Pocahontas
Year: 1995
Directed by: Mike Gabriel & Eric Goldberg
Starring: Irene Bedard, Mel Gibson & David Ogden Stiers
Runtime: 81 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 26/07/21
Directed by: Mike Gabriel & Eric Goldberg
Starring: Irene Bedard, Mel Gibson & David Ogden Stiers
Runtime: 81 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 26/07/21
It’s always going to be a tough job adapting real events to film, and even more difficult when trying to make it an animated film that will appeal to all ages and audiences. So Disney probably bit off more than they could chew when they decided to adapt the story of Pocahontas, a Native American woman who was captured by the British and made a ‘civilised savage’ in order to allow more support for the colonisation of the ‘new world’ which would later become the United States of America.
How do they translate such a horrific story of slavery, colonisation, and racial persecution? Well they make it a musical about her falling in love with a white man of course!
In 1607 the Virginia Company sails across the Atlantic Ocean from London to the New World. The voyage is led by Governor Ratcliffe (David Ogden Stiers), a man who wants to pillage the land for Gold and other precious jewels, and Captain John Smith (Mel Gibson) has been brought along to help the ships crew prepare for battles with the natives.
Meanwhile Pocahontas (Irene Bedard), the daughter of Chief Powhatan (Russell Means), is trying to make sense of her strange dreams and running from the responsibility of marrying the tribe’s best warrior. When she sees the British, she is naturally inquisitive and manages to talk to John Smith, showing him that there is more to the world than trying to claim it as your own.
But with Ratcliffe and her future husband Kocoum (James Apaumut Fall) on the verge of all out war with one another, Pocahontas must try to stop the slaughter of her people and fulfil her true destiny.
How do they translate such a horrific story of slavery, colonisation, and racial persecution? Well they make it a musical about her falling in love with a white man of course!
In 1607 the Virginia Company sails across the Atlantic Ocean from London to the New World. The voyage is led by Governor Ratcliffe (David Ogden Stiers), a man who wants to pillage the land for Gold and other precious jewels, and Captain John Smith (Mel Gibson) has been brought along to help the ships crew prepare for battles with the natives.
Meanwhile Pocahontas (Irene Bedard), the daughter of Chief Powhatan (Russell Means), is trying to make sense of her strange dreams and running from the responsibility of marrying the tribe’s best warrior. When she sees the British, she is naturally inquisitive and manages to talk to John Smith, showing him that there is more to the world than trying to claim it as your own.
But with Ratcliffe and her future husband Kocoum (James Apaumut Fall) on the verge of all out war with one another, Pocahontas must try to stop the slaughter of her people and fulfil her true destiny.
I won’t beat around the bush; Pocahontas’ story has not aged well. Even looking at reviews from when the film released in 1995, there were a lot of people unhappy with how Disney had treated the story of one of the most famous Native American women by distorting her story in such a weird way, and trying to avoid any kind of responsibility that the colonists of the time have for paving the way for the slaughter of thousands of indigenous people. Now in 2021, Pocahontas is something that wouldn’t even get out of a pitch meeting in the kind of state it’s in.
Pocahontas as a character is almost entirely passive the entire film. I can only think of one moment where she affects the story and that is where she saves John Smith’s life at the end of the film, stopping the slaughter of her people at the hands of the British. The rest of the film though is her being told what to do, or what she should be.
John Smith is also horrendously racist. Pocahontas does try to teach him to understand cultures outside of his own, and his prejudices definitely do come from nurture rather than his character being inherently bad, but some of the stuff he comes out with in this film makes me surprised that Disney hasn’t tried to cover up their history the same way they have done with films like Dumbo by removing scenes or dialogue from the film in recent years.
To add insult to injury, the story isn’t even that good. It’s ok, it does what it needs to do. But I feel its very much cut from the same cloth as Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella, it doesn’t try to do anything particularly new with the Disney Princess premise, outside of having a non-white leading lady. I also struggle to enjoy the story because I can’t look past the historical inaccuracies, there’s almost no attempt made to have the film replicate the real events of Pocahontas’ life at all.
Pocahontas as a character is almost entirely passive the entire film. I can only think of one moment where she affects the story and that is where she saves John Smith’s life at the end of the film, stopping the slaughter of her people at the hands of the British. The rest of the film though is her being told what to do, or what she should be.
John Smith is also horrendously racist. Pocahontas does try to teach him to understand cultures outside of his own, and his prejudices definitely do come from nurture rather than his character being inherently bad, but some of the stuff he comes out with in this film makes me surprised that Disney hasn’t tried to cover up their history the same way they have done with films like Dumbo by removing scenes or dialogue from the film in recent years.
To add insult to injury, the story isn’t even that good. It’s ok, it does what it needs to do. But I feel its very much cut from the same cloth as Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella, it doesn’t try to do anything particularly new with the Disney Princess premise, outside of having a non-white leading lady. I also struggle to enjoy the story because I can’t look past the historical inaccuracies, there’s almost no attempt made to have the film replicate the real events of Pocahontas’ life at all.
But thankfully there is something great about Pocahontas and that’s the animation. Pocahontas is very likely one of the most visually stunning Disney Animated Classics ever made with some truly breath-taking environments, detailed character models, and engaging musical sequences. Pocahontas employs an unconventional colour palette of turquoises, purples, and oranges for much of the film to present some truly unique looking landscapes to sell audiences on the idea of the New World being so full of life and new discoveries. It looks otherworldly at times, and even somewhat ethereal. There are shots from the film I would frame and hang on the wall in a heartbeat because it just looks so incredible.
The songs are ok, but I don’t feel they’re as strong as those seen in Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. They are visually interesting and don’t rely on as much 3D CG animation as those two films did which is a nice return to traditionalism. But as for the quality of the musical numbers I don’t feel like it quite matches the insanely high quality of some of the other Disney musicals that released around that time.
For me Pocahontas is a film I don’t massively enjoy. I think it looks incredible, but the story and premise just bother me. I can understand why people do enjoy the film, as for what it does what it is trying to do well enough. But with the problematic handling of sensitive subject matter like that, and the fact that it doesn’t go out of its way to try and top what Disney achieved with Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin means that Pocahontas often fades out of my memory, and aside from the incredible visuals I wouldn’t say it’s an unmissable film.
The songs are ok, but I don’t feel they’re as strong as those seen in Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. They are visually interesting and don’t rely on as much 3D CG animation as those two films did which is a nice return to traditionalism. But as for the quality of the musical numbers I don’t feel like it quite matches the insanely high quality of some of the other Disney musicals that released around that time.
For me Pocahontas is a film I don’t massively enjoy. I think it looks incredible, but the story and premise just bother me. I can understand why people do enjoy the film, as for what it does what it is trying to do well enough. But with the problematic handling of sensitive subject matter like that, and the fact that it doesn’t go out of its way to try and top what Disney achieved with Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin means that Pocahontas often fades out of my memory, and aside from the incredible visuals I wouldn’t say it’s an unmissable film.