Nimona

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I hadn't heard a thing about this, but a friend fancied an impromptu trip to the pictures last night, so off we went. Apparently it's on Netflix this Friday, so I could have saved myself a few bob, but it was such a delightful surprise that I didn't regret the expenditure at all.

Based on some comic that I'd also never heard of, it's set in a sort of Shrek meets Blade Runner futuristic kingdom. Our lead character is Balister (Riz Ahmed) the first commoner to join the elite cadre of knights tasked with defending the city from the monsters beyond the walls. Of course, things are never quite as they seem and Balister soon finds himself on the run from his former comrades, alongside the titular Nimona (Chloe Grace Moretz) a chaotic girl with an anti-establishment axe to grind.

It originally began production at 20th Century Fox, but was dropped in the wake of the Disney merger and eventually picked up by Annapurna. The reason becomes obvious a few minutes in, when Balister is shown to be in a loving relationship with another man. This isn't the usual coy allusions to the subject (so as not to offend religious nutters and China) they kiss and everything. It's still fairly fleeting and could probably be reduced to a mere theme without much hassle (Nimona herself is pretty obviously coded as gay, but it's never explicitly stated) but kudos to the filmmakers for going there.

A perhaps inevitable upshot of this is that the film clearly doesn't have the highest of budgets. Visually, it doesn't have the richness of a Spider-verse or the best of Pixar (although it looked better than the trailer for Pixar's latest effort). I'm pretty sure the quasi cel shaded look could be rendered on a PlayStation 4 and there are obvious cost cutting measures, like the baddie knights all keeping their visors closed. It does have a certain amount of style to it though and the action scenes have a lot of anarchic energy to them. And, while Ahmed and Moretz aren't exactly A-list, they bring their A game. Moretz is particularly good as a kind of PG rated version of Hit Girl.

Give it a go, I say. You'll laugh, you'll cry... or you'll come back and say what a tasteless pillock I am.

[madhair60]

the comic is quite good

[SteveDave]

Saw this tonight and loved it. My wife believes that Nimona herself is a Trans character- seen as a monster by "society" that she's tried to blend in with.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I thought she was gay, because she turns pink, but I guess it's vague enough to work as a metaphor for any LGBT+ identity and probably a bunch of other stuff too. As a neurofreak, the idea of trying to fit in struck a chord.

I'm happy to see someone else enjoyed it as much as I did.

[surreal]

AH, I wondered what this was as they were discussing it with the animator on Corridor Crew this week, I'll have to check it out when I get Netflix on again:

[MojoJojo]

I'm finding all this Nimona is gay/trans/lgbt+ a bit bizarre. As an immortal, non-reproducing, sex less shape shifter, they're a generic outsider. Other groups get called monsters too, you know.

Films good though.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Loved this, and feel it's a real shame it hasn't been a bigger hit, I missed the thread when it was first started and haven't heard any of mention of it elsewhere. Fuck Disney for ditching the project too, and though there was the odd moment where you could see how it might have benefitted from a higher budget I loved the look of it in general, and how stylish a movie it is. 8.7/10

[Mister Six]

I'm finding all this Nimona is gay/trans/lgbt+ a bit bizarre. As an immortal, non-reproducing, sex less shape shifter, they're a generic outsider. Other groups get called monsters too, you know.

Yeah, but the author of the original comic book is transgender, so...

[Mister Six]

Having actually watched half of it now (rest of it getting watched tonight), Mojo's position seems even odder. Nimona resists any attempts to force a particular shape on her, she tells Riz Ahmed off for asking rude questions about her identity and she talks about how not being able to shape-change would be like dying. She's such an obvious trans metaphor that it's practically not even the subtext any more but actual text.

Anyway, the first half is a lot of fun. The cel-shaded aesthetic makes it look a bit cheap (and there are cheaply repeated objects/textures such as the tacos, like in a video game) but the character animation, especially the facial movements, is amazing. The story seems a bit obvious at the minute, but it's a kid's thing, innit? And the future-knight aesthetic is pretty cool.

[Mister Six]

Finished it up and aye, it's a fun little flick. Bit predictable in the end, but that's the case with most kids' flicks, isn't it?

[madhair60]

Nimonot gonna bother my arse watching this

[dead-ced-dead]

Nimonot gonna bother my arse watching this

That pun:

[Norton Canes]

Read the first few chapter's of the book today, it's ace. I have absolutely no idea why anyone who's read it would want to watch what looks from the trailer like a hideous Disneyfication.

[Marbles]

Saw the film first then read the comic second, liked both but actually preferred the movie. They are both quite different stories - it sensibly isn't trying to be a direct adaptation, & instead took the elements of the original apart and looked at them from a different perspective (I also thought it was pretty clearly a queer/trans metaphor too)

It's a shame though that 2D animation is dead in the water (at least for US feature films) - it would've been good to have something closer visually to the original...

[surreal]

Bump just to say that Netflix has released this in its entirety on YOUTUBE

Did not see that coming...

[Small Man Big Horse]

Bump just to say that Netflix has released this in its entirety on YOUTUBE

Did not see that coming...

It's been nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, so perhaps Netflix are hoping the academy members might actually watch the film if all they have to do is go on youtube.