Disney made an incredible comeback in the world of animation, starting with the 1989 film The Little Mermaid. Not only did that film start up a string of Disney classics, which include The Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, Disney also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song five times between 1989-1995. The fifth award was for "Colors of the Wind." While the other Oscar-winning Disney songs wonderfully complemented their films, "Colors of the Wind' was pretty much the only bright spot in Pocahontas. This dull, humorless film deservedly caught a bad rap for its depiction of Native Americans, reducing the characters into a series of bad stereotypes. Literally the only thing that Pocahontas is defined by is her relationship with John Smith. The filmmakers took the most basic plot points of the Pocahontas/John Smith story and did absolutely nothing interesting with it and it all amounts to really bad history lesson no child should ever bare witness to. Seriously, how do you follow up The Lion King with this? Other than Best Original Song, Pocahontas won another Oscar for Best Original Score. There really was not much competition in either category that year although I'd take Toy Story's "You've Got a Friend In Me" over "Colors of the Wind" any day.
