John Henry (2000)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Sadly Over-hyped

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is super sad, but it is real sweet. I don't like that we have things to do with slaves, but the song(s) are really good, and the story heart-touching. The animation isn't completely finished, but it's still great; I love seeing a bit more hand-drawn Disney. It definitely needs to go above 6.8 stars and needs to be more well-known. If people enjoy something like "Lava," then they seriously need to see this, which has dialog and more of a song. Again, super sad but real sweet.

"John Henry" is a 10-minute animated short film by Disney from 15 years ago. The director is Mark Henn, who worked on many Disney classics and still does today. This is his only directorial effort though. It is about a young, very muscular man who helps shaping the path for the American railway after slavery was abolished. He even moves a mountain. In my opinion, this was not a great short film. The story was okay all in all for 10 minutes, but not for much longer. Henry runs into another obstacle, solves it. Another obstacle, solves it. And in-between, we keep hearing some mediocre singing, which is sometimes really rather shouting. The good thing i can say about this is that it was a brave movie to let the main character die in the end, but this is probably also only because that's how it was in the tale. Anyway, a tad too patriotic for my taste and even if it was probably intended to make look as old as the Oscar-nominated Paul Bunyon, I think this is just not enough for a 21st century movie. Not recommended.

I read about this film being made and that it would be released to theaters to play in front of Disney films released during the year. Well I never did see it and had forgotten about it when I saw that it would be included on a special DVD with several of the other Disney Tall Tale classics, Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed and Casey Jones.John Henry is an excellent short and it deserves a much higher rating. As mentioned the animation is made to look unfinished and rough. This only adds to the charm of the film. The music is also outstanding and the story is touching. I hope more people will check out John Henry as well as the other shorts on the DVD.

Considering this was just a project to keep animators occupied, it is a pretty darn impressive film. Disney's take on the tall tale is nothing new, but the style and look of this short is fantastic. The characters were made to look like animation before "clean-up" which is very interesting to watch, and also a brave move on Disney's part! Great backgrounds, too. Let's hope the Mouse takes more chances like this one!