Nimona (2023) – Metal!

Released: 30th June
Seen: 3rd July

The fact that Nimona exists today at all should legally be considered a miracle just based on what it’s been through to get to a screen. Starting life as a webcomic, the film rights were bought in 2015 by Blue Sky Pictures, a Fox company that was planning on making a movie out of it, and had everything gone the way it was originally supposed to, that film would’ve come out in early 2020. Now, if you know your history of insane company acquisitions, you’ll know that in 2019, Disney bought Fox and with that purchase now has ownership of everything Fox has ever made or was making at the time (though let’s be real, they did it because it was the only way for them to get hold of certain Marvel properties that they knew they’d want eventually). This purchase meant that Disney owned Nimona now, and that’s where the trouble started.

First, there was a mild delay, inevitable because it’s hard to focus on finishing and releasing a film while doing a major corporate merger. Then, because 2020 was dog shit, there was a pandemic which meant that the mild delay became a delay until 2022, but at least people were sure that the film would come out… then Disney killed Blue Sky Studios and with that one action, killed Nimona. People have claimed part of the reason Disney did this was because of the film’s heavy LGBTQI+ themes and a gay kiss (This was when an absolute bigoted moron was running Disney before a bunch of other bigoted idiots decided Disney was too woke because it dared to ask them not to be obvious bigots) but it meant Nimona was basically dead unless someone swooped in to buy it and finish it… and then Annapurna swooped and released (Via Netflix) one of the best animated films in recent years.

Nimona takes place in a cyberpunk-esque kingdom that’s a perfect mixture of futuristic technology and ancient Elizabethan practices like “Having knights protecting the place”. In this town’s case, all the knights are descended from a heroine named Gloreth and you can only be a knight if you are one of those descendants, which is what makes it such a big deal when a commoner becomes one. In this case, the commoner is Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed) who is due to be knighted alongside his friend and lover Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang) when a tragic event happens and the queen is killed by someone who is able to frame Ballister for the crime, meaning he must flee. As Ballister flees, he runs into a strange girl with shocking pink hair who can shapeshift into absolutely anything, her name is Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz) and with her at his side, maybe Ballister can clear his name and get the townspeople to accept him again.

Nimona is many, many glorious things but subtle is not one of them. This is the kind of film that operates at an 11 at all times without shame and that makes it truly something glorious. With a visual style that perfectly blends 2D and 3D animation, it’s got a unique aesthetic that’s insanely appealing and manages to make every single frame truly gorgeous to behold. It’s a style that really lends itself to both high-energy comedy (something Nimona revels in, particularly from Nimona herself) and also some truly intense battle scenes that play like the most elaborate video game you’ve ever seen. It’s unafraid of bright gaudy colours, especially bright pink which just seems to be in every frame to the point where it’s actually noticeable when you don’t see that hue hovering about, and somehow even at its gaudiest the film still knows just how to blend everything together to make everything as appealing as possible.

While the visuals might be lacking subtlety, where things really get blunt is in the messaging. As was mentioned earlier, Nimona is incredibly queer… hell, it might be the most queer-friendly cartoon that’s ever existed, a category of film that could definitely use a few more entries. The main romantic relationship in the film is a gay one, and one that can’t be cut out for foreign markets. Two men who say they love each other, who share a kiss and hold hands and whose love is in conflict with the situation they find themselves in is not something you get to see in many movies (do not argue with me on this, I literally have spreadsheets to back this up!) and it’s done in a way that’s just completely sweet and charming from start to finish, you can’t help but root for Ballister to clear his name so he can just run off with Goldenloin and live happily ever after.

Then there’s Nimona, possibly the most accurate trans representation ever seen in a family film. She’s not just a gloriously hyperactive comedy machine that rapid-fires jokes with the kind of energy you only get from doing enough cocaine to kill even the most cocaine-addicted of bears but she is a character who changes what she looks like in order to feel better on the inside (a thing she literally points out after being asked why she can’t just be a little girl all the time… again, subtle is not a word this film has in its vocabulary) and it doesn’t shy away from the implications of that. 

The film shows Nimona being powerful, charming and absolutely full of life but also shows people deciding that because she isn’t what they thought she should be or what she was at birth that, therefore, she’s a monster and they must shun her while also blaming her for their actions. In one particularly brutal scene, she just tries to defend herself which causes someone to basically misfire a weapon which causes a huge amount of damage and who gets blamed? Nimona. She is a high fantasy interpretation of a trans person and it’s nice to see how the film doesn’t even try to shy away from that metaphor even a little bit, it lays it on as thick as it possibly can and mashes it in your face because goddamn it, this is important.

There’s a certain subversiveness to Nimona, it constantly throws in little nods to queer culture or metaphors from little jokes like revelations happening while in a closet to Nimona just flat out saying if she was forced to not change (AKA detransition) she would basically die. It’s not afraid to go to these places in ways that are just barely covered up in enough metaphor to make the message hit home and it does it with a kind of pointedness that’s admirable. It’s not just a high-energy action comedy joyride with colourful characters and a quip thrown out every couple of sentences, it’s also a direct attack on the very concept of bigotry and right now, that’s needed more than ever,

The impressive part is that even if, somehow, you don’t notice all this very obvious metaphor and subtext (and if you can somehow do that, how? How is that possible?) then Nimona is still a fantastic film just on its own. When the film isn’t indulging in some high-energy action scenes that take full advantage of the medium it’s tossing out jokes so rapid-fire that you’re likely to miss some because you’re busy laughing at something else that happened. It hits that perfect blend of sincerity and zany, dancing carefully upon the line between them and managing to make it work. It’s a special film that can make you cheer, laugh and cry all within a few minutes, Nimona is just special enough to pull it off.

Nimona isn’t subtle, that’s what makes it great. It’s one of the funniest and funnest action comedies to come out in recent years with enough heart to make anyone smile. Its charm is undeniable, it’s wittier than most other films in its genre and dares to be unique by doing the simplest thing it could possibly do… it allows its characters to be who they are without shame. Right now, this kind of story needs to be told, in a time where evil fascistic oxygen thieves like Ron Desantis and other conservatives are attacking queer and trans people for no reason other than ‘they dare to exist’, we need stories like this to remind people that it’s OK to fight back against those bigots and be who you are without shame. Nimona has no shame about who she is, why should you?… I mean OK, if you’re Ron Desantis then you should feel shame about who you are but if you’re a good person who just happens to be queer, no shame is allowed anymore!