 | Character of the Week - Pocahontas |
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| DisneyDan
Saturday, March 26, 2011 4:16:18 AM |
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Welcome to the return of Character of the week!
Pocahontas is the Powhatan Princess from near where we now
call Jamestown, Virginia, USA.
Daughter of the Powhatan Chief, Pocahontas has always been
free spirited, and enjoys getting to know nature and the environment around
her. She finds friendship and council in Old Grandmother Willow, raccoon Meeko
and hummingbird Flit, a somewhat unusual collection of companions, but all just
as loyal to Pocahontas as she is to them.
Pocahontas is set to marry Kocuom, a fierce tribal warrior,
but Pocahontas has her reservations about the union. English settlers arrive,
and her father, the Chief, orders Pocahontas to stay away from the white men.
Against her father’s wishes though, Pocahontas befriends, and later falls in
love with John Smith.
Sadly it all goes terribly wrong when Pocahontas’s friend
finds out about the friendship, and after a series of disastrous events for her
Tribe, including the death of Kocuom, the tribe capture John Smith. Little does
the Chief know that Pocahontas has fallen in love with John Smith, and she
helps to set him free.
As Pocahontas encourages her father to free John Smith, the
cold hearted and selfish Governor Ratcliffe attempts to shoot the Powhatan
Chief, but John Smith takes the bullet instead. In a rare not-so-happy ending,
Smith is gravely injured and must return to England for treatment, leaving
Pocahontas behind. After seeing the courageous efforts of John Smith and his
daughter, the Chief gives his blessing for the two to be reunited again in the
future.
At the Parks and Resorts
Despite the movie being beautifully designed, and having some
great songs, Disney has not done much with Pocahontas over the years. Many
years ago Disneyland Paris had a show in Frontierland, before the days of the Tarzan
show. In Walt Disney World she used to have a permanent show in Animal Kingdom,
but that was scrapped about two years ago, and now the theatre is used during
peak times only for character meet ‘n’ greets. Pocahontas does still come out
there for storytelling from time to time, and for meets, but again, only during
peak periods.
Pocahontas does have a rather large section in the Hollywood
Studios version of Fantasmic!, but even that show is cut back these days to
about two nights per week, and the Pocahontas section is quite unpopular
amongst fans who often compare the WDW version to the much better Disneyland
version (that feature Peter Pan in Pocahontas’s place).
She also features in the Tokyo Disneyland parade,
Jubilation! alongside Meeko.
Pocahontas does have just one “attraction” to her name, and
that is the Pocahontas Indian Village in Frontierland at Disneyland Paris.
Finally, she does come out at the very end of Disney On Ice –
100 Years of Magic along with John Smith. There is no scene for her; instead
she just appears along with a whole host of other Disney Pals for the grand
finale of the show.
Meeting Pocahontas
Pocahontas can be found fairly often at the Good Times
Gathering Spot (same place her show used to be) in the Animal Kingdom in
Florida. Also in the Animal Kingdom she has been known to very occasionally make appearances at Rafiki's Planet Watch, and at The Oasis.
I have also heard of her making the odd appearance in Tokyo
DisneySea at American Waterfront, though I have no confirmation of when.
She can rarely be found elsewhere, including Frontierland in
both California and Paris.
She used to appear at the Pirate and Princess Parties at the
Magic Kingdom, but they ended some years ago now. This year Disneyland Paris is
holding a similar event for the first time, titled Princesses and Pirates.
Pocahontas and John Smith are expected to be there on all four evenings.
More Information
For loads more photos and information on Pocahontas, go to
our official page for her here on this site.
And Finally
Independent, courageous and loyal, Pocahontas is a natural
born leader who shows both sides how to get along, and that fighting is not
always the answer.
The vote for next time is now open!
For the grand return of Character of the Week, voting will
now be conducted by polling on the forum topic for this article. Click the
Discuss button below this post to cast your vote and leave your thoughts about
this article and Pocahontas!
The options are:
- Peter Pan
- Lotso
- Mary Poppins
Just so you are aware, the next Character of the Week is
likely to be about 10 days from now, instead of a week like I used to post.
Dan. |