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Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World Movie Review

Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World is a 1998 direct-to-video sequel from Disneytoon Studios. It is one of the greatest direct-to-video Disney sequels.

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“Don’t you dare tell me I don’t care about her!“

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It focuses on Pocahontas’s journey to England with John Rolfe to negotiate for peace between the two nations. I definitely found the plot and the entire movie inferior to the first film that is one of the more underrated Disney originals, but it’s still a surprisingly solid storyline that moves Pocahontas to England and manages to mine some very interesting sequences there. I also liked the film’s moving ending and thankfully the love triangle was deftly handled here.

Pocahontas is very good here. Certainly, she is less proactive than in the first movie where she was a badass native girl roaming freely through the forests, but here she herself chooses her own faith and I respected that, especially given the horrible track record with heroines when it comes to these Disneytoon sequels.

I really liked John Rolfe. He is actually a better developed character than John Smith was in the first movie, and I liked this romance more than the first one as it’s better realized and the two share more romantic, playful scenes. I liked that they ended together, that was a great choice.

As for John Smith, his inclusion here is problematic having in mind that he seemingly died at first, but later on he turned out alive. But still, I liked their second farewell scene quite a bit, and the fact that they did not prolong the love triangle appealed to me personally.

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Meeko, Flit and other animals are underutilized as the movie is obviously less about nature this time around, but Nakoma is much better utilized this time around. King James is cartoony, but that works in the context of this story. But I really disliked what they did with Governor Ratcliffe. He was a very good villain in the first movie, but here he was reduced to stupid, simple manipulations, and just his inclusion was unnecessary and cartoony in an otherwise more realistic picture.

Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World features splendid animation for direct-to-video standards, not for feature animation obviously. The first movie was hugely artistic and much better, but this one easily trumps every other Disneytoon movie in terms of sheer quality, gorgeous color palette and excellent facial expressions that are actually improved in the case of Pocahontas who has never looked better herself. Again, art is not to be found here, but it serves its purpose and sometimes it is admittedly quite above average.

The movie is badly paced, weakly directed and certainly some of the dialogue and humor is not great. I found some plot points unnecessary and silly, but some are actually rather memorable. I found the middle section weaker, but the ending is great and the beginning is genuinely spectacular. It was so moving and epic, in fact, that I honestly thought I was in for a great, better than the first movie, but later on the quality was significantly reduced as expected.

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As for the score, it’s great. But the soundtrack is far weaker than its predecessor, though again better than other cheap sequels, much better really. Most of the songs are weak and subpar, but Between Two Worlds is a pretty solid final duet sung through the credits and I absolutely loved Where Do I Go from Here? It’s such a beautifully sung, moving and memorable number that largely made the opening as terrific as it is.

Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World is weakly paced, Ratcliffe is very badly treated here and the middle section is quite weak. But the ending is great and the beginning is absolutely spectacular. The animation is better than average and the score is pretty good with one great song. The characters are fine too. It’s such an unexpectedly strong sequel.