The VERY Messed Up Origins™ of Pocahontas (REVISITED!) | Disney Explained

the messed up Origins podcast is sponsored by betterhelp what is going on mere mortals my name is John solo and Disney claims that their animated film Pocahontas is inspired by a real-life Native American Legend but the truth is that's a straight up lie don't get me wrong Pocahontas was a real person as was John Smith cocoum Chief Powhatan and even Governor Ratcliffe but not a single one of them was anything like how they were portrayed in the movie to the point where Disney's ignorance is almost impressive now I use the word ignorance but that's not technically right because that would imply that Disney wasn't aware of how much they were butchering the real story don't get it twisted the writers and directors knew exactly what they were doing when they made the tweaks that they did those were calculated moves and to cover their asses they said the movie was inspired by the folklore surrounding Pocahontas's Legend as opposed to her actual life I obviously don't think they were trying to be disrespectful with the adaptation because that would just be a bad business model but you'll be surprised to learn just how many creative Liberties they took they transformed Pocahontas's story from a tragedy where a young woman was forced to leave her Homeland and abandon her culture just to be a novelty source of entertainment for the racist Elite into a Romeo and Juliet romance now I'm not saying the movie was bad I actually really enjoy it and think it's a masterpiece in its own special way but accurate it is not that's why in this episode we're going to break down its plot characters and major moments find these sad seeds of truth that inspired them and listen to Disney's reasons for why they made the changes they did if you enjoy learning the disturbing truth behind the most famous stories from history and pop culture be sure to sacrifice those like And subscribe buttons to get more content like this sent to your sub box every Thursday and now the very messed up origins of Pocahontas [Music] all right so last time we talked about Pocahontas on this show it was back in 2018 and I started that episode off with a recap of the movie followed by a decently detailed breakdown of Pocahontas's real life but this time we're doing something a little different instead of covering Pocahontas's entire life we're gonna go through the film scene by scene and I'll tell you exactly how much truth there is to Disney's narrative and what real life events were used as inspiration so when the movie starts we're taken back in time to 1607 when the Virginia Company is setting off for America from England in search of glory god and gold in this strange new land the Expedition is led by Governor Ratcliffe and John Smith Ratcliffe has a reputation as a social climber who's failed at everything he's done oh yes all that talk about being empathetic social climber who's failed it everything I'm very well aware that this is my last chance for Glory while Smith is known as a brave Adventurer and a hero to the common folk where only two minutes into the movie and they're already taking some Liberties first off while the Virginia Company did sail to America for riches they weren't looking for gold specifically they would have been thrilled if they found some but any natural resource they could use to turn a profit would have been fined by them see the Explorers were funded by a joint stock company which had investors that were expecting a profitable return for their Investments prior to this excursion the Spanish had found gold in Southern and Central America so the belief was that this new land was filled to the brim with the good stuff the unfortunate truth was that the English settlement of Jamestown was on the east coast and therefore nowhere near where the Spaniards found all of their sweet loot so this was a Fool's errand from the start however the colonists would eventually learn how to grow tobacco using techniques the natives taught them making the mission quite profitable before too long now that melted pile of ice cream called Ratcliff was indeed a real person there were three ships that sailed the Jamestown the Susan Constant which the movie features the godspeed and the discovery and he was captain of the discovery the writers actually combined several English captains to make the Ratcliffe character including John Martin Christopher Newport and Edward Maria Wingfield with Wingfield being the one who had the Rivalry with Smith the writers just decided to go with the name Ratcliffe because that's the perfect name for a villain though to their credit the real Ratcliffe was just as lazy and as big of a screw-up as their character during his brief stint as president of the Jamestown Colony he ordered his men to build him a mansion while they were still struggling to gather enough of even the most basic supplies priorities now when it comes to John Smith I could dedicate an entire episode to this dude in fact I'm planning on it but let's just say the real John Smith wishes he was like the one from the movie first off he was not some strapping handsome hunk of a man with hair as golden as the sun in reality he was an ugly and while I normally really try not to bash people for things that aren't in their control I'm gonna make an exception this time around because Smith was a manipulative scumbag who lied as easily as he breathed in fact the story that Disney chose to tell about he and Pocahontas which historians can't emphasize enough was completely inaccurate came directly from his own writings but more on that later back to the movie after meeting the English settlers were introduced to the one and only Pocahontas whose birth name was actually matoka which means flower between two streams this may have been a reference to the fact that her father was from the monkey tribe and her mother was from the mataponi tribe apologies if I butchered those names she was also called Pocahontas though this was a childhood name of hers that meant mischievous one equality that I think the movie captures pretty perfectly Pocahontas was born around 1596 to Chief pohatan who oversaw roughly 30 tribes in the Tidewater region that had a total population of around 25 000. we know almost nothing about her mother though which might be because she died during childbirth or because she resided in a completely different village than pohatan and her daughter the movie assumes that option A was the correct choice so instead of making her mother a physical character they had her spirit occupy the swirling wind that we see several times throughout the film usually during its most pivotal moments now one of the biggest creative Liberties that the writers took was making Pocahontas a fully grown woman in reality she would have been around 11 years old when the English settlers established Jamestown in 1607 making her relationship with John Smith infinitely creepier had it actually happened and making John Smith infinitely creepier for lying in his writings and saying she fell in love with him the movie's writers actually didn't learn about the massive Gap in their ages until well into the movie's development which put them between a rock and a hard place because it was too late to turn back at that point this left them with the choice of being historically accurate it or socially responsible so they went with the socially responsible route now her relationship with cocoum a warrior in her tribe may have actually happened but we don't know much about it because the natives didn't keep written records of anything but it is worth noting that Pocahontas's tribe had women Chiefs and that women were allowed to marry and divorce whomever they chose so if they did have a relationship it was more than likely consensual unlike the movie where her father tries forcing on or what he thinks is best next is one of the film's most iconic scenes where our heroine seeks guidance from Grandmother Willow who fun fact was originally going to be Old Man River before the writers decided her Mentor needed to be a maternal figure big surprise there was no actual Talking Tree in the real story but Native Americans did hold animistic beliefs and imbued plants inanimate objects and natural phenomena like lightning with a kind of spirit so we can't justify her inclusion not long after her concert conversation with Grandma Willow Pocahontas encounters John Smith in the wilderness he was about to blast her in the face with his gun until he realized that she's Kinda hot then he puts the gun down and tries to communicate with her and before long the two develop a mutual attraction toward each other here's where the differences between fact and fiction get really interesting and confusing because John Smith did actually describe his meeting with Pocahontas in a letter he wrote to the Virginia Company in 1608 and while we've established that he's a fabricator and a liar his recounting of the event sounds pretty plausible he claims that in the spring of 1608 Chief bohotton sent his brother and his youngest daughter who Smith describes as a witty and spirited girl about 10 years of age to negotiate with Jamestown for the release of some native prisoners if you're wondering why the chief would send his ten-year-old child on a mission like this it was likely a gesture of good faith a way of saying you have nothing to fear we have no tricks up our sleeves and I'm trusting that you Don don't either then wanting to maintain the already healthy relationship with pohotton that Smith had established months before Jamestown agreed to release the prisoners and even gave them supper before sending them on their way so in reality there was no Strangers Like Me moment like we see in the film and John Smith doesn't even describe any direct interaction that he personally had with Pocahontas in this letter so where did Disney come up with the storyline about their secret relationship the answer will probably infuriate you but first I want to shout out our sponsor who made this episode possible better help listen up Solo cups the unfortunate truth is that there's no user manual for life and so when you're bombarded with unexpected challenges and obstacles in your path it's easy to get discouraged and feel like you're just stuck in place I cannot emphasize enough how helpful it is to speak with someone during these moments venting our frustrations gets them out of our head and gives us a whole new perspective that enables us to cope with our challenging emotions or even solve our our problems entirely one of the best places to have these kinds of conversations is in therapy which brings me to this episode's sponsor betterhelp is the world's largest therapy service having matched 3 million people with professionally licensed and vetted therapists plus it's affordable all you have to do is answer a few questions about yourself and in less than 48 hours better help can find you a therapist that fits you best from their extensive network of board certified providers there's no waiting room no traffic and no endless searching for the right therapist so if you want to learn more and save 10 percent off your first month go to betterhelp.com John solo that's better h-e-l-p.com slash John solo the Catalyst for the main conflict in Disney's Pocahontas comes after she and John Smith established the relationship kokom the warrior that she was supposed to be betrothed to is enraged when he witnesses her kissing Smith and attacks him causing Thomas one of the English settlers to shoot kokom and kill him Smith urges Thomas to run for his life and takes the blame for the lad's mistake allowing himself to be captured by the tribe and ultimately sentenced to death this then leads to the English settlers and Native Americans to declare war against each other and to John Smith almost having his brains bashed in by the chief only Pocahontas intervenes at the last second and tells her father that if he's going to kill Smith he'll have to kill her too it's a pretty beautiful moment within the context of the movie but when you learn the truth about where this storyline came from it loses basically all of its magic you see our records indicate that John Smith was actually captured by pohoten's P people while on an expedition to find the head of the chicamania river you have the most unusual names here Chickahominy and while he was banged up in the initial Skirmish that took place he says in a letter to Queen Anne that he was actually treated pretty well as their prisoner he talks about experiencing great courtesy never wanting for anything and having plenty to eat but curiously he also adds that the natives plan to execute him in the exact same manner as was shown in the film by painting a rock with his brains Smith also includes the key detail of Pocahontas jumping in at the last moment to save him saying she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save mine and not only that but so prevailed with her father that I was safely conducted to Jamestown now to those wondering the main reason that we're calling BS on this claim is that it was written a full decade after the aforementioned letter to the Virginia Company in which he suspiciously makes no mention of his near-death experience arguably a pretty important detail to leave out what makes it even stranger is that he never publicly told this story about her save giving him until years after she had already passed away and couldn't contradict him in his 1624 publication of the general history of Virginia New England and the Summer Isles he claims being ready with their clubs to beat out his brains Pocahontas The King's dearest daughter when no entreaty could Prevail got his head in her arms and laid her own upon his to save him from death which is almost exactly how it goes down in the movie don't ask me why he chose to write it in the third person though maybe to make it sound more authentic so in the movie after Pocahontas saves Smith's life both the English and the natives put down their weapons and agree to peace which is actually pretty accurate to history whether or not Smith was almost executed is Up For Debate but we do know that after the chief allowed him to return to Jamestown the two groups lived in harmony for a while Pocahontas's people taught the Jamestown residents how to farm the land and would make gestures of Goodwill by sending them food and supplies as often as possible however in the movie Governor Ratcliffe isn't willing to accept this piece and takes a shot at Chief pohatan only for Smith to dive in front of him and absorb the bullet himself after this he's forced to sail back to England for proper medical treatment and the movie ends with Pocahontas watching their ship depart now believe it or not this was inspired by a true Event John Smith did have to travel back to England to heal up from some injuries only the way he sustained them was a lot less heroic instead of sacrificing his body to Shield Pocahontas's father from certain death he was injured from a gunpowder explosion while lighting his pipe I gotta tell you no one does PR better than Disney I kind of hope they turned my life into a movie now as long as I get the John Smith treatment they'd probably change my story so I hurt my back lifting a pile of rubble off dyslexic school children in a third world country instead of squatting at an LA Fitness anyway that was the messed up origins of Disney's Pocahontas as you can see there was some truth to the adaptation but not much if your thirst for knowledge still hasn't been quenched I highly recommend you check out my original episode on her where I tell the story of her life but I really hope you enjoyed hearing the bizarre truth behind the rest of the movies events and where the writers took their ideas from if not I'm sorry to disappoint you but at least you and my dad have something in common now I'll see you all again this Thursday with the long-awaited messed up origins of Thanksgiving until then my name is John solo and don't forget John shot first [Music] thank you [Music]

Channel: Jon Solo

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Keywords: messed up origins, jon solo, jon solo mythology explained, jon solo disney explained, jon solo folklore explained, jon solo messed up origins, messed up origins hindi, norse mythology, greek mythology, egyptian mythology, messed up origins pocahontas, pocahontas real story, pocahontas real story vs disney, pocahontas real life, pocahontas story summary, messed up origins john smith, messed up origins cinderella, messed up origins mulan, messed up origins shan yu

Id: Mf9ylNzzoCI

Length: 15min 46sec (946 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 23 2022