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John Henry

200 statements
38 feature instances
7 referencing feature instances

John Henry	type	TVTItem
John Henry	label	John Henry
John Henry	page	JohnHenry
John Henry	comment	Part of the 2002 Disney anthology Disney's American Legends, hosted by James Earl Jones, though unlike the other shorts, Paul Bunyan, The Brave Engineer and Johnny Appleseed (originally part of Melody Time), this short was a contemporary animation created in 2000, while the others were created in the 1940's and 1950's.Shortly after the American Civil War and the resulting Emancipation of the Black slaves, John Henry and his wife Polly set out to find work and a place of their own. At the same time, the transcontinental railroad is slowly being built across the U.S, but progress is slow, and the workers run the risk of losing their promised wages and land if they can't meet the railroad companies' hard deadlines. The mighty John Henry joins one of the railroad crews, and his near-superhuman strength and stamina inspires the other workers and makes him a legend in his own time. However, the greedy railroad tycoons have no intention of paying their workers if they can get away with it, and bring automatization to the construction in the form of a steam hammer. With the workers close to open revolt over this treachery, John Henry instead lays down a challenge: if he can outperform the steam hammer, the workers will be given the land they were promised. And so, the ultimate contest of Man Versus Machine is about to begin...
John Henry	fetched	2023-07-18T14:44:27Z
John Henry	parsed	2023-07-18T14:44:28Z
John Henry	processingComment	Dropped link to BlinkAndYouMissIt: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
John Henry	processingUnknown	BlinkAndYouMissIt
John Henry	isPartOf	DBTropes
John Henry / int_1439161f	type	Heroic BSoD
John Henry / int_1439161f	comment	Heroic BSoD: John Henry undergoes one when he realizes the tycoon driving the steam hammer intends to go through the mountain to win their bet, even though John had won the first part of the race fairly. Polly inspires him to keep going.
John Henry / int_1439161f	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_1439161f	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_1439161f
John Henry / int_1440584e	type	Heroic RRoD
John Henry / int_1440584e	comment	Heroic RRoD: John won the contest against the Steam hammer, but the physical exertion of tunneling through the mountain was so great that he died shortly thereafter.
John Henry / int_1440584e	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_1440584e	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_1440584e
John Henry / int_226f6129	type	Line Boil
John Henry / int_226f6129	comment	Line Boil: The animation is left a little rough with minimal clean-up. Even the Cel Shaded CGI steam hammer is rendered with randomly shifting lines to match the characters.
John Henry / int_226f6129	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_226f6129	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_226f6129
John Henry / int_25101d1a	type	Post-Victory Collapse
John Henry / int_25101d1a	comment	Post-Victory Collapse: John collapses after going through the mountain and promptly dies shortly thereafter.
John Henry / int_25101d1a	featureApplicability	1.0
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John Henry / int_28b2f93a	type	Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil
John Henry / int_28b2f93a	comment	Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: "John and me were born slaves, with nothing to call our own. Not even each other..."
John Henry / int_28b2f93a	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_28b2f93a	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_28b2f93a
John Henry / int_3cfeeb48	type	I Die Free
John Henry / int_3cfeeb48	comment	I Die Free: John's sacrifice not only allows the other workers and Polly to find their promised land, he also proved once and for all that no one would ever chain him again, be it literally or symbolically.
John Henry / int_3cfeeb48	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_3cfeeb48	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_3cfeeb48
John Henry / int_3f45f1e6	type	Adaptational Heroism
John Henry / int_3f45f1e6	comment	Adaptational Heroism: In the most common telling of the John Henry legend, he seems to want to face the steam hammer out of a sense of destiny or a desire to prove himself. In fact, some interpretations of the legend claim it started as a cautionary tale—that is to say, it was advising rail workers to not try to do what he did, for fear that it would kill them. This version adds on the idea of him being a freed slave whose motivation is to help both his wife and his fellow workers.
John Henry / int_3f45f1e6	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_3f45f1e6	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_3f45f1e6
John Henry / int_40cc0c7e	type	Bittersweet Ending
John Henry / int_40cc0c7e	comment	Bittersweet Ending: John Henry wins the challenge but the physical toll on it means that he dies shortly thereafter. However, through his sacrifice he earned the land promised to his wife and friends, and the former ultimately gives birth to his son.
John Henry / int_40cc0c7e	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_40cc0c7e	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_40cc0c7e
John Henry / int_42cfbfc6	type	2D Visuals, 3D Effects
John Henry / int_42cfbfc6	comment	2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The steam hammer is animated in 3-D, to emphasize the Man Versus Machine theme of the story.
John Henry / int_42cfbfc6	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_42cfbfc6	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_42cfbfc6
John Henry / int_46c1dc8e	type	Someone to Remember Him By
John Henry / int_46c1dc8e	comment	Someone to Remember Him By: John dies, but Polly gives birth to a son, who she raises with stories of his brave and strong father.
John Henry / int_46c1dc8e	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_46c1dc8e	featureConfidence	1.0
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John Henry / int_47ae290f	type	Let's Fight Like Gentlemen
John Henry / int_47ae290f	comment	Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: John firmly believes this. When John's angered coworkers try solving the problem of the steam hammer by tipping the steam hammer over, John catches it single-handedly and pushes it back onto its wheel and wants to earn his victory fair and square.
John Henry / int_47ae290f	featureApplicability	1.0
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John Henry / int_47bd52ef	type	Moses Archetype
John Henry / int_47bd52ef	comment	Moses Archetype: All the classic elements are there — born a slave, challenging The Man, leading his people to their Promised Land but dying along the way. The Gospel music soundtrack makes the connection even stronger.
John Henry / int_47bd52ef	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_47bd52ef	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_47bd52ef
John Henry / int_50d2ca43	type	The Coats Are Off
John Henry / int_50d2ca43	comment	The Coats Are Off: When the challenge is set, John's shirt comes off, and his suspenders come on.
John Henry / int_50d2ca43	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_50d2ca43	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_50d2ca43
John Henry / int_5473668f	type	Logo Joke
John Henry / int_5473668f	comment	Logo Joke: The Disney castle logo is depicted as a quilt pattern.
John Henry / int_5473668f	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_5473668f	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_5473668f
John Henry / int_56515a39	type	Artistic License â€“ History
John Henry / int_56515a39	comment	Artistic License – History: This version heavily simplifies the actual process of steel-driving. The process of digging through stone in those days would have been done using charges of explosive black powder—a steel-driving man's job was to make a hole for the black powder to go into, with the aid of another man using a drill. The short cuts out most of these elements, largely for reasons of making the animation work—instead, John Henry is shown simply using his hammer to smash through the stone.
John Henry / int_56515a39	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_56515a39	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_56515a39
John Henry / int_5fcedca	type	Big Eater
John Henry / int_5fcedca	comment	Big Eater: One of the songs about John's childhood mentions that it "took a lot of cookin' to keep John fed", and his massive breakfast alone included 10 dozen (120!) eggs and 8 loaves of bread. While this is obviously a tall tale, it WOULD take a ton of food to fuel someone of John's size and strength, even if it's never shown on screen.
John Henry / int_5fcedca	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_5fcedca	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_5fcedca
John Henry / int_6439de78	type	Heroic Sacrifice
John Henry / int_6439de78	comment	Heroic Sacrifice: "He was smiling, cause he moved that mountain, and led us to the Promised Land."
John Henry / int_6439de78	featureApplicability	1.0
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John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_6439de78
John Henry / int_6682d6e4	type	Dying Moment of Awesome
John Henry / int_6682d6e4	comment	Dying Moment of Awesome: It may have cost John Henry his life, but he managed to beat the steam drill and win his wife and his friends the land they were promised.
John Henry / int_6682d6e4	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_6682d6e4	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_6682d6e4
John Henry / int_6a4c6ec0	type	The Promised Land
John Henry / int_6a4c6ec0	comment	The Promised Land: The railroad workers were promised 50 acres of land if they finished the railroad. Thanks to John's sacrifice, they were given their promised land, and built a thriving new country.
John Henry / int_6a4c6ec0	featureApplicability	1.0
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John Henry / int_736d791f	type	Adaptational Badass
John Henry / int_736d791f	comment	Adaptational Badass: In the original story, John Henry makes it fourteen feet into the mountain, beating the steam hammer's nine feet. This version ups it to him making it all the way through the mountain in a single night, with the steam hammer only giving out shortly behind him. And as noted under Artistic License – History, this feat is all the more impressive when you recall that he did it with just a hammer, as opposed to the explosive charges that would have been used in the era.
John Henry / int_736d791f	featureApplicability	1.0
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John Henry / int_7abba202	type	The Faceless
John Henry / int_7abba202	comment	The Faceless: The man driving the steam hammer is shown entirely in shadow, and every inch outside of the shadows is covered in gloves and clothes.
John Henry / int_7abba202	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_7abba202	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_7abba202
John Henry / int_7dd9580a	type	Free Wheel
John Henry / int_7dd9580a	comment	Free Wheel: After the steam hammer breaks down short of breaking through the mountain, one of its wheels rolls out.
John Henry / int_7dd9580a	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_7dd9580a	featureConfidence	1.0
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John Henry / int_7e74d66f	type	Politically Correct History
John Henry / int_7e74d66f	comment	Politically Correct History: Subverted, the fact that John was born a slave is a plot point.
John Henry / int_7e74d66f	featureApplicability	-0.3
John Henry / int_7e74d66f	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_7e74d66f
John Henry / int_806acfa7	type	Breaking the Bonds
John Henry / int_806acfa7	comment	Breaking the Bonds: Shown in the intro, John physically shattered the chains that had once kept him imprisoned as a slave once the Emancipation forced the plantation owners to free their slaves, and Polly used the broken links to forge into his signature hammer.
John Henry / int_806acfa7	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_806acfa7	featureConfidence	1.0
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John Henry / int_88f16cee	type	Go Out with a Smile
John Henry / int_88f16cee	comment	Go Out with a Smile: John gives a reassuring smile to Polly just before he dies.
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John Henry / int_88f16cee	featureConfidence	1.0
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John Henry / int_8b9c057e	type	Ethnic Menial Labor
John Henry / int_8b9c057e	comment	Ethnic Menial Labor: John's fellow rail workers are all Black men or Irish immigrants (including the foreman).
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John Henry / int_8b9c057e	featureConfidence	1.0
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John Henry / int_912b24c4	type	Art Shift
John Henry / int_912b24c4	comment	Art Shift: The main action is done in a rough, sketchy style reminiscent of a woodcut print, but the segments illustrating the backstory and the tall tales told about John are drawn as animated quilt patches. The battle with the steam drill in the tunnel was entirely 3-D.
John Henry / int_912b24c4	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_912b24c4	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_912b24c4
John Henry / int_92dfffae	type	Retraux
John Henry / int_92dfffae	comment	Retraux: The animation style in this short harkens back to the Xerox-era Disney films of the 1960s-1970s such as 101 Dalmatians, with the use of scratchy black lines on the characters.
John Henry / int_92dfffae	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_92dfffae	featureConfidence	1.0
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John Henry / int_a8c6a317	type	Super-Strength
John Henry / int_a8c6a317	comment	Super Strength: John's immense strength and stamina makes him a Living Legend, and lets him do the same work as a dozen men. Or, as it turns out, just a bit more than one steam hammer. Heck, when John's angered coworkers try solving the problem by tipping the steam hammer over, John catches it single-handedly and pushes it back onto its wheels.
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John Henry / int_a8c6a317	featureConfidence	1.0
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John Henry / int_c2c2671	type	One-Sided Arm-Wrestling
John Henry / int_c2c2671	comment	One-Sided Arm-Wrestling: A scene is shown depicting John winning arm-wrestling competitions against his fellow rail workers, even when they team up. He does eventually lose one - to his wife Polly, after she gives him a distracting kiss.
John Henry / int_c2c2671	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_c2c2671	featureConfidence	1.0
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John Henry / int_c3245c20	type	I Lied
John Henry / int_c3245c20	comment	I Lied: When the foreman complains that they have a contract agreement with the railroad about the land agreement, the driver just snatches the contract out of his hand and throws it into the steam hammer's furnace.
John Henry / int_c3245c20	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_c3245c20	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_c3245c20
John Henry / int_c54d752a	type	DualWield
John Henry / int_c54d752a	comment	Dual Wield: John uses two huge sledgehammers during the climax to tunnel his way right through the mountain.
John Henry / int_c54d752a	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_c54d752a	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_c54d752a
John Henry / int_ca04edd6	type	Charles Atlas Superpower
John Henry / int_ca04edd6	comment	Charles Atlas Superpower: John has no superhuman abilities like some of his contemporaries like Paul Bunyan or Captain Stormalong, his unnatural strength and endurance is the result of a lifetime of backbreaking labor, proper nutrition thanks to his mother, and sheer lucky genetics.
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John Henry / int_cbe687ab	type	Corrupt Corporate Executive
John Henry / int_cbe687ab	comment	Corrupt Corporate Executive: Both the driver, and the other railroad owners, who go out of their way to cheat the workers of their promised pay.
John Henry / int_cbe687ab	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_cbe687ab	featureConfidence	1.0
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John Henry / int_d139ffaf	type	Genre Throwback
John Henry / int_d139ffaf	comment	Genre Throwback: To Disney's various animated shorts based on American Folk Hero stories that were produced in the 1940s and 50s.
John Henry / int_d139ffaf	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_d139ffaf	featureConfidence	1.0
John Henry	hasFeature	John Henry / int_d139ffaf
John Henry / int_d54c5d44	type	Man Versus Machine
John Henry / int_d54c5d44	comment	Man Versus Machine: Possibly one of the Ur Examples in fiction. John Henry wins, but it costs him his life.
John Henry / int_d54c5d44	featureApplicability	1.0
John Henry / int_d54c5d44	featureConfidence	1.0
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John Henry / int_ddc4f035	type	Heroic Second Wind
John Henry / int_ddc4f035	comment	Heroic Second Wind: Just when it looks like John's about to call it quits when the Steam Drill start drilling through the mountain, Polly gives him a second hammer and a Triumphant Reprise of his song, and he catches up to it in no time.
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John Henry / int_name	comment
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John Henry / int_name	itemName	John Henry

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

John Henry	hasFeature	African-American Media / int_e7b6d261
John Henry	hasFeature	Ethnic Menial Labor / int_e7b6d261
John Henry	hasFeature	Moses Archetype / int_e7b6d261
John Henry	hasFeature	One-Sided Arm-Wrestling / int_e7b6d261
John Henry	hasFeature	Permanent Placeholder / int_e7b6d261
John Henry	hasFeature	Tear Up the Contract / int_e7b6d261
John Henry	hasFeature	The Promised Land / int_e7b6d261

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