Pocahontas (1995 film)
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"Pocahontas (Disney)" redirects here. For the character, see Pocahontas (character). For the soundtrack, see Pocahontas (soundtrack). For the franchise, see Pocahontas (franchise).
| Pocahontas | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Mike Gabriel Eric Goldberg |
| Produced by | James Pentecost |
| Written by | Carl Binder Susannah Grant Philip LaZebnik |
| Story by | Glen Keane Joe Grant Ralph Zondag Burny Mattinson Ed Gombert Kaan Kalyon Francis Glebas Robert Gibbs Bruce Morris Todd Kurosawa Duncan Marjoribanks Chris Buck |
| Starring | Irene Bedard Mel Gibson David Ogden Stiers John Kassir Russell Means Christian Bale Frank Welker Jim Cummings Linda Hunt |
| Music by | Alan Menken |
| Edited by | H. Lee Peterson |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
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Release dates
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Running time
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81 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $55 million (estimated) |
| Box office | $346.1 million[1] |
Directed by Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg, the film is inspired by the known history and folklore surrounding the Native American woman Pocahontas, and portrays a fictionalized account of her historical encounter with Englishman John Smith and the Jamestown settlers that arrived from the Virginia Company. The voice cast features Irene Bedard, Mel Gibson, David Ogden Stiers, Russell Means, Christian Bale, Billy Connolly, and Linda Hunt. The musical score was written by Alan Menken, with songs written by Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz.
Pocahontas was released on June 23, 1995 to a mixed reaction from critics, who praised the film for its animation and music, but criticized the film's story and historical inaccuracy. Nevertheless, the film was a commercial success, grossing $346 million at the worldwide box office. Pocahontas received two Academy Awards for its achievement in music: Best Original Score for Menken's score and Best Original Song for "Colors of the Wind". A video game based on the film was released across various platforms shortly after the film's theatrical release, and the film itself was followed by a direct-to-video sequel entitled Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World in 1998.
Contents
Plot
In 1607, the Susan Constant sails to the "New World" from England, carrying British settlers of the Virginia Company. On board are Captain John Smith and the voyage's leader Governor Ratcliffe, who seeks large amounts of gold in the New World to assure a strong position at the British court. Along the way, the Susan Constant is caught in a North Atlantic storm, and Smith saves a young, inexperienced crew mate named Thomas from drowning. In the Powhatan Tribe in the New World, Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, dreads being possibly wed to Kocoum, a brave warrior whom she sees as too "serious" for her free-spirited personality. Chief Powhatan gives Pocahontas her deceased mother's necklace as a present. Pocahontas, along with her friends, the gluttonous raccoon Meeko and hummingbird Flit, visit Grandmother Willow, a spiritual talking willow tree, and speaks of a possibly prophetic dream involving a spinning arrow, and her confusion regarding what her "path" in life should be. Grandmother Willow then alerts Pocahontas to the arriving British.Ratcliffe has the fortress Jamestown built in a wooded clearing and immediately has the crewmen dig for gold. John departs to explore the wilderness and encounters Pocahontas. They quickly bond, fascinated by each other's worlds and fall in love, flouting Chief Powhatan's orders to keep away from the British after Kocoum and other warriors engage them in a fight. Meanwhile, Meeko meets Percy, Ratcliffe's dog, and becomes the bane of his existence. Pocahontas introduces Smith to Grandmother Willow and avoids two other crewmen, but Pocahontas' friend Nakoma discovers her relationship with John and warns Kocoum. Later, John and Pocahontas meet with Grandmother Willow and plan to bring peace between the colonists and the tribe. John and Pocahontas kiss, while Kocoum and Thomas witness from afar. In a jealous rage, Kocoum attacks and tries to kill John but is himself shot and killed by Thomas. Pocahontas watches in horror as Kocoum falls dead, reaching for Pocahontas one last time but instead breaking her mother's necklace. John commands Thomas to leave just before the tribesmen come and capture John. An enraged Chief Powhatan declares war on the crewmen, starting with executing John at sunrise.
Thomas warns the crewmen of John's capture, and Ratcliffe rallies the men to battle as an excuse to annihilate the tribe and find their non-existent gold. A guilt-ridden Pocahontas visits Grandmother Willow, where Meeko hands her Smith's compass. Pocahontas realizes John's compass was the spinning arrow from her dream, which leads her to her destiny. Just as Powhatan is about to execute Smith, Pocahontas throws herself inbetween the two men, successfully stopping Smith's execution and convincing her father to cease the hostilities between the two groups. All parties accept gracefully, except Ratcliffe, who tries to shoot Chief Powhatan in anger, but John dives in front of the Chief and is shot instead. The governor is then captured and arrested by his crewmen. Meeko and Percy, now friends, give Pocahontas her mother's necklace completely fixed. In the end, John is forced to return home to receive medical treatment. He asks Pocahontas to come with him, but she chooses to stay with her tribe. John leaves with Pocahontas and Chief Powhatan's blessing to return in the future.
Cast
- Irene Bedard (Judy Kuhn, singing) as Pocahontas, the daughter of the Chief Powhatan who stops an armed conflict between the Powhatans and the British settlers. She is an adventurous woman who violates her father's prohibition of meeting white people and falls in love with Captain John Smith. Glen Keane served as the supervising animator for Pocahontas.
- Mel Gibson as John Smith, the love interest of Pocahontas. He is the only one of the British settlers in the Jamestown Settlement who is willing to befriend the natives due to his love for Pocahontas and acceptance of other cultures. John Pomeroy served as the supervising animator for John Smith.
- David Ogden Stiers as Governor Ratcliffe,
the greedy and ruthlessly ambitious governor who leads an expedition to
Virginia to find gold and other riches (which he wants to keep for
himself). Unlike other Disney Villains,
he is based upon a combination of real-life historical figures. Duncan
Marjoribanks served as the supervising animator for Ratcliffe.
- Stiers also provided the voice of Wiggins, Ratcliffe's manservant. Chris Buck served as the supervising animator for Wiggins.
- John Kassir as Meeko, Pocahontas' pet raccoon who is friendly to John Smith and loves eating. Nik Ranieri served as the supervising animator for Meeko.
- Russell Means (Jim Cummings, singing) as Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas' father and chief of the Powhatan. Ruben A. Aquino served as the supervising animator for Powhatan.
- Christian Bale as Thomas, a loyal friend of John Smith and one of the British settlers. Ken Duncan served as the supervising animator for Thomas.
- Linda Hunt as Grandmother Willow, a speaking willow tree that acts as Pocahontas' guide. Chris Buck served as the supervising animator for Grandmother Willow.
- Danny Mann as Percy, Governor Ratcliffe's pet pug. Chris Buck served as the supervising animator for Percy.
- Billy Connolly and Joe Baker as Ben and Lon, two of the settlers. T. Daniel Hofstedt served as the supervising animator for both characters.
- Frank Welker as Flit, Pocahontas' pet hummingbird who prefers Kocoum to John Smith but eventually warms up to him. David Pruiksma served as the supervising animator for Flit.
- Michelle St. John as Nakoma, Pocahontas' best friend who secretly adores Kocoum. Anthony DeRosa served as the supervising animator for Nakoma.
- James Apaumut Fall as Kocoum, a strong and aggressive Powhatan warrior who was asked to marry Pocahontas (for whom he cares). Michael Cedeno served as the supervising animator for Kocoum.
- Gordon Tootoosis (Jim Cummings, singing) as Kekata, the shaman of the Powhatan.
Production
Development
Following the release of The Rescuers Down Under, director Mike Gabriel was eager to collaborate on a vastly different follow-up project with veteran Disney story artist and character designer Joe Grant. They first partnered on an adaptation of Swan Lake for four months with Grant typing up ideas, making small drawings, and then departing the studio with Gabriel staying behind to draw his visualizations. "We developed the story and plot for Swan Lake into written form, and Joe said this is exactly how Dick Huemer and he always worked," Gabriel stated. Once the two submitted their outline to be green-lit for approval, it was returned only to be remarked as "the most amateurish, worthless nothing. There is no movie here, no story."[2] Despite that their styles and sensibilities meshed well, a new project had yet to come together.[3] During Thanksgiving weekend in 1990, Gabriel developed ideas of classic western legends such as Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, and Pecos Bill to adapt until he conceptualized the tale of Pocahontas.[4] Pitching his idea at the Gong Show pitch meeting, Gabriel took a one-sheet color image of Tiger Lily from Peter Pan and wrote the title Walt Disney's Pocahontas on it, and on the back, he taped a one-sentence pitch of "an Indian princess who is torn between her father's wishes to destroy the English settlers and her wishes to help them—a girl caught between her father and her people, and her love for the enemy."[5] At the time, Feature Animation president Peter Schneider was developing an animated version of Romeo and Juliet for many years and Gabriel's timely pitch had many of the same elements. "We were particularly interested in exploring the theme of 'If we don't learn to live with one another, we will destroy ourselves,'" recalled Schneider.[3][4] Gabriel's pitch was quickly accepted becoming the quickest story turnaround in studio history.[6]Following the Best Picture nomination of Beauty and the Beast at the 64th Academy Awards and its subsequent loss in March 1992, then-studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg opted to produce another animated sweeping romantic epic in hopes of replicating another Best Picture nomination. With Aladdin and The Lion King too far into development, Katzenberg believed that Pocahontas had a chance, and pushed for the title protagonist to be older, the romance between Pocahontas and Smith to be more adult, and for the animals to be mute.[7] Head of Story Tom Sito went on the record stating he wanted to include more and broader jokes, but the "higher-ups wanted it more winsome, more gentle. Some of the folks were so concerned about political correctness, they didn't want to be cuckoo-wacky about it."[8] Likewise, Eric Goldberg – following his work on Aladdin as the supervising animator for the Genie and with all of the animation units for The Lion King already occupied – was asked to co-direct Pocahontas with Gabriel, in which he agreed to and was given a pitch of the film.[9][10] Goldberg had expected the film to be more comedic and cartoonish like Aladdin, but Schneider told Goldberg that the film would be produced in the vein of Beauty and the Beast,[11] and the ongoing Los Angeles riots in 1992 further inspired him to commit to the film because of its racial overtones.[12] The executive interference would eventually grow too much that Goldberg himself worked under the pseudonym "Claude Raynes" for Chuck Jones Productions during production.[11] Executive paranoia eventually reached a peak when Joe Grant had drawn Percy wearing an Indian feather, by which the animators took the concept one step further by placing a Spanish ruff on Meeko. One executive exclaimed, "Animals don't have the intelligence to switch their clothes! They don't even have opposing thumbs." The animators would retain their concept for the film.[13]
Under Katzenberg, Frank Wells, and Michael Eisner, the Disney studios began a correlation of hiring Broadway personnel to manage the Disney animation staff on their feature films that brought such producers as Amy Pell to Aladdin and Sarah McArthur and Thomas Schumacher to The Lion King.[14] For Pocahontas, Broadway stage manager, director, and producer James Pentecost was brought onboard where he made his feature film debut as producer.[15] In June 1992, the filmmakers embarked on a research trip to the Jamestown Settlement where Pentecost first met Shirley "Little Dove" Custalow-McGowan, herself a descendant of the Powhatan Indians. The trip also included a visit to the Pamunkey Indian Reservation, and conducted interviews with historians at Old Dominion University.[16] Following the research trip, Custalow-McGowan served as a consultant traveling to the Disney studios three times, and while Custalow-McGowan offered her services free, Disney paid her a $500 daily consulting fee plus expenses.[17] Ultimately, when it came to light that historical accuracy was not being pursued to the extent she had hoped, McGowan has voiced her feelings of shame she felt in conjunction with her work on the film, saying, "[she] wish[ed her] name wasn't on it".[18] Additional Native American consultants were brought in to authenticate the clothing and war dance choreography.[19]
That same month, Katzenberg held a meeting with the Feature Animation staff in which he declared Pocahontas to be a hit, while the concept for The Lion King was deemed experimental.[20] As a result, most of the animators of Walt Disney Feature Animation decided to work on Pocahontas instead, believing it would be the more prestigious and successful of the two.[21]
Writing
In January 1993, Carl Binder joined the project,[22] having previous expertise as a television writer on popular sitcoms such as Punky Brewster and television series such as War of the Worlds, Friday the 13th: The Series, and Top Cops.[23] Four months later, Susannah Grant (no relation to Joe Grant) and Philip LaZebnik joined the writing team. Grant herself was selected by Disney as a screenwriter on Pocahontas after winning the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences the year before while still attending film school.[24] Onboard as a screenwriter, she was only one of the many who was contributing the specific vision the upper management at Disney had in mind, and collaborated alongside with Native American consultants. While working on the movie, Grant wrote to a specific story outline, and no scene was rewritten less than thirty-five times until it was perfect.[25]Story supervisor Tom Sito, who became the project's unofficial historical consultant, did extensive research into the early colonial era and the story of John Smith and Pocahontas, and was confronted over the historical inaccuracies from historians.[26] Already knowing that in reality Pocahontas married John Rolfe, Mike Gabriel explained it was felt that "the story of Pocahontas and Rolfe was too complicated and violent for a youthful audience" so instead, they would focus on Pocahontas' meeting with John Smith.[27] The filmmakers discovered that Pocahontas was around twelve years old and Smith was "not a very likeable character", in which producer James Pentecost confessed that dramatic license was indeed to be taken.[28] Likewise, when searching for an appropriate age for Pocahontas to begin her relationship with Smith, Glen Keane explained, "We had the choice of being historically accurate or socially responsible, so we chose the socially responsible side" by increasing Pocahontas's age from a girl into a young woman.[29]
One of Gabriel's early ideas was for Pocahontas's mother to be embodied in a certain star in the sky that by the end of the film, she would help Pocahontas find her path to Smith.[30] However, The Lion King had concurrently carried a similar idea of the ancestors giving wisdom and guidance to the protagonist so the idea was discarded.[12] Similarly, Michael Eisner pushed for Pocahontas to have a mother lamenting that "We're always getting fried for having no mothers." The writers countered that Powhatan was polygamous and formed dynastic alliances among other neighboring tribes by impregnating a local squaw and giving away the child, so it was believed that Pocahontas herself probably didn't see her mother that much.[31] "Well", Eisner conceded, "I guess that means we're toasted."[8] Ultimately, her mother's spirit would become the swirling wind that occurs throughout the film.[30] For the villain, they chose John Ratcliffe, whose portrayal was based on actual British captains, including John Martin, Christopher Newport and Edward Maria Wingfield. In reality, it was Wingfield who despised John Smith, but the filmmakers preferred the sinister sound of "Ratcliffe".[32] The writers would continue to adapt actual events into the film such as Pocahontas warning Smith that the Indians were after him so he can escape in the middle of the night, Powhatan ordering the captured Smith to make bead necklaces to humiliate him, and Pocahontas being captured by Ratcliffe (instead of Samuel Argall), though none of them worked with the story.[8]
Sito mentioned that Joe Grant contributed heavily towards the film,[33] and was the creator of Redfeather, Meeko, and Flit.[34] Redfeather was to be voiced by John Candy, and Percy, who was to be voiced by Richard E. Grant, was revised to become mute.[35] Following the death of John Candy in March 1994, co-screenwriter Susannah Grant decided the turkey was inappropriate for the script she co-wrote for Pocahontas,[36] and a more realistic approach would have the animals pantomime instead of talking.[8] Joe Grant stated Redfeather "had comic potential–he thought he was handsome, a lady's man. When we decided he couldn't talk, and, having no hands, he couldn't mime..." Grant would later draw a concept sketch of a hair-braiding raccoon, in which Glen Keane animated and claimed the directors "loved the idea and got rid of the turkey character."[37] Likewise, according to Sito, Meeko was created because they were "naturally enigmatic, because they have little hands and a little mask over their face like a thief."[38] Gabriel described the inspiration for Flit the hummingbird where "I have hummingbirds all over my backyard, [and] I thought, 'That's a great animal to animate.'"[39] According to the directors, Governor Ratcliffe's pampered pet, Percy, was based on history as the royalty of the time often carried small pugs wherever they went.[39] For the spiritual ancestor, a male character named Old Man River was originally envisioned, and Gregory Peck was cast in the role. However, Peck realized the character ought to be a maternal figure so the character was scrapped.[40] Conceived as a Tree of Life whose seasonal changes would frame the story,[41] Grandmother Willow grew out of a concept sketch of a sawed-off tree with a branch pointing to its right drawn by Grant,[42] which would serve as a narrator that would "remember back to Pocahontas 300 years earlier".[41] Grant would continue to protest to have the tree be more a character within the story, and her character flowered into the idea of a grandmotherly spiritual adviser to Pocahontas.[41] However, fellow veteran story artist Burny Mattinson stated "Jeffrey [Katzenberg] wanted to get rid of Grandmother Willow. He didn't like her because she was ordinary, unfunny. They were having [story] problems, some of the story men were bolting. Peter [Schneider] said I want you to get over there and work in there." Assigned the storyboard sequence of Pocahontas sitting on a tree slump delivering straight, dull dialogue, Mattinson was given tree puns for Grandmother Willow to say by Grant such as "My bark is worse than my bite", "The roots of all problems", and "They're barking up the wrong tree." Mattinson reluctantly added them to his pitch for the next morning, and during the story meeting, he exclaimed, "Everybody loved it! All of a sudden: 'Oh, I want her in!' 'Let's build her part bigger!'"[43] The character Nakoma was also created to serve as the voice of reason and the practical woman.[38]
Casting
Throughout most of the production, the cast members performed their dialogue in separate recording sessions.[44][45]In September 1992, Disney began casting actors for Pocahontas telling talent agents that it's particularly interested in Native American actors for the project.[46] For the role of Pocahontas, Broadway actress-singer Judy Kuhn was hired to provide the singing voice for the titular character before Irene Bedard was cast. Kuhn explained, "They said, 'You are going to do the dialogue unless we find a Native American actress whose singing voice matched yours.' I was cast before Irene, so it actually went backwards."[47] Bedard herself was filming Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee where she was informed by the casting director that they were looking for someone to voice the title role. According to Bedard, she took a train to Buffalo, New York where she was walked in wearing a sundress and a straw hat, and read for the part. Back on the set of Lakota Woman, she learned that she was cast in the role.[48] Michelle St. John had also auditioned for the role of Pocahontas, but despite that Bedard had been cast, the producers liked her voice enough to cast her in the role of Nakoma.[12]
Mel Gibson was cast as English settler John Smith following a desire to make "something for my kids."[49] In a notable contrast to previous voice actors for Disney animated features, Gibson provided the singing voice for his character,[50] in which the actor stated was the most difficult part of his role.[49] Christian Bale auditioned for the role of Thomas, and he explained in an interview with Disney Adventures that after he was cast, "the directors played with Thomas being Irish and Scottish and younger than I am, so I had to raise my voice and do different accents. But the more we did it, the more he became like me--older and English."[39] Richard White, the voice of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast was supposed to voice Ratcliffe, but the crew was worried he might sound too much like Gaston, so he was replaced by his fellow co-star David Ogden Stiers.[51][unreliable source?] Russell Means also auditioned for a role, though he expressed displeasure with the script stating that Native Americans addressed each other using proper names rather than the traditional "my father" or "my friend".[52] Native American actor Gordon Tootoosis was also cast as the tribal shaman Nekata.[53]
Design and animation
The portrait engraving by Simon de Passe served as one of the many inspirations for the look of Pocahontas.
Following the closure of Sullivan-Bluth Studios in 1993, John Pomeroy, who notoriously resigned alongside Don Bluth during work on The Fox and the Hound in 1980,[64] returned to his former employer, and was assigned as the supervising animator of John Smith.[65] Describing Smith's development throughout production, Pomeroy stated, "The first concepts looked like a real well-groomed adventurer. Kind of predictable. Then we started making him a little sloppier. We tried looks where he was sloppily dressed, or where he had a couple of days' growth of beard...At first, Smith carried a lot of guns and daggers, but eventually these were cut out. Each time the design got simpler, it got better."[39] Additionally, Pomeroy cited inspiration for John Smith from Errol Flynn and physical attributes of Gibson.[66] Initially assigned as a supervising animator on The Lion King, Nik Ranieri did character designs and test animation for Timon, but moved over to Pocahontas growing frustrated with an indecisive vision from the directors. There, he was assigned to animated Redfeather until Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered for the animals to be mute. Finding feathers difficult for Redfeather to gesture with, he was again assigned to animate Meeko using a Little Golden Books animal book illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren as reference.[67] Animating Chief Powhatan in Florida, Ruben Aquino modeled his facial structure after Means, and stylized the animation after J.C. Leyendecker as were Pocahontas and John Smith.[68] Duncan Marjoribanks utilized geometric shapes to create Ratcliffe. In early drafts of the character, he had the body similar to a pear, but to make him appear more arrogant, the animator increased the force of gravity on his chest so that he seemed more pompous and physically threatening.[69] Chris Buck served as the supervising animator for Percy, Wiggins, and Grandmother Willow. For Grandmother Willow, the face was traditionally animated by Buck, while the cowl and the trunk of the tree was digitally animated under the supervision of Steve Goldberg. Assisted with the effect animators, a 3D software program was employed for the bark to be individually manipulated and for the face to match with the computer-generated texture.[4] The following supervising animators included Anthony DeRosa for Nakoma, Michael Cedeno for Kocoum, Ken Duncan for Thomas, T. Daniel Hofstedt for the settlers Lon and Ben, and Dave Pruiksma for Flit.[70] While Mulan was within its pre-production stages, 18 minutes were animated by 170 animators and artists at the Disney-MGM Studios.[68]
For the film's art director, Gabriel selected Michael Giamio who shared his painting style of shape-based and secondary art details.[71] For Giaimo, he relied on a color-saturated, elegant designs in a less-than-realistic format inspired by "prehistory Caribbean themes and creatures derived from African/Mexican folk art."[71] Giamio also drew the look and style of the film from the filmmaker's numerous visits to Jamestown, Virginia as well as by extensive research into the colonial period such as the tall, vertical shapes of the Virginian pine forests set against the vast horizontal landscapes being incorporated into the layout aspect of the film in its use of strong vertical and horizontal imagery,[15] as well as sought out inspiration from the works produced by earlier Disney art designers such as Richard Kelsey's story sketches from his unproduced film Hiawatha,[72] Eyvind Earle, who worked on Sleeping Beauty,[73] and Mary Blair.[74]
Music
Main article: Pocahontas (soundtrack)
Following the death of his longtime collaborator Howard Ashman in 1991, Alan Menken wrote the remaining songs for Aladdin with Tim Rice at his home in London, in which the New York-based composer found to be difficult.[75] When work on Aladdin
was commenced, Kevin Bannerman – the film's director of development –
stated Rice "was always gallivanting around the world and it was
difficult to get him and Alan together ... And so here was Stephen
[Schwartz], who had written scores that we all loved and we were huge
fans of, and he lived in the New York area." Disney immediately
contacted Stephen Schwartz – whom working on Working, Rags, and Children of Eden had quit theater and was taking psychology courses at New York University – and was brought onboard to compose the lyrics.[76][77] This would mark the first time Menken had collaborated without Ashman for a Disney animated film.[78]
Menken commented that their work included moments of tension because
Schwartz is also capable of writing music and Menken has had experience
with lyrics. Both wanted to use the keyboard, but they arrived at a
working strategy.[79]Due to corporate interest in the film surrounding its theme of promoting understand between different groups, and its inclusion of violence and threats of greater conflict and the romance of Pocahontas and John Smith, Schwartz became heavily involved in the storytelling. Bannerman estimated that he spent a week with one of the screenwriters and helped work out the overall themes of tolerance and cooperation.[80] In June 1992, Schwartz researched Jamestown, Virginia where he absorbed the atmosphere and bought tapes of Native American music and English sea shanties and other music from the early seventeenth century that helped inspired numbers in the film.[81] Schwartz modeled his lyrical writing for people of other ethnicities on that of Oscar Hammerstein II and Sheldon Harnick.[82] "Colors of the Wind" was the first song to be written for the film. Gabriel, Goldberg, and Pentecost insisted that the song helped define the film's "heart and soul".[12] Schwartz began "Colors" with a few draft ideas for lyrics taking inspiration from Chief Seattle's letter to the United States Congress.[83] Then, Menken wrote the melody with Schwartz listening at the piano and making suggestions. Schwartz would add lyrics before a session together where they were refined.[84] "Just Around the Riverbend", also composed by Menken and Schwartz, was devised by Schwartz's wife Carole where Pocahontas would have a recurring dream that suggests something coming her way paving the way for her "I want" song.[85] The song almost did not make it into the completed film when Disney executives doubted whether her song would have the kind of impact they wanted at that point. However, Schwartz stated he and Menken "believed in it very strongly. Indeed, at one point we wrote a different song for that spot, but Alan and I were never as happy with the second song and ultimately everybody at Disney came to feel that way, too."[86]
The filmmakers had planned for a song for when Pocahontas and Smith met in the glade, just before Kocoum attacks his rival and one of the settlers stalking Smith kills Kocoum. There were an estimated three to four songs at this point, including "In the Middle of the River",[87] "Powerful Magic", which was deemed too silly to have a cheerful song before Kocoum's death, and "First to Dance" was another attempt at a happy song.[88] The love song, titled "If I Never Knew You", had been finished by the animators, but following a test screening where younger audiences were not interested and the teenagers felt giddy, Menken was the first to suggest the song be removed from the film, although its melody remained in the orchestral underscoring.[89] For its 2005 DVD release, the song was restored back to the film.
The musical score by Alan Menken, with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz received two Academy Awards, including one for the song "Colors of the Wind".[90] The film's soundtrack was also successful, reaching number-one on the Billboard 200 during the week of July 22, 1995.[91] It ended up with a triple platinum certification.[92]
Release
Marketing
Pocahontas playing at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
A behind-the-scenes documentary television special titled The Making of Pocahontas: A Legend Comes to Life was aired on June 20, 1995, on the Disney Channel where the animators, voice cast, crew, and studio heads were interviewed on the production of the film. The special was hosted by actress Irene Bedard.[97]
The film had the largest premiere in history, on June 10, 1995, in New York's Central Park, followed by a live performance by Vanessa Williams.[98] Disney officials estimated the crowd at 100,000.[98] Dignitaries that attended the premiere included then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Caroline Kennedy, Mariah Carey and then-Disney Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner.[98]
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