Adaptations of Pocahontas and Avatar Films in Story of Pocahontas by Warner - Essay Example

Adaptations of ‘The Pocahontas’ (1995) and ‘Avatar’ Films in ‘The Story of Pocahontas’ (2009) by Charles Dudley Warner The film industry has experienced massive revolution in the 20th and 21st Centuries. The adoption of real life and historical occurrences has dominated. These occurrences are presented as fiction hence the film is considered as an adaptation of an existent literature. The film breaks down the message and presents the occurrences in a way that the views can easily relate to. This aspect has led to a certain degree of corruption of the original context (Warner 1). The story of the famous Pocahontas, well remembered for spearheading interracial marriages, has been adapted by several films including the ‘The Pocahontas’ and the ‘Avatar’. The films have many similarities with the original story as narrated by Charles Dudley Warner but there are several exaggerations and manipulations done. The film ‘Pocahontas’ is an animation that attempts to present the life of Pocahontas. Just like in the story, the 1995 release animation presents Pocahontas as a woman who opposed to the idea of the segregation of Englishmen by her people in Powhatan. Both depict her as an influential character who embraced Captain Smith while they were in Virginia in1608. They describe her as a distinguished girl with great character and a genuine concern for humanity. However, the animation leaves several gaps in explaining the particular traits that she had while young, as explained by the author, “She was a child of remarkable intelligence, and that she early showed a tender regard for the whites and rendered them willing and unwilling service” (Warner 1). Such an expression is missing in the animation. Therefore, the story loses its true meaning. ‘The Avatar’ has a comparable plot to the story but the characters used are different. Warner presents historical events that relates to the romantic woman, Pocahontas, who fell in love with the whites despite herself being an Indian. The movie depicts a future occurrence but frames the incidences to reflect the story. While the story talks about Powhatan as from 1607, the movie talks about the Pandora by 2154. The movie talks about the mining of Unobtanium by the humans in the biosphere that has detrimental elements for human survival. In contrast, the Englishmen set their foot in Powhatan in an effort to mine gold. Despite the variances in characters and the timing both talks of men on a mission that results to a relationship between one of the inhabitants, the Navi and the Powhatan’s in the movie and story respectively. The story provides many detailed accounts that does not feature in Disney’s ‘Pocahontas’ animations. The animation is very casual presenting shallow information about the characters. Little attention is given flashbacks and flash-forward as used the author. This breaks the sequence of events, as they appear in the story, hence the ability to understand what the events as they follow each other (Bazin 23). The author presents a variety of descriptions to demonstrate the nature of relationship between Pocahontas and Smith, an aspect that the film also portrays but with the magnitude. Again, the animation goes overboard in presenting the romance with Smith and the shooting of Kocoum. However, the storyline appears similar and the characters used are given similar names and similar character traits The author is not definite of the actual occurrences. On several instances, he uses the word ‘or’ meaning any of the things he is talking about might have taken place. Contrary to these views, the two films present very definite situations. This biasness is based on the fact, that a movie cannot present two opposing ideas since they can contradict the viewers. The author mentions, “Either Strachey was uniformed, or Pocahontas was married to an Indian”, this is presumption made by the author but the two films avoid the argument and do not feature this scene, probably due to its controversy. Several other areas that the author mentions in passing have been intentionally avoided the films. This further illustrates that the films lacks details hence superficial and cannot be relied upon to deliver the full account of the occurrences. The plot in the two films and the book depicts lots of similarity but the theme is different. The characters in the animation and the book have similar names and characteristics while the ones in the ‘Avatar’ exhibit different names but the characteristics are familiar. Some of the characters include, Neytiri that resembles Pocahontas, Jake Sully resembling John Smith, Colonel Quaritch resembling Governor Radcliffe, and Eytukan (father of Neytiri) resembling Chief Powhatan among others. Despite this resemblance, the themes expressed in the two occasions are varied. The message sent by the ‘Avatar’, is that similar individuals should deserve respect and dignity while those that are different should not be tolerated, a statement in the movie says ‘“The strong prey on the weak, it's just the way things are. And nobody does a damned thing,” (Warner 1) .The contrast appears in the animation where the message sent is more educative to children especially on multiracial embrace. ‘Avatar’ takes a futuristic approach while the book and the animation adopt a historical approach. The dates given in the films show a great variation, Avatar focuses on a date in the future, 2154 while the animation is based on a 1607 incidence. With the kind of graphics used and the supernatural abilities exemplified in the ‘Avatar’, its approach is informative that the writer had the future in mind. The opposite, is that the animation is just a reflection of occurrences as they appears in the book by Warner. The writer of the animation has tried to capture as many ideas as possible about the history of Pocahontas while that of Avatar uses the background history to compose a strong science fiction that carry the flow of the episodes in book but not characters, events and places. Looking deeper into the characters, we find massive differences and several similarities. The avatar is a story that talks more of Jake, as is the first person whose description is given. Furthermore, we get to learn about the hard situations he is going through especially losing his brother. He attempts to replace him. On the other front, the book just like the animation focuses on the incidences surrounding Pocahontas, a woman who defeats odds despite the struggles she is going through. She is depicted to be a person who respects nature and romantic. Looking at the environs of Navi and its people is an aspect we learn from the incidences surrounding the main character, Jake. He makes the audience to develop sympathy with Neytiri and its people because of his particular concern. The animation reveals much about the historically background of the original American inhabitants through the story of Pocahontas and her interaction with the white people. Navi’s culture seems to attract Jake who not only embraces it but also becomes well conversant with it. He is among the best in the observance of the cultural beliefs among the Navi and goes a step further in embracing the wild. In contrast, Smith has not immersed himself fully in the culture of the Powhatans, despite making efforts to protect the chief, an aspect that reveals him as patriotic and brave. Another contrast appears in the number of female characters in the two films. In the animation, Pocahontas’ best friend and the talking tree are the one feminine character that appears while in the ‘Avatar’ many female characters are used. They are depicted as brave and very smart. This creates a disparity in the adaptation of the author’s ideas. Therefore, supporting the differences that are seen in the two films and the book. The ‘Pocahontas’ film shows the last episode as smith returns back contrary to the revelations of the book. According to Werner, Pocahontas died and was not able to return to America, where her blood relatives lived. The film is defiant of this aspect and fails to reveal what happened after Smith returned to his homeland. The account by Werner, presents very many ideas in a disorganised manner, therefore, the flow of the ideas captures several incidences captured in the film. Both films are seen to lack basic details that the author captures and frames them in a way that the readers as opposed to the film watchers have an added advantage of getting the expressions as they are explained. In the Avatar film, the conclusion is the decision by Jake to live in his Avatar body together with Neytiri and the Navi people. This contrasts the revelations of the book that indicates Smith left Powhatan not knowing when he would return, it further goes on to describe the death of Pocahontas in England where she had become a celebrity. Language and the grammar used are very different (Bazin 22). The ‘Pocahontas’ film uses very basic language that can be easily understood by any individual. This animation has been broken down to a great deal of simplicity as opposed to the Avatar film and the expressions in the book. However, the book gives more details while ‘avatar’ seems to exaggerate some of the incidences. Despite the language use there, some of the statements used by the writer have a certain degree of replication in the words of the characters in the Pocahontas’ film. The Avatar uses completely different words but all these drive to the same some similarity in the flow of incidences. From the incidences, the plot, the theme, and characters in the two films, ‘The Avatar’ and ‘Pocahontas’ it is clearly evident that much information is lost from the recounted incidences by Werner in his book. The adaptation of a book or any other written records can lose the original meaning and context because of change of the medium used to convey the information. The film industry tried to present documented writings to create an alternative, but the results are increased simplicity, alteration of the original views and biased expressions. However, creativity can be used to enhance communication of an historical event in a modern way. Works Cited Bazin, Andre. Adaptation, or the Cinema Digest. Film Adaptation. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1997. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Warner, Dudley. The Story of Pocahontas. 31 Oct. 2012. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. YouTube. Avatar (2009) Movie Review, 2013. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. YouTube. Pocahontas (1995) Trailer, 2013. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Read More