document_title: Lin-Manuel Miranda

question_text: who does lin manuel miranda play in in the heights

text: Lin-Manuel Miranda

text: Early life

text: Miranda was born in New York City[1] and raised in the neighborhood of Inwood, the son of Luz Towns, a clinical psychologist, and Luis A. Miranda, Jr., a Democratic Party consultant who advised New York City mayor Ed Koch.[4][5][6] Miranda has one older sister, Luz, who is the Chief Financial Officer of the MirRam Group.[7] During childhood and his teens, he spent at least one month each year with his grandparents in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico.[8][9] He is of mostly Puerto Rican descent. His mother's ancestors include an interracial couple, Sophie, who was black, and David Towns, who was white; from the early 1800s, this couple spent their married life trying to outrun slavery as laws and governments changed around them. Ensuing branches of the Towns family primarily married Mexican spouses in Texas and Mexico, and Miranda, for his part, has described his ancestry as a quarter Mexican.[6][10][11] The name "Lin-Manuel" was inspired by a poem about the Vietnam War, Nana roja para mi hijo Lin Manuel, by the Puerto Rican writer José Manuel Torres Santiago.[12][13]

text: As a child, Miranda wrote jingles, including one later used for Eliot Spitzer's 2006 gubernatorial campaign. He attended Hunter College Elementary School and Hunter College High School.[14]

text: As a student at Wesleyan University, Miranda co-founded a hip hop comedy troupe called Freestyle Love Supreme. He wrote the earliest draft of In the Heights in 1999, his sophomore year of college. After the show was accepted by Wesleyan's student theater company, Second Stage, Miranda added freestyle rap and salsa numbers, and the show was premiered there in 1999.[9] Miranda wrote and directed several other musicals at Wesleyan, and acted in many other productions, ranging from musicals to Shakespeare. He graduated from Wesleyan in 2002.[9][15]

text: Career

text: 2002–10: In the Heights

text: In 2002, Miranda and John Buffalo Mailer worked with director Thomas Kail to revise In the Heights.[9][4] Book writer Quiara Alegría Hudes joined the team in 2004.[16] After success off-Broadway, the musical went to Broadway, opening in March 2008.[9] It was nominated for 13 Tony Awards, winning four, including Best Musical and Best Original Score.[2] It also won the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.[3] Miranda's performance in the leading role of Usnavi earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Miranda left the cast of the Broadway production on February 15, 2009.[17]

text: Miranda reprised the role when the national tour of In the Heights played in Los Angeles from June 23 to July 25, 2010.[18][19] He again joined the tour in San Juan, Puerto Rico.[20] Miranda rejoined the Broadway cast as Usnavi from December 25, 2010 until the production closed on January 9, 2011, after 29 previews and 1,185 regular performances.[21]

text: Miranda created other work for the stage during this period. He wrote Spanish language dialogue and worked with Stephen Sondheim to translate into Spanish song lyrics for the 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story.[22][23] In 2008, he was invited by composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz to contribute two new songs to a revised version of Schwartz and Nina Faso's 1978 musical Working, which opened in May 2008 at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida.[24]

text: Miranda also did work for film and television. In 2007, he made a guest appearance on the television series The Sopranos in the episode "Remember When",[25] and in 2009, he played Alvie, Gregory House's roommate in a psychiatric hospital, in the two-hour season six premiere episode of House; he returned to the role in May 2010. He also has done work for Sesame Street, playing occasional roles and singing the theme song to the recurring segment Murray Has a Little Lamb.[26] He was a composer and actor on the 2009 revival of The Electric Company[27][28] and appeared in the CollegeHumor sketch "Hardly Working: Rap Battle", playing himself working as an intern and rapper.[29]

text: During these years, Miranda also worked as an English teacher at his former high school, wrote for the Manhattan Times as a columnist and restaurant reviewer, and composed music for commercials.[30]

text: 2011–14: Bring It On and television work

text: Miranda co-wrote the music and lyrics for Bring It On: The Musical with Tom Kitt and Amanda Green. Bring It On premiered at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia in January 2011.[31] The musical began a US national tour on October 30, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.[32][33] It then played a limited engagement on Broadway at the St. James Theatre, beginning previews on July 12, and officially opening on August 1, 2012. It closed on December 30, 2012. It was nominated for Tony Awards in the categories of Best Musical and Best Choreography.[34]

text: In 2011, Miranda appeared on the TV series Modern Family in the episode "Good Cop Bad Dog".[35] He appeared as Charley in an Encores! staged concert of Merrily We Roll Along at New York City Center in February 2012. Later that year, he appeared in a small role in The Odd Life of Timothy Green as Reggie[36][37] and played the recurring role Ruben Marcado on the 2013 NBC drama Do No Harm.[38]

text: In 2013, Miranda appeared in the episode "Bedtime Stories" (Season 9, Episode 11) on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.[39] Later that year, he submitted a six-song demo package to Walt Disney Animation Studios; in spring 2014, the studio hired him to help write the songs for its 2016 animated feature film, Moana.[40][41] In 2014, he performed with comedy duo The Skivvies,[42] and participated in This American Life at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on June 7, 2014 and broadcast on the radio on June 20, 2014, writing the music and lyrics for, and playing The Narrator in, the one-act 21 Chump Street: The Musical.[43] Also in 2014, Miranda appeared in the Encores! revival of Tick, Tick... Boom! under the artistic direction of Jeanine Tesori. The show was directed by Oliver Butler.[44] Miranda won a 2014 Emmy Award for co-composing (with Tom Kitt) the song "Bigger!", the opening number at the 67th Tony Awards in 2013.[45]

text: 2015–16: Hamilton: An American Musical

text: In 2008, while on vacation, Miranda read Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton and, inspired by the book, wrote a rap about Hamilton that he performed for the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word, on May 12, 2009, accompanied by Alex Lacamoire. Miranda later said he spent a year writing the Hamilton song "My Shot", revising it countless times for every verse to reflect Alexander Hamilton's intellect.[46][12] By 2012, Miranda was performing an extended set of pieces, based on the life of Hamilton, referred to as the Hamilton Mixtape; the New York Times called it "an obvious game changer".[47]

text: Hamilton, a musical based on the Hamilton Mixtape, premiered off-Broadway at The Public Theater in January 2015, directed by Thomas Kail. Miranda wrote the book and score and starred as the title character.[48][49] The show received highly positive reviews,[50] and its engagement was sold out.[51] Chernow and Miranda received the 2015 History Makers Award from the New York Historical Society for their work in creating the musical.[52] The show began previews on Broadway in July 2015 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre and officially opened on August 6, 2015,[53] earning positive reviews.[54] On the first night of Hamilton previews over 700 people lined up for lottery tickets.[55] The Hamilton ticket lottery evolved into Ham4Ham, a series of outdoor mini-performances for lottery participants that was hosted daily by Miranda and cast members for over a year, until August 31, 2016.[56]

text: Meanwhile, Miranda contributed music for the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), writing a song for the scene in Maz Kanata's Cantina, an homage to the classic Mos Eisley Cantina scene and song.[57] On January 24, 2016, Miranda performed the offstage cameo role of Loud Hailer in the Broadway production of Les Misérables,[58] fulfilling his childhood dream of being in the show, as it was the first production he ever saw on Broadway.[59] On March 15, 2016, members of the cast of Hamilton performed at the White House and hosted workshops; Miranda performed freestyle rap from prompts held up by President Obama.[60] In April 2016, Miranda and Jeremy McCarter published Hamilton: The Revolution, a book describing Hamilton's journey from conception to Broadway success and discussing the cultural revolution that permeates the show.[61]

text: On April 24, 2016, on the TV show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, at the end of a segment about the debt crisis in Puerto Rico, Miranda performed an emotional rap about allowing the island to restructure its debt.[62] In May 2016, Miranda received an honorary Doctorate of the Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and gave the commencement speech.[63] The same month, for his work in the role of Alexander Hamilton, Miranda received the Drama League Distinguished Performance Award.[64] Miranda gave his last performance in Hamilton on July 9, 2016.[65] He vowed to return to the show.[66] A documentary about the creation of the show, Hamilton's America, featuring Miranda, premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 1, 2016 and first aired on PBS' Great Performances series on October 21, 2016.[67][68]

text: 2016–present: Disney collaborations and film work

text: From 2014 to 2016, Miranda collaborated with Opetaia Foa'i and Mark Mancina to write the music for Moana.[69] He later explained that because he was so busy with those two projects, he turned down other projects "that would have distracted" him, but this served as an "ego check" as Hamilton became a hit.[40] Miranda sings the song "We Know the Way" in the film. He also recorded a duet with Jordan Fisher of the song "You're Welcome", which is played over the film's end credits.[70] Moana opened to positive reviews in November 2016 and was a box office hit. Miranda's songwriting work was praised by critics,[71][72][73] and he received Golden Globe, Critics Choice Award, Academy Award, and Grammy nominations for the song "How Far I'll Go".[74][75][76][77]

text: Miranda hosted Saturday Night Live on October 8, 2016; in July 2017, he received an Emmy nomination for his appearance.[78] He is set to star in the Mary Poppins sequel Mary Poppins Returns, directed by Rob Marshall.[79] He has been confirmed as executive producer and composer on Lionsgate's film adaptation of The Kingkiller Chronicle, along with a tie-in television series.[80][81] Miranda is producing eleven songs set to be used in the upcoming Sony Pictures Animation film, Vivo, which is being directed by Kirk DeMicco.[82] He is expected to voice Fenton Crackshell/Gizmoduck in the 2017 reboot of DuckTales.[83]

text: In August 2016, Miranda agreed to write songs with Alan Menken for a live-action film remake of The Little Mermaid, which Miranda would also co-produce with Marc Platt.[84] Menken announced in July 2017 that he and Miranda had begun working on new songs for the project.[40][85]

text: Personal life

text: Miranda married Vanessa Adriana Nadal, a high school friend, in 2010.[86] At the wedding reception, Miranda, along with the wedding party, performed the Fiddler on the Roof song "To Life";[87] the video has been viewed more than five million times on YouTube.[88] Nadal is a lawyer at the law firm Jones Day.[89] Miranda and Nadal's son Sebastian was born in 2014. On December 3, 2017, Miranda announced he and Nadal were expecting their second child.[90] On February 2, 2018, Miranda confirmed via Twitter the birth of son Francisco.[91]

text: Miranda discovered that he is related to Residente and ILE of Calle 13 during a 2009 concert by the group in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Miranda was invited to perform. Backstage, the mother of Residente and ILE revealed their connection to Gilberto Concepción de Gracia, founder of the Puerto Rican Independence Party.[92][93][94] Miranda and Residente have since confirmed the relationship.[95][96][97][98] In 2017, Miranda performed on the opening track of Residente's self-titled debut album.[99]

text:
External video

 Playwright, Composer, and Performer Lin-Manuel Miranda, 2015 MacArthur Fellow, MacArthur Foundation[100]

text: Miranda received an honorary degree from Yeshiva University, in Washington Heights, Manhattan, in 2009. He is the youngest person to receive an honorary degree from that university.[101] Former mayor of New York City, Ed Koch, presented Miranda with the degree.[102] In 2015, Miranda received a MacArthur "Genius" Award.[100] He also received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from his alma mater Wesleyan University in May 2015,[103] and gave their commencement address.[104]

text: After a meeting with President Barack Obama in March 2016,[105] Miranda joined U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Charles Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic lawmakers to call for congressional action to back a Senate bill in Washington that would allow Puerto Rico to declare bankruptcy and significantly ease its $70 billion debt burden.[106]

text: Theater credits

text:
Year
Title
Role
Details
Notes

1999
In the Heights
Usnavi
Wesleyan University, April 20–22
Also composer and lyricist

2005
Eugene O'Neill Theater Center

2007
Off-Broadway, Feb. 8 – Jul. 15, 2007

2008–09
Broadway, Feb. 14, 2008 – Feb. 15, 2009

2009–10
US tour

2009
West Side Story

Broadway revival
Spanish translations

2010–11
In the Heights
Usnavi
Broadway, Dec. 25, 2010 – Jan. 9, 2011
Also composer and lyricist

2011
Working

Chicago revival
Wrote two new songs

2012
Merrily We Roll Along
Charley
Encores!, Feb. 8–9, 2012

Bring It On the Musical

Broadway & tour
Co-composer and lyricist

2014
21 Chump Street
Narrator
Brooklyn Academy of Music, June 7, 2014
Also playwright, composer, & lyricist

Tick, Tick... Boom!
Jon
Encores!, June 25–28, 2014

2015
Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
Off-Broadway, Jan. 20 – May 3, 2015
Also playwright, composer, & lyricist

2015–16
Broadway, Aug. 6, 2015 – Jul. 9, 2016

2016
Les Misérables
Loud Hailer
Broadway, January 24, 2016[58]
Voice only

text: Filmography

text: Film

text:
Year
Title
Role
Notes

1996
Clayton's Friends
Pete
Also writer, producer, director, editor

2012
The Odd Life of Timothy Green
Reggie

The Polar Bears
Jak
Short[citation needed]

2013
200 Cartas
Raul
[107]

2015
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Shag Kava (voice)
Also special featured composer

2016
Studio Heads
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Short

Moana

Composer/singer

Hamilton's America
Himself
Also aired on PBS's Great Performances series

2017
Speech & Debate
The Genie

2018
Mary Poppins Returns
Jack
Post-production

text: Television

text:
Year
Title
Role
Notes

2007
The Sopranos
Bellman
Episode: "Remember When"

2009–2012
Sesame Street
Freddy Flapman/Lamb-Manuel Miranda
2 episodes; also composer/lyricist

2009–10
House
Juan "Alvie" Alvarez
2 episodes

The Electric Company
Mario/himself
17 episodes; also composer

2011
Modern Family
Guillermo
Episode: "Good Cop Bad Dog"

65th Tony Awards

Awards show; writer of the closing rap number

2012
Submissions Only
Auditioner #1
Episode: "Another Interruption"

Freestyle Love Supreme
Lin-Manuel Miranda
TV series; also lyricist

2013
Do No Harm
Ruben Marcado
11 episodes

Smash
Himself
Episode: "The Transfer"[108]

67th Tony Awards

Awards show; composer of the opening number "Bigger!"

How I Met Your Mother
Gus
Episode: "Bedtime Stories"

2016
Inside Amy Schumer
Himself
Episode: "The World's Most Interesting Woman in the World"

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Himself
Episode: "Puerto Rico"

Difficult People
Himself
Episode: "Carter"

Saturday Night Live
Himself (host)
Episode: "Lin-Manuel Miranda/Twenty One Pilots"

Drunk History
Himself
Episode: "Hamilton"

2017
My Brother, My Brother and Me
Himself
Episode: "Candlenights & Vape Ape"

BoJack Horseman
Crackerjack Sugarman
Voice role
Episode: "The Old Sugarman House"

The Magic School Bus Rides Again

Theme song singer

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Himself
2 episodes

2018
DuckTales
Gizmoduck/Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera
Voice role

text: Bibliography

text: Books

text: Hamilton: The Revolution (2016) with Jeremy McCarter

text: Articles

text:
"Stop the Bots From Killing Broadway," The New York Times (2016)[109]
"Give Puerto Rico Its Chance to Thrive," The New York Times (2016)[110]

text: Discography

text: Original cast recordings

text:
Year
Title
Notes

2008
In the Heights

Winner of the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album

2014
21 Chump Street
Playwright/composer and The Narrator

2015
Hamilton

Also producer of album
Peaked at #1 US Top Cast Albums, #1 US Top Rap Albums, #1 on US Top Albums
Certified Triple Platinum
Winner of the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album

2016
The Hamilton Mixtape

also Executive Producer of album
Peaked at #1 US Billboard 200, #1 US Digital albums, #1 US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
vocals on 3 tracks

2017
The Hamilton Instrumentals
[111]

text: Singles

text:
2016: "Jabba Flow" from Star Wars: The Force Awakens
2016: "Love Make the World Go Round" with Jennifer Lopez
2016: "What the World Needs Now Is Love" with Broadway for Orlando
2017: "Almost Like Praying"[112] with various artists

text: Narration

text:
2013: Narrator on audio recording of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz[113]
2017: Narrator and rapper on "Intro ADN / DNA", Residente, by Residente.[99]
2015: 21 Chump Street

text: Awards and achievements

text: Among his numerous accolades, Miranda has won a Pulitzer Prize, three Tony Awards, three Grammys, an Emmy, and has been nominated for an Academy Award. He additionally was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 2015. In 2016, Time magazine included him in its annual Time 100 as one of the "Most Influential People in the World" and he received a star on the Puerto Rico Walk of Fame.[114][115] On June 22, 2017, it was announced that Miranda would be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018.[116]


document_title: Federal Meat Inspection Act

question_text: what was the cause of the meat inspection act

root

text: Federal Meat Inspection Act

text: Historical motivation for enactment[edit]

text: The original 1906 Act authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to inspect and condemn any meat product found unfit for human consumption.[1] Unlike previous laws ordering meat inspections, which were enforced to assure European nations from banning pork trade, this law was strongly motivated to protect the American diet. All labels on any type of food had to be accurate (although not all ingredients were provided on the label). Even though all harmful food was banned, a few warnings were still provided on the container. The law was partly a response to the publication of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, an exposé of the Chicago meat packing industry, as well as to other Progressive Era muckraking publications of the day.[2] While Sinclair's dramatized account was intended to bring attention to the terrible working conditions in Chicago, the public was more horrified by the prospect of bad meat.[3]

tag: p

text: The book's assertions were confirmed in the Neill-Reynolds report, commissioned by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.[4] Roosevelt was suspicious of Sinclair's socialist attitude and conclusions in The Jungle, so he sent labor commissioner Charles P. Neill and social worker James Bronson Reynolds, men whose honesty and reliability he trusted, to Chicago to make surprise visits to meat packing facilities.

text: Despite betrayal of the secret to the meat packers, who worked three shifts a day for three weeks to thwart the inspection, Neill and Reynolds were still revolted by the conditions at the factories and at the lack of concern by plant managers (though neither had much experience in the field). Following their report, Roosevelt became a supporter of regulation of the meat packing industry, and, on June 30, signed the Meat Inspection Act of 1906.[5]

text: Provisions[edit]

text: The FMIA mandated the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection of meat processing plants that conducted business across state lines.[6] The Pure Food and Drug Act, enacted on the same day in 1906, also gave the government broad jurisdiction over food in interstate commerce.[7]

text: The four primary requirements of the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 were:

text:
Mandatory inspection of livestock before slaughter (cattle, sheep, goats, equines, and swine);
Mandatory postmortem inspection of every carcass;
Sanitary standards established for slaughterhouses and meat processing plants; and
Authorized U.S. Department of Agriculture ongoing monitoring and inspection of slaughter and processing operations.

tag: ol

text: After 1906, many additional laws that further standardized the meat industry and its inspection were passed.

text: Preemption of state law[edit]

text: In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in National Meat Assn. v. Harris, that the FMIA preempts a California law regulating the treatment of non-ambulatory livestock.[8]


document_title: Pocahontas (1995 film)

question_text: who does pocahontas fall in love with in the disney movie

text: Pocahontas (1995 film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: In 1607, the Susan Constant sails to the New World from London, carrying English settlers from the Virginia Company. On board are Captain John Smith and the voyage's leader Governor Ratcliffe, who seeks gold to bring him wealth and status. Along the way, the Susan Constant is caught in a North Atlantic storm, and Smith saves a young, inexperienced crewmate named Thomas from drowning. As they approach the New World, the settlers (including Smith) talk of adventure, finding gold, fighting 'Injuns', and perhaps settling in the new land.

text: In the Powhatan tribe in Tsenacommacah, North America, Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan, fears being possibly wed to Kocoum, a brave warrior whom she sees as too serious for her own free-spirited personality. Powhatan gives Pocahontas her mother's necklace as a present. Pocahontas, along with her friends, the raccoon Meeko and hummingbird Flit, visit Grandmother Willow, a spiritual talking willow tree, and speaks of a dream involving a spinning arrow, and her confusion regarding what her path in life should be. Grandmother Willow then alerts Pocahontas to the arriving English.

text: Ratcliffe has Jamestown built in a wooded clearing and immediately has the crewmen dig for gold. Smith departs to explore the wilderness and encounters Pocahontas. They quickly bond, fascinated by each other's worlds and end up falling in love, despite Powhatan's orders to keep away from the English after Kocoum and other warriors engage them in a fight. Meanwhile, Meeko meets Percy, Ratcliffe's dog, and becomes the bane of his existence. Pocahontas introduces Smith to Grandmother Willow and avoids two other crewmen, but Pocahontas's best friend Nakoma discovers her relationship with Smith and warns Kocoum. Ratcliffe also learns of Smith's encounters and angrily warns Smith against sparing any natives he comes across on pain of death.

text: Later, Smith and Pocahontas meet with Grandmother Willow and plan to bring peace between the colonists and the tribe. Smith and Pocahontas share a kiss, while Kocoum and Thomas (sent by Ratcliffe to spy on Smith) witness from afar. Enraged, Kocoum attacks and attempts to kill Smith, but Thomas intervenes with his musket and kills Kocoum, who destroys Pocahontas' necklace in the process. Smith commands Thomas to leave just before the tribesmen come and capture Smith while Kocoum's body is taken away. Enraged at Kocoum's death, Powhatan declares war on the English, beginning with Smith's execution at sunrise. Pocahontas tries to convince him otherwise, but Powhatan refuses to listen, as he is furious with Pocahontas for not listening to his orders to remain in the village.

text: Thomas reaches Jamestown safely at night and warns the crewmen of Smith's capture; after hearing this Ratcliffe rallies his men to battle, using this as an excuse to annihilate the tribe and find their non-existent gold. That same night, Powhatan also orders his men to prepare for battle, and they put on war paint and prepare their weapons. A desperate Pocahontas visits Grandmother Willow, where Meeko hands her Smith's compass. Pocahontas realizes Smith's compass was the spinning arrow from her real life encounter, which leads her to her destiny.

text: Just then morning comes, and Powhatan and his tribe forcibly bring Smith to a cliff overlooking a clearing for execution. Meanwhile, Ratcliffe leads the armed colonists to the cliff to fight Powhatan's warriors. Just as Powhatan is about to kill Smith, Pocahontas stops him and finally convinces him to end the fighting between the two groups. Everyone accepts gracefully, except Ratcliffe, who tries to shoot Powhatan dead in anger, but inadvertently shoots Smith instead when he shields Powhatan. Ratcliffe is then arrested by his crewmen, who turn on him for hurting their comrade. In the end, Smith is forced to return home to receive medical treatment, while Ratcliffe is also sent back to England to face justice for his crimes. Smith asks Pocahontas to come with him, but she chooses to stay with her tribe. Meeko and Percy, now friends, give Pocahontas her mother's necklace completely fixed. Smith leaves without Pocahontas but with Powhatan's blessing to return in the future.

text: Cast[edit]

text: Irene Bedard as Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan. She is an adventurous woman who violates her father's strict prohibition of meeting white people and falls in love with Captain John Smith. Glen Keane served as the supervising animator for Pocahontas.

tag: ul

text: Judy Kuhn as singing voice of Pocahontas

text:
Mel Gibson as John Smith, the love interest of Pocahontas. He is the only settler in Jamestown willing to befriend the natives due to his love for Pocahontas and acceptance of other cultures. John Pomeroy served as the supervising animator for John Smith.
David Ogden Stiers as Governor Ratcliffe, the greedy and ruthlessly ambitious governor who leads an expedition to Virginia to find gold and other riches (which he wants to keep for himself). Unlike other Disney villains, he is based upon a combination of real-life historical figures. Duncan Marjoribanks served as the supervising animator for Ratcliffe.

Stiers also provided the voice of Wiggins, Ratcliffe's manservant. Chris Buck served as the supervising animator for Wiggins.

John Kassir as Meeko, Pocahontas's pet raccoon who is friendly to John Smith and loves eating. Nik Ranieri served as the supervising animator for Meeko.
Russell Means as Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas's father and chief of the Powhatan. Ruben A. Aquino served as the supervising animator for Powhatan.

text: Jim Cummings as singing voice of Chief Powhatan

text:
Christian Bale as Thomas, a loyal friend of John Smith. Ken Duncan served as the supervising animator for Thomas.
Linda Hunt as Grandmother Willow, a speaking willow tree that acts as Pocahontas's guide. Chris Buck served as the supervising animator for Grandmother Willow.
Danny Mann as Percy, Governor Ratcliffe's pet pug. Chris Buck served as the supervising animator for Percy.
Billy Connolly and Joe Baker as Ben and Lon, two of the settlers. T. Daniel Hofstedt served as the supervising animator for both characters.
Frank Welker as Flit, Pocahontas's pet hummingbird who prefers Kocoum over John Smith but eventually warms up to him. David Pruiksma served as the supervising animator for Flit.
Michelle St. John as Nakoma, Pocahontas's friend who secretly adores Kocoum. Anthony DeRosa served as the supervising animator for Nakoma.
James Apaumut Fall as Kocoum, a handsome, strong and brave but stern and aggressive Powhatan warrior who was asked to marry Pocahontas (for whom he cares). He is shot and killed by Thomas while trying to kill John Smith after he sees them kiss. Michael Cedeno served as the supervising animator for Kocoum.
Gordon Tootoosis as Kekata, the shaman of the Powhatan.

text: Jim Cummings as singing voice of Kekata

text: Three actors in the film have been involved in other Pocahontas-related projects. Gordon Tootoosis, who voiced Kekata the shaman, acted as Chief Powhatan in Pocahontas: The Legend, released the same year as this film. Christian Bale, who voiced Thomas, and Irene Bedard, who provided Pocahontas's speaking voice, would ten years later portray John Rolfe and Pocahontas's mother respectively in The New World.

text: Production[edit]

text: Development[edit]

text: Following the release of The Rescuers Down Under, director Mike Gabriel was eager to collaborate on a vastly different follow-up project with veteran Disney story artist and character designer Joe Grant. During Thanksgiving weekend in 1990, Gabriel developed ideas of classic western legends such as Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, and Pecos Bill to adapt until he conceptualized the tale of Pocahontas.[2] Pitching his idea at the Gong Show pitch meeting, Gabriel took a one-sheet color image of Tiger Lily from Peter Pan and wrote the title Walt Disney's Pocahontas on it, and on the back, he taped a one-sentence pitch of "an Indian princess who is torn between her father's wishes to destroy the English settlers and her wishes to help them — a girl caught between her father and her people, and her love for the enemy."[3] At the time, Feature Animation president Peter Schneider had been developing an animated version of Romeo and Juliet for many years and Gabriel's timely pitch had many of the same elements. "We were particularly interested in exploring the theme of 'If we don't learn to live with one another, we will destroy ourselves,'" recalled Schneider.[4][2] Gabriel's pitch was quickly accepted becoming the quickest story turnaround in studio history.[5]

text: Following the Best Picture nomination of Beauty and the Beast at the 64th Academy Awards and its subsequent loss in March 1992, then-studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg opted to produce another animated sweeping romantic epic in hopes of replicating another Best Picture nomination. With Aladdin and The Lion King too far into development, Katzenberg believed that Pocahontas had a chance, and pushed for the title protagonist to be older, the romance between Pocahontas and Smith to be more adult, and for the animals to be mute.[6] Head of Story Tom Sito went on the record stating he wanted to include more and broader jokes, but the "higher-ups wanted it more winsome, more gentle. Some of the folks were so concerned about political correctness, they didn't want to be cuckoo-wacky about it."[7] Likewise, Eric Goldberg – following his work on Aladdin as the supervising animator for the Genie and with all of the animation units for The Lion King already occupied – was asked to co-direct Pocahontas with Gabriel, in which he agreed to and was given a pitch of the film.[8][9] Goldberg had expected the film to be more comedic and cartoonish like Aladdin, but Schneider told Goldberg that the film would be produced in the vein of Beauty and the Beast,[10] and the ongoing Los Angeles riots in 1992 further inspired him to commit to the film because of its racial overtones.[11] The executive interference would eventually grow too much that Goldberg himself worked under the pseudonym "Claude Raynes" for Chuck Jones Productions during production.[10] Executive paranoia reached a peak when Joe Grant had drawn Percy wearing an Indian feather, by which the animators took the concept one step further by placing a Spanish ruff on Meeko. One executive exclaimed, "Animals don't have the intelligence to switch their clothes! They don't even have opposing thumbs." The animators would retain their concept for the film.[12]

text: Under Katzenberg, Frank Wells, and Michael Eisner, the Disney studios began a correlation of hiring Broadway personnel to manage the Disney animation staff on their feature films that brought such producers as Amy Pell to Aladdin and Sarah McArthur and Thomas Schumacher to The Lion King.[13] For Pocahontas, Broadway stage manager, director, and producer James Pentecost was brought onboard where he made his feature film debut as producer.[14] In June 1992, the filmmakers embarked on a research trip to the Jamestown Settlement where Pentecost first met Shirley "Little Dove" Custalow-McGowan and Debbie "White Dove" Custalow, both descendants of the Powhatan Indians. The trip also included a visit to the Pamunkey Indian Reservation, and conducted interviews with historians at Old Dominion University.[15] Following the research trip, Custalow-McGowan served as a consultant traveling to the Disney studios three times, and while Custalow-McGowan offered her services free, Disney paid her a $500 daily consulting fee plus expenses.[16] Ultimately, when it came to light that historical accuracy was not being pursued to the extent she had hoped, McGowan has voiced her feelings of shame she felt in conjunction with her work on the film, saying, "[she] wish[ed her] name wasn't on it".[17] Additional Native American consultants were brought in to authenticate the clothing and war dance choreography.[18]

text: That same month, Katzenberg held a meeting with the Feature Animation staff in which he declared Pocahontas to be a hit, while the concept for The Lion King was deemed experimental.[19] As a result, most of the animators of Walt Disney Feature Animation decided to work on Pocahontas instead, believing it would be the more prestigious and successful of the two.[20]

text: Writing[edit]

text: In January 1993, Carl Binder joined the project,[21] having previous expertise as a television writer on popular sitcoms such as Punky Brewster and television series such as War of the Worlds, Friday the 13th: The Series, and Top Cops.[22] Four months later, Susannah Grant (no relation to Joe Grant) and Philip LaZebnik joined the writing team. Grant herself was selected by Disney as a screenwriter on Pocahontas after winning the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences the year before while still attending film school.[23] Onboard as a screenwriter, she was only one of the many who was contributing the specific vision the upper management at Disney had in mind, and collaborated with Native American consultants. While working on the movie, Grant wrote to a specific story outline, and no scene was rewritten less than thirty-five times until it was perfect.[24]

text: Story supervisor Tom Sito, who became the project's unofficial historical consultant, did extensive research into the early colonial era and the story of John Smith and Pocahontas, and was confronted over the historical inaccuracies from historians.[25] Already knowing that in reality Pocahontas married John Rolfe, Mike Gabriel explained it was felt that "the story of Pocahontas and Rolfe was too complicated and violent for a youthful audience" so instead, they would focus on Pocahontas's meeting with John Smith.[26] The filmmakers discovered that Pocahontas was around twelve years old and Smith was "not a very likeable character", and producer James Pentecost confessed that dramatic license was indeed to be taken.[27] Likewise, when searching for an appropriate age for Pocahontas to begin her relationship with Smith, Glen Keane explained, "We had the choice of being historically accurate or socially responsible, so we chose the socially responsible side" by increasing Pocahontas's age from a girl into a young woman.[28]

text: One of Gabriel's early ideas was for Pocahontas's mother to be embodied in a certain star in the sky that by the end of the film, she would help Pocahontas find her path to Smith.[29] However, The Lion King had concurrently carried a similar idea of the ancestors giving wisdom and guidance to the protagonist so the idea was discarded.[11] Michael Eisner pushed for Pocahontas to have a mother, lamenting that "We're always getting fried for having no mothers." The writers countered that Powhatan was polygamous and formed dynastic alliances among other neighboring tribes by impregnating a local squaw and giving away the child, so it was believed that Pocahontas herself probably didn't see her mother that much.[30] "Well", Eisner conceded, "I guess that means we're toasted."[7] Ultimately, her mother's spirit would become the swirling wind that occurs throughout the film.[29] For the villain, they chose John Ratcliffe, whose portrayal was based on actual English captains, including John Martin, Christopher Newport and Edward Maria Wingfield. In reality, it was Wingfield who despised John Smith, but the filmmakers preferred the sinister sound of "Ratcliffe".[31] The writers would continue to adapt actual events into the film such as Pocahontas warning Smith that the Indians were after him so he could escape in the middle of the night, Powhatan ordering the captured Smith to make bead necklaces to humiliate him, and Pocahontas being captured by Ratcliffe (instead of Samuel Argall), though none of them worked with the story.[7]

text: Sito mentioned that Joe Grant contributed heavily towards the film,[32] as he was the creator of Redfeather, Meeko, and Flit.[33] Redfeather was a wise-cracking turkey planning to be voiced by John Candy, and Percy, who was to be voiced by Richard E. Grant, was revised to become mute.[34] Following the death of John Candy in March 1994, co-screenwriter Susannah Grant decided the turkey was inappropriate for the script she co-wrote for Pocahontas,[35] and a more realistic approach would have the animals pantomime instead of talking.[7] Joe Grant stated Redfeather "had comic potential–he thought he was handsome, a lady's man. When we decided he couldn't talk, and, having no hands, he couldn't mime..." Grant would later draw a concept sketch of a hair-braiding raccoon, in which Glen Keane animated and claimed the directors "loved the idea and got rid of the turkey character."[36] Likewise, according to Sito, Meeko was created because they were "naturally enigmatic, because they have little hands and a little mask over their face like a thief."[37] Gabriel described the inspiration for Flit the hummingbird where "I have hummingbirds all over my backyard, [and] I thought, 'That's a great animal to animate.'"[38] According to the directors, Governor Ratcliffe's pampered pet, Percy, was based on history as the royalty of the time often carried small pugs wherever they went.[38]

text: For the spiritual ancestor, a male character named Old Man River was originally envisioned, and Gregory Peck was cast in the role. However, Peck realized the character ought to be a maternal figure and reluctantly turned down the role.[39] Conceived as a Tree of Life whose seasonal changes would frame the story,[40] Grandmother Willow grew out of a concept sketch of a sawed-off tree with a branch pointing to its right drawn by Grant,[41] which would serve as a narrator that would "remember back to Pocahontas 300 years earlier".[40] Grant would continue to protest to have the tree be more a character within the story, and her character flowered into the idea of a grandmotherly spiritual adviser to Pocahontas.[40] Because of Katzenberg's opposition to having Grandmother Willow in the story, Grant assisted fellow veteran story artist Burny Mattinson with coming up tree puns such as "My bark is worse than my bite", "The roots of all problems", and "They're barking up the wrong tree." Mattinson reluctantly added them to his pitch for the next morning, and during the story meeting, he exclaimed, "Everybody loved it! All of a sudden: 'Oh, I want her in!' 'Let's build her part bigger!'"[42] The character Nakoma was also created to serve as the voice of reason and the practical woman.[37]

text: Casting[edit]

text: Throughout most of the production, the cast members performed their dialogue in separate recording sessions.[43][44]

text: In September 1992, Disney began casting actors for Pocahontas telling talent agents that they were particularly interested in Native American actors for the project.[45] For the role of Pocahontas, Broadway actress-singer Judy Kuhn was hired to provide the singing voice for the eponymous character before Irene Bedard was cast. Kuhn explained, "They said, 'You are going to do the dialogue unless we find a Native American actress whose singing voice matched yours.' I was cast before Irene, so it actually went backwards."[46] Bedard herself was filming Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee where she was informed by the casting director that they were looking for someone to voice the title role. According to Bedard, she took a train to Buffalo, New York where she was walked in wearing a sundress and a straw hat, and read for the part. Back on the set of Lakota Woman, she learned that she was cast in the role.[47] Michelle St. John had also auditioned for the role of Pocahontas, and was given the role of Nakoma after Bedard was cast.[11]

text: Mel Gibson was cast as English settler John Smith following a desire to make "something for my kids."[48] In a notable contrast to previous voice actors for Disney animated features, Gibson provided the singing voice for his character,[49] which the actor has described as the most difficult part of his role.[48] Christian Bale auditioned for the role of Thomas. As he explained in an interview with Disney Adventures, "the directors played with Thomas being Irish and Scottish and younger than I am, so I had to raise my voice and do different accents. But the more we did it, the more he became like me--older and English."[38] Richard White, the voice of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast was supposed to voice Ratcliffe, but the crew was worried he might sound too much like Gaston, so he was replaced by his co-star David Ogden Stiers.[50] Russell Means was cast as Chief Powhatan, though he expressed displeasure with the script in that Native Americans addressed each other using proper names rather than the traditional "my father" or "my friend".[51] Indigenous Canadian First Nation actor Gordon Tootoosis was also cast as the tribal shaman Nekata.[52]

text: Design and animation[edit]

text: Renowned for animating female characters such as Ariel, supervising animator Glen Keane was immediately tapped to draw the titular Indian princess.[53] Following the demands of Jeffrey Katzenberg to make the title character "the most idealized and finest woman ever made", Keane first began to sought his inspirations for his depictions for Pocahontas from Shirley 'Little Dove' Custalow-McGowan and Debbie White Dove, women he had met during the research trip to Virginia.[54] Keane recalled meeting the women:

text: So I turned around and there's this beautiful Indian woman walking up; a Native American. She said 'Are you Glen Keane? The animator that's going to do Pocahontas?' I said 'Well, yeah.' And then from behind another tree another woman came up and she said, 'Well, my name is Shirley Little Dove, and this is my sister Devi White Dove, and we are descended from Pocahontas.' And as they stood there, I mean I took a picture of both of them, and between their faces was Pocahontas' face in my mind – I could see her.[55]

text: Other inspirations were Charmaine Craig, Filipino model Dyna Taylor, Christy Turlington, Natalie Belcon, Naomi Campbell, Jamie Pillow, white supermodel Kate Moss, and her own voice actress Irene Bedard.[56][57][58][59] Keane also looked to a 1620 depiction of Pocahontas from a history book he had checked out, though Keane would state she was "not exactly a candidate for People's "Most Beautiful" issue [so] I made a few adjustments to add an Asian feeling to her face."[48] Because of the complexity of the color schemes, shapes, and expressions in the animation, a total of 55 animators worked on the design of Pocahontas' character alone,[60] which included Mark Henn[61] and Pres Romanillos.[62]

text: Following the closure of Sullivan-Bluth Studios in 1993, John Pomeroy, who notoriously resigned alongside Don Bluth during work on The Fox and the Hound in 1979,[63] returned to his former employer, and was assigned as the supervising animator of John Smith.[64] Describing Smith's development throughout production, Pomeroy stated, "The first concepts looked like a real well-groomed adventurer. Kind of predictable. Then we started making him a little sloppier. We tried looks where he was sloppily dressed, or where he had a couple of days' growth of beard...At first, Smith carried a lot of guns and daggers, but eventually these were cut out. Each time the design got simpler, it got better."[38] Additionally, Pomeroy cited inspiration for John Smith from Errol Flynn and physical attributes of Gibson.[65]

text: Initially assigned as a supervising animator on The Lion King, Nik Ranieri did character designs and test animation for Timon, but moved over to Pocahontas growing frustrated with an indecisive vision from the directors. There, he was assigned to animate Redfeather until Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered for the animals to be mute. Finding feathers difficult for Redfeather to gesture with, he was again assigned to animate Meeko using a Little Golden Books animal book illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen as reference.[66] Duncan Marjoribanks utilized geometric shapes to create Ratcliffe. In early drafts of the character, he had the body similar to a pear, but to make him appear more arrogant, the animator increased the force of gravity on his chest so that he seemed more pompous and physically threatening.[67] Chris Buck served as the supervising animator for Percy, Wiggins, and Grandmother Willow. For Grandmother Willow, the face was traditionally animated by Buck, while the cowl and the trunk of the tree was digitally animated under the supervision of Steve Goldberg. Assisted with the effect animators, a 3D software program was employed for the bark to be individually manipulated and for the face to match with the computer-generated texture.[2] The following supervising animators included Anthony DeRosa for Nakoma, Michael Cedeno for Kocoum, Ken Duncan for Thomas, T. Daniel Hofstedt for the settlers Lon and Ben, and Dave Pruiksma for Flit.[68] While Mulan was within its pre-production stages, 18 minutes were animated by 170 animators and artists at the Disney-MGM Studios.[69]

text: For the film's art director, Gabriel selected Michael Giamio who shared his painting style of shape-based and secondary art details.[70] For Giaimo, he relied on a color-saturated, elegant designs in a less-than-realistic format inspired by "prehistory Caribbean themes and creatures derived from African/Mexican folk art."[70] Giamio also drew the look and style of the film from the filmmaker's numerous visits to Jamestown, Virginia as well as by extensive research into the colonial period such as the tall, vertical shapes of the Virginian pine forests set against the vast horizontal landscapes being incorporated into the layout aspect of the film in its use of strong vertical and horizontal imagery,[14] as well as sought out inspiration from the works produced by earlier Disney art designers such as Richard Kelsey's story sketches from his unproduced film Hiawatha,[71] Eyvind Earle, who worked on Sleeping Beauty,[72] and Mary Blair.[73]

text: Music[edit]

text: Howard Ashman and Alan Menken were planning to write songs for this film once they were finished working on Aladdin, but Ashman died in 1991. Following the death of his longtime collaborator, Menken wrote the remaining songs for Aladdin with Tim Rice at his home in London, which the New York-based composer found to be difficult.[74] When work on Aladdin was commenced, Menken was planning to write songs for the film with Rice. But Kevin Bannerman – the film's director of development – stated Rice "was always gallivanting around the world and it was difficult to get him and Alan together ... And so here was Stephen [Schwartz], who had written scores that we all loved and we were huge fans of, and he lived in the New York area." Disney immediately contacted Stephen Schwartz, who, after working on Working, Rags, and Children of Eden, had quit theater and was taking psychology courses at New York University; he was brought on board to write the lyrics.[75][76] This would mark the first time Menken had collaborated without Ashman for a Disney animated film.[77] Menken commented that their work included moments of tension because Schwartz was also capable of writing music and Menken had had experience with lyrics. Both wanted to use the keyboard, but they arrived at a working strategy.[78]

text: Due to corporate interest in the film surrounding its theme of promoting understanding between different groups, and its inclusion of violence and threats of greater conflict along with the romance of Pocahontas and John Smith, Schwartz became heavily involved in the storytelling. Bannerman estimated that he spent a week with one of the screenwriters and helped work out the overall themes of tolerance and cooperation.[79] In June 1992, Schwartz researched Jamestown, Virginia where he absorbed the atmosphere and bought tapes of Native American music and English sea shanties and other music from the early seventeenth century that helped inspire numbers in the film.[80] Schwartz modeled his lyrical writing for people of other ethnicities on that of Oscar Hammerstein II and Sheldon Harnick.[81] "Colors of the Wind" was the first song to be written for the film. Gabriel, Goldberg, and Pentecost insisted that the song help define the film's "heart and soul".[11] Schwartz began "Colors" with a few draft ideas for lyrics taking inspiration from Chief Seattle's letter to the United States Congress.[82] Then, Menken wrote the melody with Schwartz listening at the piano and making suggestions. Schwartz would add lyrics before a session together where they were refined.[83] "Just Around the Riverbend", also composed by Menken and Schwartz, was devised by Schwartz's wife Carole, with the idea that Pocahontas would have a recurring dream that suggested something coming her way, paving the way for her "I want" song.[84] The song almost did not make it into the completed film when Disney executives doubted whether her song would have the kind of impact they wanted at that point. However, Schwartz stated he and Menken "believed in it very strongly. Indeed, at one point we wrote a different song for that spot, but Alan and I were never as happy with the second song and ultimately everybody at Disney came to feel that way, too."[85]

text: The filmmakers had planned for a song for when Pocahontas and Smith met in the glade, just before Kocoum attacks his rival and one of the settlers stalking Smith kills Kocoum. There were an estimated three to four songs at this point, including "In the Middle of the River",[86] "Powerful Magic", which was deemed too silly to have a cheerful song before Kocoum's death, and "First to Dance" was another attempt at a happy song.[87] The love song, titled "If I Never Knew You", had been finished by the animators, but following a test screening where younger audiences were not interested and the teenagers felt giddy, Menken was the first to suggest the song be removed from the film, although its melody remained in the orchestral underscoring.[88] For its 2005 DVD release, the song was restored back to the film.

text: The musical score by Alan Menken, with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, received two Academy Awards, including one for the song "Colors of the Wind".[89] The film's soundtrack was also successful, reaching number-one on the Billboard 200 during the week of July 22, 1995.[90] It ended up with a triple platinum certification.[91] "Colors of the Wind" was also sung by Tori Kelly in 2015 in the album "We Love Disney".

text: Release[edit]

text: Marketing[edit]

text: To replicate the promotional buzz of The Lion King, the four-minute musical number, "Colors of the Wind", was released in November 1994, accompanying a theatrical re-release of The Lion King.[92] On February 3, 1995, Disney began its promotional marketing campaign starting in San Diego, California launching a nationwide 18-week tour of fashion malls located within twenty-five cities where a mall exhibit named Pocahontas Animation Discovery Adventure was created to help promote the release.[93][94] There, a Disney animator would guide shoppers on a presentation tour, which featured a walk-through maze with interactive lily pads, flying birds, and huge video wall, a studio workshop where visitors can become the voice of their favorite animated character, and an area where visitors can electronically manipulate images. Additionally, they would demonstrate animation techniques and discuss the design and creation of the Pocahontas character.[95] Further promotional tie-ins included Burger King distributed 55 million toy replicas of the film's characters with kids' meals, Payless Shoes featured a line of moccasins, and Mattel peddled a Barbie-like Pocahontas doll.[93]

text: A behind-the-scenes documentary television special titled The Making of Pocahontas: A Legend Comes to Life was aired on June 20, 1995, on the Disney Channel where the animators, voice cast, crew, and studio heads were interviewed on the production of the film. The special was hosted by actress Irene Bedard.[96]

text: The film had the largest premiere in history, on June 10, 1995, in New York's Central Park, followed by a live performance by Vanessa Williams.[97] Disney officials estimated the crowd at 100,000.[97] Dignitaries that attended the premiere included then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Caroline Kennedy, Mariah Carey and then-Disney Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner.[97]

text: Box office[edit]

text: Timed with Pocahontas' 400th birthday,[2] Pocahontas had a limited release in North America on June 16, 1995, playing in only six selected theaters.[98] The film grossed nearly $2.7 million during the weekend of June 16–18, standing at the eighth place in the box office ranking.[99] The wide release followed on June 24, 1995, in 2,596 screens. Studio estimates initially ranked Pocahontas earning $30.5 million ranking first beating out the previous box office champion Batman Forever.[100] The figure was later revised to $28.8 million with Pocahontas falling second behind Batman Forever.[101] However, the final estimates placed Pocahontas narrowly ranking first grossing $29.5 million in its first weekend with Batman Forever falling into second place taking $29.2 million.[102] By January 1996, the film grossed $141.5 million in the United States,[103] being the fourth-highest-grossing film in North America behind Apollo 13, Toy Story, and Batman Forever respectively.[104] Foreign wise, the film was expected to gross $225 million outside the United States,[105] though foreign box office grosses eventually amounted to $204,500,000.[1] Cumulatively, Pocahontas grossed $346,079,773 worldwide.[1] Seen as a commercial box office disappointment in comparison to The Lion King,[106] then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner contested in an annual shareholders' meeting in January 1996 that "Pocahontas is well on its way to being one of our most successful films of all time. It equalled [sic] Beauty and the Beast's box office numbers domestically, and now it has taken Europe by storm and is playing well in every country in which it is being shown. Sales of Pocahontas merchandise have been phenomenal."[107]

text: Home media[edit]

text: At first announced to be released on March 6, 1996,[108] Pocahontas was first released on VHS and laserdisc in the United States on February 28, 1996, under the "Masterpiece Collection" lineup. Some prototype copies of the VHS release used the 1989 Walt Disney Classics logo, while copies produced from February 28, 1996, onwards used the standard Masterpiece Collection logo. A deluxe VHS edition included the film and a documentary on the making of the film alongside a special edition of The Art of Pocahontas book and Disney-certified lithograph prints.[109] Released on November 13, 1996, the CAV laserdisc Deluxe Edition contained the film, a historical documentary on Pocahontas, and The Making of Pocahontas, along with added storyboards, character design artwork, concept art, rough animation, publicity and promotional trailers, the deleted "If I Never Knew You" musical sequence, and an audio commentary on a total of four double sided discs. The release was also accompanied with a Special Edition of the Art of Pocahontas book.[110] Disney initially shipped 17 million VHS copies to retail stores,[111] with nine million copies sold within its first weekend exceeding the VHS sales of Cinderella released in the previous fall but falling short of the retail sales of The Lion King.[112] By the summer of 1998, sales and rentals of the VHS release had accumulated to $200 million.[113]

text: In January 2000, Walt Disney Home Video launched the Gold Classic Collection, with Pocahontas re-issued on VHS and DVD on June 6, 2000.[114] The DVD contained the film in its 1.66:1 aspect ratio enhanced with 5.1 surround sound, and was accompanied with special features including two music videos, a trivia game, the theatrical trailer, and a "Fun with Nature" activity booklet.[115] In 2005, a 10th Anniversary 2-disc Special Edition DVD set was released, which featured a new extended cut of the film (adding two performances of "If I Never Knew You") and numerous bonus features.

text: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Pocahontas, alongside its sequel Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, on Blu-ray Disc as a 2-Movie Collection on August 21, 2012.[116] In a number of countries, however, both Pocahontas and its sequel were released individually to the format. The Blu-ray was first released in Australia in February 2012 and followed by a May 30 European release and an August 21 American release. The American release is packaged for 2-disc DVD[117] (one film per disc) and 3-disc Blu-ray combo pack, featuring both films on one Blu-ray in addition to the two individual DVDs.[118] The Blu-ray did not retain the inclusion of "If I Never Knew You" through seamless integration, however, only the special features.

text: Pocahontas was re-released yet again in 2016 as a Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital HD combo pack, available exclusively through the Disney Movie Club. It featured brand-new cover art, and, for the first time, a digital copy download of the film alongside the physical release.[119]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: Pocahontas received generally mixed reviews from film critics.[101] The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 56% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 52 reviews, with an average score of 6/10. The site's consensus states "Pocahontas means well, and has moments of startling beauty, but it's largely a bland, uninspired effort, with uneven plotting and an unfortunate lack of fun."[120] Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 58 based on 23 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews."[121]

text: Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film 3 out of 4 stars writing the film was "the best-looking of the modern Disney animated features, and one of the more thoughtful" though in his print review, he was more critical of the story and portrayal of the villain ultimately summarizing that "on a list including Mermaid, Beauty, Aladdin and Lion King, I'd rank it fifth. It has a lot of good intentions, but a severe scoundrel shortage."[122] On the television program Siskel & Ebert, Ebert repeated the same sentiment, while his partner Gene Siskel was more praising of the film. Both critics gave the film a "Thumbs Up".[123] In his print review for the Chicago Tribune, Siskel awarded the film 3½ of 4 stars commenting that the film is a "surprisingly serious, thoughtful and beautifully drawn Disney animated feature about the American birthright of exploitation and racism". He praised it for "sending powerful images to children about threats to the natural order", restoring "a certain majesty to the Indian culture", and for having "the courage that leads to the life-goes-on ending."[124]

text: The film's writing and lack of humor received mixed reviews. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly stated "With dismay, I realize that virtually everything in the movie — every character, every story twist, every song — is as generic as the two hygienic lovers. As a fairy-tale confection, a kind of West Side Story in Jamestown, Pocahontas is pleasant to look at, and it will probably satisfy very small kiddies, but it's the first of the new-era Disney cartoons that feels less than animated."[125] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone bemoaned that there were "no funny, fast-talking animals — Meeko the raccoon and Flit the hummingbird remain silent pals to Pocahontas and make you miss the verbal fun that Nathan Lane's wisecracking meerkat brought to The Lion King."[126] Desson Howe, reviewing for The Washington Post, likewise criticized the writing as recycling "elements from Snow White to The Lion King, with a father-child clash, a heroine's saintly pureness that transforms an entire people, a forbidden love, consultations with an oracle/shaman (in this case a tree spirit, voiced by Linda Hunt) and the usual sideshow of funny, fuzzy animals.[127] While acknowledging the screenplay was the "film's weakest element", Janet Maslin of The New York Times summarized that "Gloriously colorful, cleverly conceived and set in motion with the usual Disney vigor, Pocahontas is one more landmark feat of animation. It does everything a children's film should do except send little viewers home humming its theme song."[128]

text: According to Chief Roy Crazy Horse of the Powhatan Renape Nation, the film "distorts history beyond recognition" and "perpetuates a dishonest and self-serving myth at the expense of the Powhatan Nation". Roy claims that Disney refused the tribe's offers to help create a more culturally and historically accurate film.[129] An editorial in the Los Angeles Times pointed out America's fascination with the Indian princess who was rarely shown as having anything more important in her life than her male relationships.[130]

text: Cornel Pewewardy argues that the film presents damaging stereotypes of the Native American population.[131] Pewewardy feels that the representation of Native characters, like Grandmother Willow, Meeko, and Flit, as animals, has a marginalizing effect.[131] Also, Kocoum and John Smith go head to head in the film fighting for Pocahontas' affection. It has been argued that Smith's victory over Kocoum in this arena is symbolic of Western Europe's domination of the Americas and the white man's domination over men of color.[132] The lyrics of the song "Savages", in which the English and the Native Americans each accuse the other culture of being evil and subhuman, has been called insensitive by Peweardy.[131]

text: Accolades[edit]

text:
Ceremony
Recipient
Category
Result

Academy Awards
"Colors of the Wind"
(Alan Menken, Composer; Stephen Schwartz, Lyricist)
Best Original Song
Won

Alan Menken (Composer), Stephen Schwartz (Lyricist)
Best Musical or Comedy Score
Won

Annie Awards

Best Animated Feature
Won

Nik Ranieri (Supervising Animator for "Meeko")
Individual Achievement for Animation
Won

Chris Buck (Supervising Animator for "Grandmother Willow")
Nominated

David Pruiksma (Supervising Animator for "Flit")
Nominated

Alan Menken (Composer)
Stephen Schwartz (Lyricist)
Best Individual Achievement for Music in the Field of Animation
Won

Michael Giamo (Art Director)
Best Individual Achievement for Production Design in Animation
Won

Rasoul Azadani (Layout Artistic Supervisor)
Nominated

Artios Awards
Brian Chavanne
Ruth Lambert
Best Casting for Animated Voiceover
Won

ASCAP Awards
"Colors of the Wind"
Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures
Won

Top Box Office Films
Won

BMI Film Music Awards
Alan Menken (Composer)

Won

Environmental Media Awards

Best Feature Film
Won

Golden Globe Awards
"Colors of the Wind"
Best Original Song
Won

Alan Menken (Composer)
Best Original Score
Nominated

Golden Reel Awards

Best Sound Editing – Music Animation
Won

Grammy Awards
"Colors of the Wind"
Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media"
Won

Young Artist Awards

Best Family Feature – Musical or Comedy
Nominated

tag: table

text: Historical accuracy[edit]

text:
Pocahontas' real name was Matoaka. "Pocahontas" was only a nickname, and it can variously be translated to "little wanton", "playful one", "little brat" or "the naughty one".[133]
In the film, Pocahontas is a young adult; in reality, she was around 10 or 11 at the time John Smith arrived with the Virginia Company in 1607.[133]
In the film, Smith is portrayed as an amiable man; in reality, he was described as having a harsh exterior by his fellow colonists.[133]
Historically, there is no evidence of a romantic relationship emerging between Pocahontas and John Smith.[134] Smith eventually recounted three separate incidents of being "saved" by powerful women, so all such accounts must be viewed with some suspicion.[135]
English colonists led by Samuel Argall captured Pocahontas three years after John Smith departed for England; she converted to Christianity in Henricus and later married John Rolfe (who appears in the sequel), who was known for introducing tobacco as a cash crop.[134]
There is much controversy over whether or not Pocahontas actually rescued John Smith from being slain by her father's tribe. Many have argued that Smith fabricated the story of Pocahontas saving his life in order to gain popularity.[136]
The controversy surrounding whether or not Pocahontas saved John Smith exists largely because Smith wrote two very different accounts of his captivity. The first one, published in 1608, included a generally flattering description of Powhatan and his tribe. This first account contained no mention of almost being slain by Powhatan. It was not until Smith released his second account around 1622 that he described any cruel treatment by Powhatan, and his supposed rescue by Pocahontas. Because Smith's two accounts consist of very different facts, and because the second was released only after Pocahontas had gained prominence in England, many hypothesize that Smith embellished the story of his captivity with respect to Pocahontas.[137]
Albeit captain of The Discovery, John Ratcliffe was not the first governor of the Jamestown Settlement.[138]

text: Video game[edit]

text: A video game based on the film was released on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive on January 1, 1996.


document_title: Boycott

question_text: which kind of person is the least likely to participate in a protest

text: Boycott

text: Etymology[edit]

text: The word boycott entered the English language during the Irish "Land War" and derives from Captain Charles Boycott, the land agent of an absentee landlord, Lord Erne, who lived in  Lough Mask House, near Ballinrobe in County Mayo, Ireland, who was subject to social ostracism organized by the Irish Land League in 1880. As harvests had been poor that year, Lord Erne offered his tenants a ten percent reduction in their rents. In September of that year, protesting tenants demanded a twenty five percent reduction, which Lord Erne refused. Boycott then attempted to evict eleven tenants from the land. Charles Stewart Parnell, in a speech in Ennis prior to the events in Lough Mask, proposed that when dealing with tenants who take farms where another tenant was evicted, rather than resorting to violence, everyone in the locality should shun them. While Parnell's speech did not refer to land agents or landlords, the tactic was first applied to Boycott when the alarm was raised about the evictions. Despite the short-term economic hardship to those undertaking this action, Boycott soon found himself isolated – his workers stopped work in the fields and stables, as well as in his house. Local businessmen stopped trading with him, and the local postman refused to deliver mail.[1]

text: The concerted action taken against him meant that Boycott was unable to hire anyone to harvest the crops in his charge. Eventually 50 Orangemen from Cavan and Monaghan volunteered to do the work. They were escorted to and from Claremorris by one thousand policemen and soldiers, despite the fact that the local Land League leaders had said that there would be no violence from them, and in fact no violence happened.[2] This protection ended up costing far more than the harvest was worth. After the harvest, the "boycott" was successfully continued. Within weeks Boycott's name was everywhere. The New-York Tribune reporter, James Redpath, first wrote of the boycott in the international press. The Irish author, George Moore, reported: 'Like a comet the verb 'boycott' appeared.'[3] It was used by The Times in November 1880 as a term for organized isolation. According to an account in the book The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland by Michael Davitt, the term was promoted by Fr. John O'Malley of County Mayo to "signify ostracism applied to a landlord or agent like Boycott". The Times first reported on November 20, 1880: "The people of New Pallas have resolved to 'boycott' them and refused to supply them with food or drink." The Daily News wrote on December 13, 1880: "Already the stoutest-hearted are yielding on every side to the dread of being 'Boycotted'." By January of the following year, the word was being used figuratively: "Dame Nature arose.... She 'Boycotted' London from Kew to Mile End" (The Spectator, January 22, 1881).

text: Girlcott is a portmanteau of girl and boycott intended to focus on the rights or actions of women. The term was coined in 1968 by American track star Lacey O'Neal during the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, in the context of protests by male African American athletes. Speaking for black women athletes, she advised that the group would not "girlcott" the Olympic Games, because female athletes were still focused on being recognized. It also appeared in Time magazine in 1970, and was later used by retired tennis player Billie Jean King in reference to Wimbledon, to emphasize her argument regarding equal pay for women players.[citation needed] The term "girlcott" was revived in 2005 by women in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania protesting what they said were sexist and degrading T-shirt slogans on Abercrombie & Fitch merchandise.[4]

text: Notable boycotts[edit]

text: Although the term itself was not coined until 1880, the practice dates back to at least the 1790s, when supporters of abolition of the slave trade in Britain advocated boycotting slave-produced sugar.[5]  Other instances include:

text:
the Iranian Tobacco Boycott, 1891
Civil Rights Movement boycotts (e.g., Montgomery & Tallahassee Bus Boycotts)
the United Farm Workers union grape and lettuce boycotts
the American boycott of British goods at the time of the American Revolution
the 1905 Chinese boycott of American products to protest the extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1902.[6]
the Indian boycott of British goods organized by Mohandas Gandhi
the successful Jewish boycott organised against Henry Ford in the USA, in the 1920s
the boycott of Japanese products in China after the May Fourth Movement
the Jewish anti-Nazi boycott of German goods in Lithuania, the US, Britain, Poland and Mandatory Palestine during 1933
the antisemitic boycott of Jewish-owned businesses in Nazi Germany during the 1930s
the Arab League boycott of Israel and companies trading with Israel.
the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign led by Palestinian civil society against the State of Israel.

text: During the 1973 oil crisis, the Arab countries enacted a crude oil embargo against the West. Other examples include the US-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and the movement that advocated "disinvestment" in South Africa during the 1980s in opposition to that country's apartheid regime. The first Olympic boycott was in the 1956 Summer Olympics with several countries boycotting the games for different reasons. Iran also has an informal Olympic boycott against participating against Israel, and Iranian athletes typically bow out or claim injuries when pitted against Israelis (see Arash Miresmaeili).

text: Application and uses[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: A boycott is typically a one-time affair intended to correct an outstanding single wrong. When extended for a long period of time, or as part of an overall program of awareness-raising or reforms to laws or regimes, a boycott is part of moral purchasing, and some prefer those economic or political terms.

text: Most organized consumer boycotts today are focused on long-term change of buying habits, and so fit into part of a larger political program, with many techniques that require a longer structural commitment, e.g. reform to commodity markets, or government commitment to moral purchasing, e.g. the longstanding boycott of South African businesses to protest apartheid already alluded to.  These stretch the meaning of a "boycott."

text: Boycotts are now much easier to successfully initiate due to the Internet.  Examples include the gay and lesbian boycott of advertisers of the "Dr. Laura" talk show, gun owners' similar boycott of advertisers of Rosie O'Donnell's talk show and (later) magazine, and gun owners' boycott of Smith & Wesson following that company's March 2000 settlement with the Clinton administration.  They may be initiated very easily using either Web sites (the Dr. Laura boycott), newsgroups (the Rosie O'Donnell boycotts), or even mailing lists.  Internet-initiated boycotts "snowball" very quickly compared to other forms of organization.

text: Viral Labeling is a new boycott method using the new digital technology proposed by the Multitude Project and applied for the first time against Walt Disney around Christmas time in 2009.[7]

text: Another form of consumer boycotting is substitution for an equivalent product; for example, Mecca Cola and Qibla Cola have been marketed as substitutes for Coca-Cola among Muslim populations.

text: Academic boycotts have been organized against countries. For example, the mid and late 20th century academic boycotts of South Africa in protest of apartheid practices and the more recent[when?] academic boycotts of Israel.

text: Some boycotts center on particular businesses, such as recent[when?] protests regarding Costco, Walmart, Ford Motor Company, or the diverse products of Philip Morris. Another form of boycott identifies a number of different companies involved in a particular issue, such as the Sudan Divestment campaign, the Boycott Bush campaign. The Boycott Bush website was set up by Ethical Consumer after U.S. President George W. Bush failed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol – the website identifies Bush's corporate funders and the brands and products they produce. A prime target of boycotts is consumerism itself, e.g. "International Buy Nothing Day" celebrated globally on the Friday after Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

text: Another version of the boycott is targeted divestment, or disinvestment. Targeted divestment involves campaigning for withdrawal of investment, for example the Sudan Divestment campaign involves putting pressure on companies, often through shareholder activism, to withdraw investment that helps the Sudanese government perpetuate genocide in Darfur. Only if a company refuses to change its behavior in response to shareholder engagement does the targeted divestment model call for divestment from that company. Such targeted divestment implicitly excludes companies involved in agriculture, the production and distribution of consumer goods, or the provision of goods and services intended to relieve human suffering or to promote health, religious and spiritual activities, or education.

text: As a response to consumer boycotts of large-scale and multinational businesses, some companies have marketed brands that do not bear the company's name on the packaging or in advertising. Activists such as Ethical Consumer produce information that reveals which companies own which brands and products so consumers can practice boycotts or moral purchasing more effectively. Another organization, Buycott.com, provides an Internet-based smart-phone application that scans Universal Product Codes and displays corporate relationships to the user.[8]

text: "Boycotts" may be formally organized by governments as well. In reality, government "boycotts" are just a type of embargo. Notably, the first formal, nationwide act of the Nazi government against German Jews was a national embargo of Jewish businesses on April 1, 1933.[9]

text: Where the target of a boycott derives all or part of its revenues from other businesses, as a newspaper does, boycott organizers may address the target's commercial customers.

text: When students are dissatisfied with a political or academic issue, a common tactic for students' unions is to start a boycott of classes (called a student strike among faculty and students since it is meant to resemble strike action by organized labor) to put pressure on the governing body of the institution, such as a university, vocational college or a school, since such institutions cannot afford to have a cohort miss an entire year.

text: Collective behavior[edit]

text: The sociology of collective behavior is concerned with causes and conditions pertaining to behavior carried out by a collective, as opposed to an individual (e.g., riots, panics, fads/crazes, boycotts). Boycotts have been characterized by some as different from traditional forms of collective behavior in that they appear to be highly rational and dependent on existing norms and structures. Lewis Killian criticizes that characterization, pointing to the Tallahassee bus boycott as one example of a boycott that aligns with traditional collective behavior theory.[10]

text: Philip Balsiger points out that political consumption (e.g., boycotts) tends to follow dual-purpose action repertoires, or scripts, which are used publicly to pressure boycott targets and to educate and recruit consumers. Balsiger finds one example in Switzerland, documenting activities of the Clean Clothes Campaign, a public NGO-backed campaign, that highlighted and disseminated information about local companies' ethical practices.[11]

text: Dixon, Martin, and Nau analyzed 31 collective behavior campaigns against corporations that took place during the 1990s and 2000s. Protests considered successful included boycotts and were found to include a third party, either in the capacity of state intervention or of media coverage. State intervention may make boycotts more efficacious when corporation leaders fear the imposition of regulations. Media intervention may be a crucial contributor to a successful boycott because of its potential to damage the reputation of a corporation. Target corporations that were the most visible were found to be the most vulnerable to either market (protest causing economic loss) or mediated (caused by third-party) disruption. Third-party actors (i.e., the state or media) were more influential when a corporation had a high reputation—when third-party activity was low, highly reputable corporations did not make the desired concessions to boycotters; when third-party activity was high, highly reputable corporations satisfied the demands of boycotters. The boycott, a prima facie market-disruptive tactic, often precipitates mediated disruption. The researchers' analysis led them to conclude that when boycott targets are highly visible and directly interact with and depend on local consumers who can easily find substitutes, they are more likely to make concessions. Koku, Akhigbe, and Springer also emphasize the importance of boycotts' threat of reputational damage, finding that boycotts alone pose more of a threat to a corporation's reputation than to its finances directly.[12][13]

text: Philippe Delacote points out that a problem contributing to a generally low probability of success for any boycott is the fact that the consumers with the most power to cause market disruption are the least likely to participate; the opposite is true for consumers with the least power. Another collective behavior problem is the difficulty, or impossibility, of direct coordination amongst a dispersed group of boycotters. Yuksel and Mryteza emphasize the collective behavior problem of free riding in consumer boycotts, noting that some individuals may perceive participating to be too great an immediate personal utility sacrifice. They also note that boycotting consumers took the collectivity into account when deciding to participate, that is, consideration of joining a boycott as goal-oriented collective activity increased one's likelihood of participating. A corporation-targeted protest repertoire including boycotts and education of consumers presents the highest likelihood for success. [14][15]

text: Legality[edit]

text: Boycotts are generally legal in developed countries. Occasionally, some restrictions may apply; for instance, in the United States, it may be unlawful for a union to engage in "secondary boycotts" (to request that its members boycott companies that supply items to an organization already under a boycott, in the United States);[16][17] however, the union is free to use its right to speak freely to inform its members of the fact that suppliers of a company are breaking a boycott; its members then may take whatever action they deem appropriate, in consideration of that fact.

text: United States[edit]

text: Boycotts are legal under common law. The right to engage in commerce, social intercourse, and friendship includes the implied right not to engage in commerce, social intercourse, and friendship. Since a boycott is voluntary and nonviolent, the law cannot stop it. Opponents of boycotts historically have the choice of suffering under it, yielding to its demands, or attempting to suppress it through extralegal means, such as force and coercion.

text: In the United States, the antiboycott provisions of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) apply to all "U.S. persons", defined to include individuals and companies located in the United States and their foreign affiliates. The antiboycott provisions are intended to prevent United States citizens and companies being used as instrumentalities of a foreign government's foreign policy. The EAR forbids participation in or material support of boycotts initiated by foreign governments, for example, the Arab League boycott of Israel. These persons are subject to the law when their activities relate to the sale, purchase, or transfer of goods or services (including the sale of information) within the United States or between the United States and a foreign country. This covers exports and imports, financing, forwarding and shipping, and certain other transactions that may take place wholly offshore.[18]

text:
However, the EAR only applies to foreign government initiated boycotts: a domestic boycott campaign arising within the United States that has the same object as the foreign-government-initiated boycott appears to be lawful, assuming that it is an independent effort not connected with the foreign government's boycott.
Other legal impediments to certain boycotts remain. One set are Refusal to deal laws, which prohibit concerted efforts to eliminate competition by refusal to buy from or to sell to a party.[19]  Similarly, boycotts may also run afoul of Anti-discrimination laws, for example New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination prohibits any place that offers goods, services and facilities to the general public, such as a restaurant, from denying or withholding any accommodation to (i.e., not to engage in commerce with) an individual because of that individual's race (etc.).[20]


document_title: A Dog's Purpose (film)

question_text: who plays teenage ethan in a dog's purpose

question_tokens: who plays teenage ethan in a dog 's purpose

text: A Dog's Purpose (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: In the 1950s, a feral puppy named Toby is whisked away to the dog pound and quickly euthanized, wondering if "fun" truly is life's purpose.

text: His strong spirit is reborn and reincarnated as a newborn Retriever puppy in 1961. Toby leaves his cage at a puppy mill and is found by two garbage men who plan to sell him for their own profit. They leave to drink and Toby is spotted locked inside their pick-up truck by a young boy named Ethan and his mother, who rescue him from the brink of death by heatstroke. After they convince Ethan's father, the dog is allowed to stay and renamed Bailey.

text: Bailey and Ethan bond quickly, especially over the summer when the family visits Ethan's maternal grandparents' farm, and Bailey now believes Ethan alone is his purpose. Years pass and after several attempts at advancing in his job failed, Ethan's father has become a deadbeat alcoholic, though teenage Ethan still tries to respect him – inviting him to a football game now that he has been named starting quarterback.

text: Over the summer, Ethan goes to a fair with Bailey and meets Hannah, who he quickly begins dating, with Bailey referring to her as "part of the pack". Ethan and Hannah spend their summer happy together though their senior years are upcoming, but they plan to go to the same school; popular Ethan getting a football scholarship and Hannah following him on an academic one. When he goes home one night though, Ethan's father is drunk and shouting at Ethan's mother. He turns on Ethan then and when his mother tries to keep them separated, he shoves her to the ground. Ethan orders his father to leave and never come back, and becomes "the leader of the pack".

text: Later, at a game watched by scouts, Ethan is offered a full 4-year scholarship to Michigan State, but that night a vindictive classmate named Todd throws a lit firecracker into Ethan's house as a prank, which unintentionally results in a house fire. Bailey alerts Ethan, who goes to save his mother. Unable to get out of the door, they head out through his mother's bedroom window upstair. Ethan first lowers her with her sheets to the neighbors below, then Bailey, however he drops his rope and is left with no other way to exit but to jump. But when Ethan jumps out of the window, Ethan badly fractures his leg, ending his dreams of an athletic scholarship. Bailey attacks Todd, who is apprehended and arrested by the police when firecrackers fall out of his pocket. Now, Ethan must go to an agricultural school where he will learn to take over his grandparents' farm. Falling into depression, self-pity and bitterness, Ethan grudgingly breaks off his romance with Hannah before leaving for college. Sometime afterwards, an aged Bailey slowly expires at the veterinarian's office after sharing an eleventh-hour teary goodbye with Ethan.

text: Bailey reincarnates into another dog life, a female German Shepherd police dog named Ellie, sometime in the late 1970s/early 1980s, while possessing full memories and experiences of his past lives. Ellie is partnered with a widowed officer named Carlos from the Chicago Police Department, and works hard at "seeking" and "finding", now seeing the job as life's purpose. The two form a close relationship which ends after Ellie jumps into a rushing river and saves a kidnapped girl from drowning, and is then fatally shot during a struggle with the armed kidnapper who was a moment away from killing an unsuspecting Carlos.

text: Reborn again in the mid-1980s as a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, he forms a bond with an Atlanta college student named Maya who names him Tino. Maya is lonely, which Tino, having bonded closely with the girl, realizes, and makes his purpose to find her some happiness. She starts a relationship with another classmate named Al who she begins seeing after Tino falls for Al's dog, a black and white Landseer named Roxie, and allows her to open up to him. Maya and Al marry and have 3 children who all love the Corgi. In love with Roxie (though she does not seem to reciprocate the romance), Tino is permanently heartbroken when one day she does not return from the vet. As he lies dying of old age in the late 1990s, Tino thanks Maya for giving him one of his best lives.

text: Bailey is again reborn and reincarnated, this time, as a St. Bernard-Australian Shepherd mix, sometime during the next decade, only to be taken in by an abusive and neglectful urban couple who name him Waffles. Waffles is eventually dumped in an abandoned lot and reluctantly sets off in search of a new life. Walking past a dog park and remembering how long it had been since he played, Waffles meets a dog and her human who hold a familiar scent to him, though he knows neither of them. He gradually makes his way to the country area where he spent summers as Bailey without even realizing at first where he is headed. He joyfully reunites with his old master Ethan, who is now somewhere in his 50s, living a lonely life and apparently broken in spirit at his grandparents' old farm, which he now owns and runs. Ethan, of course, initially has no idea who this wandering dog really is and hands him over to the local animal shelter. But he soon has a change of heart and reclaims him, naming him Buddy. Buddy, sensing that he has finally found the true purpose of life that has long evaded him, finds a way to reunite Ethan with a widowed Hannah, and they eventually get married.

text: Buddy finally convinces Ethan that he is his beloved childhood pet by performing some tricks and responding to key phrases that were known only to the two of them all those many, many long years ago. The dog in voiceover tells the viewer that life is about having fun; saving others; not getting caught in the past or regrets; finding someone to be with; and living for today.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Josh Gad as the voice of Toby, Bailey, Ellie, Tino, Waffles and Buddy.
Dennis Quaid as Ethan Montgomery (adult)[8]

KJ Apa as teenage Ethan Montgomery[8]
Bryce Gheisar as eight-year old Ethan Montgomery

Juliet Rylance as Elizabeth Montgomery, Ethan's mother.[8]
Peggy Lipton as older Hannah[8]

Britt Robertson as teenage Hannah[8]

John Ortiz as Carlos Ruiz
Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Maya
Pooch Hall as Al[9]
Luke Kirby as Jim Montgomery, Ethan's father
Michael Bofshever as Bill, Ethan's grandfather
Gabrielle Rose as Fran, Ethan's grandmother
Logan Miller as Todd, the vindictive classmate

text: Production[edit]

text: In 2015, DreamWorks acquired the film rights for Cameron's novel.[10] On May 8, 2015, it was announced Lasse Hallström would direct the film.[11] On August 5, 2015, Britt Robertson and Dennis Quaid joined the cast.[8] On September 18, 2015, Pooch Hall was cast in the film.[9] On October 15, 2015, Bradley Cooper joined the cast to play the dog's inner voice.[12] He was eventually replaced by Josh Gad.[13] Principal photography began on August 17, 2015.[14]

text: Release[edit]

text: In December 2015, the film switched from a DreamWorks Pictures release to under the Amblin Entertainment banner as per Amblin Partners' newly enacted branded strategy.[15] The film was released by Universal Pictures on January 27, 2017.[16] Universal also distributed it overseas, except for countries where Mister Smith Entertainment handled international sales.

text: Box office[edit]

text: A Dog's Purpose has grossed $64.5 million in the United States and Canada and $131.9 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $196.4 million, against a production budget of $22 million.[3]

text: In North America it was released alongside Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and Gold, and was projected to gross $18–22 million from 3,050 theaters in its opening weekend, slightly lower than initial $27 million tracking had the film debuting to before boycotts against the film were called for.[4] It made $466,000 from Thursday night previews and $5.3 million on its first day. It ended up debuting to $18.2 million, finishing second at the box office behind the second weekend of Universal's own Split.[17] The film dropped 40.6% in its second weekend, grossing $10.8 million and finishing third at the box office.[18]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 33% based on 133 reviews, and an average rating of 4.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A Dog's Purpose offers an awkward blend of sugary sentiment and canine suffering that tugs at animal-loving audiences' heartstrings with shameless abandon."[19] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 43 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[21]

text: Home media[edit]

text: A Dog's Purpose was released on digital HD on April 18, 2017, and was followed by a release on Blu-ray and DVD on May 2, 2017, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.[22][23] The film topped the home video sales chart for the week ending on May 7, 2017.[24]

text: Animal abuse allegations[edit]

text: On January 18, 2017, a video surfaced on TMZ showing footage taken from the set of the film, which shows a German Shepherd named Hercules being dragged and dipped into rushing water while visibly resisting.[25] After a cut in the video, the next clip shows the dog being submerged in the water at the other end of the tank while a voice on set can be heard shouting "CUT IT!", and various people are then seen rushing towards the dog.[26] The American Humane Association, which ensures that animals are not harmed in entertainment productions, announced that its representative on set had been suspended over the incident, and that the incident was under further investigation.[27][28] PETA called for a boycott of the film.[29] Actor Josh Gad, who voices the dog in the movie, was not on set during the making of the film, but stated that he was "shaken and sad to see any animal put in a situation against its will".[30] Director Lasse Hallström stated on Twitter that he "did not witness" the actions in the video, and was "very disturbed" by the footage.[31] Due to the release of the video, Universal Pictures cancelled the film's scheduled January 19 Los Angeles premiere.[32]

text: Amblin Entertainment released a statement in regards to the incident, saying that "on the day of the shoot, Hercules did not want to perform the stunt portrayed on the tape so the Amblin production team did not proceed with filming that shot", and that "Hercules is happy and healthy".[33] On February 4, 2017, the American Humane Association reported that an independent third-party animal-cruelty expert had concluded that safety measures on the set of the film were in place and the video had been deliberately edited to mislead the public.[7]

text: Sequel[edit]

text: On June 21, 2017, CEO of Amblin Entertainment Michael Wright announced that a sequel was in development.[34]