Pocahontas (1995 film)
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| Pocahontas | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Mike Gabriel Eric Goldberg |
| Produced by | James Pentecost |
| Written by | Carl Binder Susannah Grant Philip LaZebnik |
| Starring | Irene Bedard Mel Gibson David Ogden Stiers John Kassir Russell Means Frank Welker Christian Bale Linda Hunt |
| Music by | Alan Menken |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 16, 1995 (selected cities) June 23, 1995 (general) November 24, 1995 (re-release) |
| Running time | 81 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $55,000,000 (estimated) |
| Gross revenue | $347,179,773 |
| Followed by | Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Pocahontas is the thirty-third animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation in April 15, 1994 and was originally released to selected theaters on June 16, 1995 by Buena Vista Pictures with the Wallace and Gromit short film, A Close Shave. The film is the first Disney film to be based on a real historic character. The film is partly based on the known historical story of Pocahontas but also on the folklore and legend that surround it. In particular, it presents an emotionally charged and highly dramatic account of the meeting between Pocahontas and John Smith. Pocahontas is one of the very few Disney films to feature an interracial romance (though not to the point of marriage). This movie is part of the Disney Renaissance that began in 1989.
A musical with songs by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, the Pocahontas' theme song "Colors of the Wind", performed by Vanessa Williams, won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Song. The film's score, also by Menken, won the Academy Award for Best Original Score. A video game based on the film was released across various platforms shortly after the film's theatrical release, and the film itself was followed by a direct-to-video sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World in 1998.
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[edit] Plot
In 1607, a ship carrying British settlers sails for North America in search of gold and other material riches, prepared for months of stay and with weapons to fight inhabitants that might impede their project. On board are the handsome Captain John Smith and the greedy Governor Ratcliffe. A storm erupts, and John saves the life of a young settler named Thomas when he falls overboard, befriending him in the process.
Meanwhile, the Powhatan tribe has just won a battle, led by a strong but bitter warrior named Kocoum. Pocahontas, Chief Powhatan's beautiful daughter, learns that her father wants her to marry Kocoum. She is not enthusiastic about this, due to Kocoum's serious demeanor (he completely ignores the children idolising him). Pocahontas travels to an enchanted glade to ask advice from the talking tree Grandmother Willow. Grandmother Willow tells Pocahontas to listen with her heart.
The settlers land in Virginia and Pocahontas observes from the bushes, unseen. They dig for gold under Ratcliffe's orders, as John explores the territory; Pocahontas follows him. He spots her and she begins to flee, but she remembers the advice to listen with her heart, and tells him her name. The warriors are also observing the settlers, but when they are seen, a battle ensues. The warriors retreat, and Powhatan declares that the white men are dangerous and that no one should go near them.
John Smith and Pocahontas get into a bit of a misunderstanding when John refers to Pocahontas' people as "savages." She sings "Colors of the Wind" to convince him that her people have a different kind of wisdom, but their time together is cut short when Pocahontas hears distant drumming, and she quickly leaves.
A few days later, John decides to revisit Pocahontas. He locates her with her friend Nakoma. Pocahontas asks Nakoma not to say anything. Pocahontas and John sneak off (narrowly evading Kocoum, who is worried for Pocahontas) and go to the enchanted glade where John meets Grandmother Willow and learns that there is no gold. John and Pocahontas agree to meet again that night, despite the danger.
When Pocahontas returns to the village, some brothers of the Powhatan tribe have arrived to help them destroy the white men. Pocahontas tries to convince her father to talk instead of fight, but to no avail (although Powhatan says that he would gladly listen to what they had to say). Smith arrives back at the fort, and tells Ratcliffe that a native told him there is no gold. Ratcliffe believes this is a lie, and threatens to have Smith hanged for rebelling. That night, Nakoma catches Pocahontas sneaking off and begs her not to go. Pocahontas says she must. Worried, Nakoma tells Kocoum and asks him to follow her. Meanwhile, Ratcliffe orders Thomas to follow Smith.
John and Pocahontas meet in the enchanted glade. Grandmother Willow convinces John that he can help bring peace if he agress to talk to Powhatan. Pocahontas becomes so overjoyed that she kisses John, who returns it; Thomas and Kocoum both watch from the shadows, astonished. Kocoum (who knows John has no intention of harming Pocahontas) attacks John out of pure jealousy; Thomas fatally shoots Kocoum during the fight, and saves John's life. Hearing voices approaching, John tells Thomas to run. A group of natives arrive, take John prisoner, and carry off Kocoum's body. Powhatan announces that John will be executed at sunrise. Pocahontas visits John and says it would have been better had they never met, but John says he would "rather die tomorrow than live 100 years without you."
Back at the fort, Thomas announces John's capture. Ratcliffe sees this as an opportunity to attack the natives, hoping to gain their gold, and declares that they will attack at dawn. The settlers arrive as John is about to be executed by Powhatan. Pocahontas throws herself over John, telling her father that if he kills John, he will have to kill her as well. Powhatan is persuaded after listening to Pocahontas' reasoning, and seeing the two armies about to fight each other and die for nothing. Powhatan orders John freed. Ratcliffe orders the settlers to fire anyway, but they refuse as they see that the Powhatans' release of John as an act of peace. Ratcliffe fires at Chief Powhatan himself, but John pushes the chief aside and is shot instead. The settlers turn on Ratcliffe, and he is stripped of his weapons, chained and gagged.
Luckily, John is only wounded, but he must return to England for medical treatment if he is to survive. Pocahontas and her people arrive at the settlement carrying baskets of corn. After Chief Powhatan thanks him for saving his life, Pocahontas promises John, "No matter what happens, I will always be with you. Forever." Pocahontas runs to a high cliff to watch as John's ship sails away.
[edit] Release
Many at Disney had high hopes for the movie upon initial release. Then-studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg regarded Pocahontas as a more prestigious project than The Lion King, and even believed that it had a chance of earning an Academy Award nomination for "Best Picture," following in the steps of 1991's Beauty and the Beast. However, the movie was less successful commercially than was hoped. Because the film dealt with more adult themes and tones, the film did not appeal to younger children as well as earlier Disney hits. Though the stellar box office performance that The Lion King had previously enjoyed was expected for Pocahontas, it never materialized. Nevertheless, the film was still a box-office success, earning $141,579,773 in the United States and $347,179,773 worldwide.
[edit] Home video
Pocahontas was released on VHS in 1996 as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. February 1996 prototype copies of the VHS release used the 1989 Walt Disney Classics logo, while copies produced from March onwards used the standard Masterpiece logo. The film first appeared on DVD in 2000 as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection; Pocahontas II was released on DVD at the same time. In 2005, a 10th Anniversary 2-disc Special Edition DVD set was released, which featured a new digital transfer of the film and numerous bonus features.
[edit] Critical reception
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The film's premiere occurred in Central Park in New York City. Over 100,000 people were in attendance; it holds the record for the largest movie premiere ever.[citation needed]
Upon release, however, Pocahontas was criticized by many different groups for various inaccuracies in terms of the different ethnic groups presented in the film, as well as for historical inaccuracies. Some felt, for example, that the film's depiction of Pocahontas removes any identifiable ethnicity from her features, and instead just makes her "fashionably exotic". Pocahontas, according to Edgerton and Merlock, was modeled after three different women. Black British supermodel Naomi Campbell, Caucasian supermodel Christie Turlington, as well as 21 year old Filipino supermodel Dyna Taylor were all inspirations for the animators who were charged with the task of making a "nonpareil"—a woman who is the epitome of what the race has to offer. The film was also criticized for its distortion of history, much of the meat of the Pocahontas story is left out, including her kidnapping by the English, conversion to Christianity, and marriages to both Kocoum and John Rolfe. Furthermore, historically Pocahantas was prepubescent (10-12 years old) when John Smith encountered the Powhatan tribe, and a romantic relationship between the two would have been highly unlikely and irregular. Additionally, the historical John Smith was a short, bearded man who in no way resembled the ruggedly handsome animated version.
Among many changes are the fanciful topography of Jamestown, which is located in flat terrain but in the film possesses massive cliffs and high ridges. Another criticism came in the form of Kocoum's mistreatment of his wife-to-be, Pocahontas. Her father wanted her to marry him, but Pocahontas did not want to marry him because of his stern face and serious attitude, though her father says that he will make a "fine" husband: he is loyal, strong, would build her a good house with sturdy walls, and that she would be safe from harm with him around. This is an example of an arranged marriage in a Disney film. (See also: Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King). Finally, although Pocahontas was innovative for its time, the Disney canon had never seen a film where the two romantic leads did not end up together, thereby creating a distaste for viewers who preferred to hold onto tradition.
The film did receive critical praise for both the animation and art direction. The film utilizes very different colors than in previous Disney films, which resulted in a beautiful color palette from the Art Department at Disney. Colors that symbolized different emotions, such as red for anger/hate, blue for love, and pink and purple for nature were purposely used. The animators also decided to be unconventional when they decided to use the "mother spirit in the leaves" motif, which consisted of leaves floating in the wind during significant scenes in the movie that represented passion and beauty.
The film's soundtrack was very successful, reaching #1 in the week of July 22, 1995.[1] It ended up with a triple platinum certification.[2]
The musical score written by Alan Menken received two Academy Awards, including one for the song "Colors of the Wind". Several recurring musical themes were written, such as "Colors of the Wind", "Listen with Your Heart", and "If I Never Knew You". Its successor, the darker, more adult The Hunchback of Notre Dame did not surpass the ticket takings for Pocahontas, but it was also controversial.
[edit] Crew
| Crew Position | |
|---|---|
| Filmed at | Manhattanville College |
| Directed by | Mike Gabriel Eric Goldberg |
| Produced by | James Pentecost |
| Written by | Carl Binder Susannah Grant Philip LaZebnik |
| Songs by | Alan Menken Stephen Schwartz |
| Original Score by | Alan Menken |
| Associate Producer | Baker Bloodworth |
| Art Director | Michael Giaimo |
| Film Editor | H. Lee Peterson |
| Artistic Supervisors | Tom Sito (Story supervisor) Rasoul Azadani (Layout supervisor) Christy Maltese (Background supervisor) Renee Holt-Bird & Nancy Kniep (Clean-up supervisors) Don Paul (Effects supervisor) Steve Goldberg (Computer Graphics supervisor) |
| Artistic Coordinator | Dan Hansen |
| Supervising Animators | Glen Keane (Pocahontas) John Pomeroy (John Smith) Duncan Marjoribanks (Governor Ratcliffe) Nik Ranieri (Meeko) Ruben A. Aquino (Powhatan) David Pruiksma (Flit & Forest Animals) Chris Buck (Percy/Wiggins/Grandmother Willow) Ken Duncan (Thomas) T. Daniel Hofstedt (Ben/Lon) Anthony DeRosa (Nakoma) Michael Cedeno (Kocuum) |
| Production Manager | Traci Topman Mars |
[edit] Annie Awards
| Result | Award | Winner/Nominee Recipient(s) |
|---|---|---|
| WON | Animated Theatrical Feature | |
| WON | Individual Achievement in Production Design | Michael Giamo (Art Director) |
| NOMINATED | Individual Achievement in Production Design | Christine Montera (Layout Supervisor) |
| NOMINATED | Individual Achievement in Character Animation | Chris Buck (Supervising Animator - Percy/Wiggins/Grandmother Willow) |
| NOMINATED | Individual Achievement in Character Animation | David Pruiksma (Supervising Animator - Flit & Forest Animals) |
| WON | Individual Achievement in Character Animation | Nik Ranieri (Supervising Animator - Meeko) |
| WON | Individual Achievement in Music | Alan Menken (Music) Stephen Schwartz (Lyrics) |
[edit] Soundtrack
[edit] Changes
- The first part of the song Savages received a slight change in lyrics before theatrical release. The original lyrics were:
What can you expect/ from filthy little heathens?/ Their whole disgusting race is like a curse!
After poor testing with the original highly inflammatory lyrics, they were changed to:
What can you expect/ from filthy little heathens?/ Here's what you get when the races are diverse!
As well as a line shouted by Ratcliffe, toward the end of the first portion of the song, originally being:
Let's go kill a few, men!
Was replaced with Ben exclaiming:
Let's go get a few men!
And yet another line at the end of the first chorus:
Dirty redskin devils, now we sound the drums of war!
Was changed to:
Dirty shrieking devils, now we sound the drums of war!
On Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic, the songs Colors of the Wind and Mine, Mine, Mine are included on the green disc, Just Around the Riverbend on the purple disc, and Steady as the Beating Drum on the orange disc. And Disney's Greatest Hits also includes Just Around the Riverbend on the blue disc and Colors of the Wind on another green disc.
- The Laserdisc release of the film revealed new songs as deleted scenes, including a reprise of "Just Around the Riverbend" before the song "Savages (Part 2)," alternate versions of "Steady as the Beating Drum (Reprise)" and "Virginia Company (reprise)," and songs called "In the Middle of the River" (sung by Pocahontas and John Smith) and "Dancing to the Wedding Drum" (sung by the Native Americans to Pocahontas). On the 10th Anniversary DVD, "If I Never Knew You" as sung by Pocahontas and John Smith within the film's narrative, as well as a reprise, was fully animated and included in the film.
[edit] Cast
| Character | English voice actor | French voice actor | Quebec voice actor | German voice actor | Mexican voice actor | Spanish voice actor | Italian voice actor | Japanese voice actor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pocahontas | Irene Bedard Judy Kuhn (singing) |
Mathilda May Laura Mayne (singing) |
Lisette Dufour Stéphanie Martin (singing) |
Alexandra Wilcke | Nathalia Hencker Susana Zabaleta (singing) |
Marta Barbará Gema Castaño (singing) |
Ilaria Stagni Manuela Villa (singing) |
Yūko Doi |
| Captain John Smith | Mel Gibson | Michel Papineschi Olivier Constantin (singing) |
Daniel Picard Robin Vaillancourt (singing) |
Sigmar Solbach | Rodolfo Vargas Enrique Rendón (singing) |
Jordi Brau Tony Cruz (singing) |
Pino Insegno Roberto Stafoggia (singing) |
Tōru Furusawa |
| Governor Ratcliffe | David Ogden Stiers | Raymond Gérôme Patrick Rocca (singing) |
Ronald France José Paradis (singing) |
Joachim Kemmer | Guillermo Romano Carlos Stevenson (singing) |
Miguel Ángel Jenner | Franco Chillemi | Haruki Sayama |
| Meeko | John Kassir | |||||||
| Chief Powhatan | Russell Means Jim Cummings (singing) |
Michel Bardinet Jacques Mercier (singing) |
Hubert Fielden Michel Comeau (singing) |
Gerd Holtenau | Pedro D'Aguillon Moisés Palacios (singing) |
Enric Arredondo Juan Cánovas (singing) |
Remo Girone | Masane Tsukayama |
| Thomas | Christian Bale | Bruno Choël | Jacques Lussier | Gunnar Helm | Moisés Palacios | Ángel de Gracia | ||
| Grandmother Willow | Linda Hunt | Annie Cordy | Louise Turcot Catherine Léveillé (singing) |
Hildegard Knef | Rocío Garcel | Marta Martorell | Zoe Incrocci | Hisako Kyōda |
| Percy | Danny Mann | |||||||
| Wiggins | David Ogden Stiers | Élie Semoun | Marc Béland | Wilfried Herbst | Gabriel Cobayassi Raúl Carballeda (singing) |
Antonio Gómez de Vicente Javier Pontón (singing) |
Piero Chiambretti | |
| Ben | Billy Connolly | Marc Alfos | Pierre Auger | José Luis Orozco | Francisco Garriga | |||
| Lon | Joe Baker | Georges Aubert | Yves Massicotte | Alejandro López | Rafael Calvo | |||
| Flit | Frank Welker | |||||||
| Nakoma | Michelle St. John | Yumi Fujimori | Julia Connolly | Irina von Bentheim | Tony Rodríguez | Ana Pallejà | ||
| Kocoum | James Apaumut Fall | Tanguy Goasdoué | James Hyndman | Bernd Vollbrecht | Gerardo Reyero | Juan Antonio Bernal | Shintarō Sonōka | |
| Kekata | Gordon Tootoosis | André Valmy | Serge Bossac | Helmut Heyne | César Arias Renato López (singing) |
Vinces Doménech Santiago Aguirre (singing) |
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At least three actors in this film have been involved in other Pocahontas-related projects. Gordon Tootoosis, who voiced Kekata, acted as Chief Powhatan in Pocahontas: The Legend, which was released the same year as this film. Christian Bale, who voiced Thomas, would ten years later portray John Rolfe in The New World. Irene Bedard, who was the speaking voice of Pocahontas, portrayed Pocahontas' mother in a flashback sequence also in The New World.
[edit] Video game
A video game based on the movie with the same title, Pocahontas, was released on the Sega Genesis/Megadrive on January 1, 1996. The Sega title was developed by Funcom on contract with Disney. It was followed by a later release for the Nintendo Game Boy and Playstation 1 on June 10, 1996, nearly a year after the film's premiere.
In the game, the player plays as Pocahontas and Meeko, switching between the two frequently to overcome various obstacles, with the help of NPC Flit. Along the way, as Pocahontas, the player gains various new abilities from various animal spirits by helping them. The game, like most film-based games, follows the plot of the movie, but with many variations in situations and events.
[edit] References
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (August 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Pocahontas at the Internet Movie Database
- The Big Cartoon DataBase entry for Pocahontas
- The Real Pocahontas compares the historical Pocahontas to the Disney version
- Pocahontas: 10th Anniversary Edition DVD Review and Interview
- Many versions of Color of the Wind in many languages on YouTube
- The Pocahontas Myth - debunks the popular myth that arose from the film
- A Flash animation made on Newgrounds debunking the myth
- "Pocahontas" is a review by anthropologist Pauline Turner Strong
- "Animated Indians: Critique and Contradiction in Commodified Children's Culture" by anthropologist Pauline Turner Strong discusses Pocahontas and The Indian in the Cupboard (film)
| Characters |
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Pocahontas | John Smith | Governor Ratcliffe | Nakoma | Grandmother Willow | Meeko | Kocoum |
| Films |
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Pocahontas | Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World |
| Songs |
| Other |
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Pocahontas: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack | |
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