Pocahontas Movie Analysis

The movie Pocahontas (1995) is intended for young children, and these children have different views on how this movie portrays the Powhatan tribe. Amy Aidman’s article Disney 's "Pocahontas": Conversations with Native American and Euro-American Girls, helps bring insight to how different cultures view the movie. In her article, she interviews different types of girls ages 9-13 to show who this movie is affecting. The contact zone between how different cultures view this movie is discussed in the girls perspective of the movie. For example, the urban Native American girls loved this movie because of how the protagonist relates to them. As Aidman states “The girls seemed to take the character and her story to heart. There was a feeling of authentic

Pratts idea of a contact zone involving an asymmetric balance of power helps dissect the way Disney tells the story of Pocahontas and how different people react to it. Since Disney is a western company, this impacts the view they will have on the story of Pocahontas. Furthermore, in history, it is the westerners who have more power than the Native Americans which adds to the idea that the movie is a contact zone because of this asymmetrical balance of power. Additionally, not only is Disney a western company, but they also have a lot of say in western places such as America. According to Henry A. Giroux in his article “How Disney Magic and the Corporate Media Shape Youth Identity in the Digital Age” Giroux discusses how “the Walt Disney Company exercises a highly disproportionate concentration of control over the means of producing, circulating and exchanging information, especially to kids” (par. 12). Disney is a huge company who is in charge of giving information to kids, which makes their view on history very important. The amount of power Disney has in the world demonstrates their ability to impact how people view the world, especially those with less education who have no other sources to turn to. Aidman discussed this in her article by showing how the movie affected kids, Disney’s audience. Disney’s view on Pocahontas is more likely to be remembered by kids because Disney is important to kids and shapes their views on the world, and this reliances on Disney for information causes kids to view the contact zone between the Native Americans and Europeans differently than those who have more information about the real