Summer of 1995: Pocahontas
Princess movie as EPCOT attraction.
I’ve talked before about our family’s trip to Disney World last year, and I’ve waxed nerdy about amusement parks in the past. But can I make an admission that might get my mouse ears taken away?
I’m not sure how I feel about EPCOT.
Now, before you sic Figment on me, let me be clear: There’s a lot about EPCOT I love. The food and drink? Fantastic. The attention to detail throughout World Showcase? I could explore it for hours. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind? One of the most purely fun roller coasters I’ve ever been on.
But also, some of the attractions? As ambitious as they might be, they just bore me. I understand EPCOT is an educational park and that it’s imparting cultural, environmental and technical lessons, but there’s an eat your vegetables mentality to much of the park that doesn’t fit with the vacation vibes. Despite its animatronics, Spaceship Earth is a snooze that has the added misfortune of triggering my claustrophobia. It’s not as much fun to enjoy Nemo when you’re also being fed information about fish. Living with the Land is relaxing and has a cool greenhouse section, but I don’t know how I feel about spending my Florida vacation taking a boat ride about farming.
I’m half-joking – I really do like Living with the Land – but there’s a certain awareness of the need to be educational and respectful that tends to rob some EPCOT attractions of their energy and sense of escapism. Maybe that’s by design. I admire the concepts and the artistry – I also understand why, aside from a few attractions, it was probably my kids’ least-favorite park during our trip.
I thought a lot about EPCOT when I finally saw Pocahontas for the first time recently. It’s a movie that has a lot to admire from a technical perspective. The animation is gorgeous and several of the songs are beautiful. It makes an attempt to grapple with American colonization – how successful that is is another matter – and tell an important American story. But in doing so, it’s too staid, and its attempts to combine fraught history with fairy tale tropes never meshes. Aside from its central character, it’s also something few Disney animated films are – boring.
The movie tells the story of Pocahontas (Irene Bedard) and her relationship with Jamestown settler John Smith (Mel Gibson) – although it’s probably worth noting up front that this is a heavily Disney-fied telling of the story and the second Mel Gibson film of summer 1995 to play fast and lose with history1. Smith comes to Jamestown seeking adventure and riches, but through his interactions with Pocahontas, he learns to see the Powhatan not as “savages” but as fellow humans worthy of respect. There’s also a magic Grandma Tree and mystical powers that seem to be limited to translation services, as well as a goofy raccoon, pug and hummingbird because this is a Disney cartoon.
Pocahontas arrived with sky-high expectations. This was the era of the Disney renaissance, and it followed The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King – all of which had been critically beloved as well as box office behemoths. This was still years before the Academy created its Best Animated Film category, and you can almost feel the animators straining to for a Best Picture nomination. It’s a more grown-up story, and the animation has a painterly quality to it. This was going to be their big one.
And Pocahontas has its fans. It was a box office success, bringing in $141 million in the United States to be the fourth highest-grossing film of that year; it made nearly $205 million overseas. That’s a healthy haul for any movie at that time, but it looked like a disappointment coming a year after The Lion King brought in nearly $1 billion. It doesn’t have the cultural footprint of other Disney classics – my daughter (who I watched this with) has seen it a few times but prefers Frozen or Cinderella. I don’t recall seeing Pocahontas represented much in the parks (but I wasn’t looking). There’s no Broadway or live-action adaptation (I don’t think Terrence Malick’s The New World counts).
And that’s because, while Pocahontas isn’t a bad movie, it’s just also not really good. There are elements I admire. The animation is painterly in places and quite wonderful. Irene Bedard is good as the titular hero, and Judy Kuhn does a wonderful job carrying the songs. “Colors of the Wind” is a fantastic ballad, and “Just Around the River Bend” is a fun opening number. “Savages” is really good, conveyed with some fantastic imagery as each side riles up their hatred against their enemy.
I braced myself for this to be an insensitive bit of cultural appropriation. And, as the footnotes discuss, it definitely takes its historical liberties. But for a kids’ movie, it does make an attempt to show that the grade-school lessons painting the meetings between the English and the Native Americans as peaceful is a bit more complex. John Smith condescends to Pocahontas, telling her that his people can really teach her how to use (exploit) the land, and Ratcliffe is portrayed as being a wretched and unliked gold-digger.
But it’s oversimplified. Smith turns from seeing the Powhatan as “savages” and as noble friends through an afternoon walk and a song – and there’s some iffy boundary stuff between him and Pocahontas – and the movie seems so afraid of losing its white audience that its ultimate theme is that sure, the colonists were wrong, but the Powhatan were also wrong in seeing them solely as enemies. I’m all for everyone getting along, but it seems that the Powhatan may have been a bit justified in people just showing up to rape and pillage their land. It gives them one central villain and solves all the problems via mysticism and platitude. And tonally, its attempts to tell a serious story about American history is a weird fit with the mysticism that flits in and out and has no real bearing on the story, and its cuddlier Disney aspects. You can have either the movie where a colonist shoots and kills a Native American or you can have the movie where the raccoon steals treats from a puppy’s MilkBone carousel. They don’t really fit together.
Pocahontas’ biggest sin, though, is that in its attempts to be respectful and aim for prestige, it forgets to tell an engaging story. Aside from Pocahontas, every character is flat. Pocahontas’ would-be husband, Kocoum, is shot and killed and it barely registers because he’s not a character, just an obstacle. He has none of the braggadocio and pride of Gaston, nor is he a nice man who’s just wrong for Pocahontas. He’s just…there. Despite a supporting cast that features Billy Connolly, no one’s funny in this; even the animals – which, thankfully, don’t talk – feel like half-assed Disney sidekicks. Gibson, who at that time was one of the most charismatic actors working, makes John Smith one of the most boring and uninteresting Disney love interests. There are some interesting aspects to Ratcliffe – who, like many Disney villains, is queer-coded and even appears to have a boyfriend – but he’s not so much evil as feckless and impotent, and the film’s climax fizzles out quickly.
It feels mean to bag on Pocahontas just like it feels mean to bag on EPCOT’s more outdated attractions. It means well. Technically, I’m impressed. But there’s no life to this story, no power to this tale. I can’t even get too angry about it because, inaccuracies aside, it’s a noble attempt. It just lacks that Disney magic.
Previous entries in Summer of 1995:
Just a few of its half-truths – Pocahontas was not a teenager when she met Smith, but likely closer to 10 years old. It’s debatable whether she saved his life or had a romantic relationship with him. Her possible fiancé, Kocoum, was actually killed after Pocahontas was kidnapped and taken to England. The film ignores her marriage to John Rolfe, conversion to Christianity and death at the age of 21. It also leaves out the fate of villainous colonist Ratcliffe, who it’s rumored died after being captured by the Powhatan and then “tied to a stake in front of a fire where tribal women skinned him alive using mussel shells.” Which, I understand… but still, that would be quite the finale.