Here's "Mine, Mine, Mine" as it appears on a workprint of Pocahontas, synced up to the final film animation. The film audio has been replaced with the soundtrack recording, performed by David Ogden Stiers and Mel Gibson. Pocahontas was the fourth collaboration between Disney and composer Alan Menken, and Menken's first collaboration with Stephen Schwartz.

Following his work on the film The Rescuers Down Under, director Mike Gabriel was eager to collaborate with veteran Disney story artist Joe Grant (who's work with the company began on the 1933 short Mickey's Gala Premier) and began brainstorming ideas for a project based on a famous Western legend over Thanksgiving weekend in 1990. After considering legends such as Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, and Pecos Bill, Gabriel landed on the story of Pocahontas.

Using an image of Tiger Lily from the film Peter Pan, Gabriel pitched the idea at a Disney "gong show meeting" as the story of a Native American 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." Peter Schneider, president of Walt Disney Feature Animation at the time, was particularly interested in the project after noticing similarities between Gabriel's pitch and an animated adaptation of Romeo and Juliet he was working on. Schneider later recalled "We were particularly interested in exploring the theme of 'If we don't learn to live with one another, we will destroy ourselves." The pitch was quickly accepted, the fastest story turnaround in Disney history. After the unexpected success of Beauty and the Beast -- the first, and so far only, animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture -- studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg pushed for the film to be more mature and serious in tone.

Intended to be the fourth Ashman & Menken project at Disney, to follow their work on Aladdin, lyricist Howard Ashman died on March 14, 1991 before work could begin. Tim Rice, who had been brought on to finish Aladdin, was soon considered for the job of Pocahontas' lyricist. However, Menken (a New York native) found writing with Rice at his London home to be difficult. As Rice was frequently traveling for other commitments, and it became difficult for he and Menken to collaborate, Menken suggested New York based Stephen Schwartz for the project instead, and Schwartz signed on. (At the time, Schwartz was in the process of leaving the entertainment industry and taking courses on psychology at New York University.)

Originally cast as the film's antagonist Ratcliffe was Richard White, who had supplied the voice of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. However, worried he would make the character sound too much like Gaston, White was replaced by his Beauty and the Beast co-star David Ogden Stiers.

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