Probably the worst Disney movie of the 1990's

Rating: 5/10 (22 December 2012)

I'll be honest, Pocahontas is the Disney movie of the 90's that appeals to me the least.
For nearly a year, I've heard some negative statements about the movie from a couple of the teachers at my high school (they both teach history, keep in mind).
In the past, Disney has been known for their adaptations of classic literature... but a historical figure was obviously not the best choice for their next movie after the immense success of The Lion King, and it shows.
While the artwork is good, the music is good and such, the story is very weak and predictable. Note that this sort of plot has been used by various movies, including Avatar and Dances with Wolves. And on top of that, this film is a grossly inaccurate representation of Native American history, with the conflict between the British and Natives toned down to be little more than a simple fight between two sides that almost never happens thanks to Pocahontas saving John Smith. However, I do give the movie credit for casting First Nations actors to voice the Natives, such as the late Russell Means as Chief Powhatan and Gordon Tootoosis as Kekata.
Sure the backgrounds and character designs for the humans are realistic and look great, but the story is also important for an animated movie, and in the case of a movie based on history or culture, historical and cultural accuracy.
Fortunately, the film has a good message, "Everyone is different and people are people no matter how they look", but Disney has not always been good at teaching that to children, like The Fox and the Hound, which had a good message but in this case, it was not clear on target audience. On top of that, there should be better ways to teach children that it's OK to be different.
So really, I don't know whether to recommend it or not. Maybe it would be best to watch it with children and explain some things about it later so that children aren't mislead by this movie.