The Wrong Twist of History
The idea for an animated retelling of the life of Native American figure Pocahontas started when the Rescuers Down Under director Mike Gabriel suggested the project at the 1991 “Gong Show”, using a picture of Tiger Lily from Peter Pan and a mock - up logo from the animation team. Gabriel pitched the project as a sweeping “star - crossed lovers” romantic drama, with Pocahontas torn between familial obligation on one hand and her burgeoning love for an English settler on the other. As fate had it, Vice President of Feature Animation Peter Schneider had been wanting to develop an animated adaptation of Romeo and Juliet for years, and Mike Gabriel’s Pocahontas pitch allowed the studio to take on something similar, while still appearing unique. Plus, the project offered a chance to right Disney’s past wrongs of their animated depictions of Native Americans. Gabriel’s pitch was immediately approved and, apparently, became the quickest story turnaround in Disney history.
Katzenberg saw this film as a genuine candidate to become not only the second aniamted film to be nominated for Best Picture, but the first animated film to win the prize. Katzenberg was further inspired by the fact that Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves swept the Oscar’s that year, taking home seven including Best Picture while earning over $420 million at the worldwide box office. Surely Disney’s interracial animated love story would be equally beloved by both the Academy and the people.
THE STORY
In 1607, the HMS Susan Constant sails from London to the New World carrying English settlers from the Virginia Company; the company includes Captain John Smith, who comes to the New World seeking adventure, and the governor Radcliffe, who comes seeking gold; as a way to bring himself status and glory in the court of King James I. After coming through a pretty sizeable storm in which one of them almost drowns, they arrive in Virginia to pile themselves with gold and, potentially, settle in a new land. Unfortunately for them, the part of the land they come to is already occupied by the villages of the Powhatan people, led by their chief of the same name, who have all just come home from a victorious battle with their enemies, another Virginian tribe called the Massowomecks. One person missing from the homecoming is Chief Powhatan’s free - spirited daughter, Pocahontas, but she comes home just in time to see her father telling the whole village the story of the battle, taking pride in the greatest of all their warriors, the mighty (and mighty serious) Kocoum, to whom he has promised Pocahontas’ hand.
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After completing work as the supervising animator of the Genie in Aladdin, Eric Goldberg was asked to co - direct Pocahontas with Gabriel. With his experience and background, Goldberg assumed this would be another comedy like Aladdin was. So when Schneider told him the film would be more like Beauty and the Beast, he was a little hesitant to tackle a romantic drama. But, after witness the 1992 L.A. race riots, he realised Pocahontas gave the chance to craft a racially important film and accepted the director’s job.
After enlisting Broadway producers to assist with Aladdin and the Lion King proved successful, Katzenberg hired stage manager Jim Pentecost to produce Pocahontas, and television writer Carl Binder was teamed with junior writers, Susannah Grant and Philip LaZebnik to write the screenplay. His team was now complete so Katzenberg told the board that he predicted the film would be a huge hit, while the Lion King was likely to fail. As word spread of his confidence, almost every animator in the department wanted to work on Pocahontas. Supervising animator Glen Keane, fresh from his streak of creating Ariel, the Beast and Aladdin, was tasked with bringing Pocahontas to life as well. Plus, after hearing rumblings of this project through industry connections, notorious studio runaway John Pomeroy returned from working at Don Bluth’s studio, and assigned the task of designing the male lead, John Smith.
In June ’92, the filmmaking team went on a research trip to the Jamestown Settlement where they met a descendant of the Powhatan people, Shirley Custalow - McGowan aka Little Dove. Following the trip, she became a paid consultant on the project alongside story supervisor and unofficial historical consultant, Tom Sito. As Sito and the writing team continued to research Pocahontas, they came to understand that the romance between Pocahontas and John Smith barely existed. In reality, they met when she was roughly 11 - 13 and he was somewhere around 26 - 28. There was, and still is, no concrete evidence that the two were romantically involved, nor that they were even very fond of each other. Hardly the Romeo and Juliet style saga that Katzenberg had imagined.
Initially, the story team had designed Pocahontas’ animal friends Meeko the raccoon and Flit the hummingbird as talking animals who helped guide her on her journey, but Katzenberg thought it was inappropriate for a Native American icon to suddenly be able to talk to animals. So he told the story team to recreate those roles as creatures who mimed their interactions with Pocahontas; though for some strange reason a talking willow tree with the spirit of Pocahontas' grandmother was completely fine for Katzenberg. To cover the historically accurate problem of Pocahontas and John Smith speaking different languages, Pocahontas’ mother was depicted as a wind spirit who gave the pair the ability to understand one another with the help of a magical breeze, which blends very well with the film’s famous track, "Colours of the Wind”, which allows the two to bond over the majesty of the land and the gifts of the spirits surrounding them.
MY VERDICT
This film is historical inaccuracy wrapped in excellent animation and amazing songs. It is a white perspective on the experiences of Indigenous Americans. And by ignoring many contributions and pieces of guidance from actual Native Americans, including actor Russell Means who voiced Chief Powhatan, the production team crafted their own vision of an important figure in American history and they slapped a love story on it from nothing, resulting in a film that feels INCREDIBLY inauthentic. As I mentioned, the animation is excellent and very well shows off the talents of the animators, especially the Colours of the Wind sequence which has beautiful and evocative imagery. It was certainly a breath of fresh air to see Disney challenging themselves by presenting the first Disney princess of colour in a landmark moment in cinematic history, even if the film made of her was one that couldn’t quite make an authentic depiction of her life. It also didn’t help that Toy Story hit the cinema five months later and suddenly hand - drawn animation had its first real rival. While the Disney Renaisscance would continue for five more years, it’s golden lustre was seen by some to be fading.
Is Pocahontas a Disney Classic? The historical inaccuracies damage the overall intent and the narrative can’t quite match the magic of most of it’s predecessors. BUT, the incredible animation and inspiring leading lady provide just enough reason to call it a Disney Classic.
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