Should parents allow their children to watch Pocahontas and Peter Pan?

Growing up did you watch Pocahontas with your kids? Maybe even Peterpan? Most people including myself grew up watching these beloved movies humming along to the popular songs and rooting for the main characters. But while watching Pocahontas did you ever consider whether its main character and other Indians were being portrayed accurately? Did you ever wonder what Native Americans thought about Disney’s portrayal of them in Peter Pan? Some are surprised to find out that Disney did not complete much research on Indians before creating these movies. You may also be surprised to find out just how inaccurate and racially insensitive Disney’s portrayal really is. Should parents even allow their children to watch these films?

Disney's 1953 Peter Pan

Disney's 1995 Pocahontas

   The movie Pocahontas begins showing a popular John Smith saving the life of a young deckhand with the loving support and admiration from the rest of the crew on board the ship. Historically John Smith journeyed and arrived at the “new world” in chains after trying to create a mutiny aboard the ship. Viewers may be surprised that Pocahontas is portrayed in the movie to be around eighteen years old and John Smith is nineteen years old. In reality at the time that the movie is portrayed, 1607, Pocahontas is roughly nine or ten years old while John Smith is twenty-seven. Although Disney did not portray Pocahontas age correctly they did cast a Native American actress to voice the character. In the movie, Pocahontas is shown throwing herself between John Smith and her Father as she proclaims her love for Smith. In reality, Pocahontas and John Smith barely knew each other and only saw each other a few escorted times. Although they did write a few letters to each other in an attempt to teach each other their language. In the movie, following Pocahontas’s heroic act John Smith dives in front of a bullet headed toward Pocahontas’s Father and is forced to return to Britain. In reality, John Smith had to return to Britain due to a self-inflicted gun powder burn. If Disney had portrayed the movie accurately it probably would not have done as well and would not be appropriate for their intended audience. Disney does not categorize this movie as a documentary but rather as a Drama/Romance and have never claimed that the movie is in fact historically accurate.

Disney's Portrayal of Pocahontas

Disney's Portrayal of John Smith

Peter Pan on the other hand only portrays Native Americans in a few scenes. In the movie, Natives are seen with deep red faces singing hurtful songs such as “What makes the Red Man Red?” while they dance around and smoke pipes. This portrayal is disgraceful and portrays the indigenous people in a typical stereotype of Indians held at the time the movie was made. An explanation for this could be that during the production of Peter Pan in 1953 the general public was unaware of the oppression that the US government had brought upon the Native Americans and so the scenes were not considered racist or offensive. Whereas today racial issues are reported daily on national news and are considered a leading issues in all of the modern media.

Disney's Portrayal of Native Americans

Should children even be allowed to watch these movies that in-accurately portray Indians in what is now considered a racist way? I believe that decision should be left to the discretion of each child’s parents and neither the US Government nor any person or group should be able to prevent viewing these movies. It is important for children to watch these classic films and discuss these issues with others to better understand the difference between fiction and reality and why they should question the portrayal of characters when presented in a negative way. By doing this, children will quickly learn that information and entertainment presented to them is not always accurate and should often be further researched to find out what is true, what is simply presented as entertainment, and what is being used to persuade them by creating false images.

Sources

"Episode 99: Pocahontas." The History Chicks. January 10, 2019. Accessed April 12, 2019. http://thehistorychicks.com/episode-99-pocahontas/.

Peter Pan. Produced by Walt Disney. Performed by Bobby Driscoll.

Pocahontas. Directed by Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg. Performed by Irene Bedard.