John Henry

Voices of: Alfre Woodard, Geoffrey Jones, Tim Hodge, Dave Murray
Directed by: Mark Henn
Rating: G
Genre: Animation, Short, Drama
2000

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Tells the legend of John Henry, who pitted his strength and speed against a machine.

Review:

Tim: What I appreciated most about Disney's John Henry short was the reminder of this American legend. I obviously learned about the story as a child, but I hadn't thought about this story in at least a decade and likely much longer than that. It was a good reminder of the story and that was the best aspect of this short- the educational piece, the reminder.

The story itself is surprisingly not that effective. The legend of John Henry is a good one, but that doesn't translate into this film. I was bored watching this short film, and it's 10 minutes long. That is not a good one. The way the story is told is too ambiguous, it leaves too much unclear and open to interpretation. This is a memorable story, but it's not memorable here. It felt like it tried hard to imitate a certain style, one that would align with the time period of the tall tale. Unfortunately, it seems the movie got so focused on the stylistic aspects that it didn't execute well enough to deliver the required substance. When the movie finally ended (after only 10 minutes, remember), I was happy it was over. That's not good enough for Disney.

Disney has done such an incredible job over the years retelling classic stories in their iconic Disney manner. When I heard about this short, I was eagerly anticipating it. It might not be a full length feature, but it would be fun to see what the Disney magic did for this American legend. The end result is fine, but it wasn't nearly as effective or inspiring as I anticipated it to be. This short film elicited merely a shrug from me. It's obvious that Disney isn't bulletproof, that they've had numerous misses over the years. I wouldn't say this is a bad short- it's a perfectly acceptable one. However, it doesn't exist anywhere close to the upper echelon of what Disney can do.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: N/A



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