Tiana's great and all, but what about Kida? | This Girl's Bookshelf

Tiana's great and all, but what about Kida?



:)
Sure, I guess Tiana from Disney's The Princess and the Frog is the first African-American Disney princess... considering the fact that she and Pocahontas are the only ones who are American at all!

But Kida (Kidagakash) from Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a black princess, too - just not one that Disney likes to promote, for one reason or another. (Is it because of the resmblances to the anime Nadia the Secret of Blue Water?)

Personally, I consider Atlantis a highly underrated film. Then again, I do have a soft spot for steampunk, ensemble casts, Michael J. Fox, dorky linguists, conlangs and Mike Mignola. It's like a Disney animated version of Stargate, and for that I love it.
Atlantis the Lost Empire Sweet Audrey Vinny Mole group shot

But for all the good PR Disney received for having a black princess in Princess & the Frog, you would think they would want to play up the characters of color that they already have!

Granted, Disney have a very questionable past as far as race is concerned, from Peter Pan's 'What Makes the Red Man Red?' to Lady and the Tramp's cringe-inducing Siamese cats. But Atlantis has a surprisingly diverse cast, including several well-rounded and entertaining female characters. It's definitely a forgotten gem in the Disney canon, to my mind.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kida is NOT black. She's Atlantean. She's got darker skin than Milo, who spends his life inside, never exposed to sunlight.

Unknown said...

Kida is not black, if anything the Atlantis culture is closer to the Pacific Islanders'.

Rachael said...

I just watched this movie last night. It is such an amazing film and so forgotten.

http://rachaelc94.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

Kida is most certainly black in my opinion

Unknown said...

Well that's really left to the imagination of the viewer being ATLANTEAN does not mean she can't be racially black. Many rumors suggest Atlantis was located of the coast of Africa and a lot pseudo African culture was used in Kidas character design

Unknown said...

Not true Atlantis culture would have more in common with ancient Egyptians or Ancient Greek she could be black or a indo European

DJ Smith said...

Disney definitely created Atlantean Culture to be African inspired, probably because scientifically humans first came out of Africa. From the African designed tribal masks to tribal markings lets not forget the reason Kida looks black isn't just because her cultures dark skin, but her cultures dreadlocked hair, thick lips, spear for weapons, jewelry design, and my personal favorite Cree Summers as the voice over (dead give away). But all that being said Kida (lol the name and accent) is probably meant to be a combination of all cultures along with the rest of the Atlantans. There are other characters of other races there in the movie so you could pick apart similarities in design, but Atlantis was definitely inspired by African design. Other cultures have Ankle bracelets, thick lips, to tribal markings but none are as similar to the Atlanteans in this movie than the African style. I'm sure you could try to find some, but its Disney its not that Deep...

Moeali said...

Friend, have you ever watched Disney?
1.) as various other people have said, kida is not black. If anything, her skin is closer to Aztec than black
And
2.) she's a queen. Not a princess. If you love the movie so much, you'd know this.

Unknown said...

Why does it matter if she is black or not. But I'm sorry there are plenty of light-skinned black women who resemble Kida. Black skin isn't always dark just fyi. As well as the body structure and facial features are very similar to that of a black woman. Everything down to her voice, which was performed by Cree Summer, is of an African decent. Sorry not sorry but we all know Disney sticks to certain formats. Even in Princess and The Frog the black people looked very similar in my opinion to those characters in Atlantis. I am a woman of color myself and have light skin tone so I identified with Kida a lot growing up.

Unknown said...

i don't wan't to seem racist but kida has the same skin tome as the female mechanic who is black i think so shouldn't kida be black therefor being the first black disney princess

Unknown said...

@david Matthewson, Audrey isn't black, she's hispanic. Though that doesn't prove anything about Kida, her ethnicity is up to speculation. I personally think of her has ambiguous- someone of different races.

beautifiedAbnormal said...

Princess/ Queen Kida is black, Audrey is Hispanic but also has a little black in her. Y'all should know that, If you are a POC, you should know that already plus every POC culture relates to Kida's, we have similarities.

Unknown said...

Not like Kida is exposed to sunlight either

Madera High School said...

Kida is DEFINITELY Mediterranean

Madera High School said...

Kida is DEFINITELY Mediterranean

Madera High School said...

Kida is DEFINITELY Mediterranean