American Legends

1st watched 2/25/2023 - (Dir-Lara Shipiro, Mark Henn, Wilfred Jackson, Les Clark & Jack Kenny): onscreen title "Disney's American Legends" Four American animated tall tales surrounded by narration by "the voice of Darth Vader", James Earl Jones was okay entertainment. Minimal from an animation perspective for those used to grandiose Disney pictures with the first about Afrikan-American folk legend John Henry, missing cleanup work in my perspective. The others are TV cartoon-like at best. The stories are inspiring, I suppose, showing larger-than-life heroes including Johnny Appleseed & Paul Bunyon doing major feats for the American frontier, and Casey Jones - traveling across country. The stories are meant to encourage us to do great things, but are a little outdated for a modern audience, in my opinion. This first to video compilation has some shorts that were first shown on television, which seems to be the best place for this. A decent view, but not earth-shattering or extremely necessary - in my opinion.

I borrowed the DVD, and I had forgotten the old classics of Jonny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan and Casey Jones. They are fun old Disney cartoons from the 40's and 50's. I am glad that Disney released them on DVD so my children can enjoy to old cartoons and the new John Henry one.

I remember watching these classic Disney shorts on "The Wonderful World of Disney" or at school when I was a kid, and now my children can see them as well. "Paul Bunyon" was always my favorite, and I love the new "John Henry" segment, but Eddie Cantor's narration on the Casey Jones piece is just plain annoying.

James Earl Jones provides some historical background to the men behind legends.

7/10