James Cameron's Pocahontas in Space a.k.a Avatar

James Cameron's Avatar is a ground breaking movie that has brought a new look to the 3D movie industry. The amazing colors, graphics, and unbelievable sets are what makes this amazing and put on a different level than many other movies of today. But the topic of this weeks posting will not be about any of these specifics of this great film. This blog posting will be dedicated to the striking resemblance that Avatar has with Disney's Pocahontas.I was shocked just about as much as those who will read this are going to be when I am through proving this to you. I begin this comparision with the main characters. In Pocahontas John Smith is a white settler who has reached the new world of North America. He is a part of the large group of white settlers who have come to the Americas to explore and obtain the gold from the Natives that they have found a plethora of. In Avatar the main character Jake Sulley travels into the new world of Pandora through his own Avatar, which allows him to look like the Natives of this planet. Jake Sulley who is an ex-marine is sent there for research, but also has another mission getting this valuable substance called "unobtainium." This is an exact similarity between the two

Next there is the similarity between Jake Sulley and his new found friend Neytiri, who is very skeptical of his reason for being on her people's land. However after passing through a part of the forest where the Tree of Souls, which is what the people of Pandora base decisions off of, gave Neytiri a sign that Jake Sulley was trustworthy. This is the same in Pocahontas with the Mother Willow tree and John Smith.

The next similarity is when the humans attack the Tree of Souls to remove the native people from their home so that they could capture the unlimited supplies of "unobtainium"



This video above will prove the exact copy that James Cameron seems to be responsible for. As lazy as this seems after talking with my roommate he made the point that this is a common folklore narrative. What we have to realize about this film is that it was about breaking new barriers in the 3D world. It achieved that but I just think it is hilarious that this similarity was found, but it doesn't really matter because the films graphics were some of the best I have ever seen.