I actually like the Fox and the Hound better myself. I just had no emotional connection with the story of Pocahontas. I found it way too forced. Crying about racism and protecting nature was just a little too overdone in this movie. The only scene I liked was "Savages." However, Ratcliffe was such a lousy villain that the movie kind of fell for me. The hero/ine is only as strong as the villain/ess. And he was pretty weak. Sure, he was selfish and racist and greedy, but what villain isn't? He had nothing remotely interesting, individual or memorable about him. He just fell behind all the villains that were created before him. While he was better than, say, Edgar from the Aristocats, he still came about rather short.Lazario wrote:The characters and events are exactly what they should have been in this film. And it's anything but boring. It's one of the most beautiful Disney animated movies from the 90s. Though I must say the music was a bit of a disappointment, upon my latest viewing. The vocals didn't seem as solid as perhaps they should have. Disney sure handled this plot better than the one for Fox and the Hound.
And Pocahontas, while being an admirable heroine, wasn't rather unique either. I did like the fact that her voice and design was clearly different than all the heroines before her, but, besides that, I didn't really like her much. She was powerful and WAS a hero, but I still think that the explanation for her being able to speak English was pretty pathetic. "Listen with your heart." While sappiness comes with movies that focus on emotion as Disney movies do, most of these newer movies try too hard to try and make you feel for the main characters or cry for them. The only other notable thing about the movie was that they didn't make Meeko, Flik and Percy speak. While some movies have reasons for why animals can be understood by humans (like Ariel being half-fish in TLM for example), I'm glad they didn't make them speak for the heck of it like they made those gargoyles in HoND.
Besides, this movie is just full of formulas that everyone complains about as well (which, coincidentally, seems to mostly come from TLM). Things alike: Disagreeable father figure, best friend that's more rooted to their lives than the main character (and often tries to warn the main character of the possible mistakes they're making), girl wanting to learn about people that are unlike her, falls in love with them, breaks hate between two races by defeating a villain while they both hurt people for selfish ("love") reasons. The only difference to me is that Pocahontas didn't have the typical "Happy Ending." Which, while being original for a Disney movie, falls short because of all the bad parts of the film. In the end, Pocahontas isn't necessarily a terrible film. Just rather bland, with overused ideas from the same company, overdone plot ideas and songs from uninspiring characters.
Of course, that is just all my opinion.
That is the most amazing thing to be said on all of UD. Thanks for bumping this thread, we all needed to read this! (Sorry Luke for stealing your on-going joke).
