Pocahontas (1995 film)
Pocahontas is a 1995 American animated musical historical drama film based on the life of Powhatan woman Pocahontas and the arrival of English colonial settlers from the Virginia Company. The film romanticizes Pocahontas's encounter with John Smith and her legendary saving of his life. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg (in his feature directorial debut) and produced by Jim Pentecost, from a screenplay written by Carl Binder, Susannah Grant, and Philip LaZebnik. It stars the voices of Irene Bedard and Mel Gibson as Pocahontas and Smith, respectively, with David Ogden Stiers, Russell Means, Christian Bale, Michelle St. John, James Apaumut Fall, Billy Connolly, Joe Baker, Gordon Tootoosis, and Linda Hunt in supporting roles. The score was composed by Alan Menken, who also wrote the film's songs with lyricist Stephen Schwartz. After making his directorial debut with The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Gabriel conceived the film during a Thanksgiving weekend. Goldberg, who had just finished up work as the supervising animator of the Genie in Aladdin (1992), joined Gabriel as co-director shortly after that film was released. The project went into development concurrently