Stars: 2 out of 5
Pros: The animals are amusing; one of the songs
Cons: Story butchers
history and isn't that entertaining
The Bottom Line:
No improvement on
Original which was bad
What I expected
Since I’ve never been a fan of Disney’s Pocahontas, I never
made watching the sequel a priority. But
since Disney combined the two for the recent Blu-Ray release, I decided it was
time to give Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World a try. Yep, it was pretty much what I
expected, and that’s not a good thing.
Pocahontas (voiced by Irene Bedard) is trying to figure out
her next step in life now that John Smith (Donal Gibson) has returned to England . As she is contemplating this, she meets the
new leader of the Jamestown
settlement, John Rolfe (Billy Zane). He
is looking to bring the leader of the Native Americans to England as an
emissary to King James (Jim Cummings).
When her father is reluctant to go, Pocahontas volunteers.
What no one knows is that Ratcliffe (David Ogden Stiers) has
spread lies about what happened in the first film. He thinks he’s killed John Smith and
convinced King James to take an army to attack Pocahontas’ tribe. Her presence in London upsets him greatly, and he begins to
scheme about how to get her discredited.
Will it work, or will Pocahontas be able to save her people?
Once again, there are issues with the historical accuracy of
the piece. For starters, Pocahontas was
married to John Rolfe before she went to England . And nothing I can find shows a plan to attack
her tribe that she thwarted. However, I’m willing to let some of this go as
historical fiction and leave it at that.
After all, the plot is interesting enough that I was concerned with how
they would resolve things in the last quarter after spending the first three
quarters watching the predictable plot complications arise. On the other hand, the plot does make King
James out to be a laughable idiot. He
might have been, but this was something that didn’t sit well with me.
The political correctness of the first movie rears its head
again, mainly when Pocahontas goes off about “respecting my culture” at one
point. Hello 90’s buzz phrases. While there is an uncomfortable scene where Ratcliffe
is attempting to provoke her, but since he is using it as pure evil, I’m okay
with it.
The problems with the film run much deeper than that,
however. It’s just not that well
written. The dialogue is adequate at
best and painful much of the time. They
always go for the obvious line instead of trying to come up with something new.
The songs are bland and forgettable. Nothing will stay in your head after you’ve
finished watching the film. In fact,
you’ll probably want to fast forward most of them. The one exception is “Where do I Go from
here?” Pocahontas sings this ballad
early in the film, and it’s beautiful.
The words aren’t that original, but the music is grand.
This was done by the TV animation department, and it doesn’t
show the depth or artistry that the first film had.
And our three animal friends also make the trip with
Pocahontas. They’re still amusing but
distract for the overall story.
I will give the voice talent credit. They do their best to make this movie
watchable. They are always
believable. While Mel Gibson didn’t
return to voice John Smith, I liked the fact that they gave that job to his
brother Donal. He does a great job here.
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