Ki

Ki is the tritagonist of Disney/ImageMovers Digital co-produced 2011 animated feature film, Mars Needs Moms. She is a member of a race of female-led Martians, residing secretly on the cold surface of the planet Mars. Ki lived much of her life under the close servitude of the tyrannical female Martian leader called the Supervisor.
==Background==
===Official Description===
:Ki (Elisabeth Harnois) is a strong-willed young Martian who learned to speak English by watching a '70s sitcom. She spends her time painting elaborate graffiti on the walls of Mars. But she does so in secret. She's forced to hide her artistic side on a planet that is devoid of color and emotion. The Martians are strictly forbidden from expressing any individuality, but Ki thinks for herself—particularly when she decides to help Milo. Talented, sneaky AND tough—Ki just may be the coolest renegade in Martian history.
===Personality===
Ki is a bright, spirited and headstrong Martian with a strong passion for adventure and exploration. Her tendency to paint behind her own species' enemy lines shows how much she cares for her art.
====Abilities====
*Bilinguality: Along with her native Martian tongue, she can speak a wide vocabulary of Earth words and even numbers. This demonstrated throughout the film, when Milo is able to understand her clearly and thoroughly. Albeit, mostly through slang and impersonations, she picked up off a random 70s sitcom.
==Appearances==
===Mars Needs Moms===
At the beginning of the film, Ki witnesses through security monitors newborn Martian babies birth out of the ground. She is quickly interrupted by her leader, the Supervisor, who commands her to examine Earth and search for potential candidates for human mothers to abduct, landing on young Milo and his mother. While the Supervisor is pleased, Ki feigns a grins and rolls her eyes when she turns away. Though she was not aboard the Martian spaceship that abducted Milo's mother, she does escort the Supervisor outside of the Martian base and onto the cold, unbreathable surface of Mars, where the Supervisor discovers a brightly-colored graffiti tag painted on the base's wall and she becomes furious. Ki only smiles in response. Finding the unconscious body of Milo's mother in a glass container, Ki longingly and sorrowfully stares at her and attempts to put her hand on the glass before being shouted at by the Supervisor. She returns to the entrance of the base before standing on the landing platform of the abduction spaceship, following the Supervisor's orders and further examining Milo's mother.
While secretively lubricating and then painting on a base, she encounters human stowaway, Milo, and snatches him from freefall. Thinking she saved a fellow Martian before unmasking him, she scares him off and catches him in a corner hallway. Despite this, she is completely unaffected by the fact he is human and tries to clean him up anyways. While trying to clean him, Ki reveals that Milo had a tracking device placed on his back that allowed them to find and capture Milo's human friend, Gribble. She chases down a panicked Milo into a elevator where he apologizes and closes the doors on her. Ki, taking none of it, hops through the elevator shaft herself and lands right in front of him. Adorably curious, she begins asking Milo rapid-fire questions about Earth and many of its culture. When Milo asks how Ki, an alien, knows English, she reveals her story: Working as a lowly administration unit, she managed to stumble upon a transmission of an 70s sitcom from Earth and absolutely fell in love with it; recording nearly all of its episodes and watching them in secret.
When Milo and Gribble find themselves at the translucent cavern area, Ki arrives and agrees to help Milo find his mother, alongside Two-Cat. She then discovers a prophecy depicting a mural of a true Martian family and true love to which Ki found out that the Supervisor betrayed the Martians and to which she explains that the Supervisor always had a tradition of Martians being raised by machines.
Leaving the cavern, Ki, Milo, Gribble, and Two-Cat arrive at the Citadel just as Ki devises a plan to get in there without getting spotted by the guards. Ki then devises a plan for Milo, Gribble, and Two-Cat to take out the guards, disable the surveillance cameras, sneak through the jail, and get to the silo. To avoid getting arrested by the guards, Ki manages to take out the guards to rescue Milo and Gribble while Gribble disables the surveillance cameras. Milo then devises a plan for Gribble, Ki, and Two-Cat, explaining that Milo should find his mother while the other three find the spaceship. Having rescued Wingnut (who is shown to have survived) from his prison cell, he joins Milo's group alongside the other male Martians who are also rescued.
Milo's gang then escapes the prison area and end up in the rocket ship area just as Milo finds a ladder reaching up to the surface just as Gribble, Ki, and Two-Cat enter the rocket ship to rescue his mother before sunrise, noticing that Milo doesn't have a lot of time before sunrise to rescue his mother. Milo and Gribble arrive at the spot where she is, just as Milo tries to rescue her from a dangerous fate while Ki activates the launch system. Milo saves his mother, disrupting the plan, which causes the Supervisor's plan to fail.
When Milo saves his mother's life and attempts to escape, the Supervisor attempts to stop the gang from escaping; Ki manages to stop her from killing her friends, telling the SISS that the Supervisor betrayed all the Martians showing her the prophecy of a true Martian family on the mural in the translucent cavern area, causing her to be arrested for her tyranny and betrayal.
As Milo arrives back on Earth, he then rejoices with his friends he encountered on Mars just as Gribble, Ki, and Two-Cat leave for Mars in a farewell. Ki then starts working at a newly rehabilitated Martian chamber thanks to Milo's help.
==Trivia==
*In 2020, Brie Larson revealed via YouTube that she had auditioned for the character Ki, who was eventually portrayed by Elisabeth Harnois.
*Ki is the first female Martian shown on-screen.
*Ki does not appear in the original book the film is loosely based on.
*When speaking in English, she will occasionally blurt something in her native Martian tongue, especially if she gets extremely emotional.
*Ki is actress Elisabeth Harnois' second Disney role after playing Alice in Disney's Adventures in Wonderland as a child.
*When Gribble first sees Ki, soon after he and Milo escaped execution at the citadel, he breathlessly exclaims "My Sharona!"
**This is a reference to the 1978 debut-single song, "My Sharona" by The Knack.
==References==
Category:Females
Category:Aliens
Category:Heroines
Category:Mars Needs Moms characters
Category:Lovers
Category:Characters
Category:Disney characters
Category:Tritagonists
Category:Artists
Category:Animated characters