History Trivia / Pocahontas

* DuelingMovies: With ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'', a movie that Disney just happened to be distributing at the time. ''Toy Story'' was a critical and commercial success, blowing ''Pocahontas'' out of the water and inadvertently became the beginning of the end of hand-drawn animation being the predominant form in feature films.

* TheFilmOfTheSong: Inverted with the song by Music/LudwigVon88 titled "Pocahontas". This song is quite nonsensical, and [[AllThereInTheManual supposedly about Pocahontas' hidden brother]].
* GenreKiller: ''Pocahontas'' was the product of a very brief trend in the early '90s which began with ''Film/DancesWithWolves'' of sympathetic depictions of Indigenous Americans as sophisticated, intelligent people, but through the lens of a white protagonist. Its critical failure also made it the last.

** Michelle St John read for Pocahontas too, but Irene Bedard had already been cast. Nonetheless they liked her audition enough to get her to voice Nakoma.

** All the Native American actors - Irene Bedard, Michelle St John, Russell Means, James Apaumut - would contribute dialogue changes to more accurately reflect how the characters would address each other.

* MagnumOpusDissonance: The studio had high hopes for the film, hoping it would gain an Oscar nomination as ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' had. This and ''WesternAnimation/{{The Lion King|1994}}'' were in production at the same time, and many animators opted to work on this as they and studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg saw it as the more prestigious project of the two (Ironically, Katzenberg was one of the creative leads on ''Lion King''). The latter became an insane success. And while this was a significant hit, it received polarizing reactions (Katzenberg was spared some of this backlash due to getting the boot from Disney after ''Lion King'' hit theaters the year prior; the "Reject the winner/embrace the somewhat runner-up" deal had happened to him before with ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'', and would happen to him at least once more with ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'').

** Pocahontas is voiced by Irene Bedard, but they brought in Broadway powerhouse Judy Kuhn to do her singing.

* AwesomeDearBoy: Russell Means called this "the finest feature film on American Indians Hollywood has turned out", and signed on in the hopes of creating a more sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans in mainstream film. The Native opinions on the film are split down the middle, so YMMV with how well he succeeded.

* GenreKiller: ''Pocahontas'' was the product of a very brief trend in the early '90s which began with ''Film/DancesWithWolves'' of sympathetic depictions of Indigenous Americans as sophisticated, intelligent people, but through the lens of a Caucasian protagonist. Its critical failure also made it the last.
* IAmNotSpock: Irene Bedard is still heavily associated with her role as Pocahontas (although she is recognisable for ''Film/SmokeSignals'', the cult classic ''Naturally Native'', and Mary Crow Dog in the 1994 docu-drama ''Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee'' too). She doesn't seem to mind though:

** The Native Rival

* MagnumOpusDissonance: The studio had high hopes for the film, hoping it would gain an Oscar nomination as ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' had. This and ''Disney/TheLionKing'' were in production at the same time, and many animators opted to work on this as they and studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg saw it as the more prestigious project of the two (Ironically, Katzenberg was one of the creative leads on ''Lion King''). The latter became an insane success. And while this was a significant hit, it received polarizing reactions (Katzenberg was spared some of this backlash due to getting the boot from Disney after ''Lion King'' hit theaters the year prior; the "Reject the winner/embrace the somewhat runner-up" deal had happened to him before with ''Disney/OliverAndCompany'' and ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', and would happen to him at least once more with ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'').

* TomHanksSyndrome: For co-director Creator/EricGoldberg, best known for his cartoonie, WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes-esque animations (namely [[Disney/{{Aladdin}} The Genie]]). This was his first and, thus far, only "serious" film as a creative force.

** The first pass of the story was going to be closer to the actual events (at least as close as [[ArtisticLicense a "fairy tale" version]] could get), with Pocahontas being twelve years old and speaking Powhatan for most of the film, gradually learning how to speak English. Jeff Katzenberg, desperate to earn the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast another Academy Award nomination]], wanted the story to be sexier, both in tone and appearance, in the hopes of [[AnimationAgeGhetto appealing to the Academy Awards' standards of "maturity."]] It was his decision to age Pocahontas up and [[AdaptationalAttractiveness make John Smith more attractive]].

** Lyricist Howard Ashman, who had worked on previous Disney animated classics such as ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'' and ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'', was supposed to write the songs for this film as well but died of AIDS prior to completing work on ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'', and thus Creator/StephenSchwartz had to fill in for him (this was also what prompted ''Music/JesusChristSuperstar'' and ''Music/{{Evita}}'' lyricist Creator/TimRice to finish Ashman's work on ''Aladdin'', which led to him joining ''The Lion King'' while Menken moved on to ''Pocahontas''.)

** Governor Ratcliffe was originally going to be voiced by Richard White (who previously voiced [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast Gaston]]), but he was replaced by Creator/DavidOgdenStiers (who had played Cogsworth in [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast the same film]]) because the filmmakers felt that audiences would only think of Gaston whenever Ratcliffe spoke if White did the voice.

** Filmmakers were adamant about including Pocahontas's mother as a character, stating they were getting sick of the MissingMom in every Disney film. But in their research, they discovered that Chief Powhatan forged alliances with neighbouring tribes by impregnating a local woman and giving the child away - meaning the real Pocahontas was unlikely to have seen her mother too much. Additionally the mother would have been represented by a star in the sky - and would have appeared at one point to give Pocahontas guidance. This idea was scrapped, as ''Disney/TheLionKing'' was using a similar concept.

** Filmmakers were adamant about including Pocahontas's mother as a character, stating they were getting sick of the MissingMom in every Disney film. But in their research, they discovered that Chief Powhatan forged alliances with neighbouring tribes by impregnating a local squaw and giving the child away - meaning the real Pocahontas was unlikely to have seen her mother too much. Additionally the mother would have been represented by a star in the sky - and would have appeared at one point to give Pocahontas guidance. This idea was scrapped, as ''Disney/TheLionKing'' was using a similar concept.

* CutSong: "If I Never Knew You", later animated and restored for the 10th Anniversary DVD. However, the 2-Movie Collection Blu-ray and DVD cut it out again. Especially egregious because the end credits contain the pop version by Shanice and John Secada.

* DuelingMovies: With ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'', a movie that Disney just happened to be distributing at the time. ''Toy Story'' made more than ''Pocahontas'' and blew it out of the water critically, and this particular duel spelled the beginning of the end of hand-drawn animation being the predominant form in feature films.

** Judy Kuhn was cast as Pocahontas's singing voice and was told that if they couldn't find a Native American actress, she would be the speaking voice too. Irene Bedard was ultimately cast.[[note]]There are ''tons'' of working Native actors in Hollywood and have been since the very earliest days of film, so the idea that they might not be able to find one who could do voicing for animation is ludicrous to say the least.[[/note]]

* IAmNotSpock: Irene Bedard is still heavily associated with her role as Pocahontas (although she is recognisable for ''Film/SmokeSignals'' too). She doesn't seem to mind though:

** Judy Kuhn was cast as Pocahontas's singing voice and was told that if they couldn't find a Native American actress, she would be the speaking voice too. Irene Bedard was ultimately cast.

* GenreKiller: ''Pocahontas'' was the product of a very brief trend in the early '90s which began with ''Film/DancesWithWolves'' of sympathetic depictions of the plight of Indigenous Americans through the lens of a Caucasian protagonist, and its critical failure also made it the last.

* CutSong: "If I Never Knew You", later animated and restored for the 10th Anniversary DVD. However, the 2-Movie Collection Blu-ray and DVD cut it out again.

** Russell Means, an activist for Native Americans, had some of the lines in the script changed to more accurately reflect how the characters would address each other.

* GenreKiller: ''Pocahontas'' was the product of a very brief trend in the early '90s which began with ''Film/DancesWithWolves'' of sympathetic depictions of the plight of Indigenous Americans through the lens of a Caucasian protagonist, and it's critical failure also made it the last.

** Pocahontas is voiced by Irene Bedard, but they brought in Broadway powerhouse Judy Kuhn to do her singing. According to Bedard, Kuhn was cast first to do the singing and she wasn't brought in until later. Oddly averted with Mel Gibson, who was a much bigger star, and did his own singing, contrary to what you might expect.

** The animal characters were meant to talk but were made [[TheSpeechless mute]] in order to give the film a more "serious" tone.
*** Russell Means at one point declared "How can this be accurate, there's a talking squirrel in it." He was being funny, since to traditional Indian people squirrels ''do'' talk, and so does everything else in nature.

** Creator/BrianBlessed, Creator/BrianCox, Rupert Everett, Creator/StephenFry, and Creator/PatrickStewart were considered for Governor Ratcliffe.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: In contrast to the cruel and ruthless Ratcliffe, Creator/DavidOgdenStiers was considered a true class act by those who worked with him on the film.

* DuelingMovies: With ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'', a movie that Disney just happened to be distributing at the time. It blew ''Pocahontas'' out of the water, and this particular duel spelled the beginning of the end of hand-drawn animation being the predominant form in feature films.

* DuelingMovies: With ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'', a movie that Disney just happened to be distributing at the time. It blew this movie out of the water, and this particular duel spelled the beginning of the end of hand-drawn animation being the predominant form in feature films.

** Zig-zagged with Creator/MelGibson: American-born and raised in Australia, here playing the British John Smith.

** American David Ogden Stiers voicing both Governor Ratcliffe and Wiggins.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: In contrast to the cruel and ruthless Ratcliffe, David Ogden Stiers was considered a true class act by those who worked with him on the film.

* TalkingToHimself: David Ogden Stiers voiced both Radcliffe and Wiggins. Thus, in the numerous scenes between the two, Stiers is doing all the voice work.

** Governor Ratcliffe was originally going to be voiced by Richard White (who previously voiced [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast Gaston]]), but he was replaced by David Ogden Stiers (who had played Cogsworth in [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast the same film]]) because the filmmakers felt that audiences would only think of Gaston whenever Ratcliffe spoke if White did the voice.