"Just Around the Riverbend" is a song from the 1995
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
animated 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 ...
''.
Synopsis
In the film, "Just Around the Riverbend" serves as
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 ...
'
"I want" song
The "I Want" song (also called an "I Wish" song) is a popular type of song featured in musical theatre, and has become a particularly popular term through its use to describe a series of songs featured in Disney Renaissance films that had the main ...
, where she decides if she will follow tradition and the safe choice, or whether she will explore the unknown and have new adventures. This is illustrated with the metaphor of two paths in the river: one straight and calm, and the other coursing "just around the riverbend". She marvels at how the river can change its course so effortlessly, twisting and turning, and ending up somewhere new and exciting.
Development
One of the main problems with the story from a song concept perspective was how to "start
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 ...
' story musically".
Stephen Schwartz
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz (born March 6, 1948) is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over five decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as ''Godspell'' (1971), ''Pippin'' (1972), and ''Wicked'' (20 ...
reasoned that as
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 ...
doesn't really want anything until
John Smith shows up, there isn't much for her to sing about. His wife Carole decided that Pocahontas would have a dream that something was about to happen (due to dreams being a large part of Native American culture). As ''
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 ...
'' was a reinterpretation of the ''
Romeo and Juliet'' story, and the first song sung by Tony in the ''Romeo and Juliet'' based musical ''
West Side Story
''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
Inspired by William Shakespeare's play '' Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid ...
'' is "
Something's Coming", Schwartz explains that "Just Around the Riverbend" is essentially "the
Native American version of Something's Coming".
The subtext is that she wants more than just a husband, and wants to instead break free and do her own thing.
The song wasn't immediately liked by the studio executives at Disney. Though he and his writing partner
Alan Menken wrote another song to fit into that section of the movie, they requested the heads relisten to a tweaked version of their song. This time it was accepted.
Analysis
''Contemporary Media Culture and the Remnants of a Colonial Past'' argues that this song is equivalent to
Belle's desire of wanting "more than this provincial life" in ''
Beauty and the Beast
''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine ...
'', and that she seeks to become emancipated from the Native American patriarchy by an external force (which turns out to be the colonists, though she does not know it at the time). It also says that
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 ...
has an "'innate feminine' desire to find true bourgeois romance 'just around the riverbend'".
''Hollywood's Indian: The Portrayal of the Native American in Film'' describes Pocahontas' persona at the point when she sings this song as "youthful irresponsibility", contrasting this to her "mature self-knowledge through courage and love" which she adopts throughout the course of the movie.
References
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Songs from Pocahontas (1995 film)
1995 songs
Songs with music by Alan Menken
Songs written by Stephen Schwartz (composer)
Songs about rivers
Disney Renaissance songs
Song recordings produced by Alan Menken