Pocahontas

Pocahontas is one of those films that quite often gets critiqued for not being historically accurate. I quite often find this puzzling when people make this complaint about a Disney film because ever since Snow White, the company has -always- changed and altered the original source material to suit -their- version of the story. So, I will not be holding this against the film, or any other film in the Disney canon.

With that said, let's move on to the story itself. Pocahontas follows the titular character as she tries to find the right path to go down, especially when strange invaders arrive and threaten the peace of her world, causing Pocahontas to look at things in an entirely new way. Despite the growing obstacles, she soon finds love with John Smith, one of the British men who has come in search of riches. The story itself is rather similar to Romeo and Juliet, but with singing and fuzzy animals.

One of my favourite things about this film is the animation. I love the way the backgrounds look all through the film, and especially enjoy the scene where Pocahontas and John Smith first meet at the waterfall. Speaking of which, upon this viewing I found I really enjoyed how Pocahontas was animated, the way she moves and acts feels really fluid and natural. It's very rare to find a time where I found the animation to decrease, though the version of the film I own also inserted a deleted scene which did stand out a bit to me. This is a very minor detracting factor since there is an option to view the film without this additional scene.

During the film one of the largest hampers is how two of the main animal sidekicks are played up for laughs, though at times it feels forced and like it interrupts things even if their squabbling is meant to parallel the fighting between the British settlers and the Native Americans. Also feeling rather forced, and rather out of place is Ratcliffe's assistant, Wiggins. The character is just a bit too much and could have been better handled. The main villain, Ratcliffe also feels pretty weak as he is only a greedy man, seeking to take all the riches for himself and feels almost like he doesn't add anything new or interesting. 

With that said, Pocahontas really helps to carry the film and feels like the most interesting character that is offered. John Smith is also rather well handled, and is able to hold his own without feeling too bland. While Pocahontas is more of the fun, outgoing daughter of the chief, John Smith balances her as the very respected soldier who has had his fair share of adventure as well.

The songs here are all pretty good, the obvious stand out being Colors of the Winds which is easily the most popular one. Both parts of the Savages song help to fan the sparks of conflict, leading up to the climax of the film. The villains song is alright, but it feels a bit lacking and rather curious as Ratcliffe sings his greed to the settlers who actually seem fine with what the outcome will be. 

Pocahontas can be a very entertaining film if you go into it not searching for a lesson in early American history.   4/5