utgard14
Disney cartoon about American folk hero John Henry, a former slave who worked on a railroad driving spikes into the rails. When a steam drill threatens to replace the workers, John Henry challenges that he can do a better job than the machine. An enjoyable cartoon that was originally released on a direct-to-video anthology of Disney shorts about American legends. Most of them were older cartoons like Paul Bunyan and The Brave Engineer. It's since been released again as part of a collection of modern Disney shorts. The voice work and music are good. The animation is decent, but not a style I particularly like. The skies are full of lines, for example, and I just found that unattractive. Anyway, it's a nice cartoon that's not quite as polished as the classics it was originally released with but it's far from an embarrassment.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"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.
Abbott_and_Costello_Fan
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.
roastfish
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!
AD
