Review 717: Pocahontas

                                                                                                    Pocahontas is easily one of Disney's best looking and sounding animated features and surprisingly one their most serious and thoughtful: It deals with real is issues but handles them with such naive idealism that

The film is a romantised account of the life of Powhatan woman Pocahontas (Irene Bedard) and Captain John Smith (Mel Gibson) who has journeyed with a group of settlers led by Governor Ratcliffe (David Ogden Stiers) to start new lives and a new world. Will Pocahontas' love for Smith prevail and save the day?  

The film looks and sounds gorgeous. The films vision of the Native American landscape of that time is breathtaking, filling up the screen with a vast array of colours from purples to blues to vibrant blood reds which become particularly prominent in the films climax as if trying to convey that some form of horrible fate for one or more of the characters. Another thing Pocahontas does very well is reflections 

The films themes of rascim, colonization and war while handled in a simplisitc manner are definitely worth exploring. Pocahontas is a film about real issues, even if it treats them with naive idealism. The film tries to frame it as 

Directors Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg's (in his feature directorial debut) direction is   the score by Alan Menken is lovely, crafting another beautiful sound for the 

The central core of the film is a love story of Star-Crossed Lovers between Pocahontas and John Smith  Too often, it feels like Disney were trying to recapture the epic romance of Beauty and the Beast but lacking that dramatic heft that made Belle and the Beast's romance so compelling.

Pocahontas is someone who's trying to do right by her people and strives for peace among them and the white settlers but  She's in tune with the nature of the land and is not afraid to stand up to her father's  Over the course of the film, she expresses a wisdom beyond her years and offers kindness and gudience to those around her as we see with John Smith when she tries to show him that there's more to the land than just something to be claimed

Another weakness in Pocahontas is its lack of a truly colourful, memorable, diabolical villain. After the complexity of Scar in The Lion King, the narcissism of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast not to mention the scheming Jafar in Aladddin, Ratcliffe is just an oaf. At times, an entertaining oaf, but fundamentally an oaf. He just wants to loot the land and  Ratcliffe is delusional and thinks the Indians are hoarding the gold for themselves when there clearly is none. David Ogden Stiers (who also voiced Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast) does a lot to elevate a mostly underwritten character and conveying him as such a pompous prick but 

Russell Means  voicing Cheif Powhatan, leader of the tribe and Pocahontas' father. One of the films most refreshing elements is having a father who is   He isn't opposed to Pocahontas' dreams though he expects her to marry Kocoum even though she doesn't love him but otherwise seems like a fairly reasonable guy

Kocoum is just a very thinly drawn character who doesn't have much of a personality other than as Pocahontas herself puts it "Serious". 

Nakoma and Pocahontas have been friends since childhood, they compliment each other very well, whereas Pocahontas is free-spirited and fun-loving  The contrast between her and Pocahontas was very fun and makes up for the attempts at comic relief courtesy of animals Meeko, Flit and Percy.

Pocahontas is just fine as Disney family enteraintment, but if I were to rank it along with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King, Pocahontas would unfortunately make the bottom. It has noble intentions, but ultimately comes up short, 3.5/5.

The Anonymouc Critic.