"'--' ...... I...... a. .. A....J.a ...... &..,J..L. The PC Princess

,Gabriel remembers when the idea first came to It was Thanksgiving day, and he was spending time with his family. While he was still in the throes of completing The Rescuers Down Under, a charming film that helped to revive the animation industry, he was also mulling over what his next project might be. He had wanted to do a western, a big-scale epic that would lend itself to the kind of Broadway-oriented animated musicals that Disney had recently revived. But he just couldn't get the pieces to fit. So what he was now searching for instead was a quintes­ sentially American story, something out of history and folklore that every schoolkid would know. In the midst of the traditional holiday festivities, his mind was wandering through the stories he had heard as a child. Suddenly, he recalled the story of Pocahontas, the daughter of the powerful leader of the Powhatan nation who protected explorer Captain John Smith from certain death. To Gabriel it seemed like a perfect fit for Disney. When he got back to his office after Thanksgiving, he immediately took the idea to Michael Eisner, then-studio Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Thomas Schumacher, Disney's vice president for Animation. They loved it. At first glance, Pocahontas seems to fit the mold of recent Disney successes. Like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid. it could very easily work as the story of a heroine who deals with issues relating to coming of age and romance. In the past, Disney films had always hung on several moral lessons young children could take with them from the theater. And as Will Finn, who worked on Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, puts it, most often the lesson was "Disney's version of the golden rule: If you are good, goodness will come t back to you." While the Pocahontas project undoubtedly started out I t 1 hat wo. ' in th end, the story of the Indian princess was no ordinary "learn from them tribal history, philosophy, beliefs about ecology" . n ..V nim l d feature. The Mouse wanted to do more. And what it and "the spirit systems:' ended lip r al:in tells us a lot about the new Disney. Strongly influenced by what they were learning about Native t r r e ivin .th e go-ahead from Disney executives to explore American philosophy, the Disney team began to reinvent Pocahontas. Po ahonta!;, brieJ began working with animator Joe Grant to "In the beginning of developing this movie;' recalls codirector Eric d velop one p ual art They played around with how the princess Goldberg, "we were going down the traditional Disney path. We had \\ auld he portrayed. Early on they became impressed by the notion of some yuks, some serious stuff. some light and frothy stuff-the unity with nature and began consulting Native American writings on Disney souffle. But as we were trying to hash out the tone of the piritual matters. While historians believe Pocahontas was twelve movie, the more cartoony we thought. the less it played. The basic y a old hen he first encountered Captain John Smith, they trans­ subject matter of the movie could Ii rmed her into a regal young woman in perfect harmony with the not be treated in a cavalier way." Throughout the film, Native wind. trees, ley and water around her:' The historical Pocahontas­ Instead. the spiritual basis of Americans and Englishmen who onv rted to hristianity, married an Englishman, and is buried Native American life and their are classified by race-into in England- v tran formed into a cover girl for Native American views of ecology deeply affected good and evil. philo phi and present-day ecological concerns. the Disney team. Suddenly. gone The early con ept art was deeply animist-the Native American was the idea of a poignant story oflove and maturing into adulthood. beli f that r and trees, like humans, have spirits. Early on Grant "The love story was what I'd come into this project most concerned drew Pocahonta with a mystical or spiritual quality. "Joe Grant's about;' recalls Gabriel. "But the ecological themes dropped in because magnjfi('ent work \ as all about enchantment, magic;' Schumacher the Native Americans are so ecologically based in their beliefs:' recaUa. - t that point. though, it seemed like icing for a cake that had The tone of the film was also influenced by intervening external y t to b bak d. et, over time, it became clear how astounding his events. As the Pocahontas team went to work structuring the story, impact on the movie would be. His work spoke to an aspect of the the 1992 Los Angeles riots erupted. The violence and destruction left movie that DO one but he had understood: the spiritual side." a powerful imprint on the team, heightening its awareness of and . oon fter Gr ntdt'ew the first sketches of the Indian princess. concern for racism. Such intolerance became an important contem­ Disney tapped regon-based artist Bruce Zick to make the prelimi­ porary subject that needed to be addressed. So Pocahontas also nary drawings of the natural setting. Zick, who worked on The became a drama about race relations. Schumacher remembers, "We R s uen Down Under and The Lion King. recalls. "What I did was knew that we were making more than just a love story or entertain­ d Iv into the music. the philosophy. the spirituality. the symbols of ment, but a story fundamentally about racism and intolerance:' that \ rid a \ eU as researching American historical landscapes:' His How to incorporate the influences of Native American spiritualism am rk , tre ed tbe cycles Native Americans believe dominate nat­ and tackle complex racial issues in the same film-and an animated ural Ii . t children's movie at that-was not easy. For months Gabriel and the anwhil . other members of the growing Pocahontas team others wrestled with how to merge the two themes. Finally the right tarted maldng trip to Virginia. where the story takes place. to meet chord was struck, and it didn't come from the story team but instead with ti merican activists. The purpose of these trips, according from the music team. Lyricists Stephen Schwartz and Alan Menken h n R bello. who wrote the official history of the fUm. was to l had been hired months earlier by Disney to weave apt music for the r

I( film. nd in this case, their music set both the tone and direction of perhaps best sums up the entire spirit and essence of the film-this the entire movie. The first song they wrote was "Colors of the Wind." song was written before anything else:' recalls producer James Pentecost. "It set the tone for the movie and defined the character of )Ou think you own whatever land you land on Pocahontas. Once Alan and Stephen wrote that song, we knew what 1M earth u jwt a dead thing you can claim the film was about." Bull know evq rock and tree and creature Inside Disney, the song generated a near-euphoric religious feeling. HII6 a life, IIiJ$ a spirit, has a name The Art of Pocahontas, the company's official history of the film, lou think the only people who are people describes "Colors of the Wind" in deeply reverential terms. "In the An the people who think and look like you song, Pocahontas, resentful of Smith's perception of her as an 'ignorant But iJfou walk the footsteps ofa stranger savage: voices her philosophy and her spirituality, in a celebration of You'a leilrn things you never knew the world's ordinary miracles, its natural wonders-the very wonders

You fU!Vt!T knew. that so-called 'civilized people' may at times take for granted or view only as a means to profit and exploitation. Nothing less than a human­ ~ohwartz says the lyrics were inspired by Chief Seattle's famous ist credo, 'Colors of the Wind' passionately underscores the theme of speech to the United States Congress challenging white ascendancy the interdependence of every living thing and sounds a ringing plea for fuAmerica and the appropriation of American Indian lands. And as tolerance and empathy. For Captain John Smith, it marks a turning .. it had done to the script, Native American spiritualism inspired much point in his racist world view, a further opening of his heart. For of the music. "From a lot of research into the writings by and about Hollywood feature film animation, the musical sequence marks a com­ Native Americans:' he says, "a whole pattern of thought began to ing of age in its rousing endorsement of brotherhood and understand­ emerge. I was not sure at first how 'adult' I could go with the songs, ing:' "Spirituality;' "exploitation;' and "racism" -Bambi this was not. but the attitudes toward nature and the world contained in Native The script for Pocahonta~ grew out of "Colors of the Wind:' In American philosophy impressed me:' January 1993 screenwriter Carl Binder began work on a viable screen­ Menken and Schwartz envisioned Pocahontas singing "Colors of play, and four months later, fellow writers Susannall Grant and Philip the Wind" to the pale-faced explorer Captain John Smith. It was LaZebnik joined him. They took their direction from both the music intended as a response to Smith's views of her ways as "savage:' composition and the work the visual artists had done on the charac­ Composer Menken thought the piece skillfully merged the issues of ters. The Disney method for writing an animated feature involves race and the environment. "With every first song on a new project, detailed, laborious work. Screenwriters attend frequent story confer­ expectations are high; there are a lot of implications for a collabora­ ence sessions that often include no less than ten highly creative tion based on a first song. Within the context of a Native American artists and writers, along with producers and directors honing and peaking to an Englishman, we wanted to capture a relationship, perfecting ideas in a collaborative process that often descends into something that expressed our contemporary hopes for the environ­ nasty disagreements. Yet, somehow, the spirit on this film was differ­ ment and the world. I don't know if I've ever seen a reaction to a song ent. The spiritualism of the Native Americans seemed to rub off on like Stephen and I did with 'Colors of the Wind: It was dizzying:' everyone involved. "Like an Indian council;' claims Carl Binder, "we For Mike Gabriel and the rest of the Pocahontas team, "Colors of wrote by consensus." the Wind~ truly brought everything together. '''Colors of the Wind' What they created was a script about religious conversion-but n t t hrisLianity: In. the Disney version, it is Captain John Smith human race has to offer:' Pocahontas was to become more a goddess who experien e a politically correct religious conversion. "His plot­ than a princess. Keane used four successive women for inspiration. line in the movie i that he's living an unexamined life, is afraid to see Although he first glanced at a few paintings of Pocahontas herself, lh h Ie in himself, says John Pomeroy, supervising animator of they obviously had little influence on what would finally appear. Next aptain John mith. "So, to escape, he seeks one adventure after Native American consultant Shirley Little Dove Custalow McGowan anoth r. Until he meets Pocahontas. She gives him her philosophy of offered him a view of her "Native American features:' But, his real wh t life. religion. and spirituality are all about and he gives her his inspiration came from drawing twenty-one-year-old Filipino model trength. originality, and bravado." Captain John Smith embraces ani­ Dyna Taylor and American supermodel Christy Turlington. mism, and it defines the entire film. Disney animated films have often As "the finest creature the human race has to offer;' Pocahontas made u of magic and given human qualities to animals. But became a spiritual creature, and the animators wanted to generate a P ahonta w different because of the message is sought to convey. special spiritual presence. "Pocahontas is fust introduced with wind Tb' • n imply a movie about tolerance, but about achieving tol­ and leaves rising, blowing through erance through a particular spiritual channel. the forest to a waterfall where she's IOU we want to be absolutely 1n the mo\ie, tree named Grandmother Willow is a living soul­ standing, then they continue to historically accurate, do you being who te ch humans spirituality and understanding. Nature's blow around her and her billowing know what happened to the wisdom la uperior to man:s. "The idea of the character came into the hair;' explains animation supervi­ real Sir John Ratcliffe? When pi ture ry ady,- says Stephen Schwartz. "For me, she became the sor Don Paul, who also worked on the Indians captured him, he oi e or the ative American shaman or wise person. So many of The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. was nailed to a tree and them emphuize using one's senses in a different way, being open to "We put subtle Indian hieroglyphic skinned alive. That would thin around you. in th~ air. She sings, 'Quey, quey, natora: which shapes sparkling in the wind and have been a choice Disney moment. Maybe a good song m at in AJgonquin 'Now I understand.'" based the leaves on Native sequence." Mature was to become as much a character in this movie as any­ American graphic shapes, espe­ thing be: recalla Eric Goldberg. "Respect and disrespect for nature, cially arrowheads. These are visual fOT each other' cultures. would fuel much of the action, the drama, ways to convey her closeness to and celebration of nature:' and them or the movie:' The Art ofPocahontas reads, "There is more The color schemes the animators chose for the film were a reflec­ than touch of religious fervor, of spirituality, in the artist's imagin­ tion of how they believed the Native Americans and the English set­ ings of aeventftllth-century Vuginia as a vast wilderness of rampant tlers each dealt with the land. Every effort was taken to clearly convey flower nd wildUfe on the banks of the Chesapeake:' the interconnectedness Native Americans supposedly had to the land The Indian princesa. was remade to conform to the spiritual and the exploitative nature of the English. Softer palette colors were d man r the film and~ make it more appealing to adults. The his­ used to convey the spiritual serenity Indians found in nature. while torical, twelve-year-old guiwho met Captain John Smith didn't offer the English settlers were depicted in dark and grim color schemes. much drama. iJIiam Strachey, secretary of the Jamestown colony, "We tried to envision and create an ideal world for the Native reported that he was d~ing cartwheels "all the fort over:') So Jeffrey Americans:' recalls artistic coordinator Dan Hansen. "A world in Katzenberg. then sludi,? chairman, charged Glen Keane, supervising which [Sir John] Ratcliffe. in his bright purples, would look totally out anlm t r. with re hapit-tg Pocahontas as "the finest creature the of place and Smith, in blues and grays, would look only slightly less out of place. By contrast, Pocahontas would be the jewel of this world, they're only good when dead the Native Americans' skin tones and colors of their clothing are in they're vermin, as I said perfect harmony with the beautiful greens and browns of their world:' and worse There was no subtlety. Smith was granted the privilege of seeming less They're savages! Savages! out of place only because of his relative willingness to learn from the Native Americans. Although the fIlm distinctly personifies Ratcliffe's evil nature, there Throughout the fIlm, Native Americans and Englishmen are classi­ is little interest in the corresponding evil nature of the Native American fied by race-into good and evil. The artist who drew Ratcliffe for the tribes. Chief Powhatan also sings about savages. But the impression the fIlm. Duncan Marjoribanks, says animators depicted Ratcliffe as a artists convey is that his hatred springs from being threatened by an "fascist.: Obese and obnoxious. he is the antithesis of what Powhatan invading alien culture. The chief is resonant and dignified. According stands for." And songs are used to reinforce this powerful categoriza­ to story head Tom Sito, part of this characterization is "political cor­ tion. Pocahontas is the symbol of Native American congruence with rectness:' "If we want to be absolutely historically accurate, do you the natural world. while the colonist Ratcliffe symbolizes white know what happened to the real Sir John Ratcliffe? When the Indians exploitation. "Colors of the Wind" is a melodic and moving piece; in captured him, he was nailed to a tree and skinned alive. That would contrast, Ratcliffe presents the materialistic. Western point of view in have been a choice Disney moment. Maybe a good song sequence:' songs such as "Mine. Mine. Mine." Sito recalls that the only real concern Michael Eisner expressed about the movie was the fact that Pocahontas didn't have a mother. The gold ofCortez "Michael Eisner called a special meeting and wanted to know why The jewels ofPizarro Pocahontas did not have a mother;' Sito remembers. The Disney Will seem like mere trinkets chairman wanted to avoid any criticism about dysfunctional Native By this time tomorrow. American families. But the story team had researched the Pocahontas The gold we find here lineage, and they had a very good reason for not including her mom will dwarf them by far- in the fIlm. "The reason Pocahontas doesn't have a mom in the fIlm is Oh, with all ya got in ya. boys, that her father, Mamwatowick (Chief) Powhatan, was polygamous Dig up Virginia. boys. and had one hundred and forty-nine wives:' Although Eisner wanted to rewrite that story element, too, the animators stood firm and the "In the song 'Mine. Mine. Mine: Ratcliffe is comical, boisterous and fIlm remained as it was. almost silly:' says Marjoribanks. "But as his frustration builds and his Once the theme, setting, story, and script had fallen into place, the truly nasty, evil nature comes out, by the time of 'Savages: he's turned last, major element to be determined was the voice talent for the char­ into a fascist:' acters. And for the voice of Chief Powhatan, Disney made a highly symbolic choice. They didn't choose a struggling Native American What can you expect drama student but, instead, Russell Means. As you may recall, Means Fromfilthy liule heathens? led a group of armed activists from the American Indian Movement Their whole disgusting race is like a curse (AIM) and occupied Wounded Knee, South Dakota, for 71 days in their skins a hellish red 1973. Two people died in the standoff and 12 were wounded, including l :,' 2 In ' r~ h a . • arly 1,200 people were arrested. Means's views on racial Beddard for the voice of Pocahontas. While Beddard did not have the and hni i sues are best summed up in what he regards as his most activist tradition of Means, she was committed to the project because imp rtan p ch ever, a July 1980 address he delivered in the Black it corrected the typical white man's presentation of history. "Now, "lIs of uthDakot8 entitled "For America to Live, Europe Must Die." with this film, Pocahontas can reach a larger culture as a headline;' th ugh ov r the years he has remained committed to Native she said when the film was released. "No, it doesn't make up for five American cause he, has also dabbled in the entertainment world, hundred years of genocide, but it is a reminder that we will have to relea in an album entitled The Radical, which includes songs like start telling our own lives." .. jx, n' 0 ad A .. aDd "Waco, the White Man's Wounded Knee:' What began as a characteristically American story about an Indian When Oi ney first ~pproached Means about reading for Powhatan, princess's rescue of an English captain, became an anthem about spir­ b wa omewhat leIuctant Mer all, he was still a committed itualism, ecology, and racism. In the words of Glen Keane, supervising activi t, and the political undercurrents of the film were as important animator for Pocahontas, Disney viewed the film "not just as enter­ to him a the drama ~' He promised, however, to read the script and tainment, but as an attempt to convey things in which we truly think about it. His decision didn't take long. "When I first read the believe:' cript,H Mean recalls, "I was impressed with the beginning of the mm. In fllct. 1 was overwhelmed by it It tells the truth about the motiv Ii r Europeans initially coming to the so-called New World. I find it astounding tbat Americans and the Disney Studios are willing to tell the truth." ~ .> Parti ipating in Pocahontas was not simply a professional opportu­ nity for an , but a chance to promote the cause he had championed for d cd. He clearly understood what Disney was trying to do. "For H Uywood and for the Indian People, 'Pocahontas' has started a revo­ lution - he wrote in an open letter he released after the film carne out. "8 fore this film movies have absolutely refused to entrust the histori­ cal truth of our people. At last, Disney has told the truth to children all over the world. They have admitted that the real reason the European males came over here in the first place was to rob, rape, and pillage the Jand and kill to gain respect from the other sacred colors of the human rae ." The piritual and ecological elements of the film were also not 10 t on hjm. He praised the portrayal of Pocahontas and the other nOve Americans as being "in a four-dimensional fashion which .' incJud pirituality with the environment. [T]he film shows how human beings historically interacted and integrated with the environ­ ment piritually, and otherwise suggests possibilities for today:' OJ ney turned to the talents of Native American actress Irene