One of the better modern Disney films

Rating: 7/10 (14 January 2006)

Yes, this is surely one of the better modern Disney films. The story is straight and well focused on the two main characters. We have some sidekicks here, the little dog and the raccoon. Both works very well, with loving little gags and without any tendency to crude jokes, that often seen in modern Disney-films, i.e. the stupid fart-joke in "The Lion King", which, in my opinion, disturbing this good movie too much. "Pocahontas" match the spirit of the older Disney classics well. I love especially the impressionistic, colorful sequences. It is a wonderful way to tell a story with colors, pictures and music rather than dialogue. A technique, that was first used in "Fantasia" and than pushed up to the utmost perfectionism in "Bambi", and later get lost in the most modern Disney movies. And there is another detail, that i like very much: The villain is not really a totally cruel villain. He had his own problems too, and he was more driven by the demand of his company to find gold under all circumstances. The film did not focus exactly on historical facts, but come on, it is a Disney film, and it had is dark and sad scenes too. As i know, this was only the third Disney-movie (after "Bambi" and "The Lion King") in which a important character died, which is not one of the villains. Fortunately the end of the movie is "not typical Disney". it was done very well in a wonderful closing scene, but without that the... but i will not spoil it for you! But some disappointments are here too: "Pocahontas" can't mess with the detailed Animation and deep characters of the older Disney films, especially Disney's "Big Five": "Snow White", "Pinocchio", "Fantasia", "Dumbo", and especially "Bambi" are invincible in the detailed animation and the characters. In "Pocahontas" all of this is far simpler done, perhaps to decrease the costs of the movie and not because the animators can't do it better. Overall, i give it 7 out of 10 stars and i hope, that modern Disney will come back to movies of this high quality in the future again.