The 10th Anniversary version restores the musical sequence "If I Never Knew You", a touching duet sung by John Smith and Pocahontas the night before Smith is to be executed. It also adds a reprise of the song near the end of the film, where Pocahontas and Smith exchange two lines. When Pocahontas was released to theaters in June of 1995, "If I Never Knew You" was present only as a pop version end credits tune performed by Jon Secada and Shanice. The melody of the song, however, turns up throughout the Oscar-winning score by Alan Menken as a recurring instrumental theme for the film.

Pocahontas (Disney Gold Classic Collection) [DVD] Pocahontas (Disney Gold Classic Collection) [DVD]

Aladdin (Platinum Edition) • The Lion King (Blu-ray + DVD) • Mulan (2 Movie Collection Blu-ray + DVD) • Tarzan (Collector's Edition) The first bonus feature worth mentioning on the first disc is the one that will probably be viewed as much as any other. That is because it is the extended "10th Anniversary" cut of the film, which plays by default. Next, a multi-language clip reel (3:33) presents "Colors of the Wind" in over a dozen different tongues. Each language change is noted by a caption which also credits the foreign market singing voice of Pocahontas. Among others, the song is heard in German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Mandarin, Japanese, Portugese, Icelandic, French Canadian and Polish. Oh yes, and English too. Carried over from the Gold Collection DVD is the pop music video of "Colors of the Wind" (4:10) performed by Vanessa Williams. Close-ups and long location shots of Ms. Williams are edited together with a hearty amount of animation from the film. It's one of the nicer Disney pop renditions, and the video is an obvious but good inclusion. Close watchers will notice two oddities: the audio appears to be out-of-sync at a few points of the video and the credits in the bottom corner stay on for way longer than they should (half-a-minute at both the beginning and the end). It's the exact same way on the old DVD too. Pocahontas appeared to be the next great big Disney movie. Trailers for the film showcased a stunning, evocative musical number called "Colors of the Wind" and anyone with a Lion King videocassette was likely to be hooked.Theatrical Trailer #2 (2:50) employs the more common approach of montage and dramatic narration which proudly proclaims the film Disney's 33rd full-length animated motion picture. Both may transport you to that pre-release state of excitement there was ten years ago.

Pocahontas: 10th Anniversary Edition DVD Review - DVDizzy Pocahontas: 10th Anniversary Edition DVD Review - DVDizzy

Next is the original "If I Never Knew You" music video (4:10) performed by Jon Secada and Shanice. Standing atop New York highrises in the night, the duo sings to each other, while animation from Pocahontas inexplicably covers buildings around the city. It would have been a crime not to include this video which presents the end credits version (a.k.a. until now, the only version) of this catchy love ballad in a distinctly mid-'90s fashion. It would be extremely difficult not to disappoint following The Lion King, the ultra-succcessful pinnacle of the so-called animation Renaissance that had been embraced in the public eye wholeheartedly for 5 years, a period where Disney could achieve nothing but excellence (with the sidenote exception of the good but unremarkable sequel The Rescuers Down Under). And so, Pocahontas has established an unfair reputation for being a downer and travesty. The film's reimagining of history and political correctness make it further susceptible to criticism. But if you go into Pocahontas expecting a "Disney animated film" -- not an American History lesson and not "the next film from the studio that brought you Aladdin and The Lion King" -- you'll receive the cinematic treat you hope for. Far from perfect, Pocahontas is nonetheless thrilling, inspiring, and a feast for eyes and ears. Its effectiveness as a tragic love story is poignant, and additionally so with the restoration of the deleted song "If I Never Knew You" (covered in greater detail below). The last bonus feature listed on Disc 1's menu is a sneak peek for upcoming direct-to-video film Tarzan II. This preview (1:45) doesn't really belong in the bonus features section, since it has nothing to do with Pocahontas. Anyway, it promotes and attempts to legitimize this sequel. In addition to the footage from the regular sneak peek (seen elsewhere on the DVD), there are a couple of soundbites from Harrison Chad (the new voice of child Tarzan) and Phil Collins, who is shown recording music in the studio for the film. The third component of Disc 2 is Design, offering 13 sections mostly on the different characters of the film. Most of the characters are accompanied by a short featurette ported over from laserdisc and centering on comments from the supervising animator. The best of these pieces is "Creating Pocahontas" (4:20), in which the heroine's lead animator Glen Keane amuses an audience by comparing Disney's Pocahontas to a historical rendering of the real woman. He proceeds to sketch both Ariel and Pocahontas to illustrate the great differences in their design. The last section The Release provides something that for some reason has mostly vanished from Disney DVDs in the past couple of years: trailers for the feature presentation. There are actually not one but two theatrical trailers offered here! Taking a cue from The Lion King (which smashed records using the powerful "Circle of Life" opening as its trailer), Pocahontas' first preview (3:30) showcased the "Colors of Wind" sequence in more or less its entirety.Next, director Eric Goldberg introduces a Storyboard-to-Film Comparison (1:00) of Pocahontas and John Smith's first meeting. The split-screen enables you to compare Glen Keane's storyboards with the scene as it appears in the final cut of the film.

Starting off the Music section, appropriately enough, is the 7-minute featurette "The Music of Pocahontas." This straightforward piece lends insight on the film's songs. Reflections come from producer James Pentecost and the composer/lyricist (lines blurred) team of Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. Footage of Menken and Schwartz collaborating together and Judy Kuhn recording Pocahontas's songs in the studio rounds out this satisfying, self-contained featurette. The three voices are distinct which makes it easy to distinguish who's saying what. While the commentary is very informative, it takes a welcome light-hearted tone. There are plenty of amusing anecdotes dispensed, particularly from Goldberg. There are also many astute observations about the film that viewers could easily miss, from stylistic choices to places where the filmmakers strove for authenticity to anomalies in Pocahontas compared to other Disney animation. The speakers give credit to the voice cast and animators at certain points, but it's far from a name-dropping session. Instead it's filled with insight and a strong and it's quite interesting to learn of some of the changes made to the film from test screenings (including the obvious mention of the now-undeleted song). The trio stops talking at the start of the end credits, but otherwise there are no other blank spaces in the active, nicely-paced conversation. The Jungle Book (Platinum Edition) • The Fox and the Hound (25th Anniversary Edition) • Robin Hood (Most Wanted Edition)

Brother Bear (2 Movie Collection Blu-ray + DVD) • The Emperor's New Groove (New Groove Edition) • Lilo & Stitch (2-Disc Big Wave Edition) The second menu selection, Production, opens with an Early Presentation Reel (3:45). As (now bald) producer James Pentecost explains in a new introduction, this 1992 reel makes use of concept art and an early demo version of "Colors of the Wind" to preview the film for those within the company. You can also view the reel with audio commentary that focuses on "Colors of the Wind." Note the intended Fall 1994 release date. Rounding out this section is "The Making of 'If I Never Knew You'" (4:33), which is one of the only features newly created for this DVD (or rather DVD at large, since it has been available for some time outside of the US). In this piece, a number of the filmmakers second-guess their decision to omit the song in response to it being too much for audiences to take. Returning are Roy Disney, composer Alan Menken, directors Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg, and John Smith animator John Pomeroy. They uniformly offer praise for the song and excitement at its return, and there's some discussion of Mel Gibson's singing alongside Judy Kuhn. This fairly short piece doesn't really need to be any longer; it provides a history and both this and the returning song at its center are most welcome inclusions. As far as set-top games go, "Follow Your Heart", the one included here, is incredibly simple. The narrator (Grandmother Willow) asks a question and you select from the bank of nine pictures the appropriate character or object. The premise is simple, but the character profiles that follow each correct answer are kind of neat, though one wishes they didn't make use of grainy video that looks like the old DVD. Thankfully, the original theatrical cut of the film is also here as an option, a wise decision enabled by seamless branching. If you'd like to view the theatrical cut, you may choose to do so by selecting the appropriate listing from the "Film & Audio Options" menu.