Pocahontas Trivia
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This Pocahontas trivia quiz has 48 free questions with answers and covers both the Disney film and the woman behind it. From the movie: Irene Bedard and Judy Kuhn sharing the lead role, Mel Gibson's John Smith, Governor Ratcliffe, Meeko, Flit and Percy, Grandmother Willow, the two Oscars for Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, the record-setting Central Park premiere and the love song that was cut. From history: her real names Amonute and Matoaka, her father Wahunsenacawh, her 1613 capture, her baptism as Rebecca, her marriage to tobacco planter John Rolfe, the trip to London and her death at Gravesend. Early questions suit anyone who grew up on the VHS; later ones reward people who know which supermodels inspired the animation and what the 1616 engraving of her says. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who provides the speaking voice of Pocahontas in the 1995 Disney film?
Irene Bedard
Irene Bedard, an Alaska-born actress, was the speaking voice of Pocahontas (1995) and later played Pocahontas's mother in Terrence Malick's The New World (2005).
Q 02Which Broadway performer provides Pocahontas's singing voice?
Judy Kuhn
Judy Kuhn, a Tony-nominated Broadway performer from Les Misérables and Chess, provided Pocahontas's singing voice and was hired before the speaking role was cast.
Q 03Which movie star voices John Smith?
Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson took the part to make 'something for my kids' and, unusually for a Disney star of the time, sang John Smith's songs himself, which he called the hardest part of the job.
Q 04What is the name of Pocahontas's pet raccoon?
Meeko
Meeko grew out of a sketch by veteran story artist Joe Grant of a raccoon braiding hair; the directors loved it, and John Kassir supplies his chatter.
Q 05What kind of animal is Flit?
A hummingbird
A hummingbird: co-director Mike Gabriel had them 'all over my backyard' and thought one would be a great animal to animate. Frank Welker voices Flit, who is wary of John Smith at first.
Q 06What breed of dog is Governor Ratcliffe's pet Percy?
A pug
A pug, because the directors found that royalty of the time often carried small pugs about with them; pampered Percy ends the film by abandoning Ratcliffe for the other side.
Q 07Who voices Grandmother Willow, the talking tree?
Linda Hunt
Linda Hunt voices Grandmother Willow; she had won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing a man, Billy Kwan, in The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).
Q 08Which future Batman voices the young settler washed overboard during the storm in Pocahontas?
Christian Bale
Christian Bale voices the young settler who falls overboard and is rescued by John Smith; Bale later played Pocahontas's eventual husband in Terrence Malick's The New World (2005).
Q 09Which activist and actor voices Chief Powhatan?
Russell Means
Russell Means, a leader of the American Indian Movement, at first objected to the script because its Native characters addressed each other by name rather than as 'my father' or 'my friend'.
Q 10David Ogden Stiers voices Governor Ratcliffe and which other character?
Wiggins
Wiggins is Ratcliffe's gentle manservant. Stiers got the governor's part too after the first choice, Richard White, was judged likely to sound too much like his own Gaston in Beauty and the Beast.
Q 11What does Governor Ratcliffe believe the Powhatan are hiding from the settlers in Disney's Pocahontas?
Gold
Gold is all Ratcliffe wants from Virginia; there is none to be found, and he ends the film sent home in chains by his own men.
Q 12What is the name of the ship that carries the settlers from London in Disney's Pocahontas?
Susan Constant
The Susan Constant was the largest of the three ships of the real 1607 voyage; the film leaves out the Godspeed and the Discovery, and ends with her carrying the wounded John Smith home.
Q 13What is the name of the warrior Pocahontas fears she will be made to marry?
Kocoum
Kocoum is the stern warrior her father wants her to marry; when he attacks John Smith he is shot dead by a young settler, and Smith takes the blame and is condemned to die.
Q 21Which film did Pocahontas narrowly beat to top the US box office on its first weekend of wide release?
Batman Forever
Batman Forever lost that weekend by a whisker, $29.2 million to $29.5 million, but had the better summer: by the end of its run it had out-earned Pocahontas at American cinemas by more than $40 million.
Q 22What was the 1998 direct-to-video sequel to Disney's Pocahontas called?
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World
Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World turns the title around: this time she is the one who crosses the ocean, going to King James's court in London as her father's envoy while Ratcliffe plots against her.
Q 23Pocahontas co-director Eric Goldberg had just been supervising animator of which character in Aladdin?
Q 14What does Pocahontas keep seeing in her dreams before the English settlers arrive?
A spinning arrow
A spinning arrow is the image from her recurring dream; when she later sees the needle of John Smith's compass spin, she takes it as the sign pointing her to her path.
Q 15How does Pocahontas save John Smith from execution in Disney's 1995 film?
She shields him with her body
She shields him with her body just as her father is about to strike, and persuades him to spare Smith and call off the fight; Ratcliffe then fires at the chief, and Smith takes the bullet.
Q 16Besides Best Original Song, which other Oscar did Pocahontas win?
Best Musical or Comedy Score
Best Musical or Comedy Score was a new category that year: after Disney's animated musicals had won the single score award four times in six years, the Academy split it so musicals no longer competed with dramas.
Q 17Which song from Pocahontas won the Oscar for Best Original Song?
Colors of the Wind
'Colors of the Wind' was the first song written for the film and shaped the story built around it; Vanessa Williams's end-credits version became a top ten hit.
Q 18Which love song was cut from Pocahontas after test audiences of children lost interest?
If I Never Knew You
'If I Never Knew You', the love duet for Pocahontas and John Smith, was cut after test screenings with children; it was restored for the 2005 tenth-anniversary DVD.
Q 19Where did Disney stage its huge outdoor premiere of Pocahontas in June 1995?
New York's Central Park
New York's Central Park hosted the outdoor premiere on 10 June 1995: Disney gave away 100,000 free tickets by lottery, and about half a million people entered the draw.
Q 20Which Disney film was in production alongside Pocahontas and got fewer of the studio's top animators?
The Lion King
The Lion King was in production at the same time, and most of Disney's top animators chose Pocahontas as the prestige project; The Lion King went on to be the far bigger hit.
Genie
The Genie made Goldberg's name, and he joined Mike Gabriel expecting another cartoonish comedy; he was told Pocahontas would instead be played straight, in the vein of Beauty and the Beast.
Q 24Which Disney studio chairman wanted Pocahontas to be a romantic epic like Beauty and the Beast?
Jeffrey Katzenberg
Jeffrey Katzenberg hoped a second animated romance would repeat Beauty and the Beast's Best Picture nomination, so he pushed for an older heroine and silent animals; no such nomination came.
Q 25Which supermodel was among the real-life inspirations for Pocahontas's design?
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell was one of several models the animators studied, along with Kate Moss and Christy Turlington; an old engraving of the real Pocahontas struck her lead animator as too plain, so he 'made a few adjustments'.
Q 26What is the name of Pocahontas's best friend in the film?
Nakoma
Nakoma, Pocahontas's loyal best friend, is voiced by Michelle St. John; worried for her friend, she sends a warrior after Pocahontas, which leads to the tragedy at the glade.
Q 27Which song in Disney's Pocahontas do the settlers and the Powhatan both sing as they prepare for battle?
Savages
'Savages' turns one insult on both camps: settlers and Powhatan each use the very same word for the other as they arm for the fight.
Q 28According to colonist William Strachey, what did the nickname 'Pocahontas' mean?
Little wanton
'Little wanton' was Strachey's word for a playful, mischievous child: he described her as a girl goading the English boys into turning cartwheels with her around the fort at Jamestown.
Q 29What was the name of Pocahontas's father, leader of the Powhatan Confederacy?
Wahunsenacawh
Wahunsenacawh, known to the English simply as Powhatan, began with six groups and, by force and diplomacy, had built them into a paramount chiefdom of about thirty by the time the settlers arrived.
Q 30In 1613 an English captain took Pocahontas hostage by luring her where?
Aboard his ship
Aboard his ship: Samuel Argall had a Patawomeck chief and his wife coax her onto the vessel, rewarded them with a copper kettle, and held her to ransom for English prisoners and stolen weapons.