One of the Disney cartoons I remember seeing as a child was about American folk legends.  This is how I found out about mythic figures like Johnny Appleseed (not pictured), Pecos Bill (Patrick Swayze), Paul Bunyan (Oliver Platt), and John Henry (Roger Aaron Brown).  However, I may have experienced a personal Mandela Effect.  My memory is usually quite good on my childhood, far different from my sister, but when I look up the title, the internet gives me something called Disney’s American Legends (2002).  Now, I could be misremembering because further research tells me that what I watched as a kid was actually separate animated shorts.  Apparently, they were not combined until 2002 into a single anthology narrated by James Earl Jones.  It was also at this point that the story of John Henry was added, so that could not have been part of my childhood.  What was more definite is that I had seen a live action version of this in the 1990s called Tall Tale (1995).  And that is all I had in my mind until I finally rewatched this movie, which is great on cast but terrible on everything else.

If there is one thing I know about farming, is that it is no Tall Tale to say that it is everything to the person responsible for it.  That is the problem for twelve-year-old Daniel Hackett (Nick Stahl).  Instead of doing the plowing on his family’s plot, he sees one of those new-fangled horseless carriages, immediately drops his chores, and runs to gawk at the modern marvel.  I should mention, by the way, that this is set in “The American West” in 1905.  With furrows going in random directions, he comes back home to a slightly more understanding mother, Sarah Hackett (Moira Harris), but a father, Jonas Hackett (Stephen Lang), who is not happy about the shirking of duties.  There is no escaping what the boy has done, but Daniel is obstinate, complaining about the work and opening up about how much he hates it.  It takes Sarah counselling Jonas to get the father to calm down.  In so doing, Jonas offers to take Daniel fishing.  As they are on the lake with their lines in the water, Jonas begins rehashing tales about Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, and John Henry, stories that Daniel has heard hundreds of times.  Further, the son has come to think of them as what the title suggests, despite Jonas’ insistence on their authenticity.  Nonetheless, the father-son time does the job of mending fences (pun intended) until that night after Daniel has gone to bed.  Looking down from his loft, he overhears Jonas telling Sarah that he must go, gun in hand, to take care of a matter in town.  Daniel sneaks out after dad and is hiding in the back of church out of sight of the gathered residents when J. P. Stiles (Scott Glenn) enters.  This mystery stranger represents the railroad company, and he has come to offer the collection of farmers $50 per acre for their land if they will move.  There is a clear intention that if they do not take the deal, there will be trouble.  With that, some seem willing to do so, not being able to pass on that much money.  The person who is not willing to give in is Jonas.  Standing up, he speaks out against anyone trying to take his land, saying he will not accept any amount of cash, and encouraging the others to do the same.  The meeting breaks up shortly thereafter with some voicing their readiness to sell.  J. P.’s henchmen follow Jonas, as does Daniel.  Prior to any trouble commencing, Daniel alerts his dad to his presence.  Knowing what is about to take place, Jonas gives Daniel the deed to his land and tells him to run.  Daniel does as he is told, but gets home somehow after his wounded father.  In his devastation, he runs out to their lake side dock, gets into the rowboat, and falls asleep crying.  At some point, the vessel slips its moorings and drifts away without stirring him.  By the time he awakens, his conveyance has come to rest in the middle of a desert.  Two men are about to rob him when, in the distance, a tornado is seen headed in their direction.  The two armed men have their trigger fingers shot off by Pecos Bill, who decides to take Daniel into his protection.  The justification for doing so has to do with the “Code of the West,” and one of its tenets is to defend the defenseless. Thus, Pecos agrees to help return Daniel to Paradise Valley.  Speaking of home, J. P. has realized that Daniel has the deed and has put a bounty on the young man’s head.  This leads to many people coming after Daniel, including more of J. P.’s cronies.  To survive this, Pecos decides to enlist the help of his friends.  This is Paul Bunyan, who needs to be reminded of who he is, and John Henry.  Along the way, they stop in a town where they plan to catch a ferry, but instead have to deal with Calamity Jane (Catherine O’Hara).  She is an old flame of Pecos, but more importantly, she is the local law enforcement.  Hence, instead of arresting the people who had started a fight with our heroes in the local saloon, she incarcerates John, Paul, and Pecos.  Their rescue is begun by Daniel, but he has to go on the run when J. P.’s men show up in town.  This leaves Paul’s blue ox, named Babe (literally an ox painted blue), to complete the jail break.  I mean, the beast of burden literally breaks the jail.  There is a desperate escape through the desert until J. P. and company again find them.  Despite being outnumbered, John, Paul, and Pecos want to fight, but Daniel hands over the deed, seeing the situation as hopeless.  Upon doing so, he is given a vision of Jonas laboring tremendously building the railroad before awakening in the boat.  Daniel runs to his house to learn that his father will recover, but has decided to sell.  This is now unacceptable for Daniel, so he rushes to where the train tunnel is opening and J. P.’s special locomotive is about to come through.  Daniel is attempting to stop the engine on his own, but he is soon joined by John, Paul, and Pecos.  It results in the tunnel being collapsed on J. P., and Paradise Valley’s residents resisting together.  We end with Daniel commiserating with his three new companions before they disappear into thin air.

Actually, Pecos rides a tornado into the horizon at the end of Tall Tale, but he leaves his horse with Daniel, so that is nice.  It is also really confusing because I cannot say with any definitiveness whether these legendary characters are supposed to be real.  Knowing such things would be nice, but the film has other things to parse out that spoke to me as a Catholic.  Specifically, there is this “code” that I mentioned in the synopsis.  There are three parts to it: respecting the land, defending the helpless, and not spitting in front of women and children.  I think you can guess which one of these two are applicable to Faith.  Of those two, it is the second to which I am most drawn.  At the same time, what does it mean to defend the helpless from a Catholic perspective?  The word “defend” tends to conjure acts of violence.  How can one make that happen otherwise?  The answer to these questions is not an easy one because living a life centered on God is difficult.  An oft used quote of mine comes from Pope Benedict XVI, who said “The world offers you comfort.  But you were not made for comfort.  You were made from greatness.”  It is the kind of greatness that allows some to lasso tornados, fell trees with one swing of an axe, or drive a railroad spike into the ground faster than a machine.  The film does not attribute such acts to miracles, but the three characters who performed these feats attribute it to their adherence to that code.  To that end, Pecos makes the distinction between simply knowing those guidelines and following them.  I was struck by this statement as it describes many Christians.  Faith is not about simply having an idea of God’s existence.  It is about knowing Him, or spending your life getting to know Him.  It is about transformation.  Ultimately, it is Daniel that is the one who is transformed, and it is because he learns to believe.

It would be nice to see that belief at the end of Tall Tale to be related to God, but as usual, that would be too much to ask.  It would also be too much to ask me to recommend the film.  There are other ways of learning about these folk tales, like those old Disney cartoons I discussed at the beginning.