Disney Sequel Showdown- "Pocahontas II: Journey To A New World"

Disney Sequel Showdown: Round #1
*Spoilers included in this review*

Pocahontas II: Journey To A New World
Directed by Tom Ellery & Bradley Raymond
Starring Irene Bedard, Billy Zane, Donal Gibson, and David Odgen Steirs

As much as I love Disney, I know not everything they do is great. The thrity-something direct-to-video sequels, midquels, threquels and spin-offs in particular. There are very few films in Disney's main animated feature canon, that haven't had at least one follow-up produced by the now closed Disney Toon Studios, which was shut down by John Lasseter a few years back.

Now to be fair...not all of them were bad. There were some diamonds in the rough, that while in no way can be compared to the originals, were decent and enjoyable. Pochaontas II, somehow falls in-between the two categories of "Decent" and "Unwatchable".

Some time after the first film, Governor Ratcliffe (Steirs) has convinced King James (Jim Cummings) that John Smith (Gibson…no not, Mel. His brother) is a traitor to the crown, while covering up his own crimes in the process. Ratcliffe leads an assault on Smith's home with a warrant for his arrest, and Smith dies in the ensuing pursuit (Yeah. Sure he does.)

Some more time passes, and as Pocahontas (Bedard) tries to put Smith's death behind her, diplomat John Rolfe (Zane) arrives in Jamestown, hoping to bring Chief Powhatan (Now played by Cummings in this film) back to England to speak with King James, and hopefully prevent Ratcliffe and his armada from declaring war on the natives. But Pocahontas volunteers to go in her father's place.

Rolfe brings Pocahontas back to England, along with her animal friends (Who just are not enjoyable to watch as they were in the first film) and a silent bodyguard, with hopes to educate her in British etiquette, and together prevent Ratcliffe's armada from sailing to Jamestown.

Well you can probably already see the first problem with this film from that summary. Within the first two minutes of this sequel, nearly everything that was accomplished in the first film is undone. The villain is absolved of his crimes with literally just one line of dialogue, and the settlers and natives are at odds again. Not to mention the film also destroys the relationship between Pocahontas and John Smith.  I mean, they literally put Pocahontas in a love triangle….I'll say that again. Pocahontas in a love triangle. Doesn't sound right does it? It also doesn't help that her new love interest John Rolfe, is downright annoying for the first half of the film.

Probably the biggest fault in this film is what they do to Pocahontas's character. She is so willing to change who she is to impress the British royalty in this film, rather than share her ways, like she did in with John Smith in the original film. You could argue that she had to in order to get her point across to the king, but in the end she decides to be true to her heart, so it's all a waste of time and a complete u-turn of her characterization.

Now to be fair, Journey To A New World does something that most other Disney sequels don't do, and that's progress our protagonist's story. It's not "The protagonist's child goes through a smiler experience as they did" or "Something that happened to the protagonist, taking place somewhere in the middle of the first film, but we didn't see it" as most Disney sequels (or midquels) are. Pocahontas's story goes on in a unique, logical way in this film.

Heck it even kind of tries to rectify the historical inaccuracies of the first film, putting her with Rolfe and having her go to England, and it is sort of realistic that the natives and settlers wouldn't immediately go from enemies to allies. Nevertheless, the damage is already done, and all the film accomplishes by doing this is tare down a far superior film.

I'm not going to discuss the downgrade in animation because it's not really fair. The songs aren't bad for a direct-to-video film, but they are nothing compared to the songs of Pocahontas. The voice acting is fine. Almost all of the original cast members return and you can tell they still care about these characters.

I'm not sure what the filmmakers intentions were when they set out to make Pocahontas II (Money earnings aside). Was it to rectify the historical inaccuracies of Pocahontas? Was it to give Pocahontas her standard Disney-Princess ending, complete with handsome prince/nobleman? Who knows? I can see there are good intentions behind this film, but the badness in it overshadows them, leaving Pocahontas II somewhere in the middle of the Disney-Sequel spectrum.

Like I said, at least it continues the protagonist's story in a logical way. Sort of like The Hunchback of Notre Dame II but…umm give me a few days on this one...