Studio: George Pal Productions
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Short Synopsis
The folk hero John Henry, a steel-driving man on the railroad, is born with a hammer in his hand and grows to a giant who can lay track faster than any crew. The railroad brings in a steam drill, the Inky-Poo, and the men fear the machine will put them all out of work. John Henry challenges it to a race, man against engine, and the contest is the film: the machine pounding, John Henry swinging two hammers, the track growing under both, with the crew's spiritual sung by the Luvenia Nash Singers over the duel. John Henry beats the Inky-Poo and lays down his hammer, and the men's fear of the machine is dispelled. Pal's version, unlike the ballad, lets its hero live to enjoy the victory, and Rex Ingram's narration gives the tale a dignity rare in 1946 cartoons.
Why It Matters
- It is the first American animated film to present a Black folk hero seriously, with Black voices and a Black choir, made by a producer whose Jasper series had drawn protest for its caricature; Pal made it in answer, and the puppet animation, in Technicolor, is among his best. Film Daily called it "engaging" and singled out Ingram and the singers.
- The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) and is in the public domain in the United States, its copyright among the Puppetoons that lapsed in the 1950s; the Academy Film Archive preserved it in 2009.
Notes and Trivia
- Rex Ingram had played De Lawd in The Green Pastures and the Genie in The Thief of Bagdad.
- The Puppetoons were made with replacement animation, a new carved figure for each frame of movement.
- See also: Jasper and the Beanstalk (1945).