Customer Reviews

Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

First off, I loved the first Pocahontas. That is, until I saw this one. Now I can never really enjoy it to the same level again, at least not until a few years from now when I've forgotten about this awful thing.

While it's wonderful that Disney attempted to set things right, they couldn't have done it in any worse way. I hated Rolfe from the beginning; he never develops once. That's pretty tough considering that he's the "romantic hero"... and pretty much having a romance is an easy way to develop someone. Not this guy, though, he's about as endearing as a steel pole.

I hate the tea chick, which is what I'm going to call her for lack of knowing her name. The woman, to whose charge Pocahontas is placed, seems like a feeble attempt to make me like John Rolfe: "Oh, he and this sweet if blundering old lady have an affectionate relationship! He's a good guy after all! Oh Pocahontas, soon you'll see that!" BLECH, it was so painfully obvious that she was just an attempt at character development that didn't quite work. The only thing she was good for was actually inspiring what was close to laughter... although that was only twice. Wiggins in the first movie, however, puts the tea chick to shame.

I'm going to admit that I HATE the ending. Who the heck cares if it's more historically accurate? The point is that if you're going to be historically inaccurate, go all the way! I absolutely loved the Smith/Pocahontas thing in the first movie because both were passionate, lived for danger and excitement, and had as much chemistry as people in animated movies can have. Their relationship is well-developed, as are both people as they kind of come to terms with each other's culture.

John Rolfe, though? He is pompous from the beginning until the horribly forced ending. I'm not sure if it was just me, but it really seemed like he only liked Pocahontas after she had become "civilized." John Smith liked her for who she was, not because she was dolled up in a painful musically-challenged sequence that made me think of "You'll Bring Honor to Us All" from Mulan with sheer longing. Speaking of which, I don't understand what John Rolfe was on--she looked HIDEOUS in that getup.

The animals also seemed to be an attempt to make John Rolfe more likable, because we're supposed to think "Hey, the animals want them together, and they want what's best for Pocahontas so that must be what's best for her!" Pfff, that just made me hate Meeko and Flit.

Actually, the whole London song made me think of a bad attempt to mime Bonjour from Beauty and the Beast. I really think that Pocahontas would have found the city intrusive and smelly, because think of the change she would have went through.

And yes, I agree that John Smith was 100% percent, unadulterated, pure Out-of-Character. I saw and agree with a previous review that stated that they seemed to want to make him a jerk so we wouldn't feel bad about Pocahontas ditching who had once been "the love of her life." Disney, however, seems to have forgotten that they spent an entire movie making him likable and a worthy match for their almost overly-glorified heroine. To just throw that away almost makes me sick; why bother watching the first movie with "She's going to eventually screw him over" hanging over your head.

Actually, I didn't like Pocahontas either. She seemed OOC as well; certainly the Pocahontas in movie one would not have accepted a man who seemed to ring more of Radcliffe than anything. And that Pocahontas would not have let John Smith go. Then again, that wasn't really John Smith and it wasn't really Pocahontas either. I don't know who these two were, but I certainly didn't like them. I liked them more, though, than I liked Rolfe. Which says a lot.

Oh, they needed some cameos. Thomas, Wiggins (he would have made this movie worthwhile), etc.

I agree that Radcliffe was totally demonized. I actually had some sympathy for him in the first one, since it was made clear that he was just trying to succeed at something and prove the others at court, who hated him, wrong. Although he was villainized a lot in the first, it pales in comparison to the second. I also agree that it was crazy that James believed him. James, too, was a cartoony 2d character. Poor guy, the movie insults him more than anyone.

And yeah, I also found it weird that Pocahontas knew about John Smith's death.

Basically, I'm just saying that you should either not watch this movie, forget about it, and/or just plain pretend that it doesn't exist. I can't wait until I forget about this awful thing and can enjoy the first one and I used to be able to do.

When I first heard that Disney was making a sequel to "Pocahontas", I wondered if they would do it jusice, or butcher it. Obviously, they got themselves in quite a predicament here. They couldn't be true to the original without murdering history and they couldn't be true to history (what gave them the urge to suddenly be loyal to history, anyway?) without murdering the original. The brilliant solution: murder both! Okay, let me put in more detail. First of all, they took John Smith, who was my favorite of Disney's male heros, and not only drained his brain, but drained his heart. He doesn't even care when he finds out that Pocahontas fell for John Rolfe! Honestly! And what's the big idea of making Pocahontas fall for him anyway! The Rolfe guy is a total jerk,and suddenly Pocahontas loves him!They didn't want us to like John Smith anymore, that's what it is! They didn't want us to say "Come on, Pocahontas, you know who you really love!" No, they wanted us to say "You go, girl! Dump him! Dump him!" So the movie rushes by without any real emotion, plenty of scenes where a wisecracking, swashbuckling John Smith uses his sword to show off, and a lame mix of fact and fancy. Forget history, Pocahontas and John Smith seem like the LAST Disney couple that would "divorce"! I refuse to believe that this guy is the same John Smith that was in the original! It simply can't be! You remember "Colors of the Wind" from the original? That was one of the most moving transformations that Disney ever cranked up! So how was Pocahontas's influence on him only temporary! The only logical explanations would be that John Smith was posessed by an evil spirt, or hypnotized between movies, or this is his evil twin! Although John Smith is the most notable butchering of the original, it's not the only thing they did to it. The animation is terrible, the songs are only so-so, and, with all due respect to Native Americans, Pocahontas acts like a jerk. In the final battle, she just sits around under Ratcliffe's sword, waiting to be rescued by John Smith. Honestly! I'm not a picky feminest, but that's ridiculous! Also, so many things are left hanging, such as why does Ratcliffe have such a strong influence on the king when he came home in chains? In short, this movie is murder. You can feel that Disney is walking through the film on tiptoe, not wanting to upset anyone. Well they upset me! Badly done, Disney!

THIS IS THE MOST AWFUL MOVIE EVER!!!!

I LOVE the original Pocahontas and that is probably one of my favorite Disney movies. But I DID NOT LIKE THIS MOVIE!!!!! DON'T EVER SEE THIS MOVIE!!! AAHH!!! Save yourself the torture!!!

The songs were obviously pathetic seeing that I can't remember any of them, whereas I remember the songs from other good Disney movies that I haven't seen in years! They totally botched the original characters, drew them awfully, and the ones they added were disgusting. John Rolfe is definitely a creep, but apparently he's "historically accurate." To heck with historically accurate! Who CARES? It's a Disney movie!!! NONE of them are historically accurate, and nobody cares!

So here's the storyline: Pocahontas goes to England as "an ambassador of peace" to stop the British king from attacking her people. There she meets John Rolfe, they fall in love. Then they go to an English ball where Pocahontas will prove to the king that she and her people are not savages and then the king will not attack them. During the ball several insane things happen and Pocahontas actually succeeds in doing the opposite of her mission. The British people have a "bear baiting" where they kill a bear for entertainment. Pocahontas rushes forward and freaks out, calls the king and his people savages for treating bears like this, (Pocahontas wouldn't do that!!!!) and miraculously she doesn't get bitten by this bear even though she's right by its face. The king of course orders that she be thrown in jail and so they do. And Rolfe doesn't even try to stop it all! John Smith (unfortunately drawn very sloppily) overhears this piece of news in a pub (since when does go to pubs?), and goes to find Rolfe (I can't remember how he knows Rolfe exists, and quite frankly I would love to forget this whole movie exists), and together they go to rescue her. Except that part didn't work for me because there aren't supposed to be two heroes in a Disney movie. It's just not fair. Somehow then they get out of that scrape, and then there's a scene where Pocahontas wants to go back to the king and straighten things out. But if the king put her in jail, then he will be mad that she's out of jail without his OK, right? But somehow that's overlooked in the end. And John Smith says she's crazy for wanting to go back and all this stuff that he would never say to Pocahontas. After that it was so boring that I can't remember anything until the very end, where John Smith comes running over to Pocahontas all excited that he's getting his own ship and is going to travel the world. Since when does he care about all that? He's seen "hundreds of new worlds," according to the first movie, and he's been on voyages all over the place. So why does he care suddenly now? And Rolfe is watching all this with a bratty, pouty look on his face. And then Pocahontas quite bluntly dumps John Smith and goes off to the New World with Rolfe. And that's it.

Isn't that awful?

I seriously hope they make a Pocahontas III and something needs to happen to Rolfe and then Pocahontas and John Smith get back together. That's how it should be.

P.S. Oh yeah, I just remembered one of the songs. But I wish I hadn't. Something about a nice day in London town. It was awful.

Do not buy this disc! I loved Pocahontas so much and was terribly afraid when I heard of a sequal. There was no way to get around the historical accuracy issue since her life after John Smith wasn't fun or happy at all. Disney had to bastardize history just to make it. Then they went and gave it unlistenable songs, cheap jokes and Don Bluth-like animation. Gross! This is true not only of Pocahontas II, but ALL the direct to viedo sequals! Disney has to stop making these cheap knock off's of their features! If there's really a story to tell after the feature then they should take the time to develop it and make it as grand as the first. Like PIXAR did with Toy Story 2.

Ok, Pocahontus 2 is basically about Pocahontus "moving on". She goes to England to protect her tribe from an Armada. (If you hate historically inaccurate movies DON'T watch this) She ends up falling in love with John Rolfe, but is reunited with John Smith. Decisions, Decisions....Well ok, i didn't like this movie because I thought the romance between Rolfe and Pocahontus was totally botched. They hardly even talked and second, Disney in the first movie made Pocahontus and John Smith out to be soul mates and in this movie they throw away that romance like it was a fleeting thing. What about the whole "I will always be with u" thing? The animation was far worse than the originals. The songs less catchy, only a few were decent. The whole movie was sort of thrown together. If you liked the first Pocahontus movie I don't think you will like the second. It totally derates the first and ruins the ending.

I've never shut off a Disney movie before. I was half way through and I couldn't take it anymore. The original is one of my favorite Disney movies, it's visually stunning and so full of emotion. This second rate rip off evokes no emotion except frustration and anger that I actually paid money for this piece of garbage.

I am a hardcore fan of the original film and this cheap quickie to make some cash off the original was both misguided and awful. Terrible songs, terrible script.....ugh. Where to start? This may be the worst Disney sequel EVER and that is saying something! I am not going to tread the same ground about the story that has been covered 200 times already. Just avoid this at all costs. Please. Do if for the children. And if you love the original "Pocahontas", do it for yourself.

I liked the original movie...I was not impressed with this sequel. And neither were my girls, ages 3 & 4. They began playing and not even paying attention to this movie about 1/3 of the way into it. It was an okay movie - but rent it - don't buy it!

1smileycat :-)

Shame on Disney...As if Pocahontas I wasn't historically inaccurate enough! It still surprises me how she manages to fall OUT of love and fall INTO love like an absoulte moron. Whatever happened to John Smith? They turned him into an idiot with a boat, in other words...Leo DiCaprio! And Rolfe was admirable -- considering Billy Zane did his fabulous voice -- but unless you're a die hard Zane fan and want to hear him sing the theme song "Between two worlds", FORGET THE NI-QUELL MOVIE!

This sequel completely pisses all over the memory of its brilliant predecessor. I bought the VHS edition when it first came out several years ago and there I was, a bright-eyed kid, ready to be WOWed by more of my favorite heroine and what I got was... essentially, crud.

Now, it wasn't the entire John Rolfe thing that bugged me. I'll admit that I didn't like him, but it wasn't because I'm such a huge John Smith/Pocahontas fan; it was because he was such a boring, humdrum character. The entire story was rushed and just felt so very unncessary. It lacked the dynamic, mood, charm, and heart of the first "Pocahontas." Coincidentally (although not surprisingly), it also lacked the good music.

The real kicker is, I can hardly remember anything concrete about this movie. I remember having seen it a few times and having absolutely hated it, but it's surprisingly forgettable. The only thing is that I can't forget that I actually watched it and that it nearly burned out my retinas and destroyed a few of my brain cells in the process. I oh-so-honestly wish that I could un-watch this heinous direct-to-video sequel (or that Disney would disown it and say they weren't at all thinking straight when they decided to create it), because it was so bad that it nearly ruins the original movie for me.