As long as you don't mind that your children are watching almost 100% fiction and not real history, it is entertaining

Rating: 3/10 (2 September 2006)

I am an American History teacher and this is the sort of film that causes people like me to grumble and complain because the film bears almost no similarity to the actual story of the founding of the Jamestown colony. But, it is because of this and how widely the movie was loved and accepted that I actually use it in my class discussions--teaching kids that much of our history is distorted or even completely fictional. Like George Washington's "wooden teeth", the "fact" that everyone in Columbus' day thought the Earth was flat and Betsy Ross making the very first American flag (all fiction, by the way), this film is a great example of bad history. Now understand, I am NOT an America-basher or live to destroy our national heroes--I just don't like it when something sacred like our history is treated with such blatant disrespect and cynicism.
While my list would be HUGE, here are a few of the problems with the story: the girl's name was "Matoaka" not "Pocahontas" (this was a nickname, not her real name), she was about 11 or so and Smith an older man and so the romance in the Disney film is either disgusting or false (fortunately, there was no romance according to all but the Disney account), the whole head getting smashed like a pumpkin incident probably never occurred (Smith spoke of this for the first time 17 years after the fact and it was never recorded elsewhere before this--plus Matoaka publicly showed contempt for Smith--something that makes no sense if the story was true), Matoaka was kidnapped by the British and she did not willingly join them (as seen in POCAHONTAS II), and the natives were not "tree-hugging hippies"--but real 3-dimensional people (for good and bad).
If you can ignore all this, you are left with a heavy-handed and preachy film with a lot of New Age mumbo-jumbo about nature and talking trees and all that crap. Pleasant to the eye--but about as deep as Paris Hilton's personality. Bland and only mildly entertaining---and guaranteed to tick off anyone who cares in the least about the truth.