Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World (1998)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World (1998)

Considering the original Pocahontas strayed far from the truth it’s not surprising that the second one strayed even farther from the truth.  I finally did a little bit of research on Pocahontas since it is not a story I know well.  I recommend reading this article https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/pocahontas  from History.com that has a quick recap of the story.  The problem is there is a lot of conflicting information and no one really knows what the whole truth is.  But one thing is certain. Almost everything in this movie is wrong.  

The movie starts with John Smith running from the king and supposedly being killed.  When word reaches Pocahontas she is devastated to learn of his death.  But then John Rolfe comes to the New World and wants to bring the chief of the natives back to England.  Pocahontas says she will go as a representative to England.  There she and Rolfe slowly fall in love but at the same time the big bad from the first film Governor Ratcliffe wants to start a war and sets up a trap to make her look bad.  After convincing the king that the “savages” can’t be tamed Pocahontas is sent to jail.  But she is rescued by John Rolfe and in a surprise return John Smith.  She must once again decide what her destiny is.  Does she go back to the New World and fight with her tribe? Does she stay and try to convince the King not to go to war? Which John will she decide to marry? 

I don’t want to spend much time talking about this movie since it’s not very good.  Here are few quick thoughts. 

-The movie has more action and is more fast paced then the original, but it makes Pocahontas more of a damsel in distress.  

-We don’t get to see much of the strong steadfast Pocahontas from the original.  

-The songs are really bad.  I don’t know why when Disney does a sequel to a successful film they just can’t seem to write good songs for them.

-After watching this one it became pretty clear how good the animation in the original was.  This movie looks really bad in comparison.  

As far as positives go. If you like the silliness of Pocahontas’ sidekicks you get more of that.  Flit, Meeko, and Percy are all back and given more silly things to do.  For the most part the characters work and really delivers the comic relief.  But, again it’s a weird contrast to what we are supposed to believe is a true story.  

Overall: It’s a pretty bad movie. It just abandons any semblance of truth. And it looks and sounds bad.  

Random Fact:

Unable to get Mel Gibson back for his role as John Smith they did the next best thing (I guess) and got his younger brother Donal Gibson to play the role.