The Scarecrow

The Scarecrow is a 2000 American animated musical fantasy film, written and directed by Brian Nissen and Richard Rich and was distributed by Warner Bros. It was freely adapted and based on Nathaniel Hawthorne]'s short story Feathertop and the play, The Scarecrow by Percy MacKaye.

Plot
In the time of the Pilgrims, the lovely young heroine named Polly who has spent all her life in the orphanage in Grisham Heights (which is more like Grisham's workhouse) saves money to buy her freedom from the place. She hides her savings beneath a scarecrow (even though he cannot talk yet), who happens to be enchanted by a good witch named Miss Bee Bee (who narrates the story) who has nothing to do with anything, except she was banished to the wilderness. This makes him magically alive and he is appropriately named Feathertop.

When Polly becomes entangled in the affairs of three balanced orphan children named Gretchen, Farley and Cooper, because of her inherently good heart, she refuses to buy her own freedom until she can save money for the children as well.

Meanwhile, Feathertop falls in love with Polly and tries to woo her. At first, when Polly's savings are stolen by the evil, maniacal and villainous local squire, Count Grisham (who was his principal rival), he tries to bribe her into marriage and subsequently imprisons her against her will.

While two of Grisham's henchmen vie for her affections, culminating in a spectacular finale that sees Polly escaping in the nick of time from a collapsing bridge, Grisham plunges to a sticky end down a canyon and Feathertop dies in the act and sacrifices himself to rescue Polly. And at the end, he was miraculously turned into a human.

Cast

 * Shawn Hoffman as The Scarecrow/Feathertop
 * David Barrus as The Scarecrow/Featherop (singing voice)
 * Belinda Montgomery as Polly
 * Felicia Sorensen as part of the chorus and Polly (singing voice)
 * Ray Porter as Count Grisham
 * Christie Albers as Miss Bee Bee
 * Corey Feldman (credited as Edggar Frogg) as Max
 * David Llewellyn as Wooden
 * Paul Masonson as Cheswick, Gumshoe, and Bristles
 * Prince Davidson as Cooper
 * Scotty Leavenworth as Farley
 * Chelsea Parnell as Gretchen
 * Jim Bullock as the Magistrate
 * Catherine Lavin as the Maid

Chorus

 * Jenny Frogley
 * Holli Ammon
 * Tanya Terry
 * Cody Hale
 * Marvin Payne
 * James Arrington
 * Paul Engemann
 * Randy Porter
 * Kathryn Little
 * Cory Cluff

Songs
The film contains six original songs with music composed by Kurt Bestor.
 * 1) So the Count Can Dance/On Our Way (Felicia Sorensen with music and lyrics by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner)
 * 2) When She Looks at Me (David Barrus with music and lyrics by Kurt Bestor)
 * 3) Come One, Come All (David Barrus with music and lyrics by Brett Raymond)
 * 4) In Your Arms (David Barrus and Felicia Sorensen with music and lyrics by David Kates and Craig Taubman)
 * 5) We Gotta Do Better Than That (with music and lyrics by Vaughn Johnson)

Reception
The Scarecrow has an approval rating of 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, Want-To-See has a score of 33% and IMDB has a rating of 6.8 out of 10. Also, Entertainment Value has a rating of 5 out of 5.