Growing up I never liked this movie. Pocahontas is the story of a group of Englishmen coming to the new world in search of gold coming into conflict with the natives. John Smith and Pocahontas meet and their love acts as a bond to help overcome the hatred between the natives and the English. On one hand, there are a lot of things in this movie that I didn't remember, but on the other what I do remember hating about this movie are the exact things I come away hating now.
Side note: Grabbed the screenshots from the Disney Wiki. For some reason all the ones I took are black, and I have no idea to go through this movie again just for screenshots.
There is a giant aspect of the movie that I just can't avoid talking about, and it's the biggest problem I have with Pocahontas. It is not often in my life I have sat down to watch a movie this obnoxiously preachy. It's all about the spiritual nature of the natives, the mythical nature of the land, how the Englishmen are so disconnected from the natural land, and it never lightens up on this. I'll give the show credit that the only character that embodies this is Ratcliffe, the antagonist, but frankly he's the only Englishmen besides John that matters. Worse is he is so over the top and overt in his villainy you really can't take it seriously, but at the same time, he just doesn't have the same kind of villainous Charisma that makes many other one-note villains of Disney work, someone like Malificent for example.
The movie doesn't even seem to have much to offer beyond the messaging either. You could rattle off all the Disney cliques you know by this point and they were just shoved in here. Comedy animal sidekicks Pocahontas can communicate with, she's a whimsical free spirit wanting more out of life, a loving father who wants the best for her but is rather stifling, motherly figure in form of the willow tree, and pretty much everything else in this movie is just another clique that Disney has used many times over already. Almost every complaint I've had in their past movies feels like they've all come together here.
One of the worst offenders is how terrible their love stories usually are. There may be a couple of exceptions, but this is not one of them. I think it's one of the absolute worst. They see each other and are basically in love within seconds. Even Snow White attracted a man with her beautiful singing voice, and that is more than I can sit here and say about this movie.
I know it's starting to sound like I have nothing good to say about this movie, and you are pretty much right about that assessment. The visual design of Pocahontas feels uninspired. For all its talks of the wonder and beauty of nature, it does not do a great job at making it all seem as beautiful as many of their other films, The Rescuers Down Under being a far better example. Even the visuals seem so on the nose with their theming. I know Disney has never been the most subtle, but when singing a song about choosing between a steady flowing riving and an exciting but more risky stream, she is literally at a split in a river where there are these two to choose between. That is the subtle you can expect out of this film.
And while I am bringing up the music, I don't like any of these songs. I don't think any of them are particularly bad, it's just none of them are good. As mentioned above, they are also really way too on the nose even for Disney. If you need a keen example of this show caring more about you getting the message than making something good, it's in the music.
Eventually, when I'm caught up on all the Disney Animated features, I plan to rank my top favorite and least favorite movies, and I honestly don't know if the utter nothing that was The Rescuers or the incessant preaching of Pocahontas is worse. I find myself hating this movie a lot more than I use to when I was younger. If you are like me and just wanted to see the entire legacy of their Animated features, give it a watch. But for any other reason just skip it.
