Decent Disney animation

Rating: Null/10 (24 July 2012)

This Disney animation follows English seaman Captain John Smith as he travels to Virginia to help establish a colony that will be led by Governor Ratcliffe; a fairly vile character who believes that they will find gold and he will become rich. When they get there they find no gold but as Smith explores he meets Pocahontas, the local chief's daughter. Before they met she had had a dream that she believes means her life will take an unexpected path; Smith is certainly unexpected. The two of them immediately become close but after a brief clash both the Indians and the settlers are preparing for war! If bloody conflict is to be avoided Smith and Pocahontas will have to show their respective people that they don't need to be enemies.
As one would expect from Disney the animation looks really good; I particularly likes the prelude to the possible battle towards the end. There are also plenty of songs; they aren't bad but I couldn't help feeling that they held up the action a little too much at times. As well as the human characters who provide the drama there are also three animals who provide the comedy relief; these are a raccoon and a hummingbird that are friends of Pocahontas and a dog that belongs to Ratcliffe I initially feared that these creatures would be irritating but actually they were pretty funny and I suspect they will be firm favourites with younger viewers. The story is hardly complex but one can't really expect it to be in a story aimed at children; given that I was surprised when one character was killed; it was necessary for the story though and there was no blood shown so it is unlikely to disturb even the most timid of children. The voice actors did fine jobs; giving the characters proper voices rather than annoying cartoony ones. The story does deviate significantly from the story of the real Pocahontas but that doesn't stop it being a fun film with some action, a decent number of laughs and several songs.