By the time Disney's Pocahontas was released in 1996, I was already an avid follower of animated movies. My first glimpse of Pocahontas was in the "sneak preview" they had in the video release of the Lion King. My first reaction? The design was a little strange to my eyes (and not as fluid as The Lion King), but the striking style was quite attractive. Not too long later I caught the Making on telly, so I was made familiar with the basic backstory. Then I finally managed to get my hands on the video, because back then I wasn't that comfortable with going to the cinema yet. I watched it, and though I was a little taken aback by some aspects of what they did with the story, by the end credits Pocahontas had won my heart over. World-changing love stories tend to do that to me, along with making me sniffle uncontrollably into my hanky. I've lost count how many times I watched the movie after that. Well, hey. Disney's Pocahontas borrows some things from American history, but was never meant to be an accurate historical representation. They tell the tale of a Native American princess named Pocahontas in the year 1607 when the English settlers arrive at Virginia. The Englishmen are lead by the greedy Governnor Ratcliffe who wants nothing more than to plunder the land for its supposed "mountains of gold". Along for the ride is Captain John Smith, who is the resident expert on "savages", and he is given the task of sniffing them out. On the other side, Pocahontas' people are not all that keen on the ravenous English wolves taking over their land. Well, suffice to say things don't work out according to either side's expectations when Pocahontas and John Smith meet and fall in love. The more the pair learn and understand about each other, the more their respective people rev up for war. It's up to Pocahontas to make a stand, because she's the only one that truly sees what's at stake. So yes, it's a love story. But it's also a story about choices and being open-minded. There are always difficult choices to make, and as Grandmother Willow says, "The right path is not always the easiest one". There is a moral there, and what I love about this movie is that it is not as preachy as it could have been. It doesn't force its message upon you, and it's up to your interpretation, for better or for worse. So there it is. Pocahontas is awesome in that it's beautiful on so many levels... Not only with the art, the music, the story, the romance, the moral, the feel... Everything. It's when a movie is able to wrap me up in its magic as much as Pocahontas has, then I know it's something to treasure. It is true that many people don't like Pocahontas for various reasons, and that's perfectly fine. I just happen to be on of those who love it. The movie was released in theatres in June 1995, and was later released on DVD. I don't know how many different DVD versions there are out there, since Disney has a tendency of re-releasing stuff from their vault every so often. The current release, which I would recommend to any fan who wants the movie for themselves, is the "2-Disc 10th Anniversary Edition", which is sometimes called the "2-Disc Special Edition", depending on which region it's being released in. This 2-Disc edition was released on the film's 10th anniversary in 2005, and the highlight of this release is that it features the deleted "If I Never Knew You" scene, animated, coloured and inserted right back into its moment in the film. It's also hard to tell unless you've got a sharp eye, but the visuals are restored beautifully for this version. The colours are richer and the detail much better than earlier releases. I myself didn't notice this until I compared screencaps taken from different DVD releases. There are also loads of extras across the two discs, which are: (1) An audio commentary by the producer and directors; (2) A "Disney Art Project" (mostly for kids); (3) "Follow Your Heart" Game (for kids, or bored non-kids); (4) "Colors of the Wind" sing-a-long (5) "Just Around the Riverbend" sing-a-long (6) Vanessa Williams' "Colors of the Wind" music video (7) A "Making of" featurette (8) An early presentation reel of the movie (9) A storyboard-to-film presentation (waterfall scene) (10) A production progression featurette (Pocahontas' intro) (11) Design featurettes with art stills; (12) Glen Keane's animation lecture on designing Pocahontas; (13) Interviews with most supervising animators; (14) Featurette on the deleted character "Redfeather"; (15) Art featurette, with stills of the movie's artwork; (16) A music of the movie featurette; (17) Secada and Shanice's "If I Never Knew You" music video; (18) Featurette on the cut "If I Never Knew You" scene; (19) A whole bunch of deleted scenes, including deleted songs; (20) Trailers and promotional material.