Good Movie with Great Animation

Rating: 7/10 (15 September 2015)

I never saw this movie as a kid, mainly because I thought it would too girly and/or boring. I had read reviews that were positive and mixed. Eventually, I decided to watch it and I don't think it's as bad as others might make it out to be.
The best thing this movie has going for it is the animation. The drawing style seems to stand out from some of the previous Disney movies that came out before it. The backgrounds are beautiful to look at, especially the nature ones and the characters are pretty well- drawn too.
Some of the songs are pretty good. My two favourites are "Just Around The Riverbend" and "Colors of The Wind" (both the movie version and the cover version by Vanessa Williams). The other songs are good, but I just like these two the most. This is the only movie I know of where Mel Gibson sings and is surprisingly really good.
Pocahontas is a decent Disney female lead character. There's not a whole lot new to her compared to some of the other Disney female characters prior to her, but she's beautiful to look at and she's interesting enough that she's not much of a bore.
The rest of the human characters are okay, but again, there's nothing really too special about them, including John Smith and the villain, Governor Ratcliffe.
My favourite character is Meeko, the raccoon that usually stays near Pocahontas. I love how he changes expression so quickly and looks so cute doing it. He's also delightfully mischievous, giving Percy (Ratcliffe's dog) and Flit, the hummingbird. The scenes with these animal characters are pretty funny and enjoyable to watch.
I'm not very familiar with the story of the real Pocahontas and I know this film gets criticized for its historical inaccuracies. The only inaccuracy I know about is that Pocahontas was about 11 or 12 years old when she met John Smith who was in his late 20's or early 30's at the time. The movie has Pocahontas as a woman in her late teens or early 20's for obvious reasons.
Overall, I think Pocahontas is a pretty good Disney animated movie. I'm glad I saw it and I see both the good and bad of this film. It does have a slow pace at times and doesn't quite have the level of energy and fun that some of the other Disney films before it had, but it's still pretty good and I definitely will continue to re- watch it for years to come.