Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » How Disney’s ‘Pocahontas’ Became ‘Avatar’

ejrussell3 - January 6th, 2010 at 2:19 am

Awesome! Pretty much sums it up.

Mjolnir - January 6th, 2010 at 2:27 am

I screamed about this from the beginning…!

Nice to see that I was right….

Cameron, be ready to offset Disney's losses this year…

dcase - January 6th, 2010 at 2:29 am

well, guess it gets 'Dances With Wolves' out of the hot seat- for now…

Never saw the 'Pocahontas' thing; but yeah, we can see the similarities now. Let's just say the film is a wonderful potpourri of previous plots.

And watch Cameron clean up at the box office- and the Oscars…

Zundfolge - January 6th, 2010 at 2:37 am

That's the most awesome thing I've read all week!

Kit - January 6th, 2010 at 2:43 am

Pocahontas.A PC-a-hola-baloola. I am still waiting for the Jamestown adaptation that features the starvation, death, angry indians, poor soil, and, yes, cannibalism. Also, how John Smith single-handedly saved the settlement from extinction would be good too.

If you want a better movie watch Little Mermaid, Lion King* (Best), and Beauty and the Beast are far superior. Heck, Hunchback's songs "Out There" and the haunting "Hellfire" are far superior to anything in Pocahontas.

*Lion King and Pocahontas were being made at about the same time and everyone thought Pocahontas, not Lion King, would be the bigger one. Its good to be the king.

Kit - January 6th, 2010 at 2:54 am

Heck, Ursula, Gaston, and the Amazingly Evil Scar are far more interesting villain than Governor Radcliffe the Evil Greedy White Guy. Scar has and King Claudius-esque envy.

And I am only talking about the Disney Reneissance. Not the Golden Age from the 30s to the early 70s (Queen from Snow White, King John, Captain Hook, ) or the Pixar films (The sadistic Sid)

attack - January 6th, 2010 at 3:11 am

used to know one of the writers on pocahantas. he was quite proud of the way disney had brought in dozens of academics, anthropologists, and indian activists to consult on the script.

i thought of the scene where pocahantas crawls into a black bear den. pick's up a cub, and sings to it in front of the mother.

who the hell vetted that?

back when dances with wolves first came out someone went through it looking for similarities to F-Troop. it stopped being funny after about twenty plot points.

proof - January 6th, 2010 at 3:19 am

Too funny!

The Original K - January 6th, 2010 at 3:32 am

AVATAR = Birth of a Nation. D.W. Griffth's epic silent that changed movie making. The book BOAN was was based on was called "The Klansman" and it's about the civil war and the subsequent rise of the KKK.. It presents the KKK as necessary, important and heroic as it rises up to kick out the scaliwags and carpetbaggers. Today, the old movie is pretty much an embarrassment for film teachers. AVATAR will eventually come to fulfill the same niche: a leap forward in film technology and technique and an uncomfortable viewing experience.

ABD - January 6th, 2010 at 3:35 am

This is fabulous! My stomach hurts from laughing.

Indy1826 - January 6th, 2010 at 3:35 am

I saw Avatar at a screening, my X & I both try to screen movies that our son wants to see so we can make an informed decision ourselves on whether to let him see it or if there are some questions that will come up. I had given my take to my X & she decided it was OK for him to see it so they went with some of his friends. I asked him what he thought about it.

He said he even though it had cool special effects but he hated it.

I asked why.

He stated that it was anti-God, anti-military, he felt like it "talked down to me" & that if it wasn't for his friends wanting to see it, he would asked to leave.

Oh, did I mention that he is 81/2.
(yes, I talk a lot about my son. The runt has a better grasp on what is going on than most adults do.)

Hanzo - January 6th, 2010 at 3:58 am

And everyone learned to co-exist and live happily ever after……YUK!

RealFolkBruce - January 6th, 2010 at 4:03 am

I'm happy that at 8 years old, your son is capable of thinking for himself and catching on to Cameron's agenda. Things that most folks twice or even three times his age couldn't pick up on.

Good job on raising him.

sauropod - January 6th, 2010 at 4:23 am

I've noticed on other threads that some readers are tired of all the Avatar coverage on BH. Speaking as one reader, I'm enjoying it.

I haven't seen Avatar and I doubt I ever will — not so much because of politics, but because the idea of staring at an animated, glow-in-the-dark Maxfield Parrish painting for two and a half hours doesn't appeal to me.

The movie probably sucks, but the relentless mockery is highly entertaining. More, please!

Dean Moore - January 6th, 2010 at 4:41 am

Sounds like the boy is pretty bright. Keep up the good work

big7625 - January 6th, 2010 at 4:52 am

That is hilarious! If you follow the link, they have some other great comparisons too, like how Harry Potter is just Star Wars. Great reading.

TR3 - January 6th, 2010 at 4:57 am

The Dark Knight made $533 million domestically.
Thus far, Avatar has made $360 million domestically. I don't see Dances with Teletubbies making another $170 million.

Therefor, John Nolte was right – the conservative film will make more money. Yes, yes, I know Avatar's international numbers are off the charts and it's worldwide numbers have surpassed TDK already. But, who gives a flip. International audiences love a good anti-American flick – so they're irrelevant.

Plus, it's two years after TDK. Ticket prices have gone up slighly and of course people are paying $13 a ticket to see Teletubbies in Space in Imax.

TDK also relied on storytelling and had a suprising lack of action sequences. Teletubbies doesn't have a story and has to rely on 3-D, $500 million worth of special effects, and 50 man hours of rendering per frame. I'll stick with Chris Nolan fantastic storytelling. Thank you. Point goes to Nolte.

Des_ - January 6th, 2010 at 4:59 am

My nine year-old loved it, saying it was the best movie ever (while staring at the closing credits with her mouth agape). However, in the car on the way home she started picking apart the plot flaws. She loved it in spite of it's mediocre story, which is fine with me. As long as she realizes she's being preached to by an ideologue so she can make up her own mind.

DontTreadOnMe - January 6th, 2010 at 5:01 am

Don't you know that mother bears appreciate it when you pick up their cubs and squeeze them? It's supposed to help produce shiny coats. Ancient Native American wisdom, wasichu!

maatkare - January 6th, 2010 at 6:27 am

Blue people don't exist. Or are you saying the Na'vi are the Klan? A little bit of a stretch. BOAN furthered pernicious stereotypes and made heroes out of evildoers while maligning an entire race. The themes of the movie may be embarrassing to film teachers, but no-one can deny the breakthroughs it brought to the medium. It remains to be seen if Avatar's tech will be that groundbreaking.

maatkare - January 6th, 2010 at 6:28 am

Yeah…like THAT could ever happen in real life!

maatkare - January 6th, 2010 at 6:44 am

Quality of the film aside, I don't see how you can possibly call Avatar's $500 million on overseas grosses "irrelevant." I'm sure Coca Cola considers its overseas profits just as legit as its domestic ones.

attack - January 6th, 2010 at 6:58 am

hippies have all the vitamins and nutrition a growing bear needs.

ladykrystyna - January 6th, 2010 at 7:11 am

LOL! Good one!

cyclonaut - January 6th, 2010 at 2:32 am

hahahahaHAHAHAH! that's very good!

Zundfolge - January 6th, 2010 at 2:37 am

That's the most awesome thing I've read all week!

Tempus Fugit - January 6th, 2010 at 11:48 am

Pocahontas was the first thing that leapt to mind when I first heard the basic outline of Avatar.

If Cameron is original about anything, it's the pioneering of Smurferotica.

How Disney’s ‘Pocahontas’ Became ‘Avatar’ | Secolul 21 ~ 21st Century - January 6th, 2010 at 4:01 am

[...] here to see the original: How Disney’s ‘Pocahontas’ Became ‘Avatar’ This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Big Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this [...]

mrm-in-wnc - January 6th, 2010 at 3:01 pm

didn't see the movie*, but i'm thinking Disney's nanny lawyers would have put the standard disclaimer on the scene "Do NOT Attempt this with a real bear cub!!!"

*but remember a pretty funny spoof radio ad at the time. something about the 'easy' Indian maiden "Ahontas" and how men would come from miles around to "Poke Ahontas!"…

Bob - January 6th, 2010 at 3:22 pm

This is nothing new. ALL of Cameron's movies are heavily "inspired" by other people's work. The most obvious example is Terminator which he admitted he stole from Harlan Ellison/several Outer Limits episodes. Aliens has a lot of plot taken from the classic 1950's sci fi movie Them! (Mute little girl survivor, heroes going into nest of monsters with flame throwers to find queen and destroy eggs, etc. etc,) Cameron is technically brilliant, but needs to stop "writing" his own projects.

Dustrider - January 6th, 2010 at 3:42 pm

It's also worth noting that after "The Little Mermaid", "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast", and "The Lion King", it was the PC crap in "Pocahontas" that began the downward spiral of Disney's 2-D animation department that helped lead to the eventual ouster of Michael Eisner as Disney CEO and the eventual usurpation of Disney's animation crown (and eventual studio takeover) by Pixar, which for the most part has been smart enough to maintain their focus on telling a good story and not trying to implant Blue State socially-correct messages in the audiences' minds (and when they have stepped over that line, it's resulted in their weakest work to date).

"Avatar" gets away with it more because of its groundbreaking special effects than anything contained in the story. But once the newness of the effects wears off, it will be interesting to see if the lesson Hollywood learns from this is that it wasn't that all the anti-American movies of the past five years were failures because of their story lines, but because they just didn't goose the SFX budget high enough (and it will be interesting to see if, once there are 5-10 other movies out there using the same effects as "Avatar" if anyone really wants to watch Cameron's movie over and over again based just on the storyline).

easy - January 6th, 2010 at 4:20 pm

Where do the Chesapeak tribe fall in this story. Pocahontas' dad had a pretty effective way of dealing with them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_(tribe)

CJinMadison - January 6th, 2010 at 4:28 pm

Excellent observation, Dustrider.

What, indeed, will be the take-home message for Hollywood, when the novelty of "Avatar" wears off.

I fear you may be right; instead of fixing the story-lines, they will simply up the SFX.

Kinda like public schooling… instead of going back to the basics, and actually challenging kids, they think that we just need to keep throwing money at the beast.

Ciao.

Lazarus Long - January 6th, 2010 at 4:31 pm

SMURFAHONTAS!

MiPain - January 6th, 2010 at 5:09 pm

LMAO

Aleric - January 6th, 2010 at 5:26 pm

I was saying it was a rip off of the last Star Trek movie, Nemisis and people looked at me like I was a loon. Enterprise is threatened by the Romulans who have a ship that can destroy planets and no one can stop. The head Romulan has a vendetta again the captain of the enterprise and tries to kill him thus setting off a chain of events that leads the two to meet in a final show down in space.

BoxStohr - January 6th, 2010 at 6:19 pm

Ah, but if they had only screamed "shoot the antennae!" in Aliens.

NYCFF — Blog — How Disney’s ‘Pocahontas’ Became ‘Avatar’ - January 6th, 2010 at 10:35 am

[...] Read the Full Article @Big Hollywood avatar, Celebrity, disney, Film, Film News, Hollywood, Hot Gossip, james cameron, News, Pocahontas, TinseltownNo Comments » [...]

Red State Gun Owner - January 6th, 2010 at 11:18 am

unfortunately, braindead movie viewers around the world have rewarded Cameron for this crap film by going to see it to the tune of $1B+ in gate receipts. the message to Hollyweird will be to produce more of this sort of crap.

Gail F - January 6th, 2010 at 7:24 pm

Thought I would hate the movie, but I loved it. Actually, Pocahontas is FAR more anti-military, anti-corporate, and pro-New Age religion than Avatar (Avatar's made-up planet actually IS sort of a symbiotic deity that people can "plug into" and no one in the movie says thew viewer should worship it; Pocahontas just spouted a bunch of New Age stuff that was actually supposed to BE wise and spiritual and that, presumably, was supposed ot be embraced by the audience). IMHO the military and corporate folks in the movie came across as a bad unit and a bad company, not as a general indictment — and certainly far less evil than the English folks in Pocahontas. Did I mention how much I don't like Pocahontas? I have been wracking my brain and trying to remember the name of the tree with the nice old lady's face that was always blowing colorful leaves around (how a tree blows leaves around is beyond me) and now I know! Anyway, I give it a thumb's up. Oh, and I hated Titanic.

squidward - January 6th, 2010 at 7:54 pm

"Dances with Smurfs"

Shawn Handyside - January 6th, 2010 at 8:42 pm

Retweeted for extreme truthiness.

TIm - January 6th, 2010 at 9:26 pm

Don't forget the Avatar as 'Fern Gully – the Last Rainforest' comparison. What was that blond fellow's name? And don't forget the female lead who looks like Evangeline Lilly…

Guest - January 6th, 2010 at 9:34 pm

Before you go praising the Lion King see: http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm

dcase - January 6th, 2010 at 10:17 pm

so there's THAT…

ImChiquita - January 6th, 2010 at 10:47 pm

Hi, Everyone!

I liked "Pocahontas".

It was the art that got me, the score and songs that got me – not the lame story. Not the dog and the raccoon hate/like relationship. Not the "White People From Over There" bad, natives good.

Frikkin' – I know my history. So leave me alone and let me enjoy my movie in peace. Oh, but "Avatar" still sucks. (Do I get any brownie points for with-all-sincerity hatin' on "Avatar"?)

Darogr - January 6th, 2010 at 10:58 pm

Disney sues at the drop of a hat, so it's going to be interesting to see if they do anything about this.

SouthBeach - January 6th, 2010 at 11:17 pm

I refuse to see a re-make of "Ferngully"…Unobtainium.. WTF?? Is this for real?

You know, I have never seen Titanic either, and I am a total movie buff.. Netflix is in my PO box every week!

I must be getting old, as I miss REAL actors, actually acting!

attack - January 7th, 2010 at 1:23 am

at about the same time disney was airbrushing the cigarettes out of all the old pecos bill cartoons.

BoxStohr - January 6th, 2010 at 6:29 pm

I can just picture this peice of paper sitting in a drawer on Jimmy Cameron's desk. Good Times!

Tony - January 7th, 2010 at 12:41 pm

camorons' biggest mistake in regards to 'Terminator' is to mention the name harlan ellison as anything. That scum digger trolls all the hollyweird news for any mention of his name so that he can Sue Sue Sue to fill his pockets. He did write some great stories -in the distant Past- that did inspire many other people wise enough to NOT mention where they got their inspiration from.

In regards to camoron "stealing ideas" to make 'Terminator', go rent and see those two episodes for yourself. I saw 'the Demon with a Glass Hand' well before 'Terminator' and went and saw 'the Soldier' afterward. Outside of the idea of Time Traveling… That's IT to tie both shows together. I didn't know ellison has the copyright on the concept of Time Traveling, maybe he should now sue the estate of H. G. Wells for retroactively stealing his brain child too!

Tony - January 7th, 2010 at 1:00 pm

Pixar has already leapt into the great known of PC BS with their latest work called 'wall-e'. Even before it was put to screen, I still remember that lame get together of creators dreaming up that tree hugging idea during the making of 'Toy Story'. I am a collector of their works and have most of them now except 'a Bugs Life', their weakest all around story and did buy 'wall-e' on a discounted Blu-ray buy. Looking thru all of its making of.. Not ONE mention about all those LIVE ACTION scenes within.

Yes, it was all in all a love story that drove the plot. But the settings where pure pamp PC BS tree huggery fear mongering thru & thru. I would hope that movie got the hippy out of the creator to never pull this again, but I'm doubting that.

Also, the end of Disneys' revival of animation ended with the death of one of the two creators due to (Aids-HIV-fill in whatever you want to call it now) who made most of the calls in making those movies. In all saying; the "heart" was torn out and filled with many weaker voices trying to bottle that lightning that shown in those four movies.

-SPOILER ALERT-
'The Princess and the Frog' seems to of nailed it somewhat.. but a villain done in by outside forces now? So.. so sad that this is what Americans will be wiling enough to accept now.

JD MIX - January 7th, 2010 at 5:31 pm

OMG! I LAUGHED SO HARD, I NEARLY GOT FIRED… TOO…………..D-MN………………FUNNY!

hlj - January 7th, 2010 at 8:41 pm

Note to self: Take someone else's script, change the names and settings, add tits and dated cultural references for idiot audience, strap on huge insufferable ego, budget it at $5B. Success!

Dowd Wishes Homeland Security Could Be More Like ‘Avatar’ | TheWorldPolitics - January 7th, 2010 at 2:00 pm

[...] visually dazzling remake of Disney’s Pocahontas (see plot summary below the fold – h/t Big Hollywood). Disney’s James Cameron’s Pocahontas Avatar In 1607 2154, a ship carrying Johnake [...]

Mark - January 9th, 2010 at 1:44 am

Great article here about conservative whining over Avatar

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/...

Mark - January 9th, 2010 at 1:45 am

Make that 800 million.

Mark - January 9th, 2010 at 1:46 am

Red State Gun Owner

Cheer up, maybe one day they'll make a movie about getting drunk and shooting things and all of your dreams will come true

Mark - January 9th, 2010 at 1:48 am

It sucks alright

#2 all-time boxoffice mojo user ratings
83% Rottentomatoes critics average
92% top critics RT
A and A+ CinemaScore exit poll ratings
#2 all-time box office worldwide
NY Film Critics film of the year

Awful piece of film making

Mark - January 9th, 2010 at 1:49 am

Sorry Indy I don't any of what you said he said

Jessie - January 9th, 2010 at 1:50 am

WOW, YOU'VE SET A new standard for repulsiveness on this blog. Disgusting. You should be ashamed.

April 23 2010 « Oh For Crying Out Loud… - April 23rd, 2010 at 5:59 pm

[...] How Disney’s ‘Pocahontas’ Became Avatar by Big Hollywood [...]

Disney pocahontas | CheckinOut - March 10th, 2011 at 6:36 pm

[...] Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » How Disney’s ‘Pocahontas’ Uncategorized Comments are closed. [...]

Article Marketing - March 20th, 2011 at 12:28 am

You’re a very skilled blogger….

I have joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking more of your great post. Also, I’ve shared your site in my social networks!…

Cyber Clean - March 22nd, 2011 at 8:47 pm

Attractive section of content….

I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great. I don’t know who you are but definitely you are going to a famous blogger if you are not already….

Media Artist - March 27th, 2011 at 3:05 am

You’re a very skilled blogger….

I have joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking more of your excellent post. Also, I have shared your web site in my social networks!…

Conveyancing Solicitor - April 2nd, 2011 at 10:07 pm

Property Solicitor…

[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]…

Conveyancing Solicitor - April 10th, 2011 at 7:32 am

Property Solicitor…

[...]just below, are some totally unrelated sites to ours, however, they are definitely worth checking out[...]…

property and casualty insurance company - June 28th, 2011 at 9:04 am

Great Site……

[...]check this out as this contains important information about[...]…

http://build2b.com/industry/chalmette-la-a-a-a1-air-conditioning-heating-contractors - June 30th, 2011 at 3:09 pm

[...]Only his shirt front was white[...]…

he was passed in the seething crowd by a woman walking with the hip-swinging gait of a prostitute and wearing a black shawl low over her eyes…

Self catering Accommodation in Mauritius - July 1st, 2011 at 5:32 am

Superb website…

[...]always a big fan of linking to bloggers that I love but don’t get a lot of link love from[...]……

Mike Walden Review - July 1st, 2011 at 7:06 am

Recent Blogroll Additions……

[...]usually posts some very interesting stuff like this. If you’re new to this site[...]……

Sarasota Florida, injections, fat graft – How does the fat of my belly in my face? - July 1st, 2011 at 2:21 pm

Links…

[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……

Reverse phone number by address - July 1st, 2011 at 3:30 pm

You should check this out…

[...] Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless really worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]……

Keurig - July 1st, 2011 at 3:40 pm

Related……

[...]just beneath, are numerous totally not related sites to ours, however, they are surely worth going over[...]……

0 Credit Cards - July 1st, 2011 at 6:55 pm

Related……

[...]just beneath, are many completely not related websites to ours, nevertheless, they’re surely worth likely over[...]……

Local Internet Marketing - July 1st, 2011 at 7:36 pm

Links…

[...]Sites of interest we have a link to[...]……

Location Villa Ile Maurice avec Piscine - July 1st, 2011 at 11:14 pm

Sites we Like……

[...] Every once in a while we choose blogs that we read. Listed below are the latest sites that we choose [...]……

http://trendtowealth.net/ted/13184/ - July 2nd, 2011 at 4:33 am

You should check this out…

[...] Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless really worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]……

http://bigjournalism.com/bthor/2010/06/10/iranian-tv-confirms-pakistanis-have-mullah-omar/ - July 2nd, 2011 at 5:31 am

Cool sites…

[...]we came across a cool site that you might enjoy. Take a look if you want[...]……

Location Vacances Ile Maurice - July 2nd, 2011 at 6:09 am

Nice Site…

[…] … great article that everyone should read […]…

Marriage Problems Help - July 2nd, 2011 at 4:28 pm

Online Article……

[...]The information mentioned in the article are some of the best available [...]……

dota maphack - July 2nd, 2011 at 4:42 pm

Visitor recommendations…

[...]one of our visitors recently recommended the following website[...]……

Accountant Atlanta - July 2nd, 2011 at 9:39 pm

Read was interesting, stay in touch……

[...]please visit the sites we follow, including this one, as it represents our picks from the web[...]……

weird animals - July 3rd, 2011 at 6:43 am

Visitor recommendations…

[...]one of our visitors recently recommended the following website[...]……

relationshipproblemshelp.org - July 3rd, 2011 at 7:03 am

Visitor recommendations…

[...]one of our visitors recently recommended the following website[...]……

Location Villa Ile Maurice - July 3rd, 2011 at 9:15 am

Recommeneded websites…

[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……

industrial meat grinder - July 3rd, 2011 at 9:17 am

Awesome website…

[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……

solar walkway lighting - July 3rd, 2011 at 11:35 am

Awesome website…

[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]……

porter cable cordless drill - July 3rd, 2011 at 2:51 pm

Recommeneded websites…

[...]Here are some of the sites we recommend for our visitors[...]……

local internet marketing - July 3rd, 2011 at 4:53 pm

You should check this out…

[...] Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated data, nevertheless really worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got more problerms as well [...]……

Nightmare before Christmas toys - July 3rd, 2011 at 9:17 pm

Websites worth visiting…

[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]……

education grants for single mothers - July 4th, 2011 at 1:14 am

Great website…

[...]we like to honor many other internet sites on the web, even if they aren’t linked to us, by linking to them. Under are some webpages worth checking out[...]……

7 stone diamond band - July 4th, 2011 at 6:33 am

Websites we think you should visit…

[...]although websites we backlink to below are considerably not related to ours, we feel they are actually worth a go through, so have a look[...]……

chef uniforms - July 4th, 2011 at 12:06 pm

chef uniforms…