Pocahontas is a touching tribute to the power of loyalty, courage, cooperation, and, more than anything else, sympathetic understanding.
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Disney's "Pocahontas" came out the same year, 1995, as Disney/Pixar's "Toy Story," and I wonder if the coincidence didn't signal the beginning of the end for traditional full-length animated features. Although "Pocahontas" did very well at the box office, there is no arguing that audience demand for anything but CGI animation has been on the decline ever since. One of Disney's last traditionally animated films, 2002's "Treasure Planet," bombed big time. So, we might have to cherish what we've got from the company that started it all back in 1937 with "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Certainly, this new 10th Anniversary edition of "Pocahontas" looks better than ever.
Before we begin, though, perhaps it's best to know a little something about the real-life Pocahontas, whose personal name, says the "Encyclopedia Britannica" was Matoaka, "a Powhatan Indian woman who helped maintain peace between English colonists and Native Americans by befriending the settlers at Jamestown, Virginia, and eventually marrying one of them. Dramatic accounts of her unusual role have immortalized her name in American folk history."
The encyclopedia goes to say that "Matoaka, whose pet name was Pocahontas (translated variously as 'frolicsome' and 'my favorite daughter'), was the daughter of Powhatan (as he was known to the English), chief of a confederation of some 30 tribes of the Tidewater region. Pocahontas was a young girl when she first became acquainted with the colonists who settled in the Chesapeake Bay area in 1607. She first entered the historical record in that year when she (supposedly) interceded to save the life of Captain John Smith, military leader of the months-old Jamestown settlement, who had been taken prisoner by Native Americans. In later, perhaps fanciful versions of Smith's story, she flung herself over him as his captors prepared to club his head on a stone. At her urging Smith was released to return to Jamestown. She subsequently became a frequent visitor in the settlement, sometimes bearing gifts of food to relieve the hard-pressed settlers. Her playful nature made her a favorite, and her friendship proved valuable to the settlers in helping to preserve peace.
After Captain Smith's return to England in 1609, relations between the settlers and Powhatan gradually deteriorated. In the spring of 1613, however, Captain Samuel Argall took her prisoner, hoping to use her to negotiate permanent peace. Treated with great respect and courtesy during her captivity, Pocahontas was converted to Christianity and was baptized Lady Rebecca. She was ransomed by her father but had in the meantime fallen in love with John Rolfe, a distinguished settler; both the Virginia governor, Sir Thomas Dale, and Powhatan agreed to a marriage, and peace prevailed as long as Powhatan lived.
In the spring of 1616 Pocahontas and her husband sailed with Governor Dale to England, where she was lionized by society and presented at the court of James I. While preparing to return to America, she contracted smallpox and died." So, that's about the extent of what's known about the real historical character.
As DVD Town reviewer Kevin Kaup wrote about the previous edition of "Pocahontas" a few years ago, the movie is "a poor history lesson, but great entertainment." Let me go on and quote more of Kevin's insight: "Disney's 'Pocahontas' is something of a Romeo and Juliet variant, with both lovers coming from warring factions. Neither dies at the end, but they are still kept apart by circumstances and responsibilities."
Kevin reminds us that "critics panned 'Pocahontas' in its theatrical run due to Disney's stance as historical revisionist. However, it is an important film for several reasons: one, it proves that a Disney film can succeed without a happy ending; two, it is one of the few Hollywood films to give Native Americans a fair shake, with their society and culture seen from within, and their agrarian and ecology-friendly tendencies celebrated; and three, it is the first real attempt by Disney, since 1959's 'Sleeping Beauty,' to evoke a more geometric, flat appearance in their animation, rather than going for realistic shadings and forms. This neo-geometric look would continue in a rather exaggerated form in 'Hercules,' and to a lesser extent in 'Mulan.' The current trend in animation is for realism, but there is something to be said for the simplicity of lines, shapes and solid color.
Mel Gibson provides the voice for John Smith, and Irene Bedard for Pocahontas. They both have wonderful voices, very well-suited to their characters. Disney standby David Ogden Stiers (he was Cogsworth in 'Beauty and the Beast' and the Archdeacon in 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame') provides the voices of both Ratcliffe AND Wiggins (the guy has range), and Billy Connolly's voice is easy to recognize as Ben, one of John's shipmates. Rounding out the exceptional voice talents is Linda Hunt as Grandmother Willow."
Thank you, Kevin; I couldn't agree with you more. "Pocahontas" is, indeed, a minor Disney classic, and while it is rather light on characterization, it has a few lovely tunes and some attractive animation that keep things moving. I enjoyed it marginally better than I did Disney's "Sleeping Beauty," which is generally considered the superior movie, but that's just a very personal reaction.
We have to understand going into this film, though, that it is a Disney concoction meant primarily as family entertainment, meaning suitable for kids as well as adults. As such, we shouldn't expect the kind of historical accuracy we would find in Gibson's "Braveheart," for instance. Still, I can understand how some folks familiar with the real-life Pocahontas tale would be disappointed with the liberties Disney took in describing the Pocahontas-John Smith romance, in portraying the Native-American girl as a sexy and curvaceous late teen rather than the more-probable twelve-year-old that she was, or in depicting the surrounding Virginia flora and fauna as looking typically fairy-tale "Snow Whitish." Indeed, even the incident upon which the whole story is based, Pocahontas's saving the life of John Smith, is open to debate, its authenticity based almost exclusively upon Smith's subsequent and highly dubious record of events. Anyway, it's not the history lesson that counts but, as Kevin has said, the entertainment. It is not a story of the way things were, but a story of the way we wish things had been. It is, in fact, a Disney world, filled with love and accord and ultimate joy. If only.
Now, we have the 10th Anniversary Edition of "Pocahontas," with two versions of the movie on disc one of a two-disc set. There is the original theatrical-release version of the movie and a new Anniversary version that includes the previously deleted song "If I Never Knew You," performed by Mel Gibson, integrated back into the framework of the story.
The movie recounts the exploits of the first group of English settlers at Jamestown, Virginia; and the tone is set from the outset with a storm at sea that reveals Captain John Smith as courageous and self-sacrificing. He's also handsome, blond-haired, and blue-eyed, yet despite his heroic acts and his Mel Gibson voice, he comes off as a somewhat bland fellow. In the New World we meet Pocahontas (speaking voice by Irene Bedard; singing voice by Judy Kuhn), the daughter of Chief Powhatan (Russell Means). She is intended for marriage to a young man named Kocoum (James Apaumut Fall), but she finds him "too serious." The villain of the piece is the English governor, Ratcliffe (Stiers), who is only in America for gold and glory and willing to kill for it. The comic relief is provided by Disney stalwarts, small cuddly animals, in this case a racoon named Meeko (John Kassir), a hummingbird named Flit (Frank Welker), and a dog named Percy (Danny Mann). Linda Hunt voices a talking tree, Grandmother Willow, and Christian Bale is Smith's friend, Thomas.
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