Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

moviecritichank-7 Pocahontas is the 33rd full-length animated feature released by Walt Disney Pictures in 1995. Billed by Disney with the tagline of "An American Legend Brought to Life", it is the story of the free-spirited Pocahontas who seeks to convince her father Chief Powhatan to make peace between her Native American tribe and the English settlers of the New World of Jamestown that arrive in search of gold and prosperity. During the production of this film, then Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios Jeffrey Katzenberg regarded Pocahontas as a home run film film for Disney in light of what he thought to be the more mature story in comparison to "The Lion King", which was released a year earlier. However, while it was the 4th highest grossing film world-wide in '95 and did pretty well on the home video market in '96, this film didn't quite live up to the standard set by its predecessors like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. However, while it's my least favorite film of the storied Disney Renaissance era, there were still some things that I actually liked about the film which I will highlight in this review.I'd say that like most of the Disney films that came out before (and especially during) the Renaissance period for Disney, Pocahontas is very strong in the music department! Before I ever saw this movie, I remember being in awe of the song "Colors of the Wind", which is the scene that appeared in the previews for the VHS of The Lion King. In spite of the shallow character development (which I will highlight in this review), Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz did a fantastic job on the songs and the score in this movie. For me, the song "If I Never Knew You" takes the cake for best song in this movie and it's only sung in the credits for the theatrical version of the film. I liked how deep the lyrics are as they highlight the meaning behind John Smith's line "I'd rather die tomorrow than live 100 years without knowing you", which he quotes to Pocahontas right before he is to be executed the next dawn. I do wish that they left the song in the final cut of the film, but it is on the special edition DVD/Blu-Ray version. I also enjoyed the song "Savages" mainly because it highlights the animosity that the settlers have towards the Native Americans for capturing John Smith as well as the animosity that the Native Americans have towards the settlers and John Smith for the death of one of their own (even though it wasn't him that pulled the trigger). The song serves as a reminder to us that we should never justify killing/wanting to kill someone out of hatred just because they might be different than us. Now for the weaknesses of the film. Oh boy, where to start! While the movie is based off of the Native American legend and the Disney animators did the right thing by going to Jamestown to get the inspiration for their animation, they definitely missed the ball in a few areas. Let's touch on some of the historical inaccuracies for a bit. In 1607 (the year that the settlers arrived to Jamestown and which the movie is set), Pocahontas (who was born in 1596) was around 10-11 years old when she met John Smith, who was 26-27 years old at the time. Did that matter to Disney though? No, because they just had to make this a love story in the vein of Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid. However, unlike Pocahontas, those stories are fairy tales. This is key part of American history and now that I'm older I definitely think that Disney did a great disservice to children by taking what could've been an educational introduction to the Native American legend by giving them a love story that didn't happen in real life. Anyways, as far as character development is concerned, while not nearly as dull, wooden, bland, and static as Aurora, Snow White, or Cinderella, Pocahontas (voiced by Irene Bedard) is still a pretty boring and one-dimensional character with very little motive to her, which is a shame with her being the main protagonist and all. While also underdeveloped and one-dimensional, I found her best friend Nakoma to be a much more interesting character than that of Pocahontas. The rest of the Native Americans such as Chief Powhatan (voiced by Russell Means) and Kocoum (who is your basic stereotypical jock placed in colonial times) were pretty flat and boring too. I actually found the settlers to be much more entertaining, mainly the comic screwball Wiggins! As far as John Smith (voiced by Mel Gibson) is concerned, I would've much rather seen him portrayed with the harsh and gruff exterior that he showed to his men in real life. The best characters in this film were Meeko, Flit (voiced by Frank Welker), and Grandmother Willow (voiced by Linda Hunt), who is by far one of the wisest characters that Disney has ever created. Another thing that made the four films which preceded this one (and a few that came after it) was a strong, round, and dynamic Disney antagonist. In this one we get Governor Ratcliffe (voiced by the late great Disney legend David Ogden Stiers). While he did a good job (as he always does) of voicing the character, Ratcliffe still remains a forgettable villain when compared to the likes of Scar, Jafar, Hades, Frollo, and other villains in the Disney catalog as he lacked that despicable, disgusting nature that is trademark of a memorable Disney villain. So, while I think that this movie as a whole is the weakest of this era of Disney magic in regards to story (not being historically factual) and character development (being shallow and one-dimensional), it was still a decently animated film with great songs and music that deserves at least one viewing. Not my favorite (even though I did own it on VHS growing up), but still worth showing to your kids on family movie night! Rating: 7/10.

gjf-22476 I recommend that you watch Pocahontas because it could teach you a lot. Looking at how the world is today, this movie could teach people a lot. It could make people see the bigger picture. We are always fighting, we always try to isolate ourselves from people who are different, and we don't look at nature as something that deserves respect. Our world today is corrupt. We bite the hand that feeds us every single day.

pavlinaarx I really love movies about "civilized" people and "savages". I really love cartoons , fairy tales and Disney because you can completely relax while watching you know there will be happy end. There are no violence here which I hate. And which is the most important there is a morality:sometime easy understanding and simple as the good always win evil but sometimes as here there are more deep morality and need to hear unsaid to understand. I can not say much about the plot because there will be spoilers. It is (as expected) sweet, funny , even in some way deep, but sometimes....it did not hold water. And it is only one disadvantage of the film. But I love the plot because there are natural Americans that are completely different but just the same from Englishmen, there are gold rush, greed, the bloody war, and of course the love what breaks all difficulties. The plot is most important part of the cartoon as it must be. Vusuals, songs supplement the plot. The characters. The first main character is Pokahontas, native American girl who understand what the forest, the animals, the rocks are saying. She loves her tribe and want it to be peace. She is brave and wise , wants to find her purpose. The second main character is John Smith, the Englishman who goes to America "for glory, God and gold and for Virginia company" and for adventures of course. He allow the principle: shoot first, ask questions later.The Englishmans and natural Americans are just the same. Yes, they have different colors of skin, different languages and culture. Englishmans are more thirst for gold and natural Americans more loves nature, but they both want war to make marvelous deeds. So they simply did not want peace and who did not want never find. Them both thinks others are savages because they think otherwise. Conclusion: "Pokahontas" is a cartoon that I strongly recommend to watch for everyone. Everything are in measure, and there are philosophy. But sometimes plot becomes too absolute,too monochrome, and sometimes too pink. So my mark is solid nine.

FeelGoodInc So, Briton John Smith with his crew and governor Ratcliffe arrive in America and start construction activities on an unclaimed piece of real estate (unclaimed, despite being so close to a Native American settlement.. seriously.) The chief of the Native American settlement is Powhatan and his daughter Pocahontas (engaged to be married to a brave of her tribe, Koccum) dreams of a more exciting life than what she thinks Koccum will give her. She comes into contact and falls in love with John Smith and the rest of the film focuses on the trials and tribulations of the lovers. First of all, the British settlers shown to be harmless and somewhat defensive and respectful of the Natives is a stretch of the imagination. It is not really a secret how the natives were relieved of their property by the settlers who had superior technology. It was an unofficial policy of British colonialism to passive-aggressively wipe out indigenous populations by over exploitation and not providing relief when famines resulted from this over exploitation. In fact they hated (and still hate) those peoples who somehow survived with their religion using tactics like over-reproduction. Secondly (possible spoiler), the claim that Indigenous Americans have been shown is good light is not true at all. Case in point: When Koccum sees Pocahontas and JS together, he all of a sudden goes all uncivilized and savage. He doesn't shrug and go away (Which he would have probably done because Native American women were said to be allowed to select their partners), he doesn't give a warning, he just yells and attacks with his ax. The entire proceedings are racist at a cringe - inducing level. Thirdly, they've shown that the crew mutinies against Ratcliffe and refuses to fire in the end because they come to know that there is a truce. The kind of decimation that was achieved (in actual history) in face of such insubordination is remarkable. Everyone knows it is natural that when civilizations first come into contact (and in this case it was just after the middle ages), they make more hate then love, but at least don't lie about it. This aggravates the injustice. Poor Ratcliffe (an actual historical person) also evokes sympathy, the blame for everything has been laid on him for no reason and his name is tarnished forever. He actually met a gruesome death at the hands of natives. The film itself is not very engaging. John Smith is blandly handsome. Pocahontas though exquisitely beautiful, doesn't have too many expressions and if you look closely, all the ladies of her tribe have the same face, with different hair. Even less can be said about the other characters of the film. The animals are cute. If you are watching this on TV you'll make frequent trips to the bathroom and to get snacks and cola. To be fair, how much can you get out of the done to death trope of Pocahontas throwing herself on JS to protect him. That said, Two scenes in this film are pure magic: when Pocahontas and Smith first meet and in the end when Pocahontas rushes to her ledge to get a better view of her lover's ship leaving. Music is also nice. The three stars are for that.