Nimona

Blue Sky Studios may not have made the greatest films when they were still around, but it did still feel bittersweet when they were shut down once Disney merged with 20th Century Fox. It felt like a cold move that only came from not wanting to expand upon a different animation studio, and it meant that any future films they were creating were either scrapped altogether or just thrown out to another studio. One such film was Nimona, which Disney decided to stop working on after Blue Sky’s shutdown, with many believing the film’s LGBTQIA+ representation played a part in Disney’s limited attempts at fighting for it. However, it was picked up by Annapurna Pictures and was later distributed on Netflix in 2023. While it didn’t have the highest ratings, the movie did manage to connect with a fair amount of people and resulted in a fairly decent hit. In a futuristic-medieval kingdom where law is upheld by knights rather than police officers, a man named Ballister (voiced by Riz Ahmed) is about to become the first commoner to become a knight of the kingdom, despite it being frowned upon by most of the citizens and fellow knights. During his knighting ceremony, his sword launches a mysterious laser shot that kills the Queen and makes Ballister public enemy number one, forcing him to go on the run and have to avoid being hunted down by the other knights, which include his boyfriend, Ambrosius Goldenloin (voiced by Eugene Lee Yang). Trying to find the true culprit behind the attack, Ballister is approached by the shape-shifting Nimona (voiced by Chloe-Grace Moretz) who was originally looking to be Ballister’s partner in crime, but upon discovering he’s not the villain everyone is presenting him as, just decides to hang around with another outcast for fun. Working together to solve the truth behind this murder, Ballister will confront the flaws within the system he believed in, face his boyfriend who may also find out the truth behind the situation, and grow closer to Nimona who may have more information about this kingdom’s monster-hating past than expected, even unlocking a tragic personal connection to the legendary heroic figure this kingdom is based around. Released to pretty solid critic and audience scores and even getting an Oscar nomination, Nimona is a niche film that didn’t shake the boat for a mass majority, but was greatly appreciated by the fandom it did earn, who were equally grateful that Netflix gave it a second chance. Though messily handling in a lot of ways from a tonal, scripting, character and animation perspective, there are enough decent elements to explain why it managed to get the following it received.

Based on a graphic novel of the same name written by ND Stevenson, the story was praised at the time for its exploration of themes like gender fluidity, identity and the deconstruction of institutes that focus on ‘’othering’’ nontraditional individuals as a means of keeping an established order. On its own, it acts as a decent sci-fi fantasy story with a unique art style and passably laid out characters, enough so that a film could have potential, especially if they took those distinct qualities and ran all the way with them. After it was saved from cancellation, Nick Bruno, and Troy Quane (who had directed Blue Sky’s previous film, Spies in Disguise) became the directors of the film, and considering they literally just succeeded with providing a sense of staple quality onto a goofy concept that paired together a strait-laced adult and a hyperactive chaotic youth, it felt like they would do well with this source material. The set-up for this story does have inklings of nice ideas which feel like components that helped make the source material so appealing, but these elements are never pushed far enough and are instead just lightly touched upon underneath an otherwise seen-before premise and direction. While the layout of the film has been altered from its original counterpart by various story writers including Pamela Ribon, Marc Haimes, and Keith Bunin, the meat and potatoes of the story feel largely the same, which is pretty noticeable as a lot of the content feels pretty outdated by today’s standard. These kind of ‘’fight the power’’ stories that put a flip on traditional roles within good versus evil, aren’t that surprising anymore, and it leaves a lot of the screenplay written by Robert L. Baird and Llyod Taylor, feeling a little under-cooked. The world-building isn’t very strong, several scenes feel like they need more context and set-up to feel effective and purposeful (particularly in regards to Nimona’s backstory), the tone of the film can often bounce between extreme goofiness to oddly depressing in an instant (Nimona tries to kill herself and it goes out of nowhere dark), and the message of the film is clearly evident but is kept too vague about its specific target of focus that it loses some of its unique components. It is nice that at first, the commentary about identity and oppressive government forces isn’t as one-note as it has been portrayed previously in several other animated kids’ properties, but it doesn’t go specific enough or vague enough to satisfy either avenues. While these directors have proven their capabilities before, the pacing of this film is way too fast-paced and makes a lot of seemingly important elements less effective than they could’ve been if they were treated more seriously and given time to breath.

The characters have very solid designs that not only match the visual style with their extenuated features and almost border-less structures, but they also have a solid cast backing them up who breath some nice life into what are otherwise, pretty generic roles. The leads have the most to work with, and while they are handled well enough to leave an impression and sport memorable designs and voice actors, the writing for them could be better to more effectively flesh out their roles, desires, and overall purpose. Nimona is given a decent backstory that, while a little underwritten and confused, gives her a good pain to work through, her design is simple but brings out a lot of character, and Chloe Grace Moretz does great at capturing a youthful but chaotic energy which is further pushed by a lot of great facial expressions. You can feel the commentary the most in regard to her as the character seems to give off strong vibes of someone who is gender-fluid (ND Stevenson is actually a non-binary and transgender individual, so that quality was certainly intentional at least in some form), but outside of a few nice scenes and impactful visuals (especially one during the climax involving a statue), it’s not pushed far enough to be as monumentally different as it could’ve been. Outside of her, the rest of the cast are sadly pretty weak and flounder due to weak characterizations and backstory. Riz Ahmed is pretty good as Ballister, bringing a naive innocence to the role which does lead to him having pretty good chemistry with Grace-Moretz, but his backstory is barely explored, his motivation goes unexplained which makes him feel like a puppet being dictated by the whims of the plot, and even his relationship with Nimona is okay, but not as good as it could’ve be. Ambrosius is positioned in such a manner that you’d expect him to be a prominent character (as he’s the descendant of the hero this society and regiment is built around, which is eventually proven to be based on false ideals), yet his inactive role in the plot keeps him as just being the love interest, which even then isn’t anything amazing. The two are cute together, but it’s not a very interesting relationship and in spite of the situation, nothing funny or dramatic comes out of their scenes together. The villain is written in a very bland way and only really seems to exist to serve a message, and while there are a few recognizable names featured like Frances Conroy, Lorraine Toussant, Beck Bennett, RuPaul Charles and Indya Moore, the supporting cast is not very memorable and are either played too bland to be memorable or too goofy to be taken seriously.

The animation for this movie provided by DNEG Animation, follows the recent trend of blending 2D and 3D together, but this one does feature a distinct style that is a little mixed in terms of quality. On the one hand, the facial expressions are very good, the designs are pretty great, it’s very colorful and active, and the backgrounds have a simplistic beauty to them that feels akin to something out of a picture book. With that said however, the faded and almost non-existent outlines of the character models can be a little distracting at times, and the location and background work can seem a little unfinished in moments, so even if intentional, it comes with its own problems. It has this punk vibe to some of its aesthetics that are okay in theory, but it again feels like an element that is a little outdated as it would’ve been more acceptable and different in a previous decade when something like Arcane (also a highly applauded Netflix product with strong LGBTQIA+ themes attached) didn’t come and take it to the next level. This really becomes a bit of an issue when in connection with the environment, as despite having a decent idea of combining a medieval look with a more modern tech approach, it isn’t designed in a way that makes it feel or look any different from any other futuristic location with an ancient edge. Another thing is how it also leads to a lot of overly comedic moments that not only feel several years old, but also makes every character feel the same in regard to how they express and move. Despite how composed or serious a situation should be, the flowing and constantly moving nature of the film and the visuals  means that everything is constantly active and constantly in your face, which leads to a lot of wild scenarios, wacky antics and characters with highly expressive faces constantly being forced into the camera. It can be a little too much at times, and it seems to ruin moments that needed a more stable delivery, which becomes especially noticeable when the film goes crazy dark and depressing (scenes of Nimona commenting about her self-hatred and even contemplating suicide don’t really blend with the leads doing a ticktock-esque dance number akin to something from Risky Business)

It’s nice that Nimona was given a chance after Disney almost took it away, but you can’t ignore the usual Blue Sky-ism present in the movie, especially when in the grand scheme of things, it isn’t anything that special. You can feel the passion put into it and there’s definitely a lot of goodwill attached, but with material that feels at least a decade old, a visual style that has its moments but can be a bit polarizing, and a story and characters that aren’t allowed to be their best selves because they are at the mercy of an otherwise stale plotline, the chances of taking the world by storm never really come to be. It’s a little too childish and crazy in portions to really be appreciated by adults (in spite of its legitimately interesting commentary about exposing the marginalization of minorities placed into society by large-scale institutes and systems), but its reliance on adult-based commentary through generically worded discussions leave little room for younger audiences to get into. It isn’t a bad movie by any means as both demographics can take something out of this like the visual design, some of the characters and their performances, and an occasional good scene, but there are other properties and shows that have done this idea much stronger elsewhere.