“Just Around The Riverbend” was another classic – a song that introduces the audience to the complexities of the central character.
“Colors Of The Wind” was the first song completed by the Menken-Schwartz partnership and inspired a surge of creativity. I tried to use Native American locution and imagery, and thus the specific wording was somewhat influenced by some of the Native American poetry I had been reading as research.” In the song, I basically wanted Pocahontas to address the Eurocentrism of John Smith so in essence, it’s a consciousness-raising song. Schwartz acknowledged his inspiration for the song: “The lyrics to ‘Colors of the Wind’ were inspired by a famous letter written by Chief Seattle to Congress, which has been reprinted many times. It’s a climate-conscious Disney classic with a message that is, sadly, more relevant than ever. The song finds Pocahontas – voiced here by Judy Kuhn – opening John Smith’s eyes with lyrics like, “You think you own whatever land you land on / The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim / But I know every rock and tree and creature / Has a life, has a spirit, has a name.” While the settlers assumed Pocahontas and her people are “ignorant savages,” they have much to learn from them. The sweeping epic “Colors Of The Wind” was a key song in acknowledging the contrasts between the Native American way of life and that of the European settlers. We and Disney wanted to be accurate and balanced in our depiction of the story.” This is a musical and a Disney project, so there are elements that are really romanticized in the storytelling, but we had very pivotal Native advisors such as Russell Means. Menken took the responsibility of writing for Pocahontas just as seriously, later telling, “ Pocahontas was so pivotal given contemporary sensitivities about how we depict Native Americans. The non-English lyrics are indeed authentic.” helpful in selecting musical styles for songs like ‘Mine, Mine, Mine’. As always, being on the spot was tremendously useful for atmosphere and specific details of the lyrics, and I bought some tapes while I was there, including one called Songs of the Virginia Company that was very Algonkian, but probably not the same Algonkian that Pocahontas actually spoke. He later wrote about his efforts to fully understand the culture on his official website, “We did go on a field trip to Jamestown and, while there, to a gathering of Native American tribes. “I have this slogan: ‘in lieu of inspiration, do research,’” Schwartz told. Schwartz was determined to do the subject matter justice and did his homework. “But the worst that could happen is they’d see what I came up with and I’ll get fired.” “Talking honestly about Native Americans and their encounters with white settlers would be difficult,” he once told. When Schwartz learned it was an adaptation of the legend of Pocahontas – the Native American woman credited with helping English settlers survive in Virginia in the early 1600s – he realized how challenging the project might prove.
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Schwartz met with Menken and Disney executives about working on a new project and was so confident that the partnership would work, he signed up before knowing the subject matter of the movie in question. The studio called upon trusted composer Alan Menken ( The Little Mermaid, Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin) and Disney newcomer Stephen Schwartz, who was hot property after writing the Broadway smash hits Wicked and Godspell. Pocahontas might have been an epic love story in the grand Disney tradition, but it also dealt with the impact of colonialism and climate change while featuring a strong female lead character of color.
The blockbusters that had put the company back on top in the 90s – The Little Mermaid, Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King – were ambitious in terms of their use of technology and their sheer scale, but none of them had truly engaged with potentially sensitive subjects. Disney’s Pocahontas represented a brave step for the animation studio.
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