You can’t go wrong with Disney, and this is one of my favourites. I love how this one requires such suspension of disbelief – really an astonishing amount when you step back from it and take a look. Like, normally, you’re asked to believe in a magic flying carpet or a fairy godmother – simple, magical stuff. Here it’s mostly based in reality, and you’re being asked almost (for most people) to subscribe to a whole new set of beliefs. It’s said outright at one point by Grandmother Willow, “there are spirits, all around,” and that Pocahontas’ mother lives in the wind, etc. I’m 99% certain there are probably comments and messages on the IMDb with dummies saying how dumb it is that a bunch of Lucky Charms fly through the air and suddenly a Native American and an Englishman can have a civilised conversation, lol. But that’s not how this movie works. In order to fully enjoy it, it’s almost like you’re forced to look past what’s actually happening on the screen and instead figure out what it means. Or you can just laugh at Flit and Meeko, I guess, your choice.

Even the smallest thing says so much – for example, the way Meeko bites John Smith’s gold coin when he’s trying to demonstrate to Pocahontas what the explorers are looking for and tossing it aside, it’s just a whole sudden simple perspective on the situation, like an innocent child suddenly saying the most random thing and making so much sense. Meeko wants a biscuit, that’s what’s important to him, he doesn’t want some stupid shiny thing.

What I found pretty weird on this viewing is how much the film still resonates with real world events – and probably moreso than it did in 1995. We could really kinda use a movie like this these days, where did ya go, Disney? I couldn’t help watching this time and seeing a lot of Dubya in the character of Radcliffe, always looking for a fight, always looking for what is simply not there, and the reprise of “Savages” is such a perfect representation of the blur that exists between hatred and pure insanity.

I was glad I could find the old theatrical version on the new DVD for this viewing: it’s awkwardly hidden in the “set-up” menu where you’d normally find commentaries etc – this actually makes a lot of sense, but in the past Disney have usually let you choose the alternate versions after you select the “Play” option from the main menu. I really don’t like how they’ve added “If I Never Knew You” to the movie. I don’t mind the first instance, since, like “Human Again” in Beauty and the Beast, it stands alone, and it’s certainly interesting to hear Mel Gibson sing. But it’s the reprise that bugs me. It interrupts one of my all-time favourite movie music cues, “Farewell,” which begins when you first see John Smith by the water waiting to be shipped home and runs right up till the end credits. It doesn’t need that reprise halfway through and for me, the reprise ruins the whole sequence. The theatrical cut is certainly the best.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 14th, 2005 at 7:02 pm in 4 hearts, Movie Reviews and tagged as animation, Disney, musical, top 250. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.