Disney Prince Review: John Smith, Pocahontas

"EWWWWWWW."

John Smith is for lack of a better word boring. I mean, Pocahontas as a film isn't that great though  from a technical perspective it stands up there with the best of films as the orchestrations and animations are just beautiful. The same however cannot be said for it's "prince". It tries to have a sort of middle ground between the Renaissance and the Disney Golden Age but that could also be because there isn't any real indication of royalty within the film itself. I mean Pocahontas is the daughter of the chief so she is a princess but that doesn't really mean anything to the story as John Smith himself doesn't really know or care and the same could be said of him, who he is and his position doesn't really matter.

So who is John Smith? Well you could really compare him to Phoebus from Hunchback of Notre Dame but less witty, he's someone who has a job to do and doesn't buy into the exact level of hype as everyone else on his side. This is what makes it easier for him and Pocahontas to communicate though he does have more to learn. Actually, he is a lot like a diet can of Phoebus because he is just there to do a job and meets someone who shows him that what he is doing is wrong overall I guess.  He also shares some ideas with the Oncler from The Lorax as he learns the consequences of what he's done except he actually listens beforehand, the problem is that the movie puts a lot of focus on him learning something that it felt like he himself already knew; that things weren't always what people said they were and they shouldn't buy into the hype. He does mention not feeling like he belongs anywhere so as an outsider, it makes it easier for him to understand her I guess as Pocahontas is also a bit of an outsider, wanting to walk a different, less traditional path. What's interesting is that by the sequel, Pocahontas says the two of them are no longer on the same path as they end their relationship. If anything, the movie could have been salvaged it had a more openly flawed character like Thomas who came in with preconceived notions about the Native Americans or at least his intentions. Honestly, there is nothing interesting about John Smith to really talk about, he feels like a rough draft for other characters in the future and this is even more true in the sequel where he's been missing for months and later Pocahontas effectively dumps him for John Rolfe.

Better Counterpart

It's a bit cliche, but we all know that if you want to "not" tell the story of Pocahontas, you go back to the Dances with Wolves/Avatar" story and I personally loved it in The Last Samurai. You see, John Smith is supposed to be the one who learns something but other than the idea of "everyone should learn this", we don't know why he should know it as a character. Nathan Algren was dealing with his PTSD and in the Samurai village he begins to learn about the people, their ways, culture, and finds a sense of peace and harmony within himself and grows as a character. 

We could also go Phoebus again as his story wasn't about him learning any particular lesson but we instead saw that he didn't hate the gypsies but was doing his job and later see him drawing a line with Frollo. This was done by Phoebus not just because of Esmerelda but also because Frollo was killing innocent people and Phoebus at least is funny or thinks he is.