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Old Persian

Old Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of the Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as (Iranian). Old Persian is close to both Avestan and the language of the Rig Veda, the oldest form of the Sanskrit language. All three languages are highly inflected.

Old Persian appears primarily in the inscriptions, clay tablets and seals of the Achaemenid era (c. 600 BCE to 300 BCE). Examples of Old Persian have been found in what is now Iran, Romania (Gherla), Armenia, Bahrain, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt, with the most important attestation by far being the contents of the Behistun Inscription (dated to 525 BCE).

2007 research into the vast Persepolis Fortification Archive at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago unearthed Old Persian tablets, which suggest Old Persian was a written language in use for practical recording and not only for royal display.

Origin and overview
As a written language, Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions. It is an Iranian language and as such a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. The oldest known text written in Old Persian is from the Behistun Inscriptions. Old Persian is one of the oldest Indo-European languages which are attested in original texts.

The oldest date of use of Old Persian as a spoken language is not precisely known. According to certain historical assumptions about the early history and origin of ancient Persians in Southwestern Iran (where Achaemenids hailed from), Old Persian was originally spoken by a tribe called, who arrived in the Iranian Plateau early in the 1st millennium BCE and finally migrated down into the area of present-day Fārs province. Their language, Old Persian, became the official language of the Achaemenid kings. Assyrian records, which in fact appear to provide the earliest evidence for ancient Iranian (Persian and Median) presence on the Iranian Plateau, give a good chronology but only an approximate geographical indication of what seem to be ancient Persians. In these records of the 9th century BCE, (along with, presumably Medians) are first mentioned in the area of Lake Urmia in the records of Shalmaneser III. The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain, but from a linguistic viewpoint the word matches Old Persian itself coming directly from the older word. Also, as Old Persian contains many words from another extinct Iranian language, Median, according to P. O. Skjærvø it is probable that Old Persian had already been spoken before the formation of the Achaemenid Empire and was spoken during most of the first half of the first millennium BCE.

Classification
Old Persian belongs to the Iranian language family, a branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, itself within the large family of Indo-European languages. The common ancestors of Indo-Iranians came from Central Asia sometime in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. The extinct and unattested Median language is another Old Iranian language related to Old Persian; both are classified as Western Iranian languages, and many Median names appear in Old Persian texts. The group of Old Iranian languages was presumably large; however, knowledge of it is restricted mainly to Old Persian, Avestan, and Median. The first two are the only languages in that group to have left written original texts, while Median is known mostly from loanwords in Old Persian.

Language evolution
By the 4th century BCE, the late Achaemenid period, the inscriptions of Artaxerxes II and Artaxerxes III differ enough from the language of Darius' inscriptions to be called a "pre-Middle Persian," or "post-Old Persian." Old Persian subsequently evolved into Middle Persian, which is in turn the ancestor of New Persian.

Professor Gilbert Lazard, a famous Iranologist and the author of the book Persian Grammar, states: "The language known as New Persian, which usually is called at this period (early Islamic times) by the name of Parsi-Dari, can be classified linguistically as a continuation of Middle Persian, the official religious and literary language of Sassanian Iran, itself a continuation of Old Persian, the language of the Achaemenids. Unlike the other languages and dialects, ancient and modern, of the Iranian group such as Avestan, Parthian, Soghdian, Kurdish, Pashto, etc., Old, Middle and New Persian represent one and the same language at three states of its history. It had its origin in Fars and is differentiated by dialectical features, still easily recognizable from the dialect prevailing in north-western and eastern Iran."

Middle Persian, also sometimes called Pahlavi, is a direct continuation of Old Persian and was used as the written official language of the country. Comparison of the evolution at each stage of the language shows great simplification in grammar and syntax. However, New Persian is a direct descendant of Middle and Old Persian.

Substrates
Old Persian "presumably" has a Median language substrate. The Median element is readily identifiable because it did not share in the developments that were peculiar to Old Persian. Median forms "are found only in personal or geographical names [...] and some are typically from religious vocabulary and so could in principle also be influenced by Avestan." "Sometimes, both Median and Old Persian forms are found, which gave Old Persian a somewhat confusing and inconsistent look: 'horse,' for instance, is [attested in Old Persian as] both (OPers.) and  (Med.)."

Script
Old Persian texts were written from left to right in the syllabic Old Persian cuneiform script and had 36 phonetic characters and 8 logograms. The usage of logograms is not obligatory. The script was surprisingly not a result of evolution of the script used in the nearby civilisation of Mesopotamia. Despite the fact that Old Persian was written in cuneiform script, the script was not a direct continuation of Mesopotamian tradition and in fact, according to Schmitt, was a "deliberate creation of the sixth century BCE".

The origin of the Old Persian cuneiform script and the identification of the date and process of introduction are a matter of debate among Iranian scholars with no general agreement having been reached. The factors making the consensus difficult are, among others, the difficult passage DB (IV lines 88–92) from Darius the Great who speaks of a new "form of writing" being made by himself which is said to be "in Aryan":

"King Darius says: By the grace of Ahuramazda this is the inscription which I have made. Besides, it was in Aryan ("") script, and it was composed on clay tablets and on parchment. Besides, a sculptured figure of myself I made."

- Behistun Inscription (IV lines 88–92)

Also, the analysis of certain Old Persian inscriptions are "supposed or claimed" to predate Darius the Great. Although it is true that the oldest attested Old Persian inscriptions are found on the Behistun monument from Darius, the creation of this "new type of writing" seems, according to Schmitt, "to have begun already under Cyrus the Great".

The script shows a few changes in the shape of characters during the period it was used. This can be seen as a standardization of the heights of wedges, which in the beginning (i.e. in DB) took only half the height of a line.

Phonology
The following phonemes are expressed in the Old Persian script:

Notes: Lycian 𐊋𐊆𐊈𐊈𐊀𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊀 ~ 𐊈𐊆𐊖𐊀𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊀  for (genuine) Old Persian  (besides the Median form *Ciθrafarnah) = Tissaphernes suggests  as the pronunciation of  (compare  and Kloekhorst 2008, p. 125 in  for this example, who, however, mistakenly writes, which contradicts the etymology [ PIIr. ] and the Middle Persian form Čehrfar [ç gives Middle Persian s]).

The phoneme does not occur in native Iranian vocabulary, only in borrowings from Akkadian (a new  develops in Middle Persian from Old Persian  and the change of  to ). The phoneme can also form a syllable peak; both the way Persian names with syllabic  (such as Brdiya) are rendered in Elamite and its further development in Middle Persian suggest that before the syllabic, an epenthetic vowel  had developed already in the Old Persian period, which later became  after labials. For example, Old Persian  is rendered in Elamite as, rendering transcriptions such as V(a)rakāna, Varkāna or even Vurkāna questionable and making Vrkāna or Virkāna much more realistic (and equally for vrka- "wolf", Brdiya and other Old Persian words and names with syllabic ).

While v usually became in Middle Persian, it became  word-initially in New Persian, except before  (including the epenthetic vowel mentioned above), where it became. This suggests that it was really pronounced as.

Grammatical numbers
Old Persian has 3 types of grammatical number: singular, dual and plural.

Grammatical genders
Old Persian has three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. In contrast, Modern Persian (as well as Middle Persian) is a genderless language.

Nouns
Old Persian stems:
 * a-stems (-a, -am, -ā)
 * i-stems (-iš, iy)
 * u- (and au-) stems (-uš, -uv)
 * consonantal stems (n, r, h)

Adjectives are declined in a similar way.

Verbs
Voices

Active, Middle (them. pres. -aiy-, -ataiy-), Passive (-ya-).

Mostly the forms of first and third persons are attested. The only preserved Dual form is ajīvatam 'both lived'.

title: Old Persian


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Lincoln Díaz-Balart

Lincoln Rafael Díaz-Balart (born Lincoln Rafael Díaz-Balart y Caballero; August 13, 1954) is a Cuban-American attorney and politician. He was the U.S. representative for Florida's 21st congressional district from 1993 to 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. He previously served in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate. He retired from Congress in 2011 and his younger brother, Mario Díaz-Balart, who had previously represented Florida's 25th congressional district, succeeded him. He is currently chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute. After leaving Congress, he started a law practice and a consulting firm, both based in Miami, Florida.

Early life and education
Díaz-Balart was born in Havana, Cuba, to the late Cuban politician Rafael Díaz-Balart and Hilda Caballero Brunet. His aunt, Mirta Díaz-Balart, was the first wife of the late Fidel Castro. Her son, and his cousin was the late Dr. Fidel Ángel "Fidelito" Castro Díaz-Balart. His uncle is the Cuban-Spanish painter, Waldo Díaz-Balart.

He was educated at the American School of Madrid in Spain; New College of Florida; and Case Western Reserve University, from which he earned a law degree. He was involved in a Miami private practice for several years before holding elective office.

Political career
In 1982, he ran for a Florida House of Representatives seat for District 113 as a Democrat and lost to the Republican, Humberto Cortina.

Díaz-Balart, as well as his immediate family, were all members of the Democratic Party. Díaz-Balart was the former president of the Dade County Young Democrats and the Florida Young Democrats, as well as a member of the executive committee of the Dade County Democratic Party. On April 24, 1985, Diaz-Balart, his wife, and brother Mario switched their registrations to Republican.

Díaz-Balart served as a Republican in the Florida House of Representatives from 1986 to 1989 and in the Florida Senate from 1989 to 1992.

Congressional committees

 * Committee on Rules (Vice Chairman 2005–2007)
 * Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process (Chairman 2005–2007, Ranking Member 2007–2011)
 * Committee on Homeland Security
 * Subcommittee on Rules (Chairman 2003–2005)

Party leadership

 * House Republican Policy Committee

Political positions
In general, Diaz-Balart's voting record has been moderate by Republican standards. His lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union is 73.

In 1994, he was one of only three Republican incumbents not to sign the Republican Contract with America. He objected to provisions in its welfare reform section that would deny federal programs to legal immigrants.

In 2006, he voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment and in 2009 voted for the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded the federal hate crime law to include a person's perceived gender, sexual orientation, identity or disability. In December 2010, Diaz-Balart was one of fifteen Republican House members to vote in favor of repealing the United States military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on openly gay service members.

He was a sponsor of the Homeland Security Act. He was a sponsor of the DREAM Act which seeks to facilitate access for illegal immigrant students to post-secondary education by allowing states to have power to determine requirements for in-state tuition.

He achieved passage into law of historic pieces of legislation – such as the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA), and the codification of the U.S. embargo on Cuba (requiring that all political prisoners be freed and multi-party elections scheduled in Cuba before U.S. sanctions can be lifted). Diaz-Balart took the rule to the floor of the House for passage of the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security and the extension (for 25 years) of the Voting Rights Act.

Cuba
Diaz-Balart played a prominent role in the Cuban-American lobby, and was active in the attempt by relatives of Elian Gonzalez to gain custody of the six-year-old from his Cuban father. Diaz-Balart was a member of the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus.

Healthcare
In March 2010, Diaz-Balart publicly called the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act "a decisive step in the weakening of the United States."

2008 financial crisis
On September 29, 2008, Diaz-Balart voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 "American taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for the irresponsible behavior of Wall Street executives. The average citizen is forced to play by the rules, yet many who did not now get a massive bailout from taxpayers in this plan. This is fundamentally unfair. By bailing out reckless behavior we encourage future reckless behavior."

1992 to 1998
In 1992, Diaz-Balart defeated fellow State Senator Javier Souto in the Republican primary for the newly created 21st District. No other party put up a candidate, assuring Diaz-Balart's election. He was unopposed for reelection in 1994, 1996, 2000, and 2002 and defeated Democrat Patrick Cusack with 75 percent in 1998.

2004 and 2006
In both 2004 and 2006, Lincoln Diaz-Balart was unsuccessfully challenged by Frank J. Gonzalez, a Libertarian Party candidate in 2004 and Democrat in 2006. In 2004, Diaz-Balart won with 73% of the vote. In 2006, Diaz-Balart won with 59% of the vote.

In 2004, Gonzalez ran for U.S. House as the Libertarian Party candidate and spent around $12,000 and earned 54,736 votes or 27% of the total.

In 2006, Gonzalez managed to earn 45,522 votes or 41% according to the Florida Department of State's Division of Elections website.

2008
Diaz-Balart's Democratic opponent in 2008 was former Hialeah Mayor Raul L. Martinez. It was initially thought that Diaz-Balart would face his toughest race to date. Although the 21st District is considered the most Republican district in the Miami area, Martinez was thought to be very popular in the area. Nevertheless, Diaz-Balart won re-election with 58% of the vote.

2010
In February 2010, Diaz-Balart announced his intention not to seek re-election. His brother, Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, ran to succeed him and won.

Personal life
Díaz-Balart is married to Cristina Fernandez and had two children: Lincoln Jr. and Daniel. Lincoln died on May 19, 2013, at the age of 29. His family said he had battled depression for many years.

Díaz-Balart's brother, Mario Díaz-Balart, previously represented the 25th district of Florida, moved to the 21st district, but moved back to the 25th district after redistricting. He has two other brothers: José Díaz-Balart, a journalist and anchorman of the Saturday edition of the NBC Nightly News, and Rafael Díaz-Balart, a consultant.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Lincoln Díaz-Balart


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Bill Freehan

William Ashley Freehan (November 29, 1941 – August 19, 2021) was an American catcher in Major League Baseball who played his entire 15-year career with the Detroit Tigers. The premier catcher in the American League for several years from the 1960s into the early 1970s, he was named an All-Star in 11 seasons, the most All-Star seasons for a player to not be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was the MVP runner-up for Tigers' 1968 World Series winning team, handling a pitching staff which included World Series MVP Mickey Lolich and regular season MVP Denny McLain, who that year became the first 30-game winner in the majors since 1934.

A five-time Gold Glove Award winner, Freehan held the major league record for highest career fielding percentage (.9933) until 2002, and also the records for career putouts (9,941) and total chances (10,734) from 1975 until the late 1980s; he ranked ninth in major league history in games caught (1,581) at the end of his career. His career totals of 200 home runs and 2,502 total bases placed him behind only Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey among AL catchers when he retired.

Early life
Freehan was born in Detroit on November 29, 1941. His father, Ashley, worked as a sales representative for a seat insulation company; his mother was Helen (Morris). He was raised in Royal Oak, Michigan, until he was 14 years old, when his family relocated to St. Petersburg, Florida. He attended Bishop Barry High School, graduating in 1959. He initially intended to study at the University of Notre Dame, but did not want to choose between playing football or baseball. He consequently enrolled at the University of Michigan on an athletic scholarship, where he played as catcher on its baseball team and linebacker and end on its football team. He set an all-time Big Ten Conference batting mark of .585 in 1961.

Major league career
Freehan signed with his hometown Tigers in 1961 for a $100,000 bonus, which his father withheld until he graduated from college in 1966. He broke in briefly with four games at the end of the 1961 season before returning to the minors in 1962. In 1963 he arrived in the majors to stay, working with former catcher Rick Ferrell on his defense and splitting catching duties with Gus Triandos, who was traded following the season. The 1964 campaign gave indications of what was to come; becoming the Tigers' full-time catcher with 141 games behind the plate, Freehan batted .300 to finish sixth in the American League (AL), and added 18 home runs and 80 runs batted in. He also led the AL by throwing out 53% of potential base stealers, earned the first of his ten consecutive All-Star selections, and placed seventh in the Most Valuable Player Award balloting. In 1965, he led AL catchers in putouts for the first of six times, and received the first of his five consecutive Gold Gloves. In 1966 he again led the league in putouts, and also led in fielding percentage for the first of four times.

1967 was his best season yet, as he batted .282 – ninth in the AL as averages hit an all-time low – with 20 home runs, and broke Elston Howard's 1964 AL single-season records with 950 putouts and 1,021 total chances. Freehan led the league in both intentional walks (15 of his 73 total walks) and times hit by pitch (20), leading to a career-high .389 on-base percentage. He finished third in the MVP voting after Detroit finished one game behind the Boston Red Sox for the AL pennant.

Freehan had an even better year in 1968 as he was considered the quiet leader of the 1968 World Series championship squad. In a year marked by dominant pitching, he posted career highs with 25 home runs and 84 RBI, fifth and sixth in the AL respectively. Freehan broke his own records with 971 putouts and 1,050 total chances, marks which remained league records until Dan Wilson topped them with the 1997 Seattle Mariners. He was also hit by 24 pitches, the most in the AL since Kid Elberfeld in 1911. Despite playing in hitter-friendly Tiger Stadium, Freehan guided the Tigers' pitching staff to an earned run average of 2.71, third best in the league. McLain won 31 games and Lolich won 17 as the Tigers ran away with the pennant. Because of his offensive and defensive contributions, he finished second to McLain in the MVP voting. Freehan and Carl Yastrzemski were the only players to finish in the top ten of the voting in both 1967 and 1968, and only Yastrzemski reached base more often in 1968. Freehan capped his season by recording the final out of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, retiring Tim McCarver on a popup. He also made a pivotal play in Game 5, with the Cardinals leading the Series 3-1 and the game 3-2. In the fifth inning, Lou Brock – whom Freehan had thrown out on an attempted steal in the third inning – doubled with one out and attempted to score on Julián Javier's single, however Freehan successfully blocked the plate with his foot, and held on to the ball even though Brock came in standing up in an attempt to knock the ball loose. Detroit won by scoring three runs in the seventh inning, and went on to take the last two games.

Although Freehan's later seasons rarely approached the brilliance of those two campaigns, he continued to turn out All-Star years for the Tigers. His offensive numbers dipped in 1970, but he threw out 47% of potential base stealers (his highest mark since 1964) and had a .997 fielding percentage. In 1971, he rebounded at the plate with a .277 batting average and 21 home runs, three of those coming in one game against the Boston Red Sox in August. He hit .262 for the 1972 Eastern Division champions. He missed the first two games (both losses) of the 1972 American League Championship Series against the Oakland Athletics while recovering from a hairline fracture of his thumb, then doubled and homered in a 3-0 Game 3 win, in which Joe Coleman set a League Championship Series record with 14 strikeouts. Freehan drove in the first of three runs in the tenth inning of Game 4 in a memorable 4-3 come-from-behind victory which tied the series; he also drove in Detroit's only run in the 2-1 Game 5 loss. In 1974, splitting time bewtween first base (65 games) and catcher (63 games), he hit .297 and finished fifth in the American League in slugging percentage with a .479 mark. He moved back behind the plate the following year to earn his 11th All-Star berth. Freehan ended his career in 1976, batting .270.

Career statistics
In his 15-year career, Freehan played in 1,774 games with 1,591 hits in 6,073 at bats for a .262 batting average along with 241 doubles, 200 home runs, 758 RBI, and a .340 on-base percentage. In addition to his home runs and total bases, his .412 slugging percentage and totals of 1,591 hits, 706 runs and 476 extra base hits all put him among the top five AL catchers to that time. His batting totals are particularly remarkable in light of the fact offense was at a low throughout the sport during his career, with a decided advantage toward pitchers. Freehan led all AL catchers in fielding percentage four times (1965, 1966, 1970, 1973). He also ranked sixth in American League history with 114 times being hit by a pitch. Freehan caught more games than any other player in Tigers' team history. In his book, The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, baseball historian Bill James ranked Freehan 12th all-time among major league catchers.

Freehan held the major league record for highest career fielding percentage (.9933) until 2002, when Dan Wilson broke his record. In 1973 and 1974 he surpassed Yogi Berra to become the AL's all-time leader in putouts and total chances; he broke Johnny Roseboro's major league marks in 1975. Bob Boone broke Freehan's major league mark of 10,734 career total chances in 1987, and Gary Carter surpassed his putouts total of 9,941 in 1988; Carlton Fisk broke his AL records in 1989 (total chances) and 1990 (putouts). Freehan caught 114 shutouts during his career, ranking him 18th all-time among major league catchers.

During the 1969 season, Freehan penned Behind the Mask, a diary-type recording of his thoughts and experiences as seen from the catcher's perspective that saw publication in 1970. He and pitcher Mickey Lolich started 324 games as a battery, at the time more than any other duo since 1900, and a record that stood until Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals broke it in 2022.

Post-playing career
After retiring as a player, Freehan coached Tigers catcher Lance Parrish on the fine points of playing his position. In 1978, Freehan was one of seven members of the inaugural class of inductees to the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor. He served as a color commentator for Seattle Mariners broadcasts from 1979 to 1980, and for Tigers broadcasts on PASS Sports television from 1984 to 1985. He subsequently returned to the University of Michigan as head coach of the baseball team from 1989 to 1995. He went back to the Tigers as a catching instructor in 2002, serving in that capacity for three seasons before retiring.

Personal life
Freehan married Patricia O’Brien on February 23, 1963. She was the sister of Dan O'Brien and they met while in high school. Together, they had three children: Corey Sue, Kelley, and Cathy. He and his wife relocated to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, during their later years.

Freehan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in his later years. In October 2018, it was revealed Freehan was in hospice care at his home in Northern Michigan. He died on August 19, 2021, from the disease at the age of 79.

title: Bill Freehan


text:
User talk:Roozbeh/Archive04

Archive
The old chat is archived at /Archive01, /Archive02, and /Archive03.

PERSIAN Gulf War
Dear Roozbeh, Wikipedia uses "The Gulf War". There are many gulfs on this planet. It's Persian Gulf. Perhaps you can convince them that using THE GULF is not neutral. WIKIPEDIA should be independent like the past.

Thanks Pejman

Persia, Iran and Islamic Republic of Iran ?!
Dear Roozbeh, I don't see why you deleted my revision Shirin Ebadi. The name of this country is "Islamic Republic of Iran" officially as it was "Iran" at the time of Shah and both "Iran" and "Persia" at the time of his father. To many in the world, these two worlds (Persia and Iran) are equivalent. However as people use the latter less and less, many are getting the impression that the word "Persia" refers to ancient "Iran" which is clearly wrong. Anyway, what is the problem to put the word "Persia" in parenthesis next to "Iran" once in a while ? Neither of these words are currently official name of this country! take care 141.5.11.5 Jermi
 * I didn't delete your revision from Shirin Ebadi. I only removed "Persia" as the main name of her homeland. The common name of the country in the English language is no longer "Persia". It is "Iran". The official name doesn't matter, the common name does.
 * If you think people should be aware of the issues of the usages of the terms "Iran" and "Persia", please mention those in the articles Persia and Iran, not in every single article that uses these terms. When someone comes and wants to find about Shirin Ebadi, he doesn't want to be reminded that Persia and Iran are the same country. He probably only wants to find about her. roozbeh 11:19, September 1, 2005 (UTC)

Jimbo Wales
I dont know what youve been telling Jimbo, but the declaration of Iranian works being officially copyrighted on Wikipedia is wanting and insufficient, because even the premise made by Jimbo Wales does not hold. He says:

 * "...Unless there is something particularly strange about the copyright situation in Iran..."

Well. The copyright situation in Iran is anything but normal. There are very few countries in the world which openly violate international copyright laws, as does Iran.

Iran is not a member of any of the following International Copyright treaties:

 * BAC: Buenos Aires Convention
 * Berne Convention
 * Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Phonograms.
 * UCC Paris: Universal Copyright Convention,
 * UCC Geneva: ditto
 * WCT: World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty
 * WPPT: World Intellectual Property Organization
 * WTO

As is stated here.

You wouldnt be able to sit down for hours and erase all my contributions, would it not be because of the illegal Microsoft Windows copy you are using, as do the entire population and government of Iran.

Im asking you again to please put your **** against me aside, and help me promote much needed Iranian related pages to enrich Wikipedia, instead of throwing monkey wrenches at me and erasing everything. ****? Geez.--Zereshk 01:27, 2 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Please note that Jimbo already knows about the situation of copyright in Iran. I have mentioned that in my original email, quoting yourself.
 * I am not planning to erase all your contributions. I am helping to remove non-free copyrighted material from the Wikipedia. Please take a look at my recent edits and you will see that the same is happening to other people's possible copyright violations.
 * I don't use an illegal copy of Microsoft Windows. I have a licensed copy which I was forced to buy with my laptop, but I usually use GNU/Linux.
 * I don't have anything against you. But it seems that you have something against me. Please stop using Persian curse words (or mistranslating them to English) in the English Wikipedia. I removed them.
 * Also, let me ask you again to respect the copyright laws. Both for Iran (as required by Jimbo Wales) and other countries. Many of your uploads have not been legal under laws of the other countries either. For example, how are, , and public domain?! roozbeh 01:40, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

 * As for all images you marked for deletion from Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas, many of those images are public domain. But I am not going to go and push and argue for that. Instead, I am replacing them with more recent versions that you will not be able to mark or touch under any justification. Furthermore, if you bought your laptop in Iran, there is no way in hell your MS Windows copy is legal. Nor any other western software product for that matter. I had to pay 400$ to get a Photoshop with a student discount. Did you pay that much, or did you pay 2500 Toman at Pasazh Paytakht? Did you pay 2500$ for your AutoCad? Did you pay 300$ for your Mathematica? Or your McAfee or Norton? I think you know what I mean.

 * You cant try to impose and force copyright status on something when it doesnt exist. And besides, what is your intention of erasing everything anyway? How on earth do you consider doing such a thing "constructive"? As it is, here in the US, we hardly have any good information about Iran in bookstores and on the web. What little we try to add to the web, you are erasing. Dont be surprised if Americans think of Iran as a desert land full of terrorists riding camels selling oil. You are preventing us from trying to counter that widespread stereotype image, i.e. youre actually feeding the stereotype. I hope you understand the repercussions of your actions.--Zereshk 14:06, 7 September 2005 (UTC)

 * Oh, btw, Wikipedia is not Iran. In the free world outside Iran, people are prohibited by law from censoring what others have to say. Here, it is a right guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, whether you like what I say or not. Please stop editing out parts of my text that you keep finding offensive. And yes, you have a problem with me, not the other way around. You dont see me coming around following you trying to pick fights and initiate revert wars acting like I own the place. Even though I can well see what condescending tumult youve aroused in the Farsi Wikipedia.--Zereshk 20:47, 7 September 2005 (UTC)

 * BTW, Iran is a party to WIPO, which obligates them under the Berne Convention. See . --Gmaxwell 08:16, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

 * And Zereshk, the first amendment is a limitation of the power executed by government in the US, because Wikipedia is not a government service the first amendment is entirely inapplicable. --Gmaxwell 08:38, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Verified images
How did you come up with un-verifing the images ? They have all the needed copyright tags and permissions for their references. Amir85 7:30, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

The source of all of article is iranchamber which before uploading pictures I contacted them and asked their permission.Their conditins were to name their site at the end of article which i had done it in 'See Also' section of the article,And not to use them commercially. Amir85 8:00, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

 * If you have permission for the photos from Iran Chamber, please mention so in the WP:PUI page when the images are mentioned. Please provide as much information as you could, like the exact text of the permission they gave you, the name of the contact person in Iran Chamber, etc. We will need to contact the organization to confirm the permission. Also, for all images you have uploaded, we need exact URLs of where they are downloaded from, so people could check that they are actually from the website.
 * But you have also uploaded a lot of images with no source. Please mention the source for them, and if you know the exact licensing. Thanks a lot. roozbeh 13:08, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

The required sources and documents for some of the photoes (which can be extended to other photoes are provided on WP:PUI take a look and kindly proceed to remove the templates or I have to strat acting by myself.Amir85 17:01, September 2, 2005 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much for your help. I am confirming all your sources and changing the tags as appropriate. Thanks again, roozbeh 19:32, September 2, 2005 (UTC)
 * I have now went through all the images you have mentioned and tried to resolve the issues. Please refer to your talk page for more information. Thanks, roozbeh 21:50, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

Hey, Copyright!!!
Hi, I think u primarily search for photoes posted by iranians :)

There is NO COPYRIGHT IN IRAN, but my photos have no problem about copyright. I took some of them myself, and others are from sites with no copyright problems, public and free sites ,I mean.

How can I prove this and get rid of the note ?!!!!

And another Q,...Do u really search all images yourself??? and then you leave a note in the page and ba'bye!!???

any way, I'll be happy if u can explain more about the process of copyright controls in this site. --Dr.Hamed 19:57, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

 * Hi.
 * No, I don't primarily search for photos posted by Iranians. I usually read and work on pages about Iran, so I see images on those pages more than the others. I then follow the images to see if they don't have any copyright problem. Then, when I see someone who has problematic images, I then follow his edits and uploads.
 * You have mentioned that "There is NO COPYRIGHT IN IRAN". That is not true. There are three copyright laws in Iran, passed respectively in 1970, 1973, and 2000. The first one is about almost every kind of creative work, the second is about translating and copying books, magazines, and audio material, and the third one is about computer software.
 * To complete the information required by the Wikipedia, you must mention the source and the license of each image you have uploaded: :**If you have taken a photograph yourself, you should mention that with something like "This photograph was taken by your name on the date you took the photo from the object you photographed". Provide a date for when you took it and the geographical location and whatever information you could provide, if possible.
 * If you have downloaded the images from a website, you should provide URLs to the webites and the exact place (URL) where the image you have uploaded could be found. If you know about the license of the image, you should also mention that.
 * After that, somebody will then check your source and license, will put the necessary information on the image pages, and then remove the "possibly unfree" tags.
 * As for who searches for possibly unfree images, there are also other Wikpedians who do the same. I also volunteer to this sometimes.
 * About the process of copyrights on Wikipedia, you can read the appropriate pages. A good page to start is Copyrights. Other good pages are Copyright FAQ and Image use policy. roozbeh 22:28, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

what is your justification ?
You deleted again my post:

Text copied from the article removed.

I am looking forward to your justification. 141.5.11.5 Jermi
 * I'm sorry, it seems that I made a mistake and assumed you have repasted the original non-neutral edit again. I just restored your edit, and edited it to make sure it is NPOV. roozbeh 22:39, September 2, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for working on WP:PUI
I just noticed you working on PUI, and as one of the other people doing maintance on that page, I just wanted to thank you. You might be interested in my essay User:JesseW/List_of_Image_doc_pages, on the unsourced image problem. In any case, thanks for doing that. JesseW, the juggling janitor 23:11, 2 September 2005 (UTC)

Image:Byzantine eagle.JPG
Why did you revert my edits in Image:Byzantine eagle.JPG and removed my tags? Colossus 00:40, 3 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Because the page is listed on the WP:PUI page and has no source mentioned. Please see the WP:PUI page, search for the image name, and provide your source there. roozbeh 00:42, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

I dont understand. I took the picture myself. I stated this in the image page. Colossus 00:47, 3 September 2005 (UTC)
 * No, you have not mentioned that in the image page. In case you have taken the picture yourself, please mention that in the image page explicitly. Also, please mention the date and place you have taken the photo. But DO NOT REMOVE the PUIdisputed tag yet. roozbeh 00:58, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

Now is it ok? Colossus 01:28, 3 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes, all is fine except the possible copyright tag. Are you releasing this image as GFDL? If yes, you can now put a GFDL-self tag on the page. I will remove the PUIdisputed tag. roozbeh

Image:Eddie the Head.jpg
I'm not clear on how the Possibly unfree images page is supposed to work, but I notice that the Eddie the Head image page is flagged possibly unfree and yet does not appear on the possibly unfree page. Something happened in this edit --kop 06:10, 3 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks a lot. I restored the mistakenly removed discussion. roozbeh 22:37, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

Southern Azerbaijan
Please move Iranian Azerbaijan back to Southern Azerbaijan. The latter is much more common in the English-speaking world, and this is English Wikipedia. --Hottentot
 * Do you have any reason that is the case? If yes, please provide your reasoning on the talk page of the article itself. There is a claim there that "Iranian Azerbaijan" is more common. I tried Google as the person has mentioned, and yes, it gives more hits for "Iranian Azerbaijan" than "Southern Azerbaijan". roozbeh 20:42, September 3, 2005 (UTC)
 * Google doesn't show anything. If you look at the google hits for Iranian Azerbaijan you notice that most of the websites are about bank notes. Most people refer to it as Southern/South Azerbaijan. Please change it back. --Hottentot

Sassanid army
Unblock the article, I'm writing a revamped new article , leaving no doubt of its originality to skeptics. --Amir85 19:46, September 6, 2005 (UTC)

Not Without My Daughter
Dear Roozbeh, Please help us in making the following articles politically neutral and unbiased: There were previously written from Americans point of view without even saying a word about Iranian side of the story and the possible political issues behind it. I tried to add the Iranian side of the story. Would you please help us making it even better ? Thanks. Sir Jeremy
 * Not Without My Daughter
 * Betty Mahmoody

Help Needed with Speedy Deletes
Hi Roozbeh, Would you please take care of this: Image:Michael-everson.jpg, and also help at Information_Technology_Channel and Ruzbeh. Thanks. Behdad 04:32, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Cyrus Cylinder
Dear Roozbeh, Would you please help to restore the article Cyrus Cylinder, which was deleted by user JW1805, he gave also some wrong information about the source and copyright of the article. I've given explanations in the article's talk page and on the Wikipedia copyright problems; please read. Thanks, Take care, --Mehrdad 12:55, 28 September 2005 (UTC) same as پارسی at Farsi section

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Hi, someone is making lots of vandalism on Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Reza Pahlavi II, would you lock those pages or suggest any idea for keeping articles safe?--Sina 23:29, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Zereshk's RFA
Although you and I most likely will disagree in voting, I think it's important that you weigh in since you, Zereshk, and Zora, clearly have had past ineraction. Requests for adminship/Zereshk. freestylefrappe 00:15, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Iranian Azerbaijan
Hey, could you please move Southern Azerbaijan back to Iranian Azerbaijan? Thanks. --Hottentot
 * Done. roozbeh 22:44, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Farsi Keyboard Layout
You're well known as the creator of Daneel robot, fixing Keh and Yeh in farsi sections of wikipedia. In that regard, could you provide me with the proper farsi keyboard layout? What I currently use is better than the original microsoft version in regard to its ability to understand Zero-Width-Non-Joiner on SHIFT+Space, and its correct understanding of Peh and Zheh characters. However its Key is the arabic one, and its Yeh is the dotted Arabic one as well. Also, its numerical buttons return the English digits. I've tried my best to find the corrected keyboard layout online, but no avail. Can you help me please? huji— TALK 21:25, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
 * See http://lists.sharif.edu/pipermail/persiancomputing/2003-June/000539.html roozbeh 16:49, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Yalda
Can you as an admin add Yalda or Winter solstice on the main page's selected anniversaries ? Amir85 20:36, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

fa:Special:Statistics
Importing the figures into multilingual statistigs is quite impossible without numeral conversion. Can you ad an English courtesy version as there is in ar:Special:Statistics ? Thank you.

Image:Kamelia_shojaee.jpg
Your help is greatly needed for an image copyright issue. The above image was uploaded to Wikipedia and has been subject to at least a dozen claims about its copyright status, most of them obviously bogus. The major factor driving the problem is that one of our Admins really wants to use the image on her userpage. Because of language barriers it has been difficult for us to determine who the copyright holder actually is... Although the artist's name is provided it is in a romanized form and returns no hits on google. Could you take a look at this and perhaps uncover some useful information? Thanks! --Gmaxwell 08:13, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with Image:Roozbeh_pournader.png
Thanks for uploading Image:Roozbeh_pournader.png. However, the image may soon be deleted unless we can determine the copyright holder and copyright status. The Wikimedia Foundation is very careful about the images included in Wikipedia because of copyright law (see Wikipedia's Copyright policy).

The copyright holder is usually the creator, the creator's employer, or the last person who was transferred ownership rights. Copyright information on images is signified using copyright templates. The three basic license types on Wikipedia are open content, public domain, and fair use. Find the appropriate template in Image copyright tags and place it on the image page like this:.

Please signify the copyright information on any other images you have uploaded or will upload. Remember that images without this important information can be deleted by an administrator.

This is an automated notice by OrphanBot. If you have questions about copyright tagging of images, post on Wikipedia talk:Image copyright tags or User talk:Carnildo/images. 13:53, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Hamadan
Hi, I saw your comment to ManiF on the Wikipedia entery of Hamadan. I found the following link that can show ManiF was right: http://www.hamedanpolitic.ir/Group.aspx

--Ali doostzadeh 04:06, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Hi
Dear Roozbeh I'm waiting for your explanation in respect to "hossein derakhshan"'s page.I can defend all my editing there which were based on valuble evidences.Please reconsider your decision in protecting his page. Regards Ok Roozbeh. It seems that you don't like to play the game with reasonble rules,so let's change the rule shall we?
 * Beautifull.ziba seems to be vandalizing more than just that one page... +sj +

Image Tagging Image:Abtahi and m r khatami.jpg
Thanks for uploading Image:Abtahi and m r khatami.jpg. I notice the 'image' page currently doesn't specify who created the content, so the copyright status is unclear. If you have not created this media yourself then there needs to be an argument why we have the right to use the media on Wikipedia (see copyright tagging below). If you have not created the media yourself then it needs to be specified where it was found, i.e., in most cases link to the website where it was taken from, and the terms of use for content from that page.

If the media also doesn't have a copyright tag then one should be added. If you created/took the picture, audio, or video then the GFDL-self tag can be used to release it under the GFDL. If you believe the media meets the criteria at Fair use, use a tag such as or one of the other tags listed at Image copyright tags. See Image copyright tags for the full list of copyright tags that you can use.

If you have uploaded other media, consider checking that you have specified their source and copyright tagged them, too. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any unsourced and untagged images will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. joturn e r 00:06, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Image Tagging Image:Mohammadreza khatami.jpg
Thanks for uploading Image:Mohammadreza khatami.jpg. I notice the 'image' page currently doesn't specify who created the content, so the copyright status is unclear. If you have not created this media yourself then there needs to be an argument why we have the right to use the media on Wikipedia (see copyright tagging below). If you have not created the media yourself then it needs to be specified where it was found, i.e., in most cases link to the website where it was taken from, and the terms of use for content from that page.

If the media also doesn't have a copyright tag then one should be added. If you created/took the picture, audio, or video then the GFDL-self tag can be used to release it under the GFDL. If you believe the media meets the criteria at Fair use, use a tag such as or one of the other tags listed at Image copyright tags. See Image copyright tags for the full list of copyright tags that you can use.

If you have uploaded other media, consider checking that you have specified their source and copyright tagged them, too. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any unsourced and untagged images will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. joturn e r 23:11, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:Roozbeh/Archive04


text:
Pocahontas (1995 film)

Pocahontas is a 1995 American animated musical historical drama film loosely based on the life of Powhatan woman Pocahontas and the arrival of English colonial settlers from the Virginia Company. The film romanticizes Pocahontas's encounter with John Smith and her legendary saving of his life. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures.

The film was directed by Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg (in his feature directorial debut) and produced by Jim Pentecost, from a screenplay written by Carl Binder, Susannah Grant, and Philip LaZebnik. It stars the voices of Irene Bedard and Mel Gibson as Pocahontas and Smith, respectively, with David Ogden Stiers, Russell Means, Christian Bale, Michelle St. John, James Apaumut Fall, Billy Connolly, Joe Baker, Gordon Tootoosis, and Linda Hunt in supporting roles. The score was composed by Alan Menken, who also wrote the film's songs with lyricist Stephen Schwartz.

After making his directorial debut with The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Gabriel conceived the film during a Thanksgiving weekend. Goldberg, who had just finished up work as the supervising animator of the Genie in Aladdin (1992), joined Gabriel as co-director. The project went into development concurrently with The Lion King (1994), and attracted most of Disney's top animators. Meanwhile, Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg decided that the film should be an emotional romantic epic in the vein of Beauty and the Beast (1991), in hope that like Beauty, it would also be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Screenwriters Binder, Grant, and LaZebnik took creative liberties with history in an attempt to make the film palatable to audiences.

Pocahontas premiered at Central Park on June 10, 1995, and was released in the United States on June 16, to mixed reactions from critics and audiences, who praised its animation, voice performances, and music, but criticized its story with its lack of focus on tone. The film's historical inaccuracies and artistic license received polarized responses. Pocahontas earned over $346 million at the box office. The film received two Academy Awards for Best Musical or Comedy Score for Menken and Best Original Song for "Colors of the Wind". According to critics, the depiction of Pocahontas as an empowered heroine influenced subsequent Disney films like Mulan (1998) and Frozen (2013). The film was followed by a direct-to-video sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, in 1998.

Plot
In 1607, the Susan Constant travels from London to the New World, carrying English settlers from the Virginia Company. The settlers, including Captain John Smith, talk of adventure, finding gold, fighting "Injuns" and potentially settling in the new land.

In the Powhatan tribe in Werowocomoco, Tsenacommacah, Virginia, Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan, fears being possibly wed to Kocoum, a warrior whom she sees as too serious for her own free-spirited personality. After having a dream about a spinning arrow, Pocahontas visits Grandmother Willow, a talking willow tree that alerts her to the arriving English.

The voyage's leader Governor Ratcliffe, who seeks only wealth and status, has Jamestown built in a wooded clearing and immediately has the crewmen dig for gold. John departs to explore the wilderness and encounters Pocahontas. At first, she speaks to him in Powhatan, but soon, he gains her trust. They quickly bond, fascinated by each other's worlds, and end up falling in love. After a fight between settlers and natives, Powhatan orders the natives to stay away from the Englishmen. Pocahontas, however, disobeys him and keeps meeting with John. Unfortunately, Pocahontas's best friend, Nakoma, discovers the secret relationship and warns Kocoum. Ratcliffe also learns of John's encounters and angrily warns him against sparing any Natives.

Later, John and Pocahontas meet with Grandmother Willow and plan to bring peace between the colonists and the tribe. While both parties spy on the couple, John and Pocahontas share a kiss. Furious, Kocoum attacks and attempts to kill John, but a young settler, Thomas, whose life John previously saved and who had been ordered by Ratcliffe to follow John, intervenes and kills Kocoum. John orders Thomas to leave before the tribesmen arrive and capture John, before retrieving Kocoum’s body. Enraged at Kocoum's death, Powhatan angrily berates Pocahontas of leaving the village and declares war on the English, beginning with John's execution at dawn.

After reaching Jamestown, Thomas warns the settlers of John's capture. Ratcliffe then rallies his men to battle, using this as an excuse to annihilate the tribe and find their nonexistent gold. That same night, Powhatan also orders his men to prepare for battle. A desperate Pocahontas visits Grandmother Willow and realizes the arrow from John's compass is the same spinning arrow from her dream, which leads to her destiny. Morning comes, and Powhatan and his tribe drag John to a cliff for his execution. Meanwhile, Ratcliffe leads the armed colonists to fight Powhatan's warriors. Just as Powhatan is about to execute John and start the war, Pocahontas intervenes and finally convinces him to end the fighting between the two groups and spare John's life. Both sides stand down, and John is released. Unmoved, Ratcliffe orders his men to attack anyway, but they refuse. Ratcliffe fires his musket at Powhatan, but John takes the shot to save him. Livid, the settlers turn on Ratcliffe and arrest him for hurting their comrade.

John is nursed back to health by the tribe but must return to England for his wounds to fully heal. Ratcliffe is also sent back to face punishment for his crimes against the settlement. John asks Pocahontas to come with him, but she chooses to stay with her tribe to help keep the peace. John leaves without Pocahontas, but with Powhatan's blessing to return anytime in the future. At the end, Pocahontas stands atop a cliff, watching the ship carrying John depart.

Voice cast

 * Irene Bedard as Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan. She is a very adventurous person who defies her father's strict prohibition of meeting the English settlers and falls in love with Captain John Smith.
 * Judy Kuhn as the singing voice of Pocahontas

 * 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 which made him change his point of view on other cultures.
 * David Ogden Stiers as Governor Ratcliffe, the greedy and arrogant governor of the settlers who leads an expedition to Virginia to find gold and other riches that he wants to keep for himself.
 * Stiers also provided the voice of Wiggins, Ratcliffe's manservant. Unlike Ratcliffe, Wiggins is gentle and good-hearted, but he's stuck serving a terrible man.
 * John Kassir as Meeko, Pocahontas' mischievous pet raccoon who is friendly to John Smith and loves eating.
 * Russell Means as Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas' father and chief of the Powhatan tribe who is, at first, distrustful of the English settlers, but eventually learns to make peace with them through his daughter.
 * Jim Cummings provides the singing voice of Chief Powhatan

 * Christian Bale as Thomas, a loyal friend of John Smith who, like the other English settlers, is ordered by Ratcliffe to fire upon the Natives on sight, but eventually defies his orders.
 * Billy Connolly as Ben and Joe Baker as Lon, two settlers and friends of John Smith.
 * Linda Hunt as Grandmother Willow, a speaking willow tree that acts as Pocahontas' guide in times of uncertainty.
 * Danny Mann as Percy, Governor Ratcliffe's snooty and short-tempered pet pug who, at first, harbors animosity towards Meeko, but eventually befriends him and abandons his owner.
 * Frank Welker as Flit, Pocahontas' feisty pet hummingbird who prefers Kocoum over John Smith but eventually befriends the latter.
 * Michelle St. John as Nakoma, Pocahontas' best friend who is more easygoing as opposed to Pocahontas' adventurous spirit.
 * James Apaumut Fall as Kocoum, a strong and brave but stern and aggressive Powhatan warrior whom Chief Powhatan wants Pocahontas to marry.
 * Gordon Tootoosis as Kekata, the medicine man of the Powhatan.
 * Jim Cummings provides the singing voice of Kekata

Three actors in the film have been involved in other Pocahontas-related projects. Gordon Tootoosis acted as Chief Powhatan in Pocahontas: The Legend (1995). Christian Bale and Irene Bedard would portray John Rolfe and Pocahontas' mother, respectively, in Terrence Malick's The New World (2005).

Development
Following the release of The Rescuers Down Under (1990), director Mike Gabriel was eager to collaborate with veteran Disney story artist Joe Grant on a follow-up project that was vastly different from the animated adventure film. In April and May 1991, they first partnered on an adaptation of Swan Lake with both of them writing story outlines and creating conceptual artwork. Gabriel and Grant then submitted their outline for approval, but it was negatively received by the studio's live-action script readers. Earlier, during Thanksgiving weekend, 1990, Gabriel had wanted to direct an animated musical set in the American West. At a relative's Thanksgiving dinner, while glancing through numerous titles in their bookcase, Gabriel struck on the idea of adapting the life of Pocahontas after finding a book about her. Following the cancellation of Swan Lake, Gabriel returned to the idea.

Shortly after, Gabriel pitched his idea at the "Gong Show" meeting held by Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Peter Schneider, and Roy E. Disney. He had written the title Walt Disney's Pocahontas on an image of Tiger Lily from Peter Pan (1953) to the back of which he taped a brief pitch that read "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." Coincidentally, Feature Animation president Peter Schneider had been developing an animated version of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, and observed several similarities between his idea and Gabriel's Pocahontas pitch; Schneider recalled: "We were particularly interested in exploring the theme of 'If we don't learn to live with one another, we will destroy ourselves. Gabriel's pitch was quickly accepted, becoming the quickest story turnaround in Disney studio history.

After Beauty and the Beast (1991) was unprecedentedly nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards, then-studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg opted to produce another animated romance film in the hopes of achieving a similar feat. While Aladdin (1992) and The Lion King (1994) were considered to be too far into development, Katzenberg deemed Pocahontas a promising candidate, and thus pushed for the heroine to be older, the romance between her and Smith to be more mature, and the animals to be mute. Head of story Tom Sito went on the record stating he wanted to include "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."

Eric Goldberg—following his contributions to Aladdin as the supervising animator of the Genie and with all animation units for The Lion King already occupied—was asked to co-direct Pocahontas alongside Gabriel, to which he agreed. Likewise, he had originally expected the film to be more comedic and cartoonish like Aladdin, but Schneider informed him that the film would be produced in a vein more similar to that of Beauty and the Beast; the then-ongoing 1992 Los Angeles riots further convinced Goldberg to commit to the film due to its racial themes. However, executive interference would grow so much that Goldberg himself decided to work for Chuck Jones Productions under the pseudonym "Claude Raynes" during production. It eventually reached a peak when Joe Grant drew Percy wearing a Native American 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.

Under Katzenberg, Frank Wells, and Michael Eisner, the Disney studios had begun 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. Before making his producing debut on Pocahontas, James Pentecost had earlier worked as a production stage manager on several Broadway productions including La Cage aux Folles and Crimes of the Heart.

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 Native Americans. The trip also included a visit to the Pamunkey Indian Reservation, and conducted interviews with historians at Old Dominion University. Following the research trip, Custalow-McGowan served as a consultant traveling to the Disney studios three times, and while Custalow-McGowan offered her services for free, Disney paid her a $500 daily consulting fee plus expenses. 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". Additional Native American consultants were brought in to authenticate the clothing and war dance choreography. That same month, Katzenberg held a meeting with the Feature Animation staff in which he predicted that Pocahontas would be a commercial hit, while deeming The Lion King experimental and less likely to succeed. 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.

Writing
In January 1993, Carl Binder joined the project, having previous expertise as a television writer on shows such as Punky Brewster, War of the Worlds, Friday the 13th: The Series, and Top Cops. Four months later, Susannah Grant and Philip LaZebnik joined the writing team. Susannah Grant 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. On board 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 film, Susannah Grant wrote to a specific story outline, and no scene was rewritten less than thirty-five times until she felt it was perfect.

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, but was confronted over the historical inaccuracies by historians. Already knowing that in reality, Pocahontas married John Rolfe, 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. The filmmakers discovered that Pocahontas was around twelve years old and Smith was "not a very likeable character", in which producer James Pentecost confessed that dramatic license was needed to be taken. 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.

One of Gabriel's early ideas was for Pocahontas's mother to be embodied in a certain star in the sky that would help Pocahontas find her path to Smith. The Lion King however had concurrently carried a similar idea of the ancestors giving wisdom and guidance to the protagonist so the idea was discarded. 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 woman and giving away the child, so it was believed that Pocahontas herself probably did not see her mother that much. "Well", Eisner conceded, "I guess that means we're toasted." Ultimately, her mother's spirit would become the swirling wind that occurs throughout the film.

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". The writers tried to adapt actual events from Pocahontas's life into the film such as her warning Smith that the Native Americans 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.

Sito mentioned that Joe Grant contributed heavily towards the film, as he was the creator of Redfeather, Meeko, and Flit. Redfeather was a wise-cracking turkey who was intended to be voiced by John Candy, and Percy, who was to be voiced by Richard E. Grant, was revised to become mute. 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, and a more realistic approach would have the animals pantomime instead of talking. 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 ...".

Joe Grant would later draw a concept sketch of a hair-braiding raccoon, which Glen Keane animated and claimed the directors "loved the idea and got rid of the turkey character." Similarly, 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." Gabriel described the inspiration for Flit the hummingbird from having "hummingbirds all over my backyard, [and] I thought, 'That's a great animal to animate.'" 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.

For the spiritual ancestor, a male character named Old Man River was originally envisioned, and Gregory Peck was cast in the role. Peck later realized that the character ought to be a maternal figure and reluctantly turned down the role. Conceived as a tree of life whose seasonal changes would frame the story, Grandmother Willow grew out of a concept sketch of a sawed-off tree with a branch pointing to its rings drawn by Joe Grant, which would serve as a narrator that would "remember back to Pocahontas 300 years earlier". Joe 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. Because of Katzenberg's opposition to having Grandmother Willow in the story, Joe 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!

Casting
In September 1992, Disney began casting actors for Pocahontas telling talent agents that they were particularly interested in Native American actors for the project. 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." Bedard herself was filming Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee (1994) 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 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. Michelle St. John had also auditioned for the role of Pocahontas, and was given the role of Nakoma after Bedard was cast.

Mel Gibson was cast as English settler John Smith following a desire to make "something for my kids." In a notable contrast to previous voice actors for Disney animated features, Gibson provided the singing voice for his character, which the actor has described as the most difficult part of his role.

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." 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, who also voices Ratcliffe's dimwitted assistant Wiggins. Robbie Coltrane and Chris Barrie were brought in to read for Ratcliffe, while Goldberg wanted Hugh Laurie to play Wiggins.

Russell Means was cast as Chief Powhatan, though he initially expressed displeasure with the script in that Native Americans addressed each other using proper names rather than the traditional "my father" or "my friend". Indigenous Canadian actor Gordon Tootoosis was also cast as the tribal medicine man Kekata. Throughout most of the production, the cast members performed their dialogue in separate recording sessions.

Design and animation

Renowned for his animation of Ariel in The Little Mermaid (1989), supervising animator Glen Keane was immediately tapped to draw the titular Native American princess. Following the demands of Jeffrey Katzenberg to make the title character "the most idealized and finest woman ever made", Keane first sought his inspirations for his depictions of Pocahontas from Shirley 'Little Dove' Custalow-McGowan and Devi White Dove, women he had met during the research trip to Virginia. Keane recalled meeting the women:"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."

Other inspirations were Natalie Belcon, Naomi Campbell, Jamie Pillow, supermodel Kate Moss, Charmaine Craig, Christy Turlington, Dyna Taylor, and her own voice actress Irene Bedard. For almost three years, Taylor herself sat for four three-hour modeling sessions in which she was videotaped so the animators could draw poses of her from different angles. Keane also looked to a 1620 depiction of Pocahontas from a history book, though he would state the depiction 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." Due to the complexity of the color schemes, shapes, and expressions in the animation, a total of 55 animators worked on the animation of Pocahontas' character alone, including Mark Henn and Pres Romanillos.

After working at Sullivan-Bluth Studios for over fourteen years, John Pomeroy, who notoriously resigned alongside Don Bluth during work on The Fox and the Hound (1981) in 1979, returned to Disney and worked on the film. Pomeroy noted that initially John Smith was portrayed as well-groomed before the animators tried designs where the character was "sloppier", bearded, and carried daggers and knives. Pomeroy grew more satisfied with the character's design the more simple it became. Additionally, Pomeroy cited inspiration for John Smith from Errol Flynn and the facial features of Gibson.

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. Duncan Marjoribanks utilized geometric shapes to create Ratcliffe. In early drafts of the character, he had a 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. 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 were digitally animated under the supervision of Steve Goldberg. Assisted by 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. The following supervising animators also 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. While Mulan (1998) was within its pre-production stages, 18 minutes were animated by 170 animators and artists at the Disney-MGM Studios.

Initially, Gabriel asked Michael Giaimo to create conceptual paintings for the film as they both shared in a style of shape-based and secondary art details. Giaimo, himself a former assistant animator and then a CalArts teacher, accepted, working several months on a freelance basis. After Goldberg became the film's co-director, the two directors asked Giaimo to officially join the staff, in which he was promoted to being the film's art director. 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 Mexican and African folk art." Giaimo also sought out inspiration for the visual design from the works produced by earlier Disney art designers such as Richard Kelsey (who had done story sketches for his unproduced film Hiawatha), Eyvind Earle, who worked on Sleeping Beauty (1959), and Mary Blair.

Music
Howard Ashman and Alan Menken were planning to write songs for Pocahontas 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. When Aladdin was finished, Menken was expected to write songs for Pocahontas with Rice. Kevin Bannerman, the studio'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 hired to write the lyrics. This would mark the first time Menken had collaborated without Ashman for a Disney animated film. Menken commented that their work included moments of tension because Schwartz was also capable of writing music and Menken had experience with lyrics.

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, 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. In June 1992, Schwartz researched Jamestown, Virginia where he absorbed the atmosphere and bought tapes of Native American music and English sea shanties, as well as other music from the early 17th century that helped inspire numbers in the film. Schwartz modeled his lyrical writing for people of other ethnicities on that of Oscar Hammerstein II and Sheldon Harnick. "Colors of the Wind" was the first song to be written for the film. Gabriel, Goldberg, and Pentecost stated the song had defined the film's "heart and soul". Schwartz began "Colors" with a few draft ideas for lyrics taking inspiration from Chief Seattle's letter to the United States Congress. 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.

"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. 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. Schwartz however 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."

The filmmakers had planned for a song for when Pocahontas and Smith met in the glade, just before Kocoum attacks Smith. There were an estimated three to four songs at this point, including "Different Drummer", "In the Middle of the River", "First to Dance", which was deemed too silly as it took place before Kocoum's death, and "Powerful Magic", which was another attempt at a cheerful song. A love song, titled "If I Never Knew You", had been finished by the animators, but following a test screening where child and teen audiences were not interested in the song as it played, Menken suggested that the song be removed. It was, although its melody remained in the orchestral underscoring. The soundtrack was successful, reaching number-one on the Billboard 200 charts during the week of July 22, 1995. It received a triple platinum certification.

Marketing
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. 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. 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 Pocahontas' character. Further promotional tie-ins included Burger King distributing 55 million toy replicas of the characters with kids' meals, Payless Shoes selling a line of moccasins, and Mattel peddling a Barbie-like Pocahontas doll.

A behind-the-scenes documentary television special titled The Making of Pocahontas: A Legend Comes to Life aired on the Disney Channel on June 20, 1995, 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.

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. Disney officials estimated the crowd at 100,000. The premiere's attendees included then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Caroline Kennedy, Mariah Carey and Michael Eisner.

Home media
At first announced to be released on March 6, 1996, Pocahontas was first released on VHS and LaserDisc in the United States on February 28, 1996, under the "Masterpiece Collection" lineup. A deluxe VHS edition included supplemental features such as a making-of documentary, alongside a special edition of The Art of Pocahontas book and Disney-certified lithograph prints. 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. Disney initially shipped 17 million VHS copies to retail stores, with nine million copies sold within its first weekend. By mid-1998, the operating income of the VHS release had accumulated to US$250 million in worldwide sales.

In January 2000, Walt Disney Home Video launched the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection, with Pocahontas re-issued on VHS and DVD on June 6, 2000. 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. Five years later, the film was remastered for a THX-certified 10th Anniversary 2-disc Special Edition DVD, which was released on May 3, 2005. This release features two versions of the film, which are a new extended cut with two performances of "If I Never Knew You" and the original theatrical version.

On August 21, 2012, 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. Pocahontas was re-released yet again on March 15, 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. On February 28, 2017, the film was again released in a 2-Movie Collection with its sequel but in a Blu-ray / Digital HD combo pack and 30th Anniversary in fall 2025.

Box office
Timed with Pocahontas' 400th birthday, Pocahontas had a limited release in North America on June 16, 1995, playing in only six selected theaters in Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Detroit, St. Louis and Los Angeles. The film grossed $2.7 million during its first weekend, standing at the eighth place in the box office ranking. It beat the record set by The Lion King the previous year for the highest-grossing opening weekend on fewer than 50 screens, a record that has not been beaten. The wide release followed on June 23, 1995, in 2,596 screens. Studio estimates initially anticipated Pocahontas earning $30.5 million, ranking first and beating out the previous box office champion Batman Forever (1995). The figure was later revised to $28.8 million with Pocahontas falling second behind Batman Forever. 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.

By January 1996, the film grossed $141.5 million in the United States, being the fourth-highest-grossing film in North America of 1995, behind Apollo 13, Toy Story, and Batman Forever. Overseas, the film was projected to gross $225 million, though foreign box office grosses eventually amounted to $204.5 million. Cumulatively, Pocahontas grossed $346.1 million worldwide. Although at the time it was seen as a commercial box office disappointment in comparison to The Lion King, in January 1996, then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner contested in an annual shareholders' meeting that "Pocahontas is well on its way to being one of our most successful films of all time. It has equalled 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."

Critical response

Pocahontas received mixed reviews from film critics. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 54% of critics gave the film a positive review based on reviews, with an average score of. 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." It was the only film from the Disney Renaissance to be classified as "rotten" on the site. 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". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing that Pocahontas was "the best-looking of the modern Disney animated features, and one of the more thoughtful" though 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." 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". In his print review for the Chicago Tribune, Siskel awarded the film 3$1/2$ stars out of 4, stating it 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."

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." 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." 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." While calling the screenplay the "film's weakest element", Janet Maslin of The New York Times summarized in her review: "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 movie should do except send little viewers home humming its theme song."

According to Chief Roy "Crazy Horse" Johnson of the Powhatan Renape Nation, an unrecognized tribe in New Jersey, the film "distorts history beyond recognition" and "perpetuates a dishonest and self-serving myth at the expense of the Powhatan Nation". Roy claimed that Disney had refused the tribe's offers to help create a more culturally and historically accurate film. In the Los Angeles Times, Angela Aleiss said that Pocahontas and other portrayals of the Native princess rarely show her having anything more important in her life than her relationships with men. Professor and Director of Indigenous Nations Studies Cornel Pewewardy argues that the film presents damaging stereotypes of the Native American population. Pewewardy feels that the representation of Native characters, like Grandmother Willow, Meeko, and Flit, as animals, has a marginalizing effect. Anthropologist Kiyomi Kutsuzawa also observed that in the film, Kocoum and John Smith fight for Pocahontas's affection. Kutsuzawa viewed Smith's victory over Kocoum in this arena as symbolic of Western Europe's domination of the Americas and white men's domination over men of color.

Conversely, Native American activist Russell Means, who portrays Chief Powhatan in the film, praised the film's racial overtones, stating that "Pocahontas is the first time Eurocentric male society has admitted its historical deceit", and that it makes the "stunning admission" that the purpose of the European colonization of the Americas was "to kill Indians and rape and pillage the land." Means also said that the film marked "the first time, other than on Northern Exposure, that a human face has been put on an Indian female," dubbing Pocahontas "the finest feature film on American Indians Hollywood has turned out." Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic concurred, stating that the film's narrative "had a progressive attitude when it came to interpreting history", portraying the settlers as "plunderers searching for non-existent gold who were intent upon murdering the 'heathen savages' they encountered in the process", although she criticized the depiction of Pocahontas as stereotypical.

Historical accuracy
Pocahontas' real name was Matoaka to her kin. The public called her "Amonute." "Pocahontas" was only a nickname, and it can variously be translated to "little wanton", "playful one", "little brat", or "the naughty one". Pocahontas was around 10 or 11 at the time John Smith arrived with the Virginia Company in 1607, in contrast to her portrayal as a young adult in the film.

Smith is portrayed as an amiable man; in reality, he was described as having a harsh exterior and a very authoritarian personality by his fellow colonists.

Historically, there is no evidence of a romantic relationship emerging between Pocahontas and John Smith. Whether or not Pocahontas saved Smith's life is debated. In his work, Smith did not account of any danger in his life while he was a prisoner. However, after Pocahontas married John Rolfe, he elaborated a story about her savior methods. A group of 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 was known for introducing tobacco as a cash crop.

In April 1613, when Pocahontas became a captive of Captain Samuel Argall in Jamestown, she met John Rolfe. John Rolfe, who had recently come to England to try some tobacco, became interested in Pocahontas when she was about 18 and he was 28. He proposed a diplomatic marriage to Powhatan in a confession letter that proceeded to create an alliance between the groups. This marriage helped to establish a short period of peace between the English and the Powhatan tribe.

It is unclear whether Pocahontas reciprocated Rolfe's feelings. Rolfe may have simply represented a way to establish peaceful relations in her community and a way to escape her oppressive captors.

Governor Ratcliffe did not return to England, but was killed by the Powhatan in 1609.

Ebert criticized the film's deviations from history, writing "Having led one of the most interesting lives imaginable, Pocahontas serves here more as a simplified symbol". Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic wrote that "The movie might have fudged some facts", but that this allowed it to tell "a compelling romantic story".

Animator Tom Sito defended the film's relationship to history, stating that "Contrary to the popular verdict that we ignored history on the film, we tried hard to be historically correct and to accurately portray the culture of Virginia's Algonquins."

Legacy
A live musical show titled The Spirit of Pocahontas was performed at the Fantasyland Theatre at Disneyland during the film's theatrical release. A video game titled Disney's Pocahontas based on the film was released on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1996. The film was followed by a direct-to-video sequel, titled Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, released on August 25, 1998. Bedard and Kuhn reprised their roles as Pocahontas' speaking and singing voices, respectively. Donal Gibson starred as John Smith and Billy Zane starred as John Rolfe. Characters from the first film make cameo appearances in numerous episodes of the television series House of Mouse. Pocahontas, alongside other Disney Princesses, briefly appeared in the 2018 film Ralph Breaks the Internet, with Bedard reprising the role. Pocahontas also made a brief appearance in the 2023 live-action/animated short Once Upon a Studio, with Kuhn returning to do the character's singing voice.

Critics have also discussed the influence of Pocahontas on other films. Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic argues that the strong and brave title character of Pocahontas influenced the portrayal of subsequent heroines of Disney animated films, specifically Mulan, Rapunzel, Merida, and Elsa. Similarly, The Verge Tasha Robinson wrote that Moana (2016) "draws on" Pocahontas in its portrayal of a woman buoyed by her culture. According to HuffPost, James Cameron's Avatar (2009) is a "rip-off" of Pocahontas. Avatar's producer Jon Landau has said that Avatar is akin to Pocahontas with the Na'vi aliens taking the place of Native Americans. Cameron has said that he first conceived of Avatar in the 1960s, long before Pocahontas was released, but he has also said that Avatar does reference the story of Pocahontas, the historical figure. Kirsten Acuna of Business Insider wrote that, while Avatar may be based on Cameron's own ideas, it nevertheless takes inspiration from animated films like Pocahontas and FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992).

title: Pocahontas (1995 film)


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XGI Technology

XGI Technology Inc. was a Taiwanese hardware company. It was based upon the old graphics division of Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) spun off as a separate company, and the graphics assets of Trident Microsystems. It existed from 2003 to 2010.

History
Founded in June 2003 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, it was sometimes called eXtreme Graphics Innovation and headed by Chris Lin. In December 2003, XGI announced the Volari Duo, a graphics card with two GPUs. This was seen as part of a potentially successful attempt to become competitive with ATI Technologies and Nvidia Corporation, which were the two largest GPU manufacturers in the world at the time.

A few months after the announced release, XGI graphics cards were found by enthusiasts and hardware reviewers to be less than competitive with ATi and Nvidia cards. Some of the many performance and visualization problems were blamed on underdeveloped drivers. Even so, XGI cards received good reviews in the low price/low performance video card market: XGI Volari V3 cards were judged by some reviewers to be competitive and even superior to equally priced video cards that were on the market, such as a Nvidia GeForce MX 4000 card. Many reviewers though were pessimistic of the possibility that XGI would be competitive in the 3D graphic card market.

On 6 March 2006, ATI Technologies announced the acquisition of Shanghai-based MacroSynergy, a fabless chip designer and XGI Technology alliance company, as well as related personnel working out of XGI Technology's Santa Clara, California location.

On 2006-10-17, RealVision Inc. announced forming technology alliance with XGI Technology Inc. On 2006-10-23, RealVision Inc. announced VREngine/XMD-Advanced series video cards, which used the previously canceled Volari 8300 (named Volari XG47), for use in medical imaging. Mass production was set to begin on 2007Q1.

On 27 May 2010, Silicon Integrated Systems (SIS) took control of XGI Technology and its iTV technology with an unveiling soon after.

In October, 2010, it was reported that SiS acquired the rest of XGI's assets.

Cards
Its line of graphics cards included:

Developed by SiS team
Cancelled products
 * Volari Duo
 * Volari V8, V8 Ultra
 * Volari V5, V5 Ultra
 * Volari V3 XT
 * Volari V3 XE, V5 XE
 * Volari Z7
 * Volari Z9, Z9s — used by some server-class motherboards (ex. Supermicro X7SBA, X7SBT, and X7SBL series)
 * Volari Z11
 * Volari V5 XT
 * Volari 8600, 8600 Mobile, 8600XT

Developed by Trident team

 * Volari V3
 * Volari XP5, XP5m32, XP5m64
 * Volari 8300 - Although product page is no longer available, and production of video cards using it are cancelled, the chips were made into production models of RealVision XMD Advanced series video cards.
 * Volari 8300 Mobile/Volari XP10 - Originally titled Volari 8300 Mobile, it was renamed to Volari XP10 when it was finally available. XP10 added LVDS transmitter.

title: XGI Technology