Disney. No one name holds as much power over business and the world of Animation as much as Walter Elias Disney. Whether it was making the first animated motion picture in the English world, further revolutionizing the field of animation, or making one of the most powerful media companies in the world, Disney managed to become a titan of industry and media. Nowadays, we joke about the House of Mouse and its’ lasting impact in today’s world…but without Disney, much of the animated world today…well…wouldn’t be.
Pocahontas: History that wasn’t
Around the same time that The Lion King was being made, Disney was working on a film centered around the legend of Pocahontas. Jeffrey Katzenberg was running a bit behind on this and was certain that this film would be a big hit with audiences…after all…Everyone liked Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Little Mermaid…this one needed to have the senior staff working on it to make it perfect. What could go wrong with having the junior staff working on that side project “The Lion King”?
Well…For starters…It was running up against a new frontier of animation film that Disney was also distributing. A small project called “Toy Story” by Pixar studios. On top of that, there were many tensions between Michael Eisner, Roy Disney and Jeffrey Katzenberg that kept building up until they could not be ignored any more. They got so bad, that eventually, in 1994, Katzenberg was forced to resign and as a result, would not face much of the blowback for this film that anyone else got due to the many, many liberties it took with history.
The Plot: In 1607, the Susan Constant sails from London to the New World bringing several English settlers from the Virginia company, lead by Governor Ratcliff (voiced by David Ogden Stiers). Everyone is thrilled at the chance to explore a new world…except for Ratcliff. He’s got his own agenda…namely, make a discovery like the Spanish did in Peru and Mexico so he can get more prestige and a better title. John Smith…wants to tame the wilderness.
Meanwhile, in the New World, the Powhatan tribe in Tsenacommacah (That’s modern day Virginia now), are celebrating a successful war campaign and their chief decides that one of their best warriors, Kokoum, would make an excellent match to his daughter, Pocahontas. Fearing that he is too serious for her, she seeks guidance from Grandmother Willow, and confides in her a dream she has had about a spinning arrow and an uncertainty of what her path is. This is cut short when the English arrive.
The English establish Jamestown and try mining for Gold that Ratcliff is sure to be there. John Smith explores the wilderness and eventually comes across Pocahontas. Both of them become intrigued by the other’s world…and begin to fall for each other despite the mistrust that both sides have for the other, and despite the Chief telling every one of the Powhatans to stay well away from the strangers (Pretty solid advice, considering one of them shot one of their best warriors…even if it was by mistake). Eventually, Pocahontas tells John that there’s no gold in the area, and introduces him to Grandmother Willow.
Nakoma finds out about this, as well as Ratcliff and things come to a very bad meeting. Ratcliff does not take the news that there’s no gold in the land well at all and threatens everyone there that any meetings with the natives will be considered treason…punishable by hanging. Nakoma warns Kokoum, who gets into a fight with John Smith, and one of the crew kills Kokoum. John is captured, and a furious Chief Powhatan declares war on the settlers, starting with John Smith’s execution. Ratcliff rallies the men to annihilate the tribe and try to find their nonexistent gold. Pocahontas visits Grandmother Willow, and tries to find her path, feeling deeply lost. Upon finding John Smith’s compass, the spinning arrow from her dream, she hurries to the site everyone gathers to, and stops the execution of John Smith, convincing everyone to stop the war and release John Smith. Ratcliff…thoroughly unmoved, tries to resume the war…that the other settlers refuse to take part in. He then shoots John, who defended the original target, Chief Powhatan, from the attack.
Deeply angered, the other settlers arrest Ratcliff, chain him up, and board the ship back to have him punished for his crimes. Despite treatment from the Powhatans, John Smith has to go back as well if he is to survive. Our last shot of the movie is Pocahontas gazing towards the ship pulling out into the sunset.
To say this film had very mixed reception is a bit of an understatement. On the one side, sure, the film has a far more positive representation of Native American People’s than most films of the time did, and Pocahontas never ended up a trophy for John Smith. On the other side, it is seen as very overly preachy and…well…most of what happened in the film sure didn’t happen in real life. Heck, Ratcliff didn’t even make it out of real history alive! He got flayed to a tree! Pocahontas was also nowhere near being an adult when she really met John Smith. Many of the First People’s tribes were downright appalled at how their history had been rewritten beyond recognition. Releasing such a film on Pocahontas’ 400th birthday was seen as another slap. While today, we are a bit more favorable to it (Pocahontas is whole despite not getting the guy, and many themes tackled in the movie are still being tackled now: Racism, othering, potential genocide, embracing different cultures. Pretty relevant today.) Unsurprisingly, this was one of the few Disney movies to get a sequel that tried telling the story further. Journey To a New World does not count in the canon, though…so we will not be covering it here.
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