The Free Spirit
First of all as much as I love the film Pocahontas it is easy to see why history buffs would find this movie frustrating. Disney took a story that was perfectly fine the way it was and made borderline unnecessary changes to it. In real life Pocahontas and John Smith were never involved romantically, their bond was more of a sibling relationship and Poca was also very much underage. This is just to name afew quite frankly pointless changes to the story. But then again, I can't really blame Disney for being inaccurate, their job is to make a good movie, not a history lesson. Plus, turning historical events into a romantic film has worked for others (Anastasia, Titanic).
There's something fake about Pocahontas, she tries to come off as if she's deep and wise when she's really just immature and clueless. The only time she does anything wise or responsible is the decision she makes at the very end. Before that she's an irresponsible disobedient and lovestruck teenager who falls in love with the first white man she sees. Simply replace the phrase "white man" with human and who do you get? Ariel. She's just as defiant and reckless as she is. Because of the way she looks, people want to think that Pocahontas is a young lady who's wise beyond her years, when in reality she has the body of a grown woman but the personality and mind of a child.
Some debate that Pocahontas is the best role model among the princesses, maybe moreso than Mulan. Firstly, she teaches lessons on how to be caring towards the environment. She takes a stand against racism and war. She brings peace between her people and the settlers. In a way this makes her a better role model than Mulan, she had to fight in a war, Pocahontas stops the war before it even happens. She's not only a good person for young girls to look up to but for people on a whole. She promotes peace, acceptance, equality, enviromentalism and independence. Men and women, young or old, could all use Pocahontas as guidance.
Although the film does focus on racism, many see the character Pocahontas as nothing more than a Native Amercian stereotype. While her connection to nature and wildlife is inspiring, her environmental message come of as abit too preachy. She also insinuates that nature is only fun and beautiful but never dangerous. She grabs a bear's cub right from under it's nose, now that is just borderline foolish. Lastly, her connection to the earth is apparently so strong that it reaches ridicoulous proportions. She somehow gains the knowledge of the english language just by closing her eyes and the wind blowing through her hair, that's just weird.
Pocahontas is one of the few princesses whose sequel must be addressed. Pocahontas has two records to her name. She is the only princess to be denied a happy ending and she is the only one to have two love interests. In the second film, she marries Rolfe instead of Smith as she did in real life. It is unknown what compelled Disney to finally start doing their research. They made Poca fall in love with a character who has little to no personality with whom she has absolutely no chemistry, simply for the purpose of being historically accurate, something Disney completely over looked in the first film.
She is also one of the princesses where body image is a topic. Though she is the only one to have mostly positive things said related to this issue. Pocahontas is often praised for her athletic yet voluptuous figure. She's not stick thin like other female characters. She has bust, curves and muscles, influencing young girls to have realistic bodies as well as promoting fitness and physical capabilty. Though she may also be a negative influence due to her extremely large breasts.
Needless to say, Pocahontas is easily the least popular princess worldwide. She is rarely featured on merchandise. The franchise is for little girls and her movie was met for an older audience. Not to mention she lacks the flashy outfits of the other princesses. There may even be young girls out there who don't even know Pocahontas exists!
To me Pocahontas represents adventure, she's a daredevil who's always eager to see what's beyond the horizon and discover something new. Whether it's meeting new people or realizing her dreams.
Thanks for reading!
