YMMV / Pocahontas

• Adorkable: Being one of the youngest soldiers, Thomas is naive, inexperienced, clumsy, and frequently picked on by Ratcliffe. However, his innocence and Undying Loyalty to John make him a likable character.
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • Better With Bob? suggests that an alternate moral besides the Green Aesop was giving up the appropriation of the real Pocahontas as a symbol for white supremacy and the suppression of Native American culture (as she was used in the colonial periods) - and reimagining her as a symbol that teaches younger viewers about the culture.
  • One could also interpret an Aesop about the dangers of doing things in the heat of the moment. Both Kocoum and Thomas act rashly when discovering Pocahontas and John kissing - Kocoum attacked John out of blind rage and left himself open to attack (not to mention lashing out at Pocahontas, too). Thomas likewise shot first (Pocahontas was pulling Kocoum off John and probably would have had the situation handled in a moment) and that had disastrous results. Finally, Pocahontas has to warn her father that a furious public execution will kick off a battle and lead to more bloodshed.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Ratcliffe mentions that this mission is his last chance to earn favour in the court back in England. Is he suffering Sanity Slippage as the settlers don't discover gold, and is the idea that the First Peoples are hoarding it something he's convinced himself of — because it's easier than facing the fact that he's just organised a mission and frelled it up completely? As noted in Fridge Brilliance, is his eventual march on the Powhatan a last ditch attempt to salvage the situation?
  • Kocoum: Brave, strong, deeply concerned for Pocahontas's well-being and unfairly dismissed by her? Or a xenophobic, aggressive idiot prone to violent solutions who couldn't take no for an answer? In fact, although he goes after Pocahontas because Nakoma says she thinks she's in trouble, he could clearly see that she was kissing John and there was no way to mistake it for anything else. And when Pocahontas tries to pull him off John, he knocks her to the ground, possibly intending to hurt her and viewing her as a 'race traitor'.
  • Nakoma: A good and caring friend who deserves no blame for what happened, or meddlesome and ignorant to Pocahontas's true feelings? Also, did Nakoma send Kocoum to find John Smith and Pocahontas together because she was worried for Pocahontas, or was she hoping that it would lead Kocoum to spurn Pocahontas and free him up for herself?
  • Was John in love with Pocahontas herself, or the peaceful, unrestrained viewpoint she represented? Was Pocahontas in love with John or the escape he represented from the "steady," confining life her father expected of her?
  • A few people think that Thomas's admiration for John Smith may have been something else entirely... In a similar manner, Wiggins's admiration and loyalty towards Ratcliffe seems to border on being a full-blown crush. To make matters more interesting, Ratcliffe and Wiggins share the same voice actor, who came out of the closet many years after the film was released.
  • Meeko and Percy do indeed represent the Native Americans and the settlers... just the other way around. Think about it; Meeko steals from and torments Percy just because he feels entitled to what the pup has, while Percy is rightfully pissed off and tries to stop him but isn't very successful because of Meeko's superior skills (technology).
  • Wiggins is an interesting case, given that he's the villain's bumbling comedic sidekick and only has about 16 lines total in the film. Is he just a goofy idiot, or is he actually the film's Only Sane Man and more of a Genius Ditz (implied when Ratcliffe asks him why the natives attacked them)? Near the beginning of the film, he suggests giving the Natives gift baskets rather than treating them with any hostility. Perhaps Ratcliffe should have listened to his suggestions after all...
  • A possible interpretation for why Pocahontas follows John Smith at first — maybe she's seeing what the English are like so she can leave home and join them? After being told she is to marry Kocoum, does she consider that leaving the tribe could be an option? It's only when John calls her a savage that she gets passionate about her culture, marking the start of her slowly realising that she did like her life in Virginia. It's after this that she suggests John staying with her.
  • Did Thomas actually intend to kill Kocoum, or was he trying to fire a warning shot that would make him back off?
  • At the very end, does Pocahontas run to the edge of the cliff just to watch the ship as long as she can? Or for a moment does she waver in her choice to stay behind and want to leap into the water and swim to the ship to join John, only to stop just short?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Sort of. John Smith sails back to England to seek medicine for his gunshot wound - which would be a months long voyage. In reality, he did sail back to England after being injured in an accidental explosion of gunpowder in a canoe.
• Anvilicious:
  • The anti-war message is very heavy handed, especially as outlined above in "Savages".
    Pocahontas: Look around you! This is where the path of hatred has brought us!
  • One ad for the film consisted of nothing but the song "Colors of the Wind" in its entirety. Out of context, it comes across as even more preachy.
• Applicability: The story could be considered an allegory for the 1992 Los Angeles Riots — where racial tensions caused massive amounts of death, injury, and damage. As the film shows Pocahontas preventing such a tragedy, it's something of a Fix Fic, as well.
• Ass Pull: The movie skips past the whole language-barrier problem by having Grandmother Willow grant Pocahontas the ability to speak English as soon as she meets John (or rather, the spirits translate his words for her). That's enough of an Ass Pull, but then Nakoma understands John.
• Awesome Art: Vivid colors, fluid character animation and a striking angular design outside of the normal Disney house style - the film's detractors do at least praise it for its beautiful visuals.
• Awesome Music: Even the detractors tend to praise the movie's soundtrack.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Pocahontas herself is very divisive as a character. The camp that dislike her find her dull, too overly perfect, and suffering from being a Flawless Token. There are even some particularly unfavorable readings that view her "exotic beauty" aspects and Historical Beauty Upgrade in a very poor light. Others praise her for being a great feminist role model and a non-stereotypical example of a female Native American character. And, of course, there's a camp that doesn't like the character but feels Irene Bedard's performance saves her.
  • Meeko: Either you find him a funny and loyal companion or an annoying thief who likes stealing and tormenting other animals for jollies. His status as the comic relief animal sidekick, along with Flit and Percy, are divisive as to whether they were out of place in the film.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Pocahontas diving off a cliff in the first scene where she appears. It’s not something she ever does again in the movie and serves no real importance to the plot.
• Broken Base:
  • "Colors of the Wind" is either one of the best and prettiest songs to come out of the Disney Renaissance that contains a lot of Values Resonance, or a very overrated and/or Anvilicious song that is overshadowed by the other songs in the movie.
  • There's also the Cut Song "If I Never Knew You" — which is re-inserted in the 10th anniversary edition. One camp feels it slows the pace of the film down, especially as the song "Savages" comes almost directly afterwards. Others find it to be necessary for the scene — as it is a love duet in a romance movie — and a poignant reprise.
  • Depending on who you ask, "Savages" is either a bold attempt to show the Grey-and-Gray Morality, or an excessive, unwarranted criticism of the Powhatan.
  • Pocahontas's status as a Disney Princess. Many feel she doesn't belong, and is only there to make the line-up look less white (the only other non-white princesses were Jasmine and Mulan before 2009). Others justify it by the real Pocahontas being presented as a princess to the English court.
  • There are debates about the film's portrayal of racism. Some find the film veers quite close to Politically Correct History and the white settlers are softened greatly. And yet when the film came out, there were complaints that the racism displayed by the settlers was too harsh. "Mine Mine Mine" edited out a shot showing all the destruction, and "Savages" toned down some lyrics that were deemed too politically incorrect. And then there are those who feel the film's portrayal was spot-on.
• Common Knowledge:
  • The film itself is often talked about as a 'white saviour' narrative where indigenous people are shown through a white character's perspective. However, Pocahontas herself is the main character who drives the story, and the film's signature song is her essentially showing John Smith how great her culture is. Pocahontas is also the one who saves John and prevents the war. About the only time a white character saves someone is when John takes a bullet for Powhatan.
  • Pocahontas is often imagined in fan works as an airy-fairy Indian Maiden constantly preaching Green Aesops. In the film itself, she has a playful, slightly childish side and gets angry more than once (when Kocoum is shot she herself has to be restrained from attacking Thomas). Her Green Aesop is the film's Signature Song, but it's also about teaching John Smith to see the world from another culture's point of view as much as teaching him respect for nature. The actual Aesop she teaches is more about peace and tolerance towards people rather than nature (not that the two can't overlap, of course).
  • A few viewers mistakenly thought Nakoma was Pocahontas's sister. They're just best friends, and Nakoma's first line is in fact "Pocahontas! Your father's back."
  • The portrayal of the English settlers is often imagined to be very sanitized and whitewashed. While the film is child-friendly, it's stated up front that the English are sailing to America to take advantage of the resources and view the Powhatans as lesser than them (one of Thomas's lines is "if any Indian tries to stop me, I'll blast him"). Ben likewise tries to kill a wounded man in cold blood. John even has a line saying "leave the savages to me", only having a Heel Realization after meeting Pocahontas. There's also a religious subtext; "God" is one of the things they're doing this for, according to the opening song, and Ratcliffe refers to the Powhatans as "filthy little heathens".
• Complete Monster: Governor John Ratcliffe is the cruel, greedy leader of the English settlers. Believing that the native Powhatan are hiding gold from him, Ratcliffe orders that anyone who even looks at a native without shooting them will be hanged. He later tries to lead his men into battle, planning to slaughter the whole community, even trying to shoot the Powhatan Chief despite both sides now wanting peace. After he is thwarted, Ratcliffe returns in the sequel, obsessed with revenge. He attempts to kill John Smith and manipulates the King and Queen, planning to kickstart a bloody war solely to have vengeance on the Powhatan. Ratcliffe even has a bear tortured in front of Pocahontas so she could get riled up, and stand against the king, leading to her arrest with threat of execution.
• Critical Backlash: The film was viewed as the weakest of the Renaissance efforts, and has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of all of them. As seen under Vindicated by History, it has far more fans as the years go on, especially in contrast to some of Disney's worst offerings in the 2000s. It's agreed that, while flawed, it's nowhere near Disney's worst film.
• Designated Hero: Simply being the heroine's friend makes Meeko a "good guy" despite his downright sadistic actions toward Percy. To his credit, he did make up with Percy, but for some fans it can be too little, too late.
• Designated Villain: Because he was originally Ratcliffe's dog (and quite spoiled), Percy is expected to be viewed as a villain, even though he's really just a victim bystander along for the ride. Meeko started all of the conflicts.
• Don't Shoot the Message: Disney's attempt at making a tolerance/anti-war Aesop fell flat with certain audiences who noted the historical inaccuracies or the fact that said Aesop was built on a blatant false equivalency, with the most notable one being that they attempted to create a Mirroring Factions narrative between the Powhatan Nation and the British by downplaying the core of the issue as just simply being different from one another, and that they pushed John Smith as a Token Good Teammate to lighten the image of the invaders.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • One character everybody seems to like is Grandmother Willow (Uncanny Valley aside). The filmmakers were even reluctant to create her at first but soon fell in love with the character.
  • Wiggins as well, for good reason.
  • Nakoma, for having noticeable flaws and a more fully fleshed-out personality, compared to Pocahontas. Some people think she should have received more screen time to demonstrate how the Native Americans are similar to the white settlers. Michelle St. John actually auditioned for Pocahontas, but since Irene Bedard had already been cast, they gave her the role of Nakoma because they liked her audition so much.
• Fair for Its Day: As pointed out here, in spite of the glaring inaccuracies and problematic portrayal of Indigenous people, the central protagonist is still Pocahontas — the Native American woman. She is the lead, it's her story, and she doesn't end up as a trophy for John Smith. Considering the lack of representation that Native North Americans (not to mention their counterparts in Central and South America) still suffer from in mainstream media — especially with the whitewashing controversy over Tiger Lily in Pan — that is saying something. While the Unshaved Mouse didn't like the film, he said it was at least good that Disney attempted a better depiction of Native Americans than in the past.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Nakoma and Kocoum has a lot of traction, as a Pair the Spares sort of deal. His first scene in the film has Nakoma Eating the Eye Candy, and she interacts with him more than Pocahontas does. Even in the sequel, Nakoma's partner is a man who looks like Kocoum.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: There was originally a duet between Pocahontas and John Smith titled "If I Never Knew You", sung the night before his execution. It was cut because the execs felt that the song "Savages" coming so soon after this scene meant there were too many songs. However, the song functions as a way to cap off John Smith's Character Development and adds far more emotion and hopelessness to the third act. It also allows Pocahontas to be vulnerable for a change, giving her decision to stop the execution much more power.
• Fandom Rivalry: With The Lion King. The two films often get pitted against each other and compared. Both were put into production around the same time. The Lion King was an experimental project that people weren't sure about, while Pocahontas was thought to be a guaranteed hit and the one the A-team wanted to work on, leaving The Lion King for the B-team. There are constant debates around their protagonists, too — Simba often being praised for his flaws in contrast to Pocahontas for lacking many notable flaws of her own.
• Fanon: One theory is that Pocahontas doesn't automatically learn English via listening with her heart — but that the spirits' magic helps her and John only understand each other.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Ratcliffe's little pink bows and pigtails. And let's not get started on the solid gold outfit he wears in his Dream Sequence. Though subverted at the end where he wears a more badass-looking armor suit.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Before the love ballad "If I Never Knew You", when John Smith is imprisoned and awaiting execution, he shrugs off his predicament by saying "I've gotten out of worse scrapes than this..." If you know a little bit about the life of the historical John Smith, you'll know that he's not kidding. In Real Life, Smith spent many years fighting as a mercenary in Europe and the Middle East before he traveled to Jamestown, and he (allegedly) escaped from slavery in the Ottoman Empire after being captured and sold by the Tartars. He also may or may not have narrowly escaped execution on the way to Jamestown: he apparently spent much of the voyage imprisoned belowdecks for mutiny, only to be promptly set free when it turned out that the Virginia Company had named him one of the leaders of the colony.
  • The lyrics of "Colors of the Wind" reference Animism — a religious belief that any natural thing has a soul. A fundamental theme of the film is Pocahontas learning to listen to the spirits all around her, which ties into Animist beliefs. This religion is still practiced by Indigenous peoples around the world. "Listen With Your Heart" and "Steady as the Beating Drum" reference this as well.
  • Pocahontas gives John Smith something from Grandmother Willow's bark to "help with the pain" after he gets shot. Willow bark is actually an ingredient used in aspirin, and is often used as pain relief on its own.
  • The opening song "Virginia Company" prominently features the words "glory, God, and gold" in the lyrics, which is the shorthand historians use to describe European motives for colonization. Technically, the phrase historians use is "God, gold, and glory" to denote a hierarchy; presumably this was changed in the song to fit the meter.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • In Europe, where the historical (and historiographical) Pocahontas and John Smith aren't widely known, and people aren't aware of the historical and geographical liberties taken, the movie is considered just another Disney animated classic from The '90s and was never seen as controversial. At most, a more 'girly' entry than The Lion King or The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney) because of its female protagonist.
  • In Norway, Pocahontas was one of the most successful movies of the Disney Renaissance, rivaling The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. It has only been surpassed by The Lion King and Aladdin in terms of popularity.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Mel Gibson in a movie about tolerance. 11 years later, he became infamous for his anti-Semitic rant during his DUI arrest.
• Ho Yay:
  • John and Thomas, although it's a surrogate brotherly relationship for most of the movie, do have one questionable scene; Pocahontas and John are caught kissing. The fact that Thomas is contrasted with Kocoum — who attacks John out of jealousy — makes it seem almost like Thomas is being cheated on, too.
  • Pocahontas and Nakoma have a Pseudo-Romantic Friendship, and it's clear that Nakoma cares deeply about her friend. If the context changed to Nakoma being romantically interested, very few lines would have to be rewritten.
  • Governor Ratcliffe and Wiggins have been dubbed the poster children for queer coding in Hollywood. Throughout the film, Wiggins constantly works for Ratcliffe's affections and they are rarely seen apart.
  • Some fans have paired John and Kocoum, due to both being rather physical as they're fighting.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Some fans aren't fans for the story and characters, but love the animation and songs. Both are frequent points of praise.
  • And there are some who watch just for Irene Bedard's performance, widely considered to be among her best (along with Smoke Signals and Naturally Native).
• LGBT Fanbase:
  • Nakoma has gained popularity with queer women based on her friendship with Pocahontas, whom many fans like to reinterpret her as having romantic feelings due to their fair share of Les Yay.
  • Thomas has a following due to his looks and friendship with John Smith.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: While the film is often criticized for its liberties with facts, Irene Bedard (who voiced Pocahontas) has said that young girls of Native American descent have thanked her for portraying a Disney heroine who looked like them. Irene herself views the character as an important figure in Native American representation.
• Moral Event Horizon: Ratcliffe was a Jerkass from the start, but he crossed it in-universe and out when he still decides to attack the natives even after Powhatan spares John Smith, resulting in him shooting Smith.
• Narm:
  • During the song "Savages", it gets a bit too dramatic when Ratcliffe and the settlers are seen projected on a waterfall. And the random entourage of birds and animals, including a deer, that follow Pocahontas as she races to save John Smith.
  • Grandmother Willow showing Pocahontas and John the ripples as a metaphor for bringing about the change needed to bring peace between their sides. Pocahontas and her animal friends seem just a bit too mesmerized, while John is appropriately confused at what they're all getting at until Grandmother Willow explains it.
  • After Ratcliffe shoots Smith, Thomas' exclamation of "You shot him!" sounds more excited than his furious expression demands.
  • The way John Smith tries to shoo Thomas away after the latter has just shot Kocoum. He sounds like he's trying to shoo a dog away instead.
  • Despite the film being focused on a violent conflict, there are no visible injuries when characters are shot. It's especially egregious with Kocoum, who actually dies, with many viewers feeling that the lack of blood or a bullet wound made his death look much sillier than intended.
    The Nostalgia Chick: But Christian Bale is ever at the ready, and manages to shoot Kocoum right in the... um... spirit?
  • Even before the Internet's parodies, Kocoum rushing out of the bushes to attack Smith, coupled with his enraged holler, unintentionally prompted laughs from some viewers.
  • The lyric "They're not like you and me, which means they must be evil" is meant to be eye-opening and terrifying, but it's far too on the nose to take seriously and is more likely to make someone laugh their ass off.
  • "If I Never Knew You" is a beautiful love song. They flashback halfway through the song to memories of their "intense romance". The writers and animators are trying to make it seem like these are two people fated to be together. But the fact it's everything that has happened over the course of a whole three days at most makes it seem cheesy, corny, and a complete straight played version of Fourth-Date Marriage. One would think the animators merely ran out of time, ideas, and/or budget to do anything else with the sequence but even in the storyboard version apparently this was the plan all along!
• Never Live It Down:
  • Meeko is still most remembered for his unwarranted Trolling of the Unintentionally Sympathetic Percy during the first half of the movie (as this page and many others will tell you), even though it's clear that they have made up and become friends by the end of it. (As well as the fact that Meeko isn't responsible for everything bad that happens to Percy in the sequel.)
  • Some fans remember Pocahontas mostly for "falling in love with the first white man she sees", ignoring that she spent time getting to know John Smith and was ready to leave when he offended her.
  • Ratcliffe's fixation on gold is typically considered one of the more laughable villainous schemes among the Disney rogues, and Ratcliffe himself tends to be seen as a highly one-dimensional villain; the fact that he was introduced after Scar and then followed up by Judge Claude Frollo, two of Disney's most beloved villains, doesn't help his case much.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Other adaptations of Pocahontas's life have also aged her up, going as far back as the 19th century. The first claim that she and John Smith were romantically involved was made back in 1803.
  • There were also two other musicals about Pocahontas. One on Broadway called Miss Pocahontas in 1907 and one on the West End simply titled Pocahontas in 1963.
• Presumed Flop: The film is seen as the start of Disney's decline in the mid-90s, due to the backlash towards its Darker and Edgier tone and its liberties with history. While it paled in comparison to the Box Office take of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and especially The Lion King - it netted $346 million worldwide. It did break their string of critical hits, but most critics only found it So Okay, It's Average.
• Retroactive Recognition: Christian Bale as Thomas. He was reasonably well known as a child star at the time thanks to Little Women, Empire of the Sun and Newsies - but he would reach greater heights in the 2000s.
• The Scrappy: Governor Ratcliffe tends to be this for many not just by this film alone, but among the rest of the villainous lineup in the Disney Animated Canon due to being a one-dimensional villain that lacks any likable or charming traits compared to the Disney villains he was sandwiched between such as Frollo or Scar, whose buffoonery fails to amuse and even his dynamic with Wiggins seeming like a pale imitation of Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. Word of God implies that he was likely intended to be more of an allegorical villain who represented the harm done to Native Americans by European settlers, much like how the hunter from Bambi personified humanity's destructive effects on nature, but Ratcliffe's role in the plot is still written like that of a more conventional Disney villain with an actual face, name, voice and characterization to go with him (by contrast, the hunter was a frightening nonentity only around for long enough to drive the plot, and no longer), meaning that his lack of personality becomes glaringly obvious. The only things it's agreed he has going for him are David Odgen Stiers's performance, his fun Villain Song "Mine" (with the memetic "see how I glitter!" line), and his participation in "Savages".
• Signature Song:
  • "Colors of the Wind". Helped along by the earliest trailers for the film consisting of nothing but this song (and Pocahontas introducing herself to John).
  • "Savages". This song gained traction in recent times for its portrayal of mutual racism.
• So Okay, It's Average: A more common reception nowadays; while not very many people are able to claim that this is a masterpiece, there are thousands of people who agree that it's nowhere near Disney's worst offering.
• Special Effect Failure: In the cold open, if one looks hard enough, when a wave washes over the Susan Constant, one can clearly make out Ben running into the foreground away from the torrent of water, virtually see-through.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: "Colors of the Wind" sounds a lot like the 2nd movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony, which was itself composed to sound like Native American music. Coincidence? Probably not.
• Tear Dryer: Kocoum has been killed, John Smith is about to be executed at sunrise, the English are going to slaughter the Powhatans in a sneak attack, and Pocahontas has lost all hope. Meeko then gives her John's compass, and she realizes that she can stop the execution and prevent further bloodshed. And that's exactly what she does.
• Testosterone Brigade: Pocahontas was made into a sexy adult woman by Executive Meddling, justified for a Disney movie since the Real Life Pocahontas was underage while with late-20s John Smith. She has a beautiful mane of black long hair, wears a fairly revealing dress and even gets a Male Gaze moment where her ass is on full display as she climbs a rock. Naturally, she attracts a lot of male admirers.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: A lot of fans wish more had been done with Kocoum, who had the potential to be much more interesting - as a warrior who wants to protect his tribe but is implied to have prejudices of his own.
• Uncanny Valley: Grandmother Willow is a talking tree animated with CGI back in 1993-4, so this is pretty much a given.
• Uncertain Audience: It's a Disney animated film that tries to tackle mature themes such as racism, colonization, Star-Crossed Lovers, and war, and has a rare Bittersweet Ending to boot. But it also has all the requisite bells and whistles of a "kiddie" Disney movie, having animal sidekicks whose slapstick antics take up so much screentime that there's a whole subplot about Pocahontas' raccoon sidekick fighting with Big Bad John Ratcliffe's pet pug. The end result is a movie that comes off as too preachy and serious for children to fully enjoy, but too corny and trivializing of a serious subject matter for adults. The casting of Native American actors to voice the characters suggested an attempt to appeal to Native American audiences. However, the film had no Native Americans in its creative team, played fast and loose with the history and geography, and based its message on a blatant false equivalency by attempting to create a Mirroring Factions narrative between the Powhatan Nation and the British and downplaying the core of the issue as just simply being different from one another, making both Native and non-native critics alike cry "Don't Shoot the Message".
• Values Dissonance:
  • How you view the Powhatan Nation choosing to execute John as punishment for Kocoum's murder depends a lot on your attitude towards the death penalty. In areas where it's legal, Chief Powhatan might be seen as legally justified to do so. The film, however, presents it as a potential Moral Event Horizon for him - although Pocahontas's argument against it is less about the legality and more what will happen after he does it.
  • The "Savages" song tries to create a nuanced take on racism as not being a one-sided affair, but falls flat on the grounds of creating a False Equivalence between greedy colonizers and the native people, who historically were murdered for their land. Nowadays, trying to equate enforcers of systemic racism and people fighting against said racism is increasingly being seen as a form of Gaslighting to deter any attempts at reforming or replacing systems of oppression.
  • Likewise the Historical Villain Upgrade on Ratcliffe, who in real life tried to establish peaceful trade relations with the Powhatan and was tortured to death by them for his trouble, is now considered to be an act of egregious slander which distorts history in a way just as troublesome as the False Equivalence of the "Savages" song.
• Values Resonance: While the film is frequently on the receiving end of criticism for downplaying the more heinous elements of colonial North America, it also contains a message of prejudice and how conflict, regardless of how justified it is, will hurt innocent people, and the message of not making your enemies seem "other" still holds up today. It also helps that Pocahontas is a brave, intelligent and caring protagonist who chooses to help her tribe over her love interest, which still ends the film on a happy, satisfying note, even with the sadness that she and John may never see each other again.
• Vindicated by History: Not to the same extent as The Rescuers Down Under, The Hunchback of Notre Dame or Hercules but reception to this movie has warmed slightly. This is due to a variation of Once Original, Now Common- this was one of the first animated films to fictionalize actual historical events and other films would later do similar things such as Anastasia. It is also received better by fans who were kids when it was first released, and still embrace it now, when they're older.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The animation and rich color palette rightly won this film enormous praise from critics and fans alike, who agreed that, if nothing else, it was another standout piece for Disney's animation department.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: This and The Hunchback of Notre Dame would get criticism for being G-rated, marketed to children and still tackling such dark themes. Pocahontas tackles racism and xenophobia (to the point of attempted genocide), forbidden love, and one of the few on-screen human deaths in the Disney Animated Canon.
• The Woobie:
  • Percy gets put through a lot of crap, usually caused by Meeko.
  • Flit could also be considered this. He's perhaps the nicest animal character in the film, yet Meeko rarely shows him any real respect.
  • Wiggins, Ratcliffe's loyal assistant. He's not treated badly per se, but he does seem to be the Only Sane Man among the British, and he's clearly devastated (even visibly in tears) when Ratcliffe shows his true colors and is arrested at the end of the film.
  • Downplayed with Nakoma, who is clearly terrified by what's happening to her home, and worries that her best friend might get into trouble by consorting with a settler. Her attempts to do something get Kocoum killed, nearly start a war, and ensure that her best friend can't be with the man she loves. It's unsurprising that she's shedding tears of guilt in the ending.

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