Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998)

To all the Pocahontas lovers, it is probably for the best that you do NOT view this movie. It is not terrible, and to some degree it is a nice extention of the story, but ONLY to some degree. As a whole I'd call it mediocre.

Pocahontas 2 lacks a sense of maturity which is part of what made the first so good. The humour here is a little stronger, but you get the feeling that the filmmakers may be trying to hard to appeal to the smallest ones in the family. There are more kiddie laughs than there are decent lines of dialogue.

I found Some scenes to be better than others. Pocahontas 2 doesn't get off to such a bad start but it has a poor finale which is the result of the very bold move. Pocahontas never ended up with John Smith (for those who don't know) She married John Rolph, an adviser to the king, who would become a plantation owner upon his return to the new world. In an attempt to bring he and Pocahontas together, the character of John Smith gets a major mistreatment. This is not the same person who we loved and/or admired from ten years earlier. Here he seems brash, brain-dead underwritten and unappealing, sort of like he was before he met Pocahontas. Rolphe meanwhile is given all the better qualities.

The three or four song numbers in the film, feel rather like rehashing of previous Disney works. One number is accompanied by a sequence which pilfers too much design from the opening number of Beauty and the Beast. Pocahontas doesn't sing as well in this movie, probably as the result of a new vocalist.

The movies only effectiveness goes as far as having a few laughs, and for a while being able to provide something new, but when it's over it feels a little to cheap to recommend. If you absolutely have to see it, go ahead, but you won't like it that much.