Irene Bedard .... Pocahontas
Judy Kuhn .... Pocahontas (singing voice)
Mel Gibson .... John Smith
David Ogden Stiers .... Governor Ratcliffe/Wiggins
John Kassir .... Meeko
Russell Means .... Powhatan
Christian Bale .... Thomas
Linda Hunt .... Grandmother Willow
Danny Mann .... Percy
Billy Connolly .... Ben
Joe Baker .... Lon
Frank Welker .... Flit
Michelle St. John .... Nakoma
James Apaumut Fall .... Kocoum
Gordon Tootoosis .... Kekata
Capt. John Smith leads a rag-tag band of English sailors & soldiers to the 17th-century New World to plunder its riches for England (or, more precisely, for Governor Ratcliffe, who comes along for the ride). Meanwhile, in this "New World," Chief Powhatan has pledged his daughter, Pocahontas, to be married to the village's greatest warrior. Pocahontas, however, has other ideas. She has seen a vision of a spinning arrow, a vision she believes tells her change is coming. Her life does indeed change when the English ship lands near her village. Between Ratcliffe, who believes the "savages" are hiding the gold he expected to be plentiful, and Powhatan, who believes these pale newcomers will destroy their land, Smith and Pocahontas have a difficult time preventing all-out war, and saving their love for each other.
Production
The movie Pocahontas was designed as Disney's first real dramatic animated picture. Screenwriters gave the story of Pocahontas a new treatment, based on Romeo and Juliet. Disney began to experiment with a new, more emotional tone with the film, and hence several unconventional decisions were made during production.
Of note, Pocahontas is the only full-length Disney animated feature except 1981's The Fox and the Hound that does not have a traditional happy ending. There are various parts in the film where dialogue is void, and the emotional score propels the picture and characters forward. Another decision made by Disney executives involved cutting all the dialogue from the secondary animal characters, such as Meeko and Flit, in order to make the film more serious.
During production, the film earned the reputation for being that hardest film for animators to work on ever at Disney. The complex color schemes, angular shapes, and facial expressions caused Pocahontas to be in production for over half a decade. But a result of this hard work was critical acclaim that Pocahontas herself was one of the most beautifully and realistically animated characters Disney had ever made.
Reaction, Praise, Controversy
Upon release, however, Pocahontas was criticized by many for presenting stereotypical images of Native Americans. Some felt, for example, that Pocahontas looked more like the black model Naomi Campbell than a Native American (although Disney claims she was modelled on the voice actor Irene Bedard, who is of Native ethnicity). The film was also criticized for its distortion of history, as John Smith was an explorer and never disposed to staying in one place for an extended period of time. Furthermore, historically Pocahantas was prepubescent when John Smith encountered the Powhatan tribe, and a relationship between the two would have been highly unlikely and irregular. 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, and the love affair between Pocahontas and John Smith. 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's 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. Other critizism of the movie was it portrayed the Native Americans to be just as if not more prejudicial than the Europeans; an example that has never helped Disney's troubled relationship to Native American tribes.
The film did receive critical praise for both the animation and art direction. The animation of the film is widely regarded as Disney's best animation to date. 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 22nd, 1995. It ended up with a triple platinum certification.
The musical score written by Alan Menken received two Academy Awards, including one for the song "Colors of the Wind". The movie's score is widely regarded as one of the most emotional and eloquent scores in an animated feature ever. Several recurring musical themes were written, such as "Colors of the Wind", "Listen with Your Heart", and "If I Never Knew You".
Taken from IMDB.com and Wikipedia.org.
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Pocahontas, © 1995 Disney Studios