By Lindsey Gregory, Walt Disney Archives
Imagine yourself on a mild summer night, surrounded by lush green trees and relaxing on a picnic blanket with friends. Above, the moonlight shines through as the melody of “Colors of the Wind” fills the air from a big movie screen. Oh, and you happen to be in New York City’s Central Park, joined by tens of thousands of fellow moviegoers in what was heralded at the time as the “world’s largest film premiere.”
For most (including myself), this feels like a dream found just around the riverbend—but for a lucky few, it was a reality at “Pocahontas: The Premiere in the Park”!
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of this Walt Disney Animation Studios classic, we’re following Grandmother Willow’s wise advice and letting the spinning arrow guide us… back in time. Join us as we take a closer look at the premiere of Pocahontas and explore the treasures that reside in the Walt Disney Archives from that historic event.
Thirty years ago, on June 10, 1995, New York’s most iconic park transformed into a walk-in theater as 100,000 guests from all 50 states (and several countries around the world) gathered to say “wingapo”—“Welcome, cherished friend” in the Powhatan language—to Pocahontas, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 33rd full-length feature film. This compassionate and compelling tale about a brave young woman who listens with her heart was perfectly suited for an outdoor venue, which became the natural choice for such a premiere. Central Park was ultimately chosen for its unique communal locale that doubled as a family-friendly summer setting.
The idea for the groundbreaking event originated nearly a year before the film’s debut on the Great Lawn, and by April 1995, a newspaper sweepstakes invited the public to “be part of motion picture history” and enter for their chance to win tickets to the “Pocahontas Premiere in the Park Spectacular.” Over half a million people entered, but only 100,000 lucky winners had the chance to be part of this momentous occasion in Disney Animation history!
Staging a Disney film premiere across the verdant sprawl of Central Park was no easy task—but specialized crews spent nearly two weeks preparing and building the perfect “theme-park-for-a-day” atmosphere for the event, which required the installation of four massive screens, each rising some eight stories tall, along with stages for live performances. Eight projectors were utilized to run 70mm film prints (totaling nearly 16 miles of film!), and four projection towers, at five stories each, were all enhanced by state-of-the-art Circle-Vision-inspired technology. The screens were anything but ordinary, as each consisted of 42 stacked cargo containers—each one measuring 40 feet in length—covered by two layers of white griffolyn, to ensure that all attendees would be able to properly experience Pocahontas’ epic journey.
This innovative, if not completely unconventional, moviegoing format would be the key to the event’s success and was brought to life by some 1,500 crew. In fact, 75 of those working the premiere were permanent cast members from both Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts, who helped bring the signature Disney Parks magic to the historic premiere. Among them were Custodial teams who helped preserve and protect the park, with the aid of about 120,000 square feet of synthetic turf to mitigate the damage to the grounds themselves while enhancing the green of the Great Lawn.
For an event such as this, merchandise had to be just as special as the premiere itself—and who better to help ensure that each guest received their rare souvenirs than Disney Store cast members? To accomplish the renowned Disney Store experience in an outdoor venue, they joined their fellow crew to log some 30,000 total training hours on the day before the premiere, marking what was considered the largest single-day training event in Disney history!
The stages were set, the towers raised, the cargo containers stacked… but a bump in the road threatened the premiere entirely. As Disney Legend James “Jim” Cora—who temporarily relocated to Manhattan, as then-president of Disneyland International, for several months to help plan and prepare for the event—remembered in his memoir Not Just a Walk in the Park: My Worldwide Disney Resorts Career (Disney Editions, 2021):
“There were constant forecasts of [heavy] rain for Saturday. As the week wound down, we were continually under overcast skies with scattered rain. The weather wasn’t typical for a New York June, and there were even some storm warnings. And the night before the event, wouldn’t ya know it, we had a thunderstorm.”
June 10 soon arrived, and, despite the cloudy skies and threats of rain, the gates opened around 2 p.m., nearly an hour before the festivities began, so enthusiastic guests could find their perfect “picnic” spot on the Lawn. But it was the kindness of the crowd that Cora remembered most: “People had come from all over the country to be a part of this, and as more people arrived, those guests already in place adjusted to make more space. People moved their blankets over to make room for strangers.”
Guests were treated to an afternoon of family-friendly entertainment before the screening—with musical acts presented on all four stages; atmosphere entertainment from jugglers to face painting; and even special performances by the Future Corps brass players from EPCOT and the one-and-only Disneyland Band! As dusk set in around 8:30 p.m., the festivities continued with a special pre-show on the main stage, including a performance of “Circle of Life” from The Lion King (1994) by Lebo M and a choir, who were joined on stage by Paige O’Hara and Jodi Benson (future Disney Legends who were behind the voices of Disney Animation’s Belle and Ariel, respectively). After the star-studded performance, at 9:30 p.m., it was finally time for the audience to experience the breathtaking and moving story of Pocahontas amid Mother Nature.
Although rain began to fall, “no one headed for the exits,” a local newspaper reported.
Cora affirmed that the crowd happily stayed despite the rain and recalled how the event team was “moved to tears when the Walt Disney Pictures logo flashed onto the giant screens. We’d done something utterly unique. It was above and beyond our standards for Disney show quality”.
As the musical score built to the climactic finale—and as Pocahontas stood watching as the colors of the wind guided John Smith’s ship out to sea—audiences were treated to one last surprise: a stunning live performance by Vanessa Williams (who famously performed “Colors of the Wind” for the film’s end titles and soundtrack). As a final kiss goodnight, a dynamic fireworks display capped the evening’s events.
“Pocahontas lived up to the hype,” The Press of Atlantic City summarized.
Although the premiere was by sweepstakes and invitation only, memories of the unforgettable, fun-filled spectacular are carefully preserved within the Walt Disney Archives for all to discover.
Drawing from the Archives’ extensive collections, pictured above are a few gifts that attendees received upon entry—including an event lanyard and program. Additionally, the Archives saved some of the unique merchandise offered at the premiere, such as the commemorative blanket and t-shirt shown here. (Who wouldn’t want to sport a green Pocahontas backpack to show everyone they attended “Pocahontas: The Premiere in the Park”?)
This historic event was about as special as the film itself, bringing some 100,000 strangers together in the beauty of nature to celebrate the story of a brave young woman, Pocahontas, who reminds us to follow our own paths (even if they extend just around the riverbend) and treat every rock, tree, and creature with care and respect along the way.