Kida Nedakh

Kidagakash "Kida" Nedakh is the deuteragonist of Disney's 2001 animated feature film Atlantis: The Lost Empire and its sequel Milo's Return. She is the daughter of the King Kashekim Nedakh, King of Atlantis, and later becomes Queen, and the assumed wife of Milo. Despite being born a princess, Kida is not marketed as a Disney Princess, possibly due to the poor box-office performance of the movie (Eilonwy is in a similar situation). She is voiced by Cree Summer, while Natalie Strom did her child voice.

Physical Appearance
Like all Atlanteans, Kida has white hair and dark skin. She has blue colored tattoos (which represent teardrops), which appear to change slightly after she becomes Queen, and large blue eyes. She also wears a shard of the crystal around her neck. As a princess, she wears only a simple blue bikini, the bottoms are covered with sarong type skirt and she goes around barefoot, but changes into more elaborate clothing after becoming Queen. With the power of the Atlantean crystal, Kida and the other Atlanteans are given abnormally long lives. Though Kida is roughly 8,500 - 8,800 years old (according to Milo), she physically resembles someone in their early 20's.

Personality
She is also a warrior princess, making her strong and very skilled at combat. It is mentioned that several thousand years ago, Kida would have killed outsiders on sight. By the present time, however, Kida has become so curious about Atlantis's past that she is willing to let in outsiders with the hope that they could help her rediscover Atlantis's history, even as far as taking a liking to Milo. She is shown to love her father, and later Milo, very much. Although she can seem quite forceful, violent, and aggressive at times, she has a kind heart, and a general respect for all creatures.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire
"Cookies are sweet, but yours is not. Sweet is kindly, but that is not his name. Audrey is sweet, but she is not your doctor. And the little digging animal called Mole.... he is your pet?"

- Kida Nedakh

At a very young age, Kida is present when a gigantic tsunami threatens the central city of Atlantis. She watches in tears as her mother is suddenly chosen by the Heart of Atlantis to save the city, leaving the young child behind. Her father quickly covers her eyes so as not to look directly at the crystal, but he does and becomes blinded as a result.



Centuries later, Kida leads a small group of hunters and gathers through the earth's many caverns and catacombs when they notice a large group of outsiders approaching their city. They keep watch on them with her believing that their being able to find Atlantis could mean that they could be of help. When the expedition desperately escapes an attack from fireflies, they come upon a lone member who is injured. Kida decides to help heal the outsider before taking off.

When the expedition eventually finds Atlantis, Kida and her group confronts the expedition. When the man she had just healed reveals that he can speak Atlantean, she opens up to them and immediately takes them to her father. However, her father demands that they leave without explaining why. When left alone, she gets into an argument with her father regarding how their way of life is dying while he believes it is being preserved.

Unconvinced, Kida singles out the man who is named Milo Thatch. Realizing that she does not even know how to read the Atlantean written language, he agrees to help her as they explore the city. They come to a pond where underneath are numerous writings she has him translate. He is able to figure out information regarding the Heart of Atlantis, which is the power source keeping the city alive and was what took her mother away.



Upon surfacing, they find that the rest of the expedition plan to steal the Heart of Atlantis and sell it on the black market. Their leader Lyle Rourke forces Milo to cooperate by having a gun pointed at Kida. Kida watches in horror as they ransack her father's chamber, which is followed by the leader striking her father down before he figures out where the Heart of Atlantis is hidden. Inside the Crystal Chamber, she is called upon by the crystal and she bonds with it before being encased within a container.

Kida remains inactive as a battle ensues for her, of which Milo is successful in bringing her back to the city in time for her and the Heart of Atlantis to raise the giant stone guardians from their slumber and great a force field to protect the city from an awakened volcano. With the city saved, Kida is released from the crystal and leaves her with a bracelet of hers that her mother held onto when called upon previously by the crystal.

Because of her father's death, Kida becomes the Queen of Atlantis. Milo stays behind, having fallen in love with her and to help the civilians rediscover their lost culture. Among her first acts is for a stone effigy of her father be constructed to join the other stone effigies of the past kings orbiting the Heart of Atlantis that now hovers over the restored city.

Milo's Return
Kida, as Queen of Atlantis, is working with Milo, who is now her husband, to use the Heart of Atlantis to rebuild the civilization. They are unexpectedly visited by their comrades from the first film. They learn that a creature called the Kraken, which is presumed to be an Atlantean defense mechanism, is attacking a town. Kida and the others travel and are able to stop the creature.

While Kida adjusts well to the outside world, she feels guilty because there could be more Atlantean machines wreaking havoc. Kida and the others travel to Arizona, where they find a town with a statue that appears to be of Atlantean origin. They are also forced to confront coyote sprits who oppose them. A Native-American man is able to serve as a median, and Kida learns that she has the power to choose Atlantis's destiny.

Later, Kida and friends travel on a search for the Gungnir, a mythical spear of Atlantean origin. They track the thief, a man named Erik Hellstrom, to the Nordic Mountains. There, he presumes Kida to be his daughter (Erik believes himself to be Odin), and kidnaps her. Hellstrom intends to end the world by bringing about Ragnarok, and creates various beasts. Kida is able to retrieve the spear after Vinnie provides a distraction.

As a result of the adventures, Kida learns about the power of the Atlantean crystal, and comes to believe that her father was wrong for hiding it. She combines the Heart Crystal with the spear, and uses its power to raise Atlantis to the surface. It should also be noted that unlike in the first film, Kida for some reason does not have the extra tattoos obtained on her face from her wedding to Milo/coronation as Queen.

House of Mouse
Kida appeared in Donald Wants to Fly.

Disney Parks
Kida appeared in Disneyland and Walt Disney World when the film was first released, dressed in her queen robes from the end of the film (probably because of the fact that her main outfit in her film may spark controversy from parents visiting the parks). Kida and Milo also appeared in the Disney Stars and Motorcars parade in a car designed after a Ketak for the first two years of the parade's run.

After a 12-year absence from the parks, Kida and the other Atlantis characters finally made a reappearance at the Discoveryland section of Disneyland Paris.

Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
Although Kida does not appear in this game, one type of Blotworx featured here, the Shockers, is presumably a homage to Atlantis, complete with Kida's hunting mask for a face.

Possible Redesign
For the upcoming Blu-Ray rerelease of Atlantis on June 11, 2013, it's heavily speculated that Kida would be completely redesigned in a way so that she appears more modest to promote that film's rerelease.

This redesign of Kida would probably be just her in her coronation gown worn by her as a queen at the end of the film. The gown is predominantly light blue in color, with white outlines at the cuffs on the sleeves and on the hem. At the front of the gown there is a long, decorative sash hanging down from the bustline down to where her shins would be that is predominantly dark blue with gold outlines. In the dark blue negative area are various pink chevrons forming a "V", an "X", a "^", a "][", a semicircle, and another "^"., separated down the middle by a thin, vertical gold stripe. The collar of the gown is predominantly dark blue like the sash, also with gold outlines, with V-shaped neckline and small, triangular short sleeves. The gown has long, flowing sleeves that are also light blue like the gown, which are detached from the bodice, and have dark blue stripes located where Kida's shoulders and elbows would be.

On her head would be a small gold tiara resembling little more than just a plain gold headband with three long feathers, a large pink feather in the middle, and two smaller blue feathers between, all three held together by a small ornament resembling a diamond with an Atlantean "A" (a triangular spiral with a dot in the middle) at the center of the tiara. On her face would be elaborate turquoise tattoos: her original "teardrop" (a dot next to two curved lines) tattoo worn on her left cheek from her time as a princess, a mirrored version of her first tattoo worn on her right cheek, and a wide V-shaped tattoo on her forehead.

On her right wrist would be a small gold bracelet with three beads representing the queen's tiara (a large pink bead between two smaller blue beads) that she apparantly lost upon her mother's death, but eventually recovered as an adult, and her originally barefoot legs would now have tan-colored sandals on them, with her anklets worn by her as a princess still worn on the right leg.

It's currently unknown whether or not this redesign could potentially challenge the Disney Princess franchise as whole, since May 11, 2013 (one month ahead of Atlantis's Blu-Ray release) is also when Merida from Brave is  officially greenlighted into the lineup.

Development


From the beginning, the filmmakers wanted Kida to stand out from other Disney Princesses both in appearance and in personality. So as not to appear as another damsel in distress, they created her to be a warrior woman with strength to overcome hostility. While she is not recognized as the first African-American princess in a Disney animated feature, she is a character whose skin was much darker than that of the usual leading Disney female as part of the overall design of the Atlanteans.

The supervising animator of Kida was Randy Haycock. Randy further wanted to develop a unique appearance for Kida that made her different from the other Disney Princess. Going through various magazines and looking at models, he drew her with a slightly wider nose and full lips. He also wanted to play upon the characters personality of being stoic and firm while also having a soft, playful side that is left out when she meets Milo.

Cree Summer provides the voice of Kida. Cree was excited to finally get to voice a character in a Disney animated feature after having been in the business for over fifteen years by that point. Haycock noted how he felt intimidated by Cree's wild and unique personality the first time he met her and drew inspiration from that into developing scenes where Kida and Milo first meet. Natalie Strom voiced Kida as a child in the film's prologue, which was added in late in production, while Cree would reprise the character in the sequel.

Trivia

 * Although a definite princess by birth, Kida is not included in the Disney Princess franchise because her film did not do well in the box office. She may also not be a princess due to the fact she became a Queen.
 * The Black Cauldron's Eilonwy is in a similar situation, though her film only did poorly at the box office; there is no proof that she ever became queen, nor that she is even a princess, a fact reviled by fans.
 * With the exception of The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, Kida is the only Disney heroine to show how she lost her mother and which explains her absence in the original film.
 * Kida is the only Disney heroine to have natural white hair.
 * Kida is the only Disney heroine to have her kingdom be first above ground and then be submerged underground.
 * She is also the second princess to come from an underwater kingdom, after Ariel.
 * Kida is the oldest female heroine as she is over 8,000 years old!
 * However, considering that one Atlantean year is approximately 300 times longer than that of one human year, if Kida's age was translated back to that of a normal human's, then she would probably by only 28 years old, still making her the oldest amongst the heroines who are in their teens.
 * Kida is the third princess to expose her midriff, after Ariel and Jasmine.
 * Kida is the only princess created by Disney to ever inherit her parents' throne and become a ruling queen, since she both lost both of her parents over the course of the film (her mother was sacrificed to save her kingdom in the prologue, and her father was murdered by Rourke) and married a pauper. The lot of Disney princesses are likely to become queen consort (Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel) or are not in line for any throne at all (Belle's Prince Adam seemed not to be in charge of anything but his castle, Pocahontas' father was chosen, Mulan had no royal ties at all and it seems unlikely Naveen would be King of Maldonia considering he happily settled down in New Orleans). Also, Merida after being given the choice of either marrying Young MacGuffin, Young MacIntosh and/or Wee Dingwall (originally she ended up with the first above) eventually decided that she didn't want to marry any of them since she realized that she doesn't need a husband anyway. Arguably the only princesses in all Disney films beside Kida who could become active rulers are Rapunzel and Jasmine, and both married non-royalty.
 * Kida is the second princess to have a visible tattoo, after Pocahontas.
 * Kida's tattoos resemble a dot and two curved lines on top of each other, just below her left eye. According to her animators and the book "The Mark of a Princess" (which explains the meanings of the Atlantean tattoos seen in the film, see below), they were supposed to represent teardrops. At the end of the film she gains a second tattoo on her right cheek (resembling a mirrored version of her first tattoo) and a third on her forehead (resembling a stylized "V").
 * In Milo's Return, Kida does not have her extra tattoos in which she obtained at the end of the first film.
 * Also, her dress in the sequel does not resemble the one at the end of the first film (it is now a strapless dark turquoise dress with two slits on either side and a gold chevron pattern on the hem, with a red sash at the waist and a dark blue cape with a gold underside attached to the rear).
 * It's revealed in a sequel short story called "Milo's Rescue Mission" that Kida can actually revert to her princess outfit even as a queen (the only indication that she's a queen are her extra tattoos on her face), and can even remove her tiara at times.
 * Kida is the second non-white Disney female to have an unusual eye color, after Esmeralda, who has green eyes, while Kida has blue eyes.
 * Coincidentally enough, she is also the second Disney female lead to wear anklets, also after Esmeralda (Esmeralda wears one anklet, while Kida wears two).
 * Kida's dress at the end was only seen completely in a few concept art such as in "The Illustrated Script", "Subterranean Tours: Atlantis: A Traveller's Guide to the Lost City" and "Milo's Rescue Mission" (though without a tiara, see above). All other book illustrations showing her in that dress either show only the top half (Play-a-Sound book, Wonderful World of Reading, Dark Horse comic, Atlantis 2002 calendar, etc.), have the train (back part of the dress) cover the front (Read-Aloud Storybook, various coloring pages), or seen from far away ("The Final Stand", "How to Draw", Ladybird book, "Kida: The Heart of Atlantis", etc. Additionally, her face character incarnation at the theme parks depict her in her queen dress and tattoos, but without a tiara. A rare Halloween costume based on this character resembles her queen dress (because again her princess outfit is too revealing), but unlike the face character the costume also includes her tiara.
 * Likewise, her huntress armor when her mask is removed is only seen completely in some promotional artwork (in the film, she is only seen from the knees up when she is wearing her armor, but not her mask, except for a brief shot of her from behind when she and her fellow subjects are leading the explorers to the palace).
 * As a princess, Kida is barefoot, but as a queen she wears sandals. Therefore, the queen appears to the only Atlantean to actually wear footwear (even all of the kings, including her father Kashekim Nedakh and eventually her husband Milo, are barefoot).
 * The feathers on Kida's tiara at the end (one large pink feather between two smaller blue ones) resemble the ones on Jose Carioca's tail.
 * The pink chevrons on the dark blue-with-gold outlines sash hanging from the front of Kida's otherwise mostly light blue dress in the ending, from the shoulders down, form a "V", an "X", a "^", (the ones we only see in the film) a "][", a semicircle and another "^."(see above books)
 * Though she does not appear until halfway through the film, three tie-in storybooks, "Kida and the Crystal", "The Mark of a Princess", and "My Princess Collection: Kida: The Heart of Atlantis" are basically retellings of the film's plot but from Kida's point of view. What's different between those three books is that the first ends during the scene where Milo and Kida are shown exploring the underwater mural, while the last two continues from that point, including her kidnapping and subsequent crystallization by Rourke, her being rescued by Milo and his teammates from Rourke and protecting Atlantis from an erupting volcano, and finally her marrying Milo and beoming Queen (the only difference being that "The Mark of a Princess" is narrated in third-person, while "Kida: The Heart of Atlantis" is narrated by Kida herself).
 * Kida's color scheme (dark skin, white hair, and blue eyes) resembles that of Storm's of the X-Men. It also resembles Princess Yue's from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Queen La (who has cyan eyes) of The Legend of Tarzan.
 * Milo and Kida are the only Disney couple in House of Mouse that were not once seen together.
 * Kida's appearance, design, and outfit in House of Mouse resembles how she appeared in Milo's Return.
 * Kida may have been based on various anime female leads from various Japanese works whose premises are similar to that of Atlantis, but were all created beforehand, such as Sheeta from Laputa: Castle in the Sky or Nadia from Nadia: The secret of Blue Water.
 * Kida is the last princess to be created until Tiana's debut in 2009.
 * According to her animator Randy Haycock, Kida's introduction as a warrior princess was the result of Haycock being intimidated by her actress Cree Summer when she was first introduced to him.
 * If you listen very closely, then you can easily tell that Kida has a clearly British-sounding accent, otherwise known as "Proper English." However, she reverts to an American accent (typical of characters Cree Summer voices like Susie Carmichael, Numbuh Five, Foxxy Love, etc.) in the sequel.
 * The evolution of Kida's wardrobe appears to be the complete opposite of that of Jane Porter's: while Jane starts off wearing more modest clothing but gradually starts to wear less clothing over time, Kida starts off wearing more revealing clothing but gradually starts to wear more clothing over time.
 * Kida, along with Megara, Eilonwy and Jane Porter, are the only four Disney females not to have any sidekicks. Despite the presence of exotic animal life in Atlantis such as lava whales (giant animals that swim in lava, but ironically look more like dogs than whales) and parrot-lizards (small flying creatures resembling either pterosaurs or dragons), and brief cameos of real animals like a cat (Milo Thatch's (now Audrey Ramirez's) pet) and coelacanths (Preston Whitmore's pets), Atlantis is noticeably the only animated Disney film in which no animals actually appear at all. She is also the only princess without any sidekicks altogether.
 * Kida is similar to Pocahontas, being that they both dark skin, fall in love with the film's main character, meet the film's villain, & both have fathers who also meet the film's villain. The only difference is that Milo is Kida's love interest in both films, unlike John Smith who is Pocahontas's love interest only in the first film. Another difference is that Ratcliffe doesn't die, where as Rourke does, as with the fact the Milo and Kida marry while Pocahontas and Smith do not.
 * It is rumored that a redesigned Kida (shown in her queen clothes at the end to make her look more family-friendly) could be created by Disney to promote an upcoming Blu-ray release of Atlantis in mid-2013.(it was originally supposed to have a March 12, 2013 rerelease, but this was later postponed to June 11, 2013) However, whether this could cause Disney to question her existence and/or challenge the Disney Princess franchise as a whole has yet to be determined.
 * However, the original 2002 one-disc home release of Atlantis was the only release of that film to actually feature Kida on the cover art along with her husband Milo and his teammates (Mole, Vinny, Audrey, and Sweet, Cookie and Mrs. Packard for some reason are both absent). The two-disc collector's edition of the film featured only the Ulysses submarine and its escape pods but no characters, and the upcoming Blu-Ray art for some reason although still has the same main protagonist explorers as the original (Cookie and Mrs. Packard are still absent), Kida is nowhere to be seen and the two antagonists, Rourke and Helga are added instead.
 * One of the Blotworx, the Shockers, in the game Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two appears to have Kida's hunting mask for a face. This may be due to the fact that one of the game programmers was supposedly a fan of Atlantis, but did not like the fact that Kida is not an official Disney Princess, so he designed that enemy after her since that that game is all about forgotten Disney film characters, and therefore he considers Kida to be "forgotten."
 * Kida is Disney's first original princess (she does not come from an adaptation).
 * Kida's skin color appears to be very inconsistent depending on the lighting, she is supposed to have lighter skin than the other Atlanteans, but darker skin than Milo's. However, in Milo's Return, Kida for some reason is drawn with extremely dark skin.
 * Kida's title as "princess" was only mentioned near the end of the film when Milo is gathering the other explorers and Atlanteans to save her from Rourke and his minions. In Milo's Return, she is occasionally referred to as a "queen."
 * Kida is the second Princess to be seen as a child, after Cinderella, but not counting Ariel (she is seen as a child in Ariel's Beginning).
 * Kida is the third princess to be an orphan, after Snow White and Cinderella.
 * She is also the only princess to have both of her parents die over the course of the film.
 * Kida is the only princess to actually care for her own subjects, something all of the official Disney Princesses do not (they are either innocent and carefree or rebellious and wanting to be independent). This may be due to her father being too old to rule his kingdom and constantly trying to hide his guilt for letting his people suffer, only to finally admit his wrongdoings upon his death at the hands of Rourke; combined with Kida's personality as a true leader, is what helps her become a good Queen.
 * In the various promotions for the film, Kida is the only character that isn't shown, nor does she ever have a biography.
 * Kida was originally going to have pale skin and reddish-brown hair. Her final design appears to be an amalgation of different races, particularly African (dark skin and voice actress) and Polynesian (some Polynesians have dark skin and fair hair), with some East Asian (shape of her eyes), Native American (shape of her nose), Scandinavian (white hair is a common trait in Scandinavian people), and Caucasian as a whole (white/blond hair+blue eyes) elements as well. Although unintentional, this also resulted in Kida resembling Storm.
 * Despite not being an official Disney Princess, Kida made a brief cameo in the book "The Art of the Disney Princess."
 * Kida also made an appearance in the "My Princess Collection" book series along with the first eight official Princesses as with Alice, Princess Dot, and Jessie the Cowgirl.
 * Kida is the only Disney animated film female to be voiced by a professional animated TV series voice actress in her debut appearance. Normally, in animated films (with the sole exception of the Winnie-the-Pooh films, where everyone is voiced by a professional voice actor), professional voice actors/actresses are often restricted only to voicing background characters and/or additional voices. Richard Horvitz, famous for voicing Zim on Invader ZIM, also did additional voices in Mulan as well.
 * When Kida takes off her sarong, her anklets mysteriously vanish. They eventually reappear when she puts her sarong back on.
 * Kida is the only multilingual princess.
 * Kida is the third princess to have a full name, after Cinderella (whose maiden name appears to be Tremaine, while her married surname is presumably Charming), and Fa Mulan, but before Rapunzel (whose married surname is Fitzhbert).
 * Kida is the first Disney princess to come from a science-fiction Disney film.
 * Kida is the only princess two have both a male and female villain working together.
 * Although Atlantis obviously lacks seasons due to it being underwater, Kida's film is implied to take place in autumn (in Washington, DC, at least), since the events of this film are said to have took place on an October.
 * Kida is represented by the colors blue (clothing and eyes), white (hair), and gold (jewelry).
 * She is also represented by either her crystal necklace, her tattoos, the Atlantean "A" (a triangular spiral with a dot in the middle), and/or the Shepherd's Journal (her husband's book).
 * Kida's name originates from a Kiowa girl's name meaning "raising away the darkness." Curiously enough, her voice actress Cree Summer is part Native American, and her first name is also the name of an Indian tribe.
 * Kida had actually experienced some magic in her life: a lot of the Atlanteans wear magic crystal shards around their necks, which give them magic powers like immortality and healing abilities, and even merged with the Mother Crystal itself.
 * Kida can be seen crying as her mother is "killed" at the start of the film as Atlantis is sunk underwater. Also, according to Randy Haycock, her animator, Kida's tattoos represent her tears.
 * Kida briefly twirled as she is drawn upward into the Crystal during her transformation into it. However, since a princess twirl usually ends with something bad happening to them, after her transformation she is locked in a crate by Rourke and Helga.
 * Kida's facial structure was inherited from her mother's, although her skin is lighter. She also resembles her voice actress Cree Summer as well.
 * Although we never see her and Milo get married (though it's implied that they do), Kida is the only princess to have a coronation ceremony as she becomes the new Queen of Atlantis, although the two ceremonies could possibly be the one and the same.
 * Kida actually fled Milo after healing his wounds during their first encounter, although they really fled from Mole's digger as they heard it and the other explorers approaching.
 * Like most princesses, Kida had experience an argument with a parent resulting in a turning point in her life: after being upset with her father when he refuses to agree with her that her kingdom is dying, she goes up to Milo, who has just left the palace, and seeks him his help to bring Atlantis' culture back.
 * Due to modesty reasons, Kida's artwork promoting the Atlantis Blu-Ray rerelease will show her in her queen dress.
 * Kida is the fifth Princess to be raised as royalty, after Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine, and Pocahontas, but before Merida.
 * Kida appears to be more attached to her mother, since she was constantly lamenting about her death and why her mother had to die in the first place, as well as the fact that she and her father never get along very well since the Queen's death with her constantly berating King Nedakh for being too arrogant and not caring for his people.
 * Despite most of her promotional appearances portraying her as being fiercer and more actionized than how she appeared in the film, Kida played the role of the damsel in distress when she is turned to crystal by Rourke and Helga shortly after they kill her father King Nedakh and is about to be taken to the surface, when Milo after hearing from the dying Nedakh that with the crystal gone all of Atlantis will die, and if Kida remains crystallized too long she could die just like her mother when she was younger, prompting him and the other explorers to pursue and defeat Rourke and Helga before returning Kida to Atlantis just in time to protect the kingdom from being burned alive by an erupting volcano.

Gallery
Kida