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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you would enjoy a more consistent Alan Menken score and song musical with a steady, spiritual heart. Avoid it... if you rather take heart in Disney scores that emphasize comedy and slapstick songs and score. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
As a whole, Pocahontas has a much more balanced and steady tone of songs and score than either Aladdin or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The other scores had higher bright points, with a few stunningly better songs. But those other scores also suffered from greater disappointments in their lower ends, especially when relating to comedy relief. Since the comedy relief in Pocahontas is based around charachters that do not sing (a dog, raccoon, and hummingbird), the musical isn't interrupted by dancing, irritating statements of grand comedy. At the same time, Pocahontas, while maintaining itself well with above average songs, doesn't have its share of show-stopping classics that Menken's more unbalanced scores had. If you recall, both the previous three Menken/Disney films had multiple songs nominated for Academy Awards (in the "Best Song") category. With Pocahontas, and forever after, Menken only had the end credits song nominated, showing that the songs within the film didn't have the same grip. In its favor, Pocahontas holds a steady course, with no irritating song and no disappointing score track. While most fans hold the "Colors of the Wind" and "Just Around the Riverbend" songs, performed by Judy Kuhn, with the highest regards, the more interesting songs are "Listen with your Heart," the spiritual centerpiece of the film, and "Savages," the war call that brings back fond memories of the "Mob Song" in Beauty and the Beast. All of the songs are engaging, and their performances are strong. Detractors of Mel Gibson should beware, though... his singing performance of John Smith's character in "Mine, Mine, Mine" is excellent. David Ogden Stiers, who performed both Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast and the Archdeacon in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, is convincing in the evil Ratcliffe role as well. Menken's score is very reflective of the song melodies, as usual, and is light hearted and orchestrally pleasant. His scores rarely capture the same emotional power as the songs, but in animated musicals, the underscore isn't as vital a component. Menken does remain loyal to his song melodies in the score, adding continuity to the whole package. He also ends the film with his usual, large-scale choral finale. The only disappointing aspect of Pocahontas (then and now) is that the film moves at an extremely fast pace, and thus the songs are often not the long ballads that they could have been. An example of a fine song that was cut too short due to its scene was the vocal performance of "Steady as the Beating Drum" by Jim Cummings (the chief). In 1995, Pocahontas may have disappointed fans who had become accustomed to the wildly dynamic the songs of the previous films. And yet, when you examine Pocahontas in its place among all of the musicals, it stands the test of time much better. It's held itself well and is still an enjoyable experience above its more inconsistent peers. In the film, it suffers from the problematic pace of the unfolding story, but on album it remains a worthy effort. The Academy Award-winning song performance by Vanessa Williams is a decent pop rendition of the film's main song, however it could have been argued that "Listen with your Heart" would have made a better title song. The pop song "If I Never Knew You" is a useless, commercial addition to the end of the album. As was done with all of Menken's Disney scores, a small amount of instrumental material was inserted into the songs, but the mass of underscore was presented in whole at the end. Overall, Pocahontas has aged well --better than many of Menken's other Disney works-- and will improve your collection of Disney albums. ****
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