Music and Stories: Pocahontas "Colors of the Wind"
Background
Pocahontas was released on June 23, 1995 and was the 33rd full length animated feature from Walt Disney. The movie was directed my Mike Gabriel and Erica Goldberg. Pocahontas was the first entire movie based of an adult female and of someone of color. This was also Disney's first film about a real person from history. Without Pocahontas there is a chance that there might not be an Elsa, Rapunzel, Merida, or Tiana because she was the turning point for Disney heroine for female characters. Pocahontas was made during the Disney Renaissance time period which was between 1989 to 1999. During this time Walt Disney Animation Studios returned to making more musical animated films that were mostly based on well known stores and turned in to a power house success at the domestic and foreign box offices. The film was based on a Native American girl named Amonute who was born around 1596, but would later be called Pocahontas meaning "playful one" and she was actually a young girl and not a teenager like in the movie. There was also no romance relationship between Pocahontas and John Smith but one of friendship. No one is 100% sure of how things actually happened with Pocahontas because there is no count from Pocahontas point of view but only John Smith's and he told it a couple of different ways over the years.
"Colors of the Wind" composer Alan Menken & Lyricist Stephen Schwartz, June 1995, USA
Role of the Song
Right before Pocahontas starts to sing "Colors of the Wind" she really meets John Smith for the first were she talks to him and starts to learn about him and his people. They are talking to each other about their names and how different they are from what they know and how strange their names are. You can see Pocahontas starting to become instead in John Smith and everything that is new about him and his world. John Smith brings up being able to help Pocahontas people by showing them how to use the land to its full extent by building towns, roads, better houses, and much more. How they can't do any better because they are just "savages" but he can change that and teach them how to act. This causes Pocahontas to get upset and try to leave but Smith won't let her so she starts to sing "Colors of the Wind". This songs helps to show us how Pocahontas is feeling and set the tone for the scene. The song shows us that Pocahontas does not believe that John Smith is correct but blind to the world around him and show try walking in someone else shoes to see the world from a different point of view. That the world has more to offer then what he can see and that he and his people can't actually own the earth until they understand it better. The song "Colors of the Wing" helps to set up the rest of the movie because it causes Smith to see the world, the earth, and Pocahontas people differently which changes how Smith acts towards the Native Americans and now what to change how the rest of his people see them as well.
Social Commentary: Moral Compass
From the very first line of the song it is easy to see that song is telling people that just because you think something is true or right doesn't mean that it is. That what other people think and feel might be right as well and that there isn't just one correct way to do things. That is possible that John Smith is actually the savage one because he doesn't know as much has he think he does about stuff and doesn't seem to be willing to learn anything new. He has been around to so many different places but yet still he can only see one way to do things and doesn't have an open mind. The song then goes on to talk about how the earth is not just used to make money but it so much more important than that. It is has life and beauty and provides to all living things while coexisting together. How it is important to see things from others points of view and not everything it was it seems. That we should not try to change everyone to be just like us but embrace other people and their view of the world and things around them. That people tend to be a little ignorant and greed tends to take over everything but it isn't everything and we should learn to see past it. To learn to accept everyone and their differences that we are all apart of each other and that we need each other in order to truly live. Lastly it shows us that we should care about the earth and think about the bigger things not just about ourselves and what is best for use but for everyone and the earth as a whole.
Musical Elements
Lyrics: "Colors of the Wind" was an amazing job of making you sit back and think about things because of the lyrics to the song. It is moving to listen to Pocahontas sing:
"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"
When I was younger I loved watching Disney movies and singing along to them but now that I'm older I see and understand more of the important messages that are put in to some of the movies. I love to sing "Colors of the Wind" but I never use to think about what the lyrics meant or anything but now I see just true they are. Plus is can still be seen today and how people can't look past their own point of view to see that just because someone is different doesn't make them a bad person or wrong but just different. That its okay to be different and its okay to see the world from so many different angles and that the world would be boring if we all thought the same way.
This was one of my absolute favorite movies when I was younger and the reason I initially grew out my hair longer because I wanted hair like hers. Pocahontas was trying to show John Smith that there is a different way of looking at the world, that the earth and animals mean something. I agree with the social commentary part of your blog, the moral compass is a good way of explaining it. I wonder if people like Pocahontas had succeeded in teaching people like John Smith the other way of looking at the world if that could have changed things. Not many people care about things other than their own agendas now.
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