Pocahontas

Rating: 5/5

Between the colors and animation style, Pocahontas is without a doubt one of Disney's more visually stunning works.

Captain John Smith (Mel Gibson) is heading an expedition to an "undiscovered" world, under the orders of Governor Ratcliffe (David Ogden Stiers). Ratcliffe hopes that his men will be able to find gold when they finally hit land, and then deliver to him whatever endless riches they unearth.

Meanwhile, a young Native American woman named Pocahontas (Irene Bedard), who is also the daughter of Chief Powhatan (Russell Means), is struggling with the idea of being forced to marry a man she has no feelings for. Pocahontas is perfectly content with spending her days embracing the nature that surrounds her, but when she comes in contact with John Smith, her normal life gets a drastic change.

Pocahontas is very commonly disliked and looked down upon due to its loose telling of historical events. So let me just say before diving into the entirety of the review that I am well aware that Pocahontas' historical accuracy would be the equivalent of Titanic ending with the ship missing the iceberg. With that being said, I still find it impossible to dislike this movie because of the incredibly strong memories I have attached to it and how absolutely beautiful the score and animation is. So, know that my review is based on looking at this film as a complete work of fiction and not a historical document.

A common thread found in Disney films made before the heavy use of CGI, were storylines that were technically targeted towards children, but also carried some serious emotional heft as well. In the '90s alone, you had the Lion King, Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Tarzan, all movies famously known for evoking tears from both it's younger and older audiences. Pocahontas is no exception to this Disney trend. In fact, this film is very similar to Hunchback, in that it has very little content that would be considered amusing to a child at all. It does however, have the occasional comedic moment between Pocahontas' raccoon and hummingbird friends, but those scenes take up very little of the film's total screen time. For the most part, the plot involved with Pocahontas is focused on relaying its message of the importance of nature and culture, and exploiting the dangers of destroying something, simply because one doesn't take the time to understand it.

As a child, I always gravitated towards stories that possessed darker and more ominous storylines, because I always felt they had the better music, and they usually did. Pocahontas' score has been one that has had the ability to give me chills ever since I first heard it over two decades ago. The music, just by itself, is almost too beautiful to comprehend, with each note and lyric making a mark on your senses, but when you add in the artistry of the scenes with their color schemes that could only have been inspired by the most vibrant of sunsets, the combination creates a genuinely remarkable film experience.

The '90s was a time where it seemed as if Disney put out a new film practically every year, so there were definitely some that didn't carry the same legacy as others. Obviously, the Lion King dominated this time period as the most successful, but Mulan and Pocahontas were the two that left the most lasting memories for me. Over twenty years after both my sister and I first watched Pocahontas, we were discussing what made this movie so great. I commented on how the music had always been what impacted me most, and my sister said that for her, it was the colors. I think Pocahontas is the epitome of what makes film so great. It had the ability to reach two viewers in entirely different ways, and make an impression that was strong enough to last well into adulthood.

As much as I love how far we've come in the world of animation, I think that the constant use of CGI deprives a film of its' ability to really stand out from the crowd. With the newer films, the breathtaking combination of art and music seems to be slightly lost. Pocahontas is a brilliant example of why the older style of animation was so impactful, and how it was really able to trust in a child's patience and imagination. You can see the unbelievable amount of work that went into each second of the film, and that tireless effort in turn became what I would consider to be one of Disney's best pieces of cinema.

1996 Best Music, Original Song Winner- "Colors of the Wind"

1996 Best Music, Original Music or Comedy Score Winner- Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz