Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World

Pocahontas II (1998)

** (out of 4)

Direct-to-video sequel from Disney has Pocahontas traveling to England after learning of John Smith's death. Once there she's fears that her people and England will be at war after lies told to the King so she must try and make peace between the two sides. The original film wasn't a Disney classic but it's certainly much better than this film here. I will admit that I hadn't seen any of the Disney direct-to-video releases so I can't comment on the quality of all of them but this one here certainly suffers from a pretty weak story that kills everything. I thought for the most part the animation was quite good, although it's certainly not classic by any stretch of the imagination. I thought the highlight was again the character Pocahontas who is simply beautiful and very memorable. Her raccoon friend is back but he's letdown by the screenplay, which gives him nothing special to do. Pretty much every character here is rather blandly written as none of them come to life or give any energy to the movie. The story too is pretty bland with the only bit of life coming as the title character tries to fit in with English customs. The vocal work is pretty good but as with the first film, the music and songs are mostly forgettable. Fans of Disney might want to check this out but others should go for one of their classics.