I haven't watched this film since I was child, but I have always kept it in my heart as one of my Disney favorites. It was such a disappointment to watch it again and see it with fresh, unjaded eyes and find it lackluster and uninspired. I suppose the fact that I remember it fondly means that its makers did their job well, but it is sad to see the fun drained out of Disney.
From the get-go the story is rife with historical inaccuracies about the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 by greedy Britons, thirsty for the gold that the Spanish found in earlier conquests. Headed by the evil--though not so terribly villainous Governor Ratcliffe--the members of the Virginia Co. head to the new world where they expect riches and adventure, fully anticipating skirmishes with local savages which one crew member, John Smith (voiced by Mel Gibson doing a perfect contemporary American accent), has fought in the past.
They arrive in Virginia, and sure enough are met with fear and hostility by a local Indian tribe. The chieftain's daughter, Pocahontas, does not greet them with suspicion, but rather falls in love with Smith, guided by her heart and the spirits of the earth or some such stereotypical Native American nonsense. When the natives and the encroachers prepare for inevitable war, it is up to the love that Pocahontas and Smith share to quell the violence and show the two peoples that cultural differences aren't something to fight against but rather embrace.
This is a rather large and honorable undertaking by the Disney team, trying to impart a respect of racial and cultural dissimilarities to children, especially in a brief 80 minutes, but they do so by reinforcing negative stereotypes and tackling the content in a haphazard and naive way. The English were not bloodthirsty and barbarous (at least at the onset), and Pocahontas's tribe ought not have been portrayed in that cliched form of children of the earth. Particularly with the latter case, I think it is wrong to try and supplant the myth of the "savage" with that of the "noble savage".
Both Pocahontas and Smith are handled in ways that make them stand apart from their respective groups. She looks far more Anglican and simply "copper-skinned", and less wild than other members of her tribe, and he is an dull Aryan beauty. Neither of them seem to have the accents they should and appear far more "American" than the others. It might have been a specific choice to show the similarities between them, but I think it damagingly places our post-modern Western culture on a very high pedestal.
It is a visually resplendent movie with some gorgeous artwork and moments of striking imagery. The songs by Broadway legend Stephen Schwartz and Alan Menken are nicely composed and lyrically interesting, if not the most memorable, and they certainly won't keep kids humming them (though I must admit "How loud are the drums of war" has been going through my head as I've been reading today's news). It is unfortunate that their talent were not put to better use. Schwartz also did the music for "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" which is one of my all-time favorite Disney pictures, but those that film carried far more emotional resonance than this simpler one, no doubt due its superior source material.
Much of the trouble comes from the fact that it feels like an incomplete movie. It is a direct descendant of "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid", but unlike those two achievements, the arc of the love story is glossed over using the tried and true "love at first sight" explanation and there is no development to it. It is simply there to diffuse the artificial conflict of the us v. them scenario. It is, in essence, a movie that is all buildup without the heart behind it to make the resolution mean something.
I can appreciate the messages of racial harmony as well as the trend growing in Disney of using the strong, independent female protagonist, but they left the inspiration for the animation instead of the story. What good is a children's film if it is all message and no joy, particularly if the content isn't told in a way that connects to the audience? I am glad that they had "Beauty and the Beast" as a predecessor, for that deals with love and hatred of the "other" in a subtler and more endearing way--if only it served as a better blueprint this go around.
2/4
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