Believe it or not, nobody really wanted to make “The Lion King”!
It’s true, the vast majority of people, including Jeffrey Katzenberg himself didn’t think that anyone would actually like or want to see “The Lion King”!
Preposterous, I know! Instead, they all wanted to get to work on what would be Disney’s 33rd animated feature, “Pocahontas”!
Released in 1995, “Pocahontas” started what would be the fall of the Disney Renaissance. I mean it was still a commercial hit, but not as much as the films that preceded it. It was also one of the worst, if not the worst, critically received film of the Disney Renaissance.
Nevertheless, this film has its lovers and fanatics, but I’m not one of them!
I’m sorry, in my opinion, this is the most BORING film in the Disney Canon; even the package films keep me more entertained than this film does!
Even the songs I find weak! The only song I do like is “Savages”! Yeah, you heard me, I DON’T like “Colors of the Wind”!
I’m a guy actually, but yes, I know I’m horrible! I find it to be extremely boring! But let’s not lose focus of this post and make this into a film review!
This was the first film in the Disney Canon based on historical “fact”!
This film told the “true” story of John Smith and his love, Pocahontas in 17th Century America!
Ok, the veracity of the story is definitely debatable! Nevertheless, the story’s characters are quite memorable; but I managed to find a forgotten/minor one: Namontac!
Now, that’s the first time that that’s been used correctly! Good Job!
When the Native Americans are ordered to observe the Englishmen from a distance, Kocuum (Pocahontas’ supposed fiancée) goes along with a couple of men to do this. One of these men is Namontac.
We don’t really know much about him, but he is indeed important! When the Native Americans are spotted by the Englishmen, the Englishmen start shooting at them. And during the battle, Namontac is hit!
He is then taken back to his village where his local shaman tries to cure him!
The shaman acknowledges that these gunshot wounds are unknown to him and this causes the Native Americans to develop antagonism towards the Englishmen. They call their fellow brothers for help in waging a war!
So even though Kocuum’s death was the last straw that broke the camel, the whether-or-not-we-should-wage-war camel’s, back; the roots of the Native Americans’ fear and antagonism towards the Englishmen were pretty firmly set once Namontac was shot! Had Namontac not been shot, maybe relations would have been more cordial!
And that’s why I’m recognizing Namontac as the forgotten/minor character of this film!
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I did it! I DID IT! I went through the whole post without making one remark about Batman being in this movie!
“No idea, guv’nor!”
Well, that blew it!
The Animation Commendation 
Pocahontas is one of my least favorites too. True, the backgrounds are spectacular. And I think that the score (not songs, just score) is easily in the top 5 Disney Scores. This is the best Disney film as far as color use goes.
But the fact that it was marketed a historically accurate movie bothers me, especially such a sad story as Pocahontas. There was no happy endings there. I’m a history major, and Pocahontas and Anastasia both bother me to no end. The decedents of her tribe actually are pretty pissed about this film, because they found it to be disrespectful. I also don’t like the animation.
But good choice for a forgotten character!
Yeah, this is one of those Disney films that I won’t find myself watching for a LONG LONG time!
My favorite thing about this is Christian Bale as Thomas! Christian Bale apparently hates talking about his Disney film, “Newsies”, but I find it ironic that he ended up doing another Disney film afterwards, lol!
Um, glad you mentioned Christian Bale. 🙂 And I’m with you guys. Not my favorite Disney movie.
Lol, is Christian Bale a crush of yours?
Yeah, I wouldn’t watch this movie again soon!
In a word, yes! Another reason to love Howl’s Moving Castle (the English dubbed version).
I haven’t seen that one yet. But I did recently watch “Newsies”. I was gonna do a “My Thoughts” on it, but decided against it.
I am going to murder the ever loving SHIT out of this movie.
Can’t wait! As long as you don’t mess with Lumiere from “Beauty and the Beast”, you can do whatever you want, lol!
Actually, as you would have found out now, this movie does not have a lot of fans, but I….am….one….of them. Yes this film is not good, and the characters not that developed, bu I like the characters, songs and animation.
Anyways, did the forgotten character end up living of just died off? Never figured that out.
I…don’t remember what happened to him after…thankfully.
I’m not a fan of this film, either, but I don’t hate it. The characters aren’t interesting to me, and Ratcliffe is probably one of the weaker Disney villains. I find the animation good, but flat, and some of the music is okay, nothing really memorable. All in all, 5/10.
P.S. This is my sister’s 3rd favorite Disney film, just under “Lion King” and “Tangled,” LOL!
Lol, I don’t plan on watching this again any time soon.
I don’t blame you.
POCAHONTAS has long been one of my favorite Disney animated features, so as I’ve read other people’s reviews of it, I’ve found myself struggling between my own love for the film, and my increasing frustration over the final result, as I have come to acknowledge that those reviews I’ve read are right, in certain respects. (Amongst all of the reviews I’ve read, the one from the Disney review series “Waking Snow White” stands out above the others, because it provides suggestions for what could have been done differently: http://wakingsnowwhite.blogspot.com/2011/10/ive-seen-hundreds-of-new-worlds-thomas.html)
This was actually my introduction to a more sensitive– if not 100% accurate– view of First Americans (I first saw this film on video when I was just a little guy, and then I later started to learn about the real aboriginal peoples of North America in the third grade [when we studied the Ohlone Nation of California], and have learned a great deal more since then), and while I see nothing glaringly offensive (with the possible exception of the idea of Pocahontas’ community exemplifying the old chestnut of the so-called “innocents in Eden”), I’ve become rather annoyed that they didn’t go the same route that MOANA did 21 years later. To think that kids in the 90’s were introduced to the First Nations through this idealized lens, while those in the mid-70’s and early 80’s got a more accurate glimpse during activist/singer-songwriter/educator Buffy Sainte-Marie’s tenure as a recurring guest star on SESAME STREET….
While John Smith certainly sees a lot to like in Pocahontas, what she sees in him is less clear. Add onto that the fact that his views change in the 3.5 minutes that it takes for her to sing “Colors of the Wind,” and I just have a hard time buying into the romance…
At the end of the day, I think of POCAHONTAS as being rather similar to Jim Henson’s DARK CRYSTAL, in the sense that the team’s vision for the film got in the way of making sure the story was as solidly constructed as possible.