Pocahontas Was a Mistake, and Here's Why!

I once read somewhere that Pocahontas is to native american people what a disney film about a sexy, aged up Anne Frank falling in love with a nazi would be to jewish people. and I think about that a lot...

"tourists, prepare to die!" should have been left in. what a great line.

“This is not a documentary” then why couldn’t they just make up their own characters-

the "Savages" sequence would be a great portrayal of how humans see everyone else as the enemy if I hadn't spent the last two hours watching the natives just going about their business and the settlers shooting them on sight. It's kind of like when you're a kid being bullied at school. For months, you're beaten to a pulp by this dickhead and the teachers do nothing. Then one day you hit back. Suddenly it's "you're just as bad as each other!" and "we have a zero tolerance policy". That's not how it works. You can't abuse people and then act all hurt when they get enough of your shit and fight back.

Ok the fact that aloha oe is a song about losing one’s sovereign nation to American colonialism, but that I and everyone I’ve ever met just knows it as “that fun Hawaiian song” is... terribly on brand for America

I never realized Moana & Pocahontas were almost identical until you broke it down. Holy crap.

Something Lindsay doesn't talk about here is the marketing campaign for Pocahontas -- specifically, one line we couldn't escape. It was in every plug, every radio and tv commercial, every preview and even every toy commercial. Pocahontas was going to be (drum roll please) The First Animated Disney Movie Since Snow White to Have No Talking Animals. Now, I forget exactly why, but my family had to wait until it came out on VHS (probably because we were too broke to afford a theatre experience at the time). We sat down and watched it as a family, and when it was over my mom asked us kids what we thought of it. Before my brother could say anything, I replied with, "The First Animated Disney Movie Since Snow White to Have No Talking Animals. INSTEAD WE HAVE A TALKING TREE! BECAUSE THAT'S BETTER!"

Frozen gave me as a Norwegian an insight into how it feels to have one's culture disneyfied. It's exceptionally weird

As a Mexican I can get the criticisms about the GOOD rich white folks in the princess and the frog. However... I found Lottie's character really refreshing. I'm so sick of seeing the same rich, bitchy, spolied Daddy's girl who's like, " Like oh my gosh. I'm so mean. Lolz." I like see it all the time so I was so happy to see Lottie not only be nice but have a personality at that.

I disagree with the statement that Mulan picked symbols from all over Asia. In fact, as someone who studied China in uni, I found the potrayal to be quite accurate. The "Japanese" and "Korean" elements that most people point to are in fact ancient Chinese. The reason so many people associate them with Japan and Korea is because they borrowed many ancient Chinese cultural elements. One example is Mulan's clothing, often mistaken as a kimono. In fact, its actually a hanfu, a traditional Chinese clothing that heavily influenced the development of the kimono in Japan, thats why they looked similar. Most people wrongly identify the cheongsam or qipao as the traditional Chinese clothing when it is in fact the hanfu. Another example is Mulan's makeup, often identified as geisha makeup. In fact, it is actually based on the Chinese Tang dynasty makeup that influenced the Japanese makeup styles.

When people talk about oversexualized indiginous disney princesses Kida often gets left out of the conversation even though her design falls into the exact same problem

I just want to say, your entire break-down of "cultural appropriation" was what broke the stupid mental conditioning I'd subjected myself to against more feminist and serious ideas on systemic issues, that developed after immersing myself in the stupid gamergate community.

I think what makes Emperors New Groove not so culturally cringey is that its a comedy and doesn't have the most serious story.

I could’ve lived my life perfectly unknowing about Avril Lavigne singing “Mina sako, arigatou, kawaii”. Why have you done this to me?

I watch Moana about 6 times a week on Disney+ because my 2 year old loves it, and one thing that always pisses me off is that when Maui is chanting (what I think is) a haka, the subtitles read "shouting in foreign language". Like, Disney? You made this movie? You know what language this is? Also, anything not white and English is "foreign"? Come on.

Bro I can’t lie, I had to pause and tear up a bit during the Lilo and Stitch part because holy shit did that part resonate with me. Craziest part? It wasn’t the part of Nani singing to Lilo, it was the deleted scene take. I am from the Caribbean and my island’s main source of income is tourism. We see a lot of foreigners in town and at our beaches and my dad is even a taxi driver guide. I remember so many times where I’d join him for work and the tourists would treat us like these strange new animals that were just oh so fascinating. One thing I remember is we could just be out in places tourist might visit like a historical site or something and tourists would stop us to take pictures, shove money in our hands and ask us to sing or just talk. It was always kinda scary and felt odd especially when I was by myself. That “she is a commodity in her own country” line hit way harder than it should have.

When Moana's grandma says "it's not your fault" the tears just materialize involuntarily.

Cuzco is best disney princess.

I'm Indigenous but I grew up with Pocahontas as one of my only representations so I see its flaws but I also see where they tried to do some things right (like hiring native actors/actresses just as one thing). I always saw Pocahontas and John (in the movie) as a great example of an indigenous person teaching someone about their faults and helping them to be better, I never saw John as a "white savior" like so many seem to, idk..

I love how you explained the problem with Charlotte. To be fair, I enjoyed Charlotte as a character. But her main problem is what I think the main problem is with all the characters. Her agency. Seeing how she wanted to marry a prince is fine. But it has little to do with the story. Her role only comes into play when she has to kiss the prince and that’s it. It also doesn’t help that she and Tiana are after the same guy. But because the story goes so far out of it’s way to show her and Tiana are such good friends. It eliminates any stakes the two would have. So it’s pretty weak. In other words, Charlotte is just the comic relief with a point in the story. So yeah. Princess and the Frog is a good movie. But because the motivations are weak and the stakes are absent. It eliminates any sort of agency from the characters.