Not the greatest Disney film, but much better than some would have you believe

Rating: Null/10 (10 November 2015)

You know what, all you overly sensitive American critics out there. You're right, the Native Americans portrayed in this film are either a mishmash of different tribes, if not outright wrong. You're right, there are no majestic hillsides and mountains on the shores of Eastern USA. And yeah, there sure are no talking trees there either. You know what, as well? I don't care! It's a Disney film. I don't think ancient Chinese warriors were lead into battle by tiny dragons who sounded like Eddie Murphy. Neither do I think that Ancient Greece was the birthplace of gospel music.
The fact that the story took liberties with the source material is no reason to dismiss a Disney film. On the other hand, the fact that the story itself has some major problems, is.
But, even though this film is pretty much the most hated of the Disney Renaissance films, it did get a lot of things right as well. There are no mountains in the Eastern USA, but they sure do look pretty as the backgrounds of this film. The animation is all around flawless. The more simplistic character models take a minute to get used to, but after that they look very good. The songs are also very good, with Colors of the Wind being one of my all-time favourite Disney songs. And even though the Native American shown here don't bear as much resemblance to the real thing as some would like them to, I always thought they were pretty cool. They had a flourishing civilization going on, yet it was clearly different from the European one. They were fearless warriors and the movie shows these two peoples as equals, both in their capacity for good as well as for evil. That's a very good lesson to teach to children.
But unfortunately the story isn't one of Disney's better ones. It's too simplistic, too safe, too what you'd expect. Most of the other Renaissance films took chances, delving into some rather dark places in the process. They weren't simply cookie cutter films produced to make money. I don't get that feeling from Pocahontas. Because, when you get down to it, what's the most basic plot an animated film could tell if you had to tell a story about the colonization of America? Easy, you say. An early pioneer comes to America from Europe, meets a cute Indian girl, the two sides resist, tensions rise, but of course eventually you'll have your happy ending. Well that's Pocahontas.
And they had so many options to go with. They could have shown us time, even years, passing as these two peoples slowly learned to tolerate each other, with Pocahontas and John Smith working as the bridge. They could have increased the amount of supernatural, now we only have Grandmother Willow. They could have drawn inspiration from actual Native American legends and myths. Anything but this poor man's Romeo and Juliet.
Nevertheless, I do think it's a good film. Sure, the characters and the story are not as good as they could have been, but they're still good enough. And, as stated, the production values and technical aspects are pretty much flawless. Not deserving of its scorn, would be my final word.