“You think I'm an ignorant "savage" and you've been so many places; I guess it must be so, but still I cannot see if the savage one is me. How can there be so much that you don't know? You don't know.”
With the 1995 movie “Pocahontas”, the artists at Disney once again proved that when it comes to animation, no can hold a candle to them.
The story revolves around a young woman, Pocahontas, the daughter of the Chief of the Powhatan tribe settled in Virginia. Her father wants her to marry a fierce warrior she finds too serious. A dream about a spinning arrow leads Pocahontas to believe it is her destiny to meet another man. She does. A British settler, Captain John Smith, commissioned by the gold hungry Governor Ratcliffe, sets sail with his crew for the New World. The Indians and the Englishmen are instinctively enemies, but when Pocahontas and Smith meet, despite their initial cultural conflicts, they are strangely drawn to each other. As you might expect, they fall in love, but to make their relationship work, the couple must find a way to bridge their two cultures. For Pocahontas, this is made more difficult by her father's express command that she should stay away from the white men, and there are times when she backs out, but this only makes the storyline more engaging.
The movie won two Academy Awards: for Best Original Music and for Best Original Song, "Colors of the Wind".
Unusually for a Disney animated film, Pocahontas is actually loosely based on a true story, and came in for a lot of criticism during its theatrical run due to Disney's stance as historical revisionist. To be fair though, a Disney film is not likely to be the place for historical accuracy, ultimately its aim is to entertain people, especially children, and this film does that brilliantly.
The movie is worth seeing simply for the widely diverse characters and the incredible soundtrack, and while it may not be one of the top ten greatest animated features ever made, it is beautiful to behold, sentimental, and heartwarming.
thus spake Pollyanna @ 5:44 am
Footprints: 11
