Pocahontas is the
titular character
The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piece. The title of ...
of
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios uni ...
'
33rd animated feature film ''
Pocahontas
Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...
'' (1995). The character and the events she goes through are loosely based on the actual historical figure
Pocahontas
Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...
, making her the first Disney Princess not to be based on a fairytale or folktale but rather a real historical figure. She is also the first to technically not be a princess, as she is not of royalty nor does she marry into royalty. She is, however, a Chieftain's daughter, which can arguably be the equivalent of a princess.
Pocahontas, as the daughter of a
Native American Tsenacommacah
Tsenacommacah (pronounced in English; "densely inhabited land"; also written Tscenocomoco, Tsenacomoco, Tenakomakah, Attanoughkomouck, and Attan-Akamik) is the name given by the Powhatan people to their native homeland, the area encompassing all ...
-
paramount chief
A paramount chief is the English-language designation for the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and arch ...
of the
Powhatan paramountcy, is the first American
Disney Princess
''Disney Princess'', also called the ''Princess Line'', is a media franchise and toy line owned by the Walt Disney Company. Created by Disney Consumer Products chairman Andy Mooney, the franchise features a lineup of female protagonists who ha ...
. In Disney's animated 1995 film of the same name, she is voiced by
Native American actress
Irene Bedard
Irene Bedard (born July 22, 1967) is an American actress, who has played mostly lead Native American roles in a variety of films. She is perhaps best known for the role of Suzy Song in the 1998 film ''Smoke Signals'', an adaptation of a Sherman ...
, who was also one of the physical models for the character, and her singing vocals were performed by
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
singer
Judy Kuhn
Judy Kuhn (born May 20, 1958) is an American actress and singer, known for her work in musical theatre. A four-time Tony Award nominee, she has released four studio albums and sang the title role in the 1995 film ''Pocahontas'', including her re ...
. Pocahontas is the seventh member of the Disney Princess line-up.
Development
Conception and writing
![Pocahontas by Simon van de Passe (1616)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Pocahontas_by_Simon_van_de_Passe_%281616%29.png)
Following his directorial debut with ''
The Rescuers Down Under
''The Rescuers Down Under'' is a 1990 American animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 29th Disney animated feature film and the second movie to be produced during the Disney Ren ...
'' (1990),
Mike Gabriel
Mike Gabriel (born November 5, 1954) is an American animator and film director, best known for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios and as co-director of the Disney animated films ''The Rescuers Down Under'' (1990) and ''Pocahontas (1995 film ...
happened upon an image of
Pocahontas
Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...
in a history book and decided that he wanted to pitch a film about her to Disney executives. Feeling that he was not adept at drawing women, he went to the pitch meeting with a
Xerox
Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (ha ...
ed image of
Tiger Lily from ''
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a fictional character created by List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and Puer aeternus, never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending ...
'' (1953) which he added animals to. His one sentence pitch for the film was: "An Indian princess falls in love with an English settler, then is torn between her father's wish to destroy the settlers and her need to help them." When Disney executives asked Gabriel to summarize Pocahontas' character, he replied: "She's a girl with a problem."
Inspired by
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's play ''
Romeo and Juliet
''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...
'', the film's directors Mike Gabriel and
Eric Goldberg wanted the story of ''Pocahontas'' to feature two characters of very different backgrounds falling in love.
Story supervisor
Tom Sito
Tom Sito (born May 19, 1956) is an American animator, animation historian and teacher. He is currently a Professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts in the Animation Division.
In 1998, Sito was included by ''Animation Magazine'' in their list of th ...
, who became the project's unofficial historical consultant, did extensive research into the early colonial era and the story of
John Smith and Pocahontas, and was confronted over the historical inaccuracies from historians. Already knowing that in reality Pocahontas married
John Rolfe
John Rolfe (1585 – March 1622) was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia in 1611.
Biography
John Rolfe is believed ...
, Gabriel explained it was felt that "the story of Pocahontas and Rolfe was too complicated and violent for a youthful audience" so instead, they would focus on Pocahontas's meeting with John Smith. While the real Pocahontas was eleven or twelve years old upon meeting John Smith, she is depicted as being around eighteen or nineteen years of age in the film, according to her supervising animator
Glen Keane
Glen Keane (born April 13, 1954) is an American animator, author and illustrator. He was a character animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios for feature films including ''The Little Mermaid'', ''Beauty and the Beast'', ''Aladdin'', ''Pocahonta ...
. Keane explained that this change was made because a film wherein a thirty year-old Smith falls in love with a child would be "sleazy".
[ ]Roy E. Disney
Roy Edward Disney KCSG (January 10, 1930 – December 16, 2009) was an American businessman. He was the longtime senior executive for the Walt Disney Company, which was founded by his father, Roy O. Disney, and his uncle, Walt Disney. At the ti ...
felt that making the character older than the historical figure would make the film "more dramatic".
Disney sought to consult Native American actors and a Native American organization in an attempt to accurately portray Indigenous culture onscreen. Elaine Dutka of the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' theorized that this decision was made due to the negative reception of ''Aladdin
Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of ...
'' (1992) by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) states that it is "the largest Arab American grassroots civil rights organization in the United States." According to its webpage it is open to people of all backgrounds, faiths and ethnicities ...
; Disney denied Dutka's theory. Native American activist Russell Means
Russell Charles Means (November 10, 1939 – October 22, 2012) was an Oglala Lakota activist for the rights of Native Americans, libertarian political activist, actor, musician, and writer. He became a prominent member of the American Ind ...
who plays Pocahontas' father Powhatan
The Powhatan people (; also spelled Powatan) may refer to any of the indigenous Algonquian people that are traditionally from eastern Virginia. All of the Powhatan groups descend from the Powhatan Confederacy. In some instances, The Powhatan ...
in the film, suggested that Pocahontas say she was "honored" by a gift Powhatan gives in a scene of the film to reflect the ways that Native Americans talked; Disney changed the film's script in accordance with Means' suggestion. Michael Eisner pushed for Pocahontas to have a mother, lamenting that "We're always getting fried for having no mothers." The writers countered that Powhatan was polygamous and formed dynastic alliances among other neighboring tribes by impregnating a local woman and giving away the child, so it was believed that Pocahontas herself probably did not see her mother that much. Storyboard artist Joe Grant
Joe Grant (May 15, 1908 – May 7, 2005) was an American artist and writer.
Biography
Born in New York City, Grant worked for Walt Disney Animation Studios as a character designer and story artist beginning in 1932 on the Mickey Mouse shor ...
would conceive the idea of the swirling leaves to represent Pocahontas's mother. Pocahontas became the first Native American Disney Princess
''Disney Princess'', also called the ''Princess Line'', is a media franchise and toy line owned by the Walt Disney Company. Created by Disney Consumer Products chairman Andy Mooney, the franchise features a lineup of female protagonists who ha ...
and the first woman of color
The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...
to be the lead character in a Disney film. As of 2014, she remains the only Disney Princess to be based on a historical figure.[
]
Personality and design
Keane also wanted Pocahontas to be written as a confident woman, unlike Ariel
Ariel may refer to:
Film and television
*Ariel Award, a Mexican Academy of Film award
* ''Ariel'' (film), a 1988 Finnish film by Aki Kaurismäki
* ''ARIEL Visual'' and ''ARIEL Deluxe'', 1989 and 1991 anime video series based on the novel series ...
from ''The Little Mermaid
"The Little Mermaid" ( da, Den lille havfrue) is a literary fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The story follows the journey of a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid to gain a h ...
'' (1989) or Belle from ''Beauty and the Beast
''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' ( ...
'' (1991).[ The film's producer, Jim Pentacost, viewed the character as "the strongest heroine we've ever had in a Disney film."][ Disney spokesman Howard Green said that the studio desired for the film to portray its Native American characters in a "real" and "fair" way, in contrast to the "very comic, broad" and inaccurate portrayal of Native Americans in ''Peter Pan'' (1953). Green also said that the studio did not want the film to reinforce ]stereotypes about indigenous peoples of North America
Stereotypes of Indigenous peoples of Canada and the United States of America include many ethnic stereotypes found worldwide which include historical misrepresentations and the oversimplification of hundreds of Indigenous cultures. Negative stere ...
. The film's crew met with Ray Adams, the chairman of the United Indians of Virginia, and showed him ten minutes of unfinished animation and the song "Colors of the Wind
"Colors of the Wind" is a song written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz for Walt Disney Pictures' 33rd animated feature film, ''Pocahontas'' (1995). The film's theme song, "Colors of the Wind" was originally recorded by Amer ...
" to see if they had portrayed Pocahontas in a way which would be more accurate to the Powhatan
The Powhatan people (; also spelled Powatan) may refer to any of the indigenous Algonquian people that are traditionally from eastern Virginia. All of the Powhatan groups descend from the Powhatan Confederacy. In some instances, The Powhatan ...
culture. Adams felt that the character's outfits were an accurate representation of Native American clothing and commented that Pocahontas was shown as "very beautiful and very intelligent and very loving, which the Native Americans are. We usually aren't portrayed as being loving, but the settlers would not have survived the first three winters if we had not been loving and helped them."[
Renowned for animating female characters such as Ariel, supervising animator Glen Keane was immediately tapped to draw the titular Indian princess. Following the demands of ]Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg (; born December 21, 1950) is an American filmmaker, animator, and media proprietor. He became well known for his tenure as chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994. After departing Disney, he was a co-founder and CE ...
to make the title character "the most idealized and finest woman ever made", Keane first began to sought his inspirations for his depictions for Pocahontas from Shirley 'Little Dove' Custalow-McGowan and Devi White Dove, women he had met during the research trip to Virginia. Keane recalled meeting the women:
So I turned around and there's this beautiful Indian woman walking up; a Native American. She said 'Are you Glen Keane? The animator that's going to do Pocahontas?' I said 'Well, yeah.' And then from behind another tree another woman came up and she said, 'Well, my name is Shirley Little Dove, and this is my sister Devi White Dove, and we are descended from Pocahontas.' And as they stood there, I mean I took a picture of both of them, and between their faces was Pocahontas' face in my mind – I could see her.
Other inspirations were Christy Turlington
Christy Nicole Turlington Burns (born January 2, 1969) is an American model and humanitarian. She represented Calvin Klein (fashion house), Calvin Klein's Eternity campaign in 1989 and again in 2014, and also represents Maybelline. Turlington w ...
, Natalie Belcon, Naomi Campbell
Naomi Elaine Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is an English model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. She began her career at the age of 15, and established herself amongst the most recognisable and in-demand models of the past four decades. Cam ...
, Jamie Pillow, white supermodel Kate Moss
Katherine Ann Moss (born 16 January 1974) is a British model. Arriving at the end of the "supermodel era", Moss rose to fame in the early 1990s as part of the heroin chic fashion trend. Her collaborations with Calvin Klein brought her to fas ...
, Charmaine Craig, and Irene Bedard
Irene Bedard (born July 22, 1967) is an American actress, who has played mostly lead Native American roles in a variety of films. She is perhaps best known for the role of Suzy Song in the 1998 film ''Smoke Signals'', an adaptation of a Sherman ...
, who provided the character's speaking voice. Keane also looked to a 1620 depiction of Pocahontas from a history book, though Keane would state she was "not exactly a candidate for ''People
A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
''s 'Most Beautiful' issue oI made a few adjustments to add an Asian feeling to her face." Pocahontas and all her tribesmen were depicted barefoot
Barefoot is the state of not wearing any footwear.
There are health benefits and some risks associated with going barefoot. Shoes, while they offer protection, can limit the flexibility, strength, and mobility of the foot and can lead to ...
in the movie, presumably to signify their connection to nature. Due to the complexity of the color schemes, shapes, and expressions in the animation, a total of 55 animators worked on the design of Pocahontas' character alone, including Mark Henn
Mark Alan Henn (born April 6, 1958) is an American animator and film director. His contributions to animation have included several Walt Disney Animation Studios leading or title characters, most notably heroines. His work includes Ariel in ''The ...
and Pres Romanillos
Priscillano "Pres" Antonio Romanillos (January 11, 1963 – July 17, 2010) was an American animator with DreamWorks and Walt Disney. His work included animated characters such as the Native American Little Creek in DreamWorks' '' Spirit: Stallio ...
.
Dyna Taylor, a Filipina college student, was paid $200 to model for the character. She claimed that she was the main model for Pocahontas' face, and had four sessions with Disney animators over three years. At one point she says she was surrounded by 15 animation artists sketching her facial features. She was given an image of the character that Keane autographed with the words "To Dyna, with gratitude for the inspiration you gave us." Disappointed that she was not credited in the film, Taylor considered suing Disney but was advised against doing so by a lawyer she consulted. Keane told ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' that he deemed Taylor's contributions to the film unworthy of a screen credit.
Keane felt that the final version of the character was akin to a tribal version of Eve
Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...
[ and less sexual and more athletic than earlier Disney character ]Jessica Rabbit
Jessica Rabbit is a fictional character in the novel '' Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'' and its film adaptation, ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit''. She is depicted as Roger's human toon wife in various Roger Rabbit media. Jessica is renowned as one of the ...
.[
]
Themes
Pocahontas has been identified as a feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
character who stands up against her father's patriarchal
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of Dominance hierarchy, dominance and Social privilege, privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical Anthropology, anthropological term for families or clans controll ...
views in her refusal to marry the man her father wants her to marry. Megan Condis, assistant professor of English at Stephen F. Austin State University, has stated that compared to previous Disney Princesses "Pocahontas was definitely a very different type of character in that she isn't as defined by romantic relationships and she's a lot more active. Also, she is one of the first princesses to actually take an active role in governing."[ Sophie Gilbert of '']The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' opined that in creating the character "Disney had, for the first time, provided an independent and fearless heroine with a strong sense of self." Gilbert noted that unlike Snow White
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as Ta ...
or Cinderella
"Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...
, Pocahontas is able to find happiness outside of marriage.[ ]MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
's Lauren Vino noted that Pocahontas is not a damsel in distress
The damsel in distress is a recurring narrative device in which one or more men must rescue a woman who has either been kidnapped or placed in general peril. Kinship, love, or lust (or a combination of those) gives the male protagonist the motiv ...
, as she saves Smith's life rather than vice versa.[
Upon the twentieth anniversary of ''Pocahontas'', '']The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' Caroline Siede said that the film "remains probably the most high profile story of a Native American in pop culture." Tom Brook of the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
e rights of Native Americans were strengthened in the two decades from the mid-1970s by legislation protecting tribal rights and interests".