Visually Entertaining, But Horribly Inaccurate

Rating: 6/10 (7 October 2008)

The animation is brilliant and vibrant- refreshing to both the eyes and the ears as the music also captivated the audiences.
Children would find most of the characters in the movie to be fun and enjoyable, but need I mention that the exception is the loathsome Governor Ratcliffe with his greatly exaggerated ugliness and hatred towards Native Americans. There is something elegant yet subtly sensual in the way Pocahontas moves (or doesn't move). The audience would appreciate the oddly baby-faced John Smith, whom doesn't resemble his real historical counterpart much, but I guess they had to give him a face fit for the role of a "heart throb", with our current beauty standards to influence it. (But appearances is too minuet to consider it a major problem).
The quality of dialog is comfortable. For the targeted audience, evidently 8-12 year-olds, it is very serious and dramatic. I'll hand it to the movie for having the characters deal with death, war, and discrimination that (while still existent) was clearly heavier during those times.
The lesson of the movie is a good and clear one- that when it comes to culture and race, everyone should look past what they see (or what they think they see) and learn about the truths rather than believe the harsh myths about them. It is very important that children, as early as possible, learn that being different doesn't mean being bad. Different is what makes the world fun and interesting. Children may also come to the realization that greed, lust for power, and sheer ignorance never leads to anything positive for anyone.
If you are finicky about historical facts in a movie, I'll forewarn you that this movie has enough inaccuracies to make it borderline fantasy. After writing an extensive report on Pocahontas back in the 5th grade, I was quite uncomfortable (I was in the 7th grade by the time it came out in theatres) The biggest and most obvious inaccuracy is the age of Pocahontas when she first met John Smith. In the movie she appears to be in her adult years, but in actuality she was only twelve. No factual documentation suggests her falling in love with John Smith, and thankfully so because the age gap between her and Smith was far too significant for such a union to be considered. The Disney film, like many others, greatly over exaggerated and romanticized actual history. At least in Pocahontas 2 they got it right when she married John Rolfe (Englishman and Virginia colonist that found success in the cultivation of tobacco.)
While in England, she did indeed marry John Rolfe, but by then Ratcliffe had been dead for 3 years, thus being face to face the second time was impossible. Some viewers may be annoyed by Disney's constant need to add silly and magical characters when it comes to telling a story about real people and history to establish a balance in the film for young viewers to keep it from being too 'Scary' and/or 'Boring', even though Pocahontas's friends (Animal companions Meeko and Flit, and the enchanted tree spirit Grandmother Willow) don't seem to be annoyingly stupid. Lastly, many would agree that the language barrier could've been broken in a way better than magic enabling Pocahontas to speak English.
Rating: 6/10