Credit: DisneySociety and cultural norms have significantly advanced since Walt Disney Animation Studios released Pocahontas in 1995. Though animators attempted to correct some of the cultural inaccuracies (like her relationships with Captain John Smith and John Rolfe) in Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998), the film is widely criticized by Native American communities. Activists have called for the end to costumes inspired by the Disney Princess version of the kidnapping and forced religious conversion of a Native American woman.
Despite its controversial history, the United States Disney Parks still include Pocahontas in shows, merchandise offerings, and character meet & greets. Some guests feel uncomfortable with the continued whitewashing of violent colonization. In contrast, others argue it’s okay to include the Disney Princess at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort as long as Native American actresses portray her.
This week, Disney Parks fans on Reddit discussed the process of casting Pocahontas. Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort don’t exclusively cast Native American women to portray the character; instead, they look for actresses with similar skin tones, facial features, and eyebrow colors. In recent years, they’ve mostly stopped casting white women in the role due to increasing negative feedback.
Some Disney Parks fans were okay with this compromise as long as the entertainment cast members looked like Pocahontas and not a white woman in costume.
“I know a performer who played Pocahontas when Magical Map first came out, white as can be,” u/ughthatoneperson said. “However, the show evolved over time, and it appears they were POC-ish by the end of the run… For M&G, Disney should definitely hire a person who better represents the character in person.”
“At the end of the day, though, if the actress looks the part, I personally would be ok with it,” u/MonstarHU wrote.
Others felt that if Disney couldn’t find Native American women willing to portray Pocahontas, she shouldn’t be in the theme parks at all.
“A non indigenous person playing the only indigenous princess rubbed me the wrong way,” u/4confused20 argued. “…Seeing an indigenous princess played by an indigenous person would make any indigenous little girl so excited.”
u/Takeabyte called having non-American Indian actresses in the role “a racist reminder that there are no more fully native people left due to… a word I’m probably not allowed to use.”
For u/Mary_Pick_A_Ford, any reminder of Pocahontas brought back upsetting memories. She compared it to Song of the South (1946), a widely banned film criticized for its inaccurate depiction of life for Black Americans post-Civil War:
“Pocahontas has been controversial in the Disney canon for quite some time now. When the film initially came out in the 1990s, the character was already problematic… It’s another ‘Song of the South’ situation… As a Native American kid in the 90s, it was pretty brutal when that film was released that many white people at my school made fun of me and called me Pocahontas and told me that John Smith will save me. I had long beautiful hair and they would pull on it and do the whoop whoop whoop in front of me. It was something that lasted a few months and it left me with some resentment for the film.”
At present, Pocahontas still greets guests near Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland Park and occasionally on the Trail of Discovery at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. She can also be spotted on Disney’s Animal Kingdom flotillas and in the final scene of Fantasmic! at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
What are your thoughts on casting Pocahontas actresses at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort? Share your take with Inside the Magic in the comments.
Please note that the story outlined in this article is based on a personal Disney Parks guest experience. No two guest experiences are alike, and this article does not necessarily align with Inside the Magic’s personal views on Disney Park operations.