Disney Marathon: 'Pocahontas'
I'm left wondering if I ever saw this movie in its entirety. When it was released my sister was quite into it, but I only remember seeing it piecemeal. This is the first time I've watched it through. At least, it would be if we didn't split the viewing over two nights.
For those just joining us, this is a movie marathon with a twist. Myself (cranky 30s blogger), my son Josh (stoic 10 year old Nintendo obsessive) and my daughter Amelia (drama llama 7 year old princess wannabe) are watching Disney movies in a random order and ranking them. We hope to see interesting differences in how we organise our lists.
Released: 1995
Director: Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg
Cast: Irene Bedard, Mel Gibson, David Ogden Stiers, John Kassir, Russell Means, Jim Cummings, Christian Bale, Billy Connolly, Linda Hunt
Plot: English settlers arrive in the New World, eager to stake their claims and cash in on resources. One captain, John Smith, meets and falls in love with Pocahontas, the daughter of the indigenous tribe's chief.
Review: Here's a movie with no sense of identity beyond 'Disney Renaissance Film'. It's a paint-by-numbers madlib mishmash of elements from previous successes mixed together into a bland paste.
Pocahontas (Bedard) has the wanderlust of Belle, the diplomatic cunning of Jasmine and the romantic heart of Ariel, whilst John Smith (Gibson) is the ruffian with a heart of gold and the spirit of adventure we've seen three times now. During this decade many of the Disney villains had some LGBQT+ coding, but Ratcliffe (Stiers) is a deeply stereotypical negative portrayal complete with the pigtails and foppish manservant. There's very little that stands out, with the overall impression being similar to the Princess Trope parody scene in Ralph Breaks the Internet. She sings to her important water.
We start with John Smith in England, already leaving us disconnected from the protaganist. There's something suitable about the sexist, racist, anti-semite Mel Gibson playing a colonist, but there's no reason for him to have an Australian accent. White people hadn't found Australia yet, and for some reason Gibson can't suppress his marketable accent for the role. I'm pretty sure Disney Animation can get him a dialect coach.
Anyway, John Smith travels across the sea along with Billy Connolly playing Scottish Man and Christian Bale playing Impressionable Youth. The expedition is lead by Governor Ratcliffe, portrayed as an evil gay, working for the Virginia Company and set on digging up all the gold he can get his hands on. In the New World we meet the Powhatan tribe and the chief's daughter Pocahontas. She feels there's more to life than all this. She is brave and spiritual and has whacky animal sidekicks. Pocahontas has been having narratively useful prophetic dreams and talks to 'Grandmother Willow' (Hunt) about it.
When Smith and Pocahontas meet, they can magically talk to each other. Then there are songs and misunderstandings and then Pocahontas proves that she's willing to die for the man she met yesterday. In the end John Smith must return to England without Pocahontas, but the annoying animals prove that white people and native tribes can live in harmony.
Look, the story is a mess. It's shallow, it's uncomfortably tropey and Mel Gibson is in it (but he made an Oscar nominated film, so he's technically forgiven I guess?). That's not to say it's a disaster. I like the watercolour backgrounds, and they're consistently impressive. The feeling is of a living Bob Ross landscape. New World seems like a comfortable place.
There are some good musical numbers in the mix, but you have to deal with a major villain song being about 'digging'. 'Colour of the Wind' is solid if a little generic. 'Savages' is jaunty and awkward as fuck. The message seems to be that white colonists and indigenous populations are just as bad as each other and, well, that's not the case. Of course, opening that book raising the issue of historical accuracy in general and that's a whole big thing.
It's just a weird choice to make a historical figure who was no more than 12 years old in tellings a young woman just because you want to make a romantic movie because there's a better chance of an Oscar. Hardly an artistic reason, and in hindsight it's hard to imagine how many animators were trying to jump onto this project from The Lion King. Disney in general backed the wrong horse here, with so much investment resulting in a product by committee.
Best Song: I have to go with 'Savages', it's just do delightfully awkward. Crazily enough, it got heavily censored before making it cinemas.
Weirdest Trivia: The cinematic release date coincides with the historical Pocahontas' 400th birthday.
Rating: THREE out of TEN
THE RANKINGS MEI always thought this would be a generic Princess tale, but it doesn't seem to manage even that.
Click those titles if you want to see what we said about the other movies.
AMELIANothing like a Disney Princess to capture Amelia's attention. She also liked the Bob Ross style of artwork. I don't know she learned about Bob Ross, but apparently she's a Bob Ross fan.
- Frozen
- Emperor's New Groove
- Zootopia
- Moana
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Mulan
- Hercules
- Alice in Wonderland
- Wreck-It Ralph
- Tangled
- Pocahontas
- Dinosaur
- The Aristocats
- The Princess and the Frog
- Robin Hood
- Beauty and the Beast
- The Three Caballeros
- The Fox and the Hound
- The Sword in the Stone
- Saludos Amigos
- Oliver & Company
- Aladdin
- Treasure Planet
- Big Hero 6
- A Goofy Movie
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
- Chicken Little
- Fantasia
Joshua took a keen interest in the true story behind Pocahontas, which lead into a longer conversation about white colonisation and modern race relations, and his introduction to NWA.
- Zootopia
- Big Hero 6
- Aladdin
- Emperor's New Groove
- Treasure Planet
- Moana
- Ralph Breaks the Internet
- The Three Caballeros
- Saludos Amigos
- Wreck-It Ralph
- Frozen
- Mulan
- The Princess and the Frog
- Robin Hood
- The Sword in the Stone
- Beauty and the Beast
- Oliver & Company
- Tangled
- Pocahontas
- A Goofy Movie
- The Aristocats
- Fantasia
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
- The Fox and the Hound
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Dinosaur
- Hercules
- Alice in Wonderland
- Chicken Little
