Pocahontas is a 1995 American animated musical romantic drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation for Walt Disney Pictures, the 33rd Disney animated feature film. Directed by Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg, the film is loosely inspired by the Native American woman Pocahontas, and portrays a fictionalized account of her historical encounter with Englishman John Smith and the Jamestown settlers that arrived from the Virginia Company. The voice cast stars Irene Bedard and Mel Gibson as Pocahontas and Smith, respectively, with David Ogden Stiers, Russell Means, Christian Bale, Billy Connolly, and Linda Hunt. The musical score was written by Alan Menken, who also wrote the film 's songs with Stephen Schwartz.
After making his directorial debut with The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Gabriel conceived of Pocahontas during a Thanksgiving weekend. The project went into development concurrently with The Lion King (1994), and attracted most of Disney 's top animators. Meanwhile, then- Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg decided that the film should be a serious romantic epic in the vein of Beauty and the Beast (1991), in the hope that, like Beauty, it would be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Screenwriters Carl Binder, Susannah Grant, and Philip LaZebnik took creative liberties with history in an attempt to make the film palatable to audiences.
Pocahontas was released on June 23, 1995 to mixed reactions from reviewers, who praised its animation but criticized its story. The film 's racial overtones and historical inaccuracy also garnered a mix of condemnation and praise.
