichabod is the way he is.
A tremendous difference in the ilm compared to the story is that the audience actually see/know that the horseman is real and that it actually kills people. In the story there was a slight possibility that the horseman was real, but it really didn’t do anything like kill people. They changed this so that the audience actually know the horseman is real and that creates the feeling of fear which the viewers love. One similarity between the book and the movie is that they gave the same background story of the headless horseman, saying he was a Hessian soldier who lost his head in battle.

Katrina the most beautiful and rich woman in Sleepy Hollow, in the story Ichabod seemed like he only wanted her for the money and land, but she was going to marry Brom Bones anyway.

In the movie, however, it was like love at first sight, and the audience could see that as well, he wasn’t in it for the money, he was just there to do his job and just so happened to fall in love with Katrina. Yes in both the movie and story, Katrina was going to marry Brom Bones, but in the movie Brom Bones body is cut in half by the headless horseman. Director Tim Burton did this to give the audience a little more emotional and dramaful. Who doesn’t love a good romance?

Blood. Some people love it some people hate it, Tim Burton loves it. The movie Sleepy Hollow is very gory, bloody and more eerie than the text because the viewer is actually seeing in real life the dark descriptions of what is going on and get the goosebumps, and chills down their spine, which some actually love. Readers get none of that when reading “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. When is the last time you heard someone jump out of their seats in terror when reading a book, movies are what get the viewers

terrified.
In the book the setting of the story is all in Sleepy Hollow, while in the movie, Tim burton decided to start the opening scene in New York where Ichabod is from and then moves to Sleepy Hollow to solve the case of the headless horseman.. Once he is finished with the case Ichabod and Katrina move to New York to forget about the terrors of Sleepy Hollow and start a new happy life in New York. The director chose to do this to give the audience a sense of the closure that Ichabod and Katrina turned out okay and lived happily ever after, while in the story they left you in questioning of what happened to Ichabod when he was scared out of Sleepy Hollow and was left alone in the woods wondering.
Although having the same characters, themes, setting, and plot; Tim Burton found a way to make “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” into a totally new, rethinking of the story which was much more interesting. Many differences were shown throughout the story and very small amounts of similarities, but the director did this only to make the story a little more interesting, and give the audience more of a feeling of the story and have a little “spook” in them while watching it. The story is was suppose to be spooky, Tim Burton thought why not make it horrifying.