Pocahontas
1995 · Directed by Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg
Original language: English
- adventure
- animation
- family
- romance
The story
Pocahontas, daughter of a Native American tribe chief, falls in love with an English soldier as colonists invade 17th century Virginia.
What it’s like
Hand-drawn animation with warm, saturated color: sun-flushed autumn forests in amber and deep green, misty dawn over a wide river, and the cool blue-grey of ships and fortress walls that marks the colonists' world. Camera moves are sweeping and fluid, with long glides over canyons and tree canopies, while intimate scenes stay close and still. The score is lush and orchestral, carried by folk-inflected songs with big swelling choruses, and the quieter passages let wind, water and birdsong fill the air. The pace is steady and romantic, built around musical set pieces, with a clear rhythm of wonder, unease and reconciliation. Its people are drawn toward each other across a gap they only slowly learn to bridge: a young woman weighing duty against desire, and a man who starts out seeing only gold and gradually sees more. Violence is present but cartoonish and brief, mostly skirmishes, a threatening gunshot and some shoving, with a tense armed standoff and a villain's menace, but no gore and little bloodshed. Some scenes carry real dread in their colonial menace and racism. It suits family viewing and a comfort rewatch, and suits people who want an earnest, sweeping musical about love and cultural collision.
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