Colors of the Wind Quotes

Context

This line is sung by Pocahontas, voiced by Judy Kuhn, in the song "Colors of the Wind," written by lyricist Stephen Schwartz and composer Alan Menken, in the film Pocahontas, directed by Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg (1995).

If you've heard of a couple of people named John Smith and Pocahontas before, feel free to do what Disney did and toss out that historical knowledge right now. In the film, John Smith is an arrogant English explorer (pretty accurate, actually) and Pocahontas is the daughter of an Algonquin chief. They are the film's love interests, which is where Disney and history part ways, because there's exactly no historical evidence that these two ever shared so much as a longing look across the room.

John Smith and Pocahontas meet and misunderstand each other, and as they're trying again on this getting-to-know-you thing, Pocahontas sings a song addressed to John Smith in which she asks him a bunch of rhetorical questions intended to highlight how little he understands her homeland and how silly he is to think he can own something as powerful as the earth. "Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?" is part of the refrain. We bet John Smith didn't even know the wind had colors.

Where you've heard it

Have any Disney-obsessed friends? Are you that Disney-obsessed friend? Then you've heard "Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?" Politicians also love to drop this line when they're pushing for alternative energy research. Okay, they don't, but we'd watch a lot more C-Span if political speechwriters busted out Disney rhymes on the regular.

After the film came out, Vanessa Williams covered "Colors of the Wind" for pop radio in 1995, but if you weren't tuned in to the Top 40 back in the pre-streaming days, then your first listen might have been Tori Kelly's version for We Love Disney, Volume III (2015).

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

While this level of pretentiousness might seem high for a line from a children's animated film, "Colors of the Wind" did win a lot of awards, and as goes the number of awards, so goes the level of pretentiousness. Also, "Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?" is one of many rhetorical questions Pocahontas knows John Smith can't answer yes to. "Here are a bunch of questions meant to remind you what a blockhead you are," screams pretentiousness to us.