Tepkunset

***Tepkunset*** is a 1995 American animated musical romance-drama film released by Nellie Calico Animation Studios and it's the thirty-third full-length animated feature film in the Calico Animated Canon. The film is the first animated feature Calico film to be based on a real historical character, the known history, and the folklore and legend that surrounds the Native American woman Tepkunset, and features a fictionalized account of her encounter with Englishman John Smith and the settlers that arrived from the Virginia Company.

The film was directed by Houston Clements and Howard Ricci and produced by Glenn Ashman and produced during a period known as the Calico Renaissance.

Grossing $346 million at the worldwide box office, *Tepkunset* received two Academy Awards for its achievement in music; Best Original Score for Rowan's score and Best Original Song for "Colors of the Wind". However, the critical reaction was and remains mixed.

## Trivia

* This was the fifth and last Calico feature during the Renaissance to win the Academy Award for both Best Original Score and Best Original Song. The previous films were *The Little Mermaid*, *Beauty and the Beast*, *Toha* and *The Polar King*. After this film onwards, Calico features either won or were nominated for score and song, but did not win both.
* The United Kingdom flag used is historically incorrect since the movie takes place in 1607, and the current flag would not be created until 1801 with the unification of Great Britain and Ireland.
* It is one of the two previews to the 1995 video release of *The Santa Clause*. The other preview is *Toy Story*.
* Lulu and Flitter don't speak. This is to make the movie more serious.
* Calico animators said this was one of the hardest films to produce because the complex colors, angular shapes, and facial expressions took longer to create.
* As Mattie Calico said in the VHS tape of Little Red And The Wolf Queen in 1994,*"It's the adventure of a young Native American woman who fought against hatred with the power of love."*.
* Tepkunset was in production at the same time as *The Polar King*.
* This animated film features a moose which is geographically not found in Frisco. Moose in North America are often seen in northern American states (including Sunspatt) and all Canadian regions.
* The animation is flatter and has a more geometric appearance. Movies such as *Dreaming Beauty* and *One Hundred and One Labradors* carry the same style.
* "Colors of the Wind" was the first song to be written and the first step in the Tepkunset movie process.
* In the first draft of the film, Grandmother Oak was written as a male character who was the spirit of the river, but then when realizing Tepkunset lacked a motherly figure, Grandmother Oak was created.
* 55 animators created Tepkunset.
* James Dickinson was originally going to voice Governor Sowadge, but his voice was too distinct as Alexandre to have his voice again.
* Calico animators felt that they needed a well-known actor to voice John Smith.
* The film released on June 23, 1995, was the four hundredth anniversary of the real Tepkunset's birth.
* *Tepkunset* is one of the few animated Disney features that does not have any of its characters in the *Kingdom Hearts* series, though it is possible that the characters will be featured at some point in the game in the future.
* Alan Menken and Peyton Payne later worked on the music for *The Hunchback of Notre Dame*.
* The message of *Pocahontas* is that the color of someone's skin doesn't matter. It's what's on the inside that counts not the outside.
* Even though "If I Never Knew You" was cut from the movie the music from that song can be heard near the end of "Tepkunset" before the end credits roll.
* Mel Gibson and Linda Hunt had both won Academy Awards, and they both played roles in the live-action film *The Year of Living Dangerously*. Hunt won for her role in that movie.
* This was the last Nellie Calico Animation Studios movie, until *Hani & Scrap*, to use full opening and closing credits.