Pocahontas Was a Mistake, and Here's Why!

I once read somewhere that Pocahontas is to native american people what a disney film about a sexy, aged up Anne Frank falling in love with a nazi would be to jewish people. and I think about that a lot...

"tourists, prepare to die!" should have been left in. what a great line.

Ok the fact that aloha oe is a song about losing one’s sovereign nation to American colonialism, but that I and everyone I’ve ever met just knows it as “that fun Hawaiian song” is... terribly on brand for America

the "Savages" sequence would be a great portrayal of how humans see everyone else as the enemy if I hadn't spent the last two hours watching the natives just going about their business and the settlers shooting them on sight. It's kind of like when you're a kid being bullied at school. For months, you're beaten to a pulp by this dickhead and the teachers do nothing. Then one day you hit back. Suddenly it's "you're just as bad as each other!" and "we have a zero tolerance policy". That's not how it works. You can't abuse people and then act all hurt when they get enough of your shit and fight back.

When Moana's grandma says "it's not your fault" the tears just materialize involuntarily.

I think what makes Emperors New Groove not so culturally cringey is that its a comedy and doesn't have the most serious story.

God. As a lil island girl, Lilo would’ve gotten mad respect from me if they had kept her yelling at the tourists. I get that Moana is supposed to be good, non-sexualized representation of Islanders, but Lilo & Stitch was life changing. I’m not Hawaiian (I’m Chamorro), but even as a kid living on Oahu, I recognized that the other island kids and I were kind of commodities. Being in a halau was fun, but we performed at events mainly for tourists. Even as an adult, I’ve experienced people who sexualize or “exoticize” me once they realize I’m an Islander (they can’t tell what “type,” but they still recognize it). Nani and Lilo were my role models, and in a way they still are. I know this is supposed to be a video about Disney’s representation of Indigenous people in general, but thank you for bringing up Pacific Islanders too.

Can we appreciate that Spirit did a better job portraying the way colonialism was such barbarity.

As a Mexican I can get the criticisms about the GOOD rich white folks in the princess and the frog. However... I found Lottie's character really refreshing. I'm so sick of seeing the same rich, bitchy, spolied Daddy's girl who's like, " Like oh my gosh. I'm so mean. Lolz." I like see it all the time so I was so happy to see Lottie not only be nice but have a personality at that.

“Oh look a real native” The fact I’ve heard this... multiple times

“This is not a documentary” then why couldn’t they just make up their own characters-

I could’ve lived my life perfectly unknowing about Avril Lavigne singing “Mina sako, arigatou, kawaii”. Why have you done this to me?

Reading that Waititi hates the "talking to ghosts" trope made me think immediately of Ragnarok, where Korg (voiced by Waititi) runs in and kicks at Loki's disappearing projection, saying "piss off, ghost!"

I never realized Moana & Pocahontas were almost identical until you broke it down. Holy crap.

as a peruvian 20 year old, which means i pretty much grow up having this whole disney repertorio right in my hands i must say most of people our age love emperors grove; i think one of the reasons we do, is because it has modern elements, rather than being historical accurate, it accidenatly can represent how Peru is a very mixed culture place and also, a place that had been hitted a lot with globalization for the past 50 years, so obviously the movie is random as heck, but is entertaining and, also is nice to be mentioned there and also reconizing some of the inka culture references.

During the Lilo and Stitch part i’m going to vaguely quote Sideways in a sentence that always make me cry. “When she’s singing Aloha Oe, she’s saying goodbye in the most Hawaiian way she knows how.”

“Tourists! Prepare to dieeeeeeeeeee!”

I disagree with the statement that Mulan picked symbols from all over Asia. In fact, as someone who studied China in uni, I found the potrayal to be quite accurate. The "Japanese" and "Korean" elements that most people point to are in fact ancient Chinese. The reason so many people associate them with Japan and Korea is because they borrowed many ancient Chinese cultural elements. One example is Mulan's clothing, often mistaken as a kimono. In fact, its actually a hanfu, a traditional Chinese clothing that heavily influenced the development of the kimono in Japan, thats why they looked similar. Most people wrongly identify the cheongsam or qipao as the traditional Chinese clothing when it is in fact the hanfu. Another example is Mulan's makeup, often identified as geisha makeup. In fact, it is actually based on the Chinese Tang dynasty makeup that influenced the Japanese makeup styles.

An interesting thing about Lilo & Stitch when it comes to heritage and all that jazz is that you can see words taped to objects and rooms through the house so that Lilo learns the language. I remember this really resonating with me as a kid, because I was going through a similar situation of losing my culture's language (I'm descended from Filipino immigrants, neither of whom learned Tagalog much past the age of five). It's never mentioned, and not at all relevant to the plot, but it's such a nice little detail that makes their situation feel much more real.

i feel like it’s important to say that colonialism never ended and that it’s still happening in third world countries. indigenous people are still being murdered and their culture is still being erased. please help indigenous causes with your money or time 🙏🏻