They quickly bond, fascinated by each other's worlds, and end up falling in love, despite Powhatan's orders to stay away from the Englishmen after Kocoum and the other warriors engage them in a fight. At first, he cannot hear her speak English, but Grandmother Willow gives him the ability to do so. John departs to explore the wilderness and encounters Pocahontas.

The voyage's greedy leader Governor Ratcliffe, who seeks gold as part of his plan to bring him wealth and status, has Jamestown built in a wooded clearing and immediately has the crewmen dig for gold. Grandmother Willow then alerts Pocahontas to the arriving English. Pocahontas, along with her friends, the raccoon Meeko and hummingbird Flit, visit Grandmother Willow, a spiritual talking willow tree, and speaks of a dream involving a spinning arrow and her confusion regarding what her path in life should be. Powhatan gives Pocahontas her mother's necklace as a present. In the Powhatan tribe in Werowocomoco, Tsenacommacah, Virginia, Pocahontas, the beautiful daughter of Chief Powhatan, fears being possibly wed to Kocoum, a brave warrior whom she sees as too serious for her own free-spirited personality. As they approach the New World, the settlers, including John, talk of adventure, finding gold, fighting ' Injuns' and potentially settling in the new land. Along the way, the Susan Constant is caught in a North Atlantic storm and Captain John Smith, who dreams about adventure, saves Thomas, a young and inexperienced crewmate, from drowning. In 1607, the Susan Constant sails from London to the New World, carrying English settlers from the Virginia Company. According to critics, the depiction of Pocahontas as an empowered heroine influenced subsequent Disney films like Mulan (1998) and Frozen (2013). The film received two Academy Awards for Best Musical or Comedy Score for Menken and Best Original Song for ' Colors of the Wind'. Pocahontas earned over $346 million at the box office. The film's historical inaccuracies and racial overtones received polarized responses.

Pocahontas was released on June 16, 1995, to mixed reactions from reviewers, who praised its animation, voice performances, and music, but criticized its story with its lack of focus on tone. Screenwriters Carl Binder, Susannah Grant, and Philip LaZebnik took creative liberties with history in an attempt to make the film palatable to audiences. Meanwhile, Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg decided that the film should be a serious romantic epic in the vein of Beauty and the Beast (1991), in hope that like Beauty, it would also be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The project went into development concurrently with The Lion King (1994), and attracted most of Disney's top animators. The score was written by Alan Menken, who also wrote the film's songs with Stephen Schwartz.Īfter making his directorial debut with The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Gabriel conceived the film during a Thanksgiving weekend. The voice cast stars Irene Bedard and Mel Gibson as Pocahontas and Smith, respectively, with David Ogden Stiers, Russell Means, Christian Bale, Billy Connolly, and Linda Hunt providing other voices. The film was directed by Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg (his feature directorial debut). It is the 33rd Disney animated feature film and the sixth film produced and released during the Disney Renaissance. The film was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film romanticizes Pocahontas' encounter with John Smith and her legendary saving of his life. Pocahontas is a 1995 American animated musical historical drama film based on the life of Powhatan woman Pocahontas and the arrival of English colonial settlers from the Virginia Company.

Colors of the wind lyrics