Disney’s Pocahontas opened on this day 30 years ago. Following the phenomenal success of The Lion King the prior summer, expectations were insane, but ultimately Simba proved to be lightning in a bottle. That said, Pocahontas was nevertheless a financial hit which fared decently with critics, and while historians were up in arms about it, the film did still win two Academy Awards. Famously (or infamously, depending on who you ask), then-Disney honcho Jeffery Katzenberg was determined to make the movie the first animated feature to win Best Picture at the Oscars, to the point where he reportedly made the production a nightmare for those working on it.
As an aside, the late John Candy was going to voice a talking turkey named Redfeather, and had supposedly even recorded dialogue, but his character was cut completely from the film following his death (as a result, all of Pocahontas’s animal friends became silent, apparently much to the dismay of the animation staff).
Being a Disney blockbuster in the 90s, Pocahontas had a huge marketing campaign. You know that scene in Toy Story 2 where there’s an entire isle of Buzz Lightyears? Well, that’s how Toys R Us was with Pocahontas. There were dolls, books, and as you have come to expect in headers from yours truly, a Burger King promotion. In this case, there was a collection of eight toys that were available for the entire summer, because back then, they would draw these things out by releasing one premium a week. I had the entire set, including wind-up Meeko, wind-up Percy, and the talking tree who you could, um, “chop” up into three separate parts (oh, sure, Disney, the animals can’t talk, but the fucking tree can? I see how this is). All in all, I had a great time with these.
But it didn’t end there. Pocahontas had a campaign for “older” fans, too. 1995 was truly the year of the fast food drinkware, as you could get glass mugs for Batman Forever at McDonald’s, and high quality Pocahontas cups at Burger King. These supposedly depicted “scenes from the movie,” but with the exception of Meeko’s “HOLY SHIT, YOU ARE GOING TO KILL US, POCAHONTAS, AND YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO SING ABOUT IT!” face, these were simply different characters on each one. My family had the whole set, and it’s embarrassing how much I used them as a kid, but not as embarrassing as this commercial where a bunch of grown-ass adults are using the cups as…microphones? Yeah, as the young folk say these days, it’s pretty “cringe.”
And as if all of that wasn’t enough, Burger King even had a contest for the film. All you had to do was find all of the raccoons hidden on their “Burger King Adventures!” newsletter, and you had the chance to win a fuckton of Pocahontas toys. 300 lucky kids were supposedly going to get them. Of course, these giveaways are sometimes viewed by cynics as being scams which may or may not have actual victors.
Anyway, guess who one of those 300 lucky kids was?
That’s right! As a boy who never won anything growing up, I was a winner of the Burger King Pocahontas toy giveaway! And I got the prize…an entire year later. If you want to know how it worked, first I got a postcard in the mail congratulating me for being a winner. Obviously, kid Scrat was over the blue corn moon with joy! Several months later, just before my birthday in 1996 (to emphasize how much time had passed, Burger King was already done with their promotion for The Hunchback of Notre Dame by then), large boxes were placed at my front porch. I wish I could share the pictures (they were taken, of course, but I have no idea where they are now!), because I’m pretty sure me winning even made it into a paragraph-long blurb in the local paper. I’m not kidding, by the way. “Local child wins Disney shit from Burger King” was worthy of a small headline.
Have a great night, y’all!