The forgotten Heroines of the Disney vault: Kida, Esmerelda, Lilo. Released too early or too late?
by Jennifer
When you’re the first to do something, it can go two ways. Break the glass ceiling and set new standards, or trip and get brushed under the rug. Rosa Parks was not the first black person to refuse to move to the back of the bus in segregated Montgomery, Alabama. In fact, the first person to get in trouble for it was a fifteen year old girl named Claudette Colvin. Why wasn’t she the face of desegregation? She was a pregnant teenager. Then nine months later, Rosa Parks, who was a secretary at the NAACP, did the same thing. Bingo. Now, does that lessen Rosa Parks' contribution? Of course not. Is she less of a national icon? Of course not. But was she first? I take this theory and apply it to one of the hottest Disney fandom debates: Who gets to be a Disney Princess, and why Kida from Atlantis, Esmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Lilo from Lilo & Stitch didn’t make the cut.
Kida was the daughter of the King of Atlantis. She never considered herself nor is she referred to as a princess by her fellow Atlanteans, but she is called the princess by Milo and the other explorer characters. Kida is an inquisitive, brave, and selfless leader who by the end of the film is a full blown queen - almost fifteen years before Elsa in Frozen. However, Atlantis only brought in 186 million, whereas Elsa alone brings in billions to the Disney name. Some argue that because Atlantis was a non-musical animated film, it was not well received because it was not what the audiences expected of Disney. Others point out flaws in the narrative - yet upon rewatching, it follows a pretty standard structure. She wasn’t the first princess of color; Pocahontas, Mulan, Jasmine, and Esmerelda had already made a debut on the big screen. What was the secret ingredient? Why did Disney brush Kida under the rug? Disney did not know how to market her. There are no Atlanteans walking around. She represented definitively no one, but was rather a culmination of ambiguous “othering”. She was dressed maturely in a bralette and wrap skirt, which doesn’t really mesh with her the floor-length corset contemporaries. She had white, chunky hair that resembled none of the beauty standards of the time (Whereas after Elsa and Daenarys came into the picture, ash and silver braided hair became a trend). She didn’t have an animal sidekick, she didn’t have an “I Want” song, her love interest was...well...Milo, and she wasn’t the protagonist. Even though Kida is a great example of what a woman could act like when she is not spending the majority of the film googly-eyed about a guy, she is not the only one - Moana, I believe, was Kida part 2. She was strong, inquisitive, native with a touch of mystical, and rocked the bralette wrap skirt. But they gave her a distinct physical identity, an “I Want” song that slaps, and (realistically) an unnecessary but also clearly necessary animal sidekick. Kida was forgotten, but where Disney failed her, they corrected for Moana. I don’t want these two ladies competing. I see Kida as a big sister teaching her younger sister how to sneak out after curfew.
Esmerelda is my favorite Disney heroine. She’s probably most responsible for my curly girl hair love, my sassy retorts to Chads, and the reason I’m not afraid to bring up controversial topics at my conservative dinner table. The scene where she goes onstage to help Quasimodo during the Feast of Fools to this day chokes me up and makes me ask why on God’s green earth is she not a bannerman for Disney feminne strength and bravery. But yeah, Merida of Brave can shoot a bow and rip her dress… what a rebel. It is worth noting that Esmerelda was a Disney Princess until 2004 but was removed for, you guessed it, unmarketability. Her movie is associated with dark themes such as disability, discrimination, religion, witch trials, curruption - the list goes on, and it’s hard to put her up against Ariel, who ran away from home because of a boy. Hunchback made the most of the heroines on this list at 324 million, but notably less than the lower princesses (ie. Merida). I think Esmerlda has been brushed to the side more because of her movie than because of her, which I think is a disservice - because inherently Disney is saying if she associates with their more marketable princesses, it will lower their worth. Yikes. But what did Disney learn from her? Where do we see her footprints in princesses that they do celebrate? Act 1 Tiana, and Megara (who was also brushed to the side). I want to say Elsa, but that’s a stretch from one strong woman to another. Esmerlda stood for something; she had conviction and values and morals and called out injustice in her world, while also being a minority in that world. Yes, Jasmine calls out sexism, but she has a great deal of privilege within her society. Tiana was in 1920s Mississippi and…. Nothing? I have yet to see Disney take a film with a character who is a recognized minority in their world and fight for change.
Finally, little Lilo. So unproblematic. So weird. Had a movie almost deal with colonialism and racism, but those scenes were deleted. Lilo is an odd girl who is orphaned and now lives with her sister, Nani, a young woman who works day and night to try and keep custody of her sister. A veiled commentary of the American government coming to a native dweller and threatening to separate their family. Nani does not prioritize a relationship with a boy; rather, she cherishes her relationship with her sister. She only dresses like a stereotypical Hawaiian at work in order to cater to tourists, and she speaks in her native language intermittently throughout the film. Lilo also does not have an “I Want” song, and her animal sidekick is actually her partner protagonist. Lilo is an outsider on her own land by non native Hawaiians. She adopts an unwanted dog from the pound and loves it because it's an outsider like her. Lilo sees the good in everyone; she longs for connection, acceptance, and love, and tries so hard to give it and gets very little in return. Lilo is young and therefore couldn’t be sexualized like the other women discussed in this article, although Nani unfortunately also falls into the category of “not white show her belly” mentality of character design. So why isn’t she a Disney princess? Again, Disney doesn’t know how to market her. She is ten when most of the others are 13-20 (probably why Vanellope isn’t there either). She doesn’t have a pretty dress, she doesn’t have a song, and no girl dreams of becoming her because they usually are Lilo. She may have been another prototype for Moana, but ultimately she was booted out once Disney got a new shiny Polynesian character.
The one thing all these films have in common that no other Disney film attempted was dark themes. Pocahontas has a dark theme, but there is so much controversy around that movie I won’t touch it with a ten-foot pole. Otherwise it’s daughters fighting with a parent or parents to be able to be themselves, who possess pretty standard qualities, and they may or may not fall in love with someone who values who they really are. Insert new character design and setting. Now, we love Disney because it makes us feel good and it's beautiful and it's a great cleaning soundtrack. But as our world gets more informed and inherently more toxic, these things will either be trivialized for ignoring real problems or will be stuck in nostalgia until they are irrelevant and go in the way of Gone With the Wind. Atlantis, Hunchback, and Lilo attempted to talk about complex themes with children, and now we have Gen Z pranking the president. I think that ship has sailed, pal.
