Pocahontas (1995) on Netflix
G19951h 21mAdventureAnimationDrama
English settlers sail for Virginia in 1607 to seek gold, Captain John Smith among them. Pocahontas, Chief Powhatan's daughter, dreads marriage to the warrior Kocoum and dreams change is coming.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.7/10220,137 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes59%
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Plot summary
Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan, faces a possible marriage to the warrior Kocoum, a man she finds too serious for her. Troubled by a dream of a spinning arrow, she seeks out Grandmother Willow, a tree who speaks, and is told that the English are on their way. In 1607 the Susan Constant brings settlers of the Virginia Company from London, among them Captain John Smith, who saved the soldier Thomas during a hurricane at sea. Governor Ratcliffe, who wants wealth and rank, has the men build Jamestown and dig for gold. Smith leaves the digging to explore and comes upon Pocahontas in the wilderness. She greets him in Powhatan, and the two begin to talk, each drawn to the other's world.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Pocahontas (1995)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Richard White, who voiced Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, was originally cast as the villain Governor Ratcliffe, but the crew worried he would sound too much like Gaston, so his Beauty and the Beast co-star David Ogden Stiers took the role instead.
- Gregory Peck was cast to voice a male ancestor-spirit character called Old Man River, but he turned the role down after deciding the part should be a maternal figure instead, which led to the character becoming Grandmother Willow.
- Native American consultant Shirley "Little Dove" Custalow-McGowan later said she was ashamed of her work on the film, saying she wished her name were not attached to it, once she realized Disney was not pursuing the historical accuracy she had hoped for.
- Pocahontas's limited opening on fewer than 50 screens broke the record The Lion King had set the year before for the highest-grossing weekend on that few screens, a record that still stood as of the article.
- Co-director Eric Goldberg grew so frustrated with executive meddling during production that he secretly took outside work for Chuck Jones Productions under the fake name "Claude Raynes" while still directing the film.
- The finished love song "If I Never Knew You" was cut from the film after composer Alan Menken decided, based on a test screening where child and teen audiences lost interest during it, that it should go, though its melody survived in the orchestral score.
SPOILER
Unlike the film's ending, in which Governor Ratcliffe is sent home to England in chains, the real Ratcliffe never made it back: he was killed by the Powhatan in 1609.- A talking turkey named Redfeather was originally written for the film and intended to be voiced by John Candy; after Candy died in March 1994, screenwriter Susannah Grant decided the character no longer fit the script, and the filmmakers made the animals silent instead of talking.
