Uttamatomakkin, or Uti, is the silent bodyguard who accompanies Pocahontas to the New World in Disney's 1998 animated feature film, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World. He does not speak much (aside from a few grunts, growls, and words).
Background
Personality
Though an inaudible character, he has many personality changes throughout the course of the movie. The attitude he maintains is a rather serious one, to show how serious he is in helping Pocahontas succeed in her mission to stop the war. He'd rather run than ride. He also displays others like joy (when the English woman was talking to him at the Hunt Ball and when Pocahontas decided to go back to King James after escaping prison) and embarrassed (when he was trying on a blue hat for the Hunt Ball at John Rolfe's house and quickly took it off when John came over and saw what he was doing).
Physical Appearance
Uti is a tall Native American male. He is rather muscular and dark in skin-tone. He has a mohawk-style haircut with two white feathers hang from the back. He sports no shirt through the bulk of the movie (with the exception of the jacket he took from the ball announcer during the Hunt Ball). He also sports two-piece buckskin bottoms, thin brown pants, and shoes. In the winter, the sports a thin buckskin shirt as well. He also has a thin necklace with an arrowhead on it.
Role in the film
Uti is first seen standing in the way of John Rolfe when the diplomat arrives to speak to Chief Powhatan. He is later seen getting instructions from Chief Powhatan to keep Pocahontas safe while she is in London. Chief Powhatan also instructed Uti to cut a notch in a long staff 'for every pale face he sees'. To John Rolfe's surprise, Uti silently boarded the ship to England to undergo the mission with Pocahontas.
When they get to England, Pocahontas and Uttamatomakkin meet the town's inhabitants (which is, of course, predominantly made up of Caucasian people, thus eliminating Uti's staff). Later, they are approached by Ratcliffe telling the group that the armada is going to sail. The visitors are then escorted to John's home, where they meet Mrs. Jenkins, Rolfes' housekeeper, who gladly serves the guests tea and sandwiches, which Uti enjoyed.
Uti is later seen getting ready for the Hunt Ball. While waiting for Pocahontas, he is confronted by John asking why he wasn't ready. Uti silently points to the tribal paint he drew on his face and John drops the question. Pocahontas soon comes downstairs the group is off. They all arrive at the ball, which Pocahontas and John Rolfe enter okay but Uti is stopped for not wearing proper attire. Uti then takes the jacket from the announcer and proceeds to the Ball, where many English women began flirting with him which he responds to with a smile. The night goes very well until the King ushers in the bear-baiting segment, which Pocahontas is disgusted by, and calling the English people barbarians which gets her and Uti, who tried to help her when they were seized, arrested.
Uti and Pocahontas were later rescued by John Rolfe, Meeko, Flit, and Percy as well as John Smith and escaped to an abandoned cottage, where Pocahontas made the decision to return to the King and demand that the war be stopped. After another confrontation with the King and Queen, the royals decide that the war be stopped but the Armada had already sailed.
The group then head out to the departing Armada and stopped the forces from departing London. They also got Ratcliffe arrested for lying to the King.
Uti is last seen staying behind in London with Mrs. Jenkins and the tortured bear from the Hunt Ball, where he exclaims his only two words to the departing Pocahontas and John Rolfe, "Ta-Ta.......Pip-Pip!"
Trivia
- Uttamatomakkin and Pocahontas were never imprisoned at the Tower of London. In real life, she visited George Percy's brother, Henry Percy, the Ninth Earl of Northumberland at that place and he mended her earrings for her.
- Uttamatomakkin is based on a real-life person also known as Tomocomo. In real life, he was one of several Native Americans that acted as an envoy for Pocahontas during her journey to England. He was also married to Matachanna who was the half-sister of Pocahontas. In the film, Chief Powhatan instructed him to cut a notch on the staff whenever he saw a pale face as a way to understand the number and strength of the Englishmen, and he gave up after seeing that the number of English people he saw were far more than he could count. One major difference is their fate at the end, in which in real life, Pocahontas died before they could return to Virginia and was buried at Saint George's Church in Gravesend, while Uttamatomakkin returned to Virginia with Samuel Argall and John Rolfe. Rolfe adopted his two-year old son, Thomas to his family in Heacham.
- Despite making some sounds he is the only character who doesn’t speak real words.
