Disney's Pocahontas: Two Different Worlds, One True Love (1995)

This is Making Of special is a bit of an anomaly because there's nothing about it online. It's not the same one that aired on The Disney Channel in 1995 and may have been produced for the international english speaking market. Actor David Ogden Stiers hosts this look behind Walt Disney Feature Animation's 33rd animated feature Pocahontas. He portrayed both Wiggins and Governor John Ratcliffe in the film and also hosted the Disney Channel Making Of for Beauty & the Beast.

Pocahontas was designed to be the Romeo & Juliet of the Disney animation canon. An earlier version of the story was in development that was more in the tradition of Walt Disney animated features where the animals talked and there was more comedy. When Beauty & the Beast was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, the film was rebooted to be more serious in tone in hopes of tailor making a Best Picture winner. John Candy and Stephen Fry had recorded dialog for animal characters in that version but it was all tossed aside for this new approach.

In this making of we meet many of the filmmakers and get the typical PC spin that surrounded the film at the time. We meet some of the animators, the executives, the actors, the songwriters, and more but this documentary is unique from others for a few reasons.

One aspect that makes this documentary a valuable resource is because the animators discuss how they collaborate to have their characters interact together in a scene. In Walt's era one animator who handle all the characters in a scene alone. In the Eisner era one animator mostly handled only their character in a scene. Each method has his merits but are very different ways of working. No other documentary gets into this aspect of a hand drawn performance.

Another aspect no other making of covers is how Disney animated features are dubbed into other languages. This may be the only Disney documentary that covers how precise this process was done at the time.

Also worth noting is during the segment on the songs, if you listen close you will hear Alan Menken singing a deleted song called Powerful Magic. This demo has never been officially released while many others from the film have.

When Pocahontas was released, while it was more successful than The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, and Aladdin, it did not top The Lion King, which had been the most successful animated feature ever up to that time. Because of that, Pocahontas is believed to be a flop. It wasn't. It's a beautifully made film and the first of the string of animated epics Disney would make in the late 1990's. It didn't garner the awards that had been anticipated and it quickly faded away. Even today, very few people cite it as their favorite Disney film. Disney had also followed every PC edict of the "experts" on how they handled the American Indians in this film. This same crowd now claims the film is "racist" under their woke ideology. Perhaps Disney would have been better off just producing the best film they could without trying to force things into it.

Original airdate Summer 1995

Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.