Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998)

Movie Info

Meeko…why are you frothing about the mouth?

Pocahontas receives news that John Smith is dead.  When John Rolfe is sent to the New World to broker a deal with Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas agrees to go in his place.  With Rolfe as her guide and Uttamatomakkin as her bodyguard, Pocahontas journeys to a new world full of possibility with Meeko, Flit, and Percy in tow.  Once she arrives in London, she discovers Ratcliffe is still trying to fuel the war with the Native Americans.  Pocahontas finds she must prove herself to the King and Queen with Rolfe’s help, but the events around Smith’s death may not be true.

Directed by Tom Ellery and Bradley Raymond, Pocahontas II:  Journey to a New World was released as a straight-to-DVD follow-up to Disney’s big-screen film Pocahontas.  The movie follows historical events which occurred after the first film.  Most of the voice actors returned for this film with Billy Zane taking the role of John Rolfe, and Donal Gibson replaced his brother Mel Gibson as John Smith.

Who am I?

The first Pocahontas movie was full of historical inaccuracy, and this film isn’t much different.  One of the problems with Pocahontas is that it made such a big deal about her relationship with John Smith, but she ended up with John Rolfe.  Here, the movie helps explain what happened though it is reported that her relationship with Smith wasn’t good later in life as it is betrayed here.  Pocahontas already married Rolfe and changed her name to the Christian name of Rebecca by the time she travelled over seas.  The main villain Ratcliffe was also dead years before Pocahontas went to England.

Despite this, I thought Pocahontas II:  Voyage to a New World did help the overall story of Pocahontas.  The first movie just didn’t seem to have enough plot.  Here, the plot gets rounded out a bit, and it still manages to have fun.

At least they remembered to bring my wind machine and dead leaves…

While the first Pocahontas had the saving grace of great animation, this movie had some ho-hum animation.  It is always pretty obvious the step down Disney films take when they don’t apply themselves…here is no different.  The animation is better than an average cartoon, but not up to the level of Pocahontas which I still feel is some of Disney’s best animation.

Pocahontas II:  Voyage to a New World is a bit better than some of the Disney follow-up films since it does help clarify some things from Pocahontas and continue the story.  I rather doubt we see a third Pocahontas film in which she has a marriage to Rolfe (which might be a sham) and her death while preparing to return to America.

Related Links:

Pocahontas (1995)