Roger Ebert - Host: [reviewing "Pocahontas"] I liked the film, but I must say, if I had to rank the last five Disney films, starting with "Little Mermaid", "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin", and "The Lion King", I would rank this fifth out of those five, in quality, and I'll tell you why. It doesn't have a really fun villain. Uh, the Indians are the good guys, the settlers are not really allowed to be the bad guys, I mean, when there's one person who is killed, it's done by mistake by a young kid who feels bad about it. And the governor of the colony is a buffoon who isn't really taken seriously. And the others, except for John Smith, are shallow characters, so that you don't have the fun, for example, of the octopus in "Little Mermaid", or the Beast in "Beauty and the Beast". You don't have a really great, fun villain, and so the movie, as a result, is kind of serious, and a little bit of a downer at times.
Gene Siskel - Host: What's wrong with that?
Roger Ebert - Host: Nothing is wrong with it...
Gene Siskel - Host: You're forcing, Roger, you're forcing this...
Roger Ebert - Host: What I'm talking about is the entertainment value of the five.
Gene Siskel - Host: You're forcing this to be like the other kind- the other pictures, and this film wants to be a little- it IS a more serious subject matter.
Roger Ebert - Host: Well, if you were gonna rank the five, where would you place it?
Gene Siskel - Host: I wouldn't put it at the bottom. Uh, I'd probably put it, uh, in the middle. My favorite is "Beauty and the Beast", and I have a real affection for "Little Mermaid". But this is, this is serious themes. It isn't about the, the underwater fantasy characters. This is real stuff. It should be more serious, and I really think the film communicates at a whole other level. The villain, the villain...
Roger Ebert - Host: Well, I'm not, I'm not criticizing it. I'm making an observation about the entertainment value of the movie, and I think it's valid.
Gene Siskel - Host: The "entertainment value" is in the drawing and in the themes. I think it's a really special piece of work.
