by Chung
Pocahontas. If there’s a most controversial Disney princess movie, it’s this one. There is no doubt that the movie Pocahontas has many issues, as shown by the historical inaccuracies of Pocahontas and John Smith’s relationship, with everything from their ages to the very nature of their interactions.
Pocahontas is nothing short of a tragedy masquerading as your typical fairytale. I remember being shocked when I learned about the truth behind the story; but, I still do consider it my favorite Disney movie for reasons outside of historical accuracy. As a piece of fiction, I find that it has important themes that weren’t often present in many of the early Disney princess movies, especially with how the movie ended. Pocahontas doesn’t follow John Smith to the Old World when he is wounded and instead remains loyal to her people, knowing the responsibilities she holds. She displays a more mature love in which she does what is best for both of them. She is a strong, independent role model that deviates from the standard Disney princess narrative.
However, instead of focusing on the historically inaccurate but inspiring Pocahontas, I will be discussing Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World. For those of you who have not watched this sequel to the Disney classic Pocahontas, in Pocahontas 2 Disney decided to “make things right” just three short years after the release of Pocahontas with this sequel. Seemingly as a response to audiences’ anger about the terminated relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas, Disney decided to create a new male lead, John Rolfe. However, Disney managed to write a narrative that is not only still historically inaccurate but also almost entirely redefines Pocahontas’s character for the worse.
In this movie, John Smith goes missing and is presumed dead, and John Rolfe is sent to bring Chief Powhatan back to England for negotiations. When Pocahontas hears of the news about John Smith, she is initially heartbroken but can move past it. When John Rolfe arrives in America, Chief Powhatan refuses to go and Pocahontas goes in place of him, believing she can bring peace between the two parties. She goes to England and is trained to be more “civilized,” and eventually falls in love with John Rolfe. However, at the end of the movie, John Smith reappears, and it is revealed that he was in hiding the entire time to avoid arrest after being falsely framed for treason by Ratcliffe. It is suggested that John Smith is still in love with Pocahontas, but in the end, Pocahontas decides to stay with John Rolfe after helping reveal Ratcliffe’s treachery. This movie is a hard watch, and there are many, many things to critique, but I will be focusing on two main points: the changes made in Pocahontas’s character and the idea of race and identity in conjunction with history.
Change in Pocahontas’s character
As mentioned previously, Pocahontas in the first movie was displayed as a free-spirited girl but also someone who stood up for what she believed in. She was loyal to her homeland by staying at the end of the movie and loyal to John by standing up for him when he was in danger. She was a strong, independent, and loyal role model to countless young girls. In Pocahontas 2, only a shadow of her character is left. In one scene in particular, she defends a helpless bear being used as a cruel form of entertainment for the noble people, standing between the bear and its attackers. There are a few other scenes in which we see the original character of Pocahontas, but they are ultimately drowned out by scenes that portray a Pocahontas who is helpless and in need of a savior.
For most of this movie, Pocahontas is portrayed as the “Damsel in Distress.” Rather than being the Pocahontas who stood up against armed forces (in the original Pocahontas) and put herself in harm’s way to protect a bear, she seems to lose all willingness to fight when faced with conflict about herself. She is imprisoned and attacked, yet all she does is wait to be saved, and when John Rolfe eventually does save her from prison, she states, “[I] knew you would come to save me,” showing her complete dependence on him. Despite knowing that her defending the bear was what was right, she doesn’t fight back and waits in prison, leaving the judgment of right and wrong up to John Rolfe, as his decision to save her equates to approval from a white man. This coupled with the scene that follows, in which John Rofle and John Smith fight the guards to help Pocahontas escape as she merely runs away, shows Pocahontas’s lack of fighting spirit and dependence on specifically white men to protect her.
And with the ending comes even more disappointment. John Smith reveals that he was alive this whole time and suggests that he is still in love with Pocahontas. But Pocahontas chooses to stay with John Rolfe, completely dismissing the romantic chemistry built in the first movie.
Of course, it is reasonable to not truly be in love with someone you have only known for a few weeks, and it is normal for people to lose feelings and fall in love with someone else. However, in contrast to other Disney princesses, Pocahontas is portrayed as a disloyal girl who will fall in love with any white man she meets. I especially find an issue with this because it is the only biracial couple amongst well-known Disney princesses, and the ease at which Pocahontas dismisses John Smith suggests that the nature of their relationship was not as strong or meaningful. It almost suggests the narrative that Pocahontas, as a Native American girl, doesn’t actually love them but loves the culture of the Old World and finds them superior, therefore falls in love with both John Smith and John Rolfe when they show interest. It is especially interesting to think of how a large conflict in the first movie was Pocahotnas’s unwillingness to marry Kocoum in the original movie because he was too serious, yet she falls in love with the more serious John Rolfe. Despite being a movie franchise meant to celebrate Native American history, it seems that there is still a narrative of white supremacy.
Historical Inaccuracies
It may be argued that this ending with John Rolfe was done for the sake of historical accuracy, but that claim has little to stand on. She may have married John Rolfe in real life, but it was purely a political marriage and certainly not out of love. Although not as extreme as the age difference with John Smith, John Rolfe was still substantially older than Pocahontas and was only able to marry her after she was kidnapped brought to the Old World. Her story, even in Disney’s attempt to “make things right” is nothing more than a romanticized version of history. And in Pocahontas 2, the narrative presented is even more dangerous. The historical inaccuracy of Pocahontas is not hidden, and many (like myself) learned of these inaccuracies in our childhood (usually middle school or high school at the very latest). However, many children who have seen Pocahontas 2 may not be as informed of the inaccuracies present in this movie because it is not as well known as the original. They may see this and say, “Well, I heard that John Rolfe is the man she did marry, so I guess she did have a wonderful princess life in the end!” I know that I took this movie as a “more truthful” story before researching this topic, and after speaking to a few people I found that I was not alone in this. Pocahontas 2 may have a few more factually correct events, but it has just as many, if not more, lies weaved in .
Another issue with this movie is how the people in the Old World perceive Pocahontas. When Pocahontas first arrives, the people welcome her with open arms and compliment her. In reality, most European people thought of them as the first movie suggests, “savages.” Not only that, but Pocahontas would not have had the freedom to run around exploring the city and climbing trees, as she was brought against her own will and held captive for over a year in the Old World. In the movie, Pocahontas seems to fall in love with everything in the city and is seemingly amazed at things that would have, in reality, also been present in the New World, such as a berry pastry. It is important to note that she was so fascinated because it was something that tasted like a berry that was not a berry. This suggests that the Old World did not have the technology to bake or cook, which simply was not true. Native Americans had a very similar and well-known baked good called Saututhig, made with cornmeal and berries. These instances tied in with her relationships of “love” with John Smith and John Rolfe further suggest white supremacist revision.
But of course, at least the main story seems to be powerful. Pocahontas, despite being a Native American woman, is given the chance to negotiate with the king to help her people. She is still a leader and worthy of emulation. However, not only does she fail these negotiations due to her emotions (understandably, as they were abusing a bear), but a good amount of the story is Pocahontas trying to impress John Rolfe, with an entire song dedicated to it, and the other white nobles. She is forced to conform to their standards to even be given the chance to speak, while John Smith was eventually accepted by the Native Americans because of his show of character, not because of his change of mannerisms or appearance.
No matter what the intentions were, the main issue with this movie is the fact that this is a movie targeted towards children. It teaches questionable lessons by backtracking on ideas of independence and loyalty in Pocahontas’s character and presents an even more dangerous semi-truth that children may take to heart. The biggest problem with the first movie is that the Native Americans were mistreated in reality, and that there wasn’t this kind of fantastical love story that made everyone miraculously get along. Yet Pocahontas 2 portrays the same narrative, just with a different man.
Works Cited
Bradley Raymond, Tom Ellery, and Lennie Niehaus. Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World. Buena Vista Pictures, 1998.
Goldberg, Eric, and Mike Gabriel. Pocahontas. Buena Vista Pictures, 1995.
Magazine, Smithsonian. “The True Story of Pocahontas Is More Complicated than You Might Think.” Smithsonian.Com, Smithsonian Institution, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pocahontas-more-complicated-than-you-might-think-180962649/.
“Pocahontas.” Encyclopædia Britannica, www.britannica.com/biography/Pocahontas-Powhatan-princess
Salmon, Emily Jones. “John Rolfe (d. 1622).” Encyclopedia Virginia, 22 Dec. 2021, encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/rolfe-john-d-1622/
The True Story of Pocahontas: Historical Myths versus SAD Reality – ICT News, ictnews.org/archive/true-story-pocahontas-historical-myths-versus-sad-reality.
“Celebrate Native American History with Recipes.” Extension News and Publications, 17 Nov. 2021, publications.extension.uconn.edu/2021/11/17/celebrate-native-american-history-with-recipes/.