Pocahontas suffers from a dated depiction of native American tribes and the fact that it came out the same year as Disney's masterpiece The Lion King, but it's so much better than the Princess Movies that get more attention. Pocahontas feels like a real person with hopes and dreams and fears, the score is breathtaking and the animation is absolutely lovely. Yes, there are stereotypes, but on the whole it's not the most backward story from the 90s, and if you watch with a critical eye and a grain of salt, you can learn a lot about history and love and taking care of mother nature. Colors of the Wind is one of the best songs in the world.

Do you remember, when you were little, how you sat with your family on a boring night and watched Pocahontas together? Pocahontas is a 1995 Disney animation that heavily relied on Native American history and culture to entertain the American children. Pocahontas is one of those movies in which you enjoy watching when you were little, but the only reason you would re-watch it is for nostalgia. However, besides providing us with childhood memories, Pocahontas also provided us with a schema that models our concepts of Native Americans culture and values, which we refer to growing up. In addition, it is a movie that emphasized on romance rather than the Native American culture.First of all, although the movie is based on a historical event, there are several significant historical inaccuracies. In the Disney adaptation, Pocahontas is a young adult while in reality she was only eleven or twelve when she met John Smith. This brings into question the primary conflict that Pocahontas faces in the movie: the forbidden love between her and John Smith. The real age difference between Pocahontas and Smith, along with several historical speculations, suggests that there was never any real romantic relationships between the two. In addition, one obstacle that stood in between the love of Pocahontas and Smith is her arranged marriage with Kocoum. Historically, there are mentions of her marrying Kocoum (although not proved), but it happened during her story with John Rolfe and not with Smith. Furthermore, even the famous story of how Pocahontas saved John Smith from death may be partially false. Some historical accounts suggest that Pocahontas saving Smith was part of a ritual Native Americans perform to welcome a stranger as family.These historical inaccuracies show how the Disney film does not place much emphasis on being historically accurate, but more on developing a romanticized plot that the American audience and children desires. Actually, one of the first pitch for the idea behind Pocahontas is "an Indian princess who is torn between her father's wishes to destroy the English settlers and her wishes to help them—a girl caught between her father and her people, and her love for the enemy." This is shown towards the end of the film where the Native Americans and English settlers were about to wage war with each other. The entire mise-en-scène (the effect of the details in the setting), in which the color of the skies turned from a calm blue to a violent red, shows Pocahontas's dilemma between her tribe and her love. Another technique that the producers used to emphasize the romance between Pocahontas and Smith is to develop the character of Smith as a lovable hero. Before he met Pocahontas, he is just another Englishman that likes adventures and is willing to kill "Injuns." For example, the scene was low key (lighting is dimmed to show shadows and darkness) just when he was about to shoot Pocahontas, which emphasizes the dark and suspicious side of Smith that is willing to kill Native Americans. However, after he met Pocahontas, Smith is suddenly developed into a kind character that is absolutely in touch with the Native American culture (for instance when he could see Grandmother Willow). This "fated" transformation of the "hero" in the script allows the audience to disregard unethical actions of Smith's past (and any other Englishmen for the matter) and focus solely on the development of the romance throughout the movie. In the end, this movie never truly teaches about the Native American history and culture, but is just another Western romanticized film adaptation of the Native American culture. Because the purpose of the film is to be more "socially responsible" than "historically accurate," as supervising animator Glen Keane explains, there are several instances where they misrepresented the Native American culture in the film (despite hiring Native American consultants and doing other research on their own). For example, the physical appearances of the Native Americans in the film were not representative of the actual Powhatan people (Pocahontas's tribe). One of the most popular representation of Native American in Western film and media is the use of headdresses (or war bonnets) and feather headbands. Pocahontas is not an exception to this misrepresentation: it is seen that chief Powhatan wears a headdress and Kocoum wears a feather headband. In reality, however, headdresses and feather headbands were only worn by a small number of tribes that were West and North of the Powhatan tribes. Despite this, one thing that Disney and their consultants did get right is the clothing style of the Native Americans: shirtless with breechclouts and leggings for men, and one-piece dresses for women. Finally, Pocahontas is a well-made animation in 1995 for a movie about Native Americans in 1995. The producers went through extensive research on the culture of the Native Americans to make sure that they are using the most historically accurate information (such as for the clothing of the Native Americans). However, their true intentions were never to be historically accurate, but to produce a likable American film, which means that there are several places where historical accuracy is sacrificed.

This is certainly one of the most notable animation films that Disney did in the 1990s. It has an undeniable quality, with exquisitely done animations, great songs and fun suitable for children and adults. However, its impossible to get around an undeniable fact: all that the film portrays is fiction, imagined around names of historical characters who actually existed. The connection between this film and historical facts ends in these names. Everything, absolutely everything else, was created in the minds of Disney's writers and creators. So pay attention, history teachers and parents: don't think that this movie has any connection with history. Another problem of the film is to approach in a very stereotyped and slight way the two confronting cultures (the colonizers and the Native Americans, its understood). But since its a children's film, this kind of lightness is forgivable.One of the highlights of the movie is music. Several of his songs were remarkable, especially for my generation, who was a child when the film was released. "Colors of the Wind" is perhaps one of the most poetic songs used in a Disney movie, it stays in the ear with great ease and the animation used during the music is excellent. In fact, the synchronicity of visual animation and music is something very well made. This movie is great if it's seen as an entertainment fiction, like an animated children's movie that does not show anything true.

This was the most under-appreciated Disney film of all time. I rewatched it last night and finally grasped just how great it was over 20 years later.The animation and scenery were both gorgeous and the colors in the Virginia countryside were fantastic. No, it wasn't historically accurate, but it did contain issues that hold significance to this day. I truly believe that this film belongs in the top 5 Disney films ever.Pocahontas character was the most realistic Disney figure to that point and the animal characters were hilarious. One can only hope that with the passing of time that Pocahontas will get the respect it deserves.