I first saw this film when I was about 12 or 13 when my dad rented it from his gym and while I found it an average film to begin with, it was also forgettable apart from the brief running gag of Meeko's seasickness. Fast forward several years later, I watched the Nostalgia Chick's 'Top 5 Least Awful Disney Sequels' where she placed this at no. 5 tied with 'The Lion King II: Simba's Pride' and the clips from this film refreshed my memory to a certain extent. More recently after having re-visited the lovely original, I decided to watch this on Amazon Instant Video and as I watched it, I was surprised at how I enjoyed it even more than I did first time around despite a couple of cons.
Beginning with these cons, the animation quality is not as good as that in the first with the odd jerky movement and a Saturday morning cartoon look, particularly on the background characters, despite some effective uses of cel-shading, lighting and the principles of follow through and overlapping action and squash and stretch. The second con is that there are some historical inaccuracies with regard to Pocahontas visiting England (the original had similar inaccuracies too) but in spite of this the story on the whole is engaging, especially when Pocahontas is adjusting to British customs.
Further to the positives, the incidental music is surprisingly good for a DTV sequel as it sounds cinematic and majestic in parts. While the songs here are not quite as good as the ones in the original, I really liked 'Where Do I Go From Here?,' 'What a Day in London' and 'Things Are Not What They Appear' as well as the gorgeous closing credits song. The characters who appeared in the original make a welcoming return, especially Pocahontas herself and Meeko, Flit and Percy (who are their usual cute and amusing selves here), but Nakoma and Grandmother Willow get considerably less screen time here than they did in the original, but this makes sense nonetheless. There are some worthwhile new characters such as John Rolfe, his supportive maid Mrs Jenkins albeit her somewhat repetitive dialogue about putting the tea on and Uti, who rarely speaks but is strong-willed nonetheless. The dialogue was decent but predictable in parts. Despite Donal Gibson replacing his brother for the voice of John Smith, he did his best to recreate the voice while Irene Bedard (speaking) and Judy Khun (singing) were more than welcome as Pocahontas; David Ogden Stiers was as menacing for John Ratcliffe; and Billy Zane and Jim Cummings were great as John Rolfe and King James respectively.
Overall, the animation quality may be slightly lacklustre here but otherwise this film was far more enjoyable second time around with its story, inaccuracies aside, and music as its best pros. 8/10.
Beginning with these cons, the animation quality is not as good as that in the first with the odd jerky movement and a Saturday morning cartoon look, particularly on the background characters, despite some effective uses of cel-shading, lighting and the principles of follow through and overlapping action and squash and stretch. The second con is that there are some historical inaccuracies with regard to Pocahontas visiting England (the original had similar inaccuracies too) but in spite of this the story on the whole is engaging, especially when Pocahontas is adjusting to British customs.
Further to the positives, the incidental music is surprisingly good for a DTV sequel as it sounds cinematic and majestic in parts. While the songs here are not quite as good as the ones in the original, I really liked 'Where Do I Go From Here?,' 'What a Day in London' and 'Things Are Not What They Appear' as well as the gorgeous closing credits song. The characters who appeared in the original make a welcoming return, especially Pocahontas herself and Meeko, Flit and Percy (who are their usual cute and amusing selves here), but Nakoma and Grandmother Willow get considerably less screen time here than they did in the original, but this makes sense nonetheless. There are some worthwhile new characters such as John Rolfe, his supportive maid Mrs Jenkins albeit her somewhat repetitive dialogue about putting the tea on and Uti, who rarely speaks but is strong-willed nonetheless. The dialogue was decent but predictable in parts. Despite Donal Gibson replacing his brother for the voice of John Smith, he did his best to recreate the voice while Irene Bedard (speaking) and Judy Khun (singing) were more than welcome as Pocahontas; David Ogden Stiers was as menacing for John Ratcliffe; and Billy Zane and Jim Cummings were great as John Rolfe and King James respectively.
Overall, the animation quality may be slightly lacklustre here but otherwise this film was far more enjoyable second time around with its story, inaccuracies aside, and music as its best pros. 8/10.