QUESTION: WALT DISNEY Productions' summer blockbuster "Pocahontas" took in almost $30 million at the box office over its first weekend. But the film's attendant merchandise - T-shirts, toys and the like - is expected to earn Disney much more. Is such merchandising good for children?
HART: Yes or no, there are aspects of this film parents should be especially aware of which are much more important than the "Pocahontas" dresses that are all the rage with 9-year-old girls.First, with our nation's school kids unable to find New York City on a map or name America's second president, should we really spoon-feed them historical inaccuracy? This film features Pocahontas as a gorgeous, voluptuous woman when she saved Capt. John Smith of the Jamestown settlers from a death sentence imposed by her father, Chief Powhatan. In fact, she was about 11 years old at the time. (If this particular incident actually took place at all, that is.)
The film then portrays her as falling in love with Smith, which would have surprised her future husband, the Englishman John Rolfe.
Were the Indians viewed as barbarians by the early settlers? The Pocahontas character sings, "You think I'm an ignorant savage." In fact, when Rolfe did marry the young Indian princess, there was some question as to whether he should seek the English sovereign's permission to marry the daughter of an "emperor."
ERBE: My colleague is historically accurate. Americans never did anything bad to American Indians and we have, in essence, been wrongfully pilloried for things that never happened.
Take, for example, the Sand Creek massacre of 1864 (the butchering of a Colorado tribe). Or Wounded Knee - both are figments of "PC" historians' imaginations.
My point is, now that history is being corrected (not, as my colleague would say, rewritten) it is beyond being rational to pretend the demolition of American Indian tribes never took place. It does not mean the United States is a terrible nation - others did worse, and, yes, American Indians did attack innocent settlers many times. But to call "Pocahontas" "politically correct" on that count is nothing short of outrageous.
The real reason conservatives dislike this movie is that it will "indoctrinate" children to believe that American Indians are worthy people and that the environment is worth preserving and respecting - its only redeeming qualities in my judgment. Otherwise, Disney's onslaught of sales propaganda is utterly repulsive.
Disney, by its own account, expects to sell a billion dollars' worth of "Pocahontas" clothes, toys, drinks, party favors and . . . well, you name it. Marketing to adults is one thing, but brainwashing little kids into believing they want this tripe is reprehensible.