Agggghh! Fareb! The one time I'm late chiming in with my comments about Pocahontas you post Hunchback early!!! Grrrr!!!
First off, let me say that Pocahontas and John Smith are very inconsistent characters visually... they can look pretty different from shot to shot in the film, especially Pocahontas. The shape of her eyes changes a lot, and she generally has an invisible nose (an artistic choice I hate now, and also hated when the movie was first released).
So here is my ranking of the POCAHONTAS covers:
1) Masterpiece VHS: I actually really like this one. Has a harmonious layout, and Pocahontas' fading at the bottom (combined with the leaves) makes her look like a spirit. Characters are mostly on model, anatomy is good, poses are strong. I even like the color scheme for the sky. The one "minus": Pocahontas looks like she is wearing lipstick... makes her prettier, but not true to the character.
2) Blu ray: I know... a controversial choice. I hate that the sequel is included in this, but Im trying to judge the cover, not the content. So given the task, I think they did pretty well. Given how many characters they tried to jam in here, the layout works very well. Doesn't feel crammed... characters are mostly on model and well drawn. But no John Smith??? Strange. I appreciate that Pocahontas' hair looks BLACK with some blue highlights, and not mostly blue, like it does it a lot of the merchandise. Her necklace looks off...
3) Gold Collection: I highly suspect they replaced the face from the original poster with the face from the VHS cover... the main issue with this one is that we can compare it to the poster, which was much better. The end of her hair looks like a weird fabric, and Meeko's pose is kinda dumb (eating a biscuit??)... doesn't match the dignified tone of the cover. Honestly, this works better as a Poster.
4) France dvd: It's a cool concept, but I don't love hoe they chose to draw her. This face is lifted from the scene where she meets John Smith... only they gave her shiny lipstick. Makes her look a little too sexy.
5) VHS Italy: I actually like the layout here quite a bit. It's not great... but they managed to include a lot without looking messy. I wish the rendering was better; I think that's what makes it look cheap. And I do think Pocahontas is on model AND the mouth is based on that shot from Just Around the Riverbend. I wish her hair looked better... and Radcliff's pose is a little wimpy... but at least they tried to keep the art direction for the background... look at the very vertical trees!
6) Deluxe Laserdisc: This one is a good concept, but she isn't very well drawn... eyes are very uneven... like Shannen Doherty
7) 10th Anniversary: her face does look ok; this is how she looks in many shots in the film. But her holding Meeko like a baby feels strange... the background characters are kinda poorly drawn. The layout isn't terrible, but it feels more like a straight to video film.
8 ) UK VHS: I know... controversial to put this one so low. The layout is great, but the the overall drawing looks like a rendering by a semi-skilled artist. Poor linework in general... some small details that make it feel like a bad tracing (her lips, for example. Flat red. No linework, no shading). The layout is good though.
9) DMC Exclusive: A lot of small details show this is not a great drawing... her hairline on her right is almost touching her eyebrow... her hair is very uneven at the head. Her hair looks mostly blue (way too much blue highlight). And there is no attempt at a layout here. It's just reused clipart.. and it feels like it.
10) Musical Masterpiece dvd: Oh GOD.... I remember when this was released... I was horrified. Terrible layout (she is off center, John Smith is awkwardly posed and smack in the middle of an empty background), all characters off model, her hair is too short. John Smith looks... atrocious (the face AND the hands). This whole thing looks like very mediocre fan art.
By the way, JeanGreyForever.... Glen Keane was the supervising animator for Pocahontas, but I seriously doubt he animated that shot in Just Around the Riverbend, I'm SURE he had a team of at LEAST 10 animators working on her. And he draws very rough, what we are seeing on screen is the cleanup artist's best efforts to have the character on model in the film.
And D82, good catch on that image for the Australian dvd... I wish the rendering was a little better.
