In a technologically advanced kingdom, the kingdom and its citizens are protected by an institute of knights who carry on the traditions set forth by their heroine Gloreth who as legend held slayed a monster to protect a village. Ballister Blackheart (Riz Ahmend) has trained to be such a knight despite his lack of noble heritage but has been given the opportunity with the support of the Queen (Lorrain Toussaint) and his fellow knight and lover Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang). When Ballister is framed for the Queen's assassination he finds himself a wanted fugitive and loses his arm at Ambrosius' hand. As Ballister starts making plans to unravel who framed him, he attracts the attention of shapeshifter Nimona (Chloe Grace Moretz) who wishes to be a sidekick to a "supervillain" and believes Ballister fits the bill, despite Ballister's assertions that he's not one. With Nimona's help, Ballister unravels revelations about what truly happened.
Nimona is the long awaited adaptation of the 2015 graphic novel of the same name by ND Stevenson that was originally published in a series of chapters on Tumblr. Nimona was acquired by 20th Century Fox's animation division shortly after publication of its graphic novel form and actually made it through a significant part of development until of course Disney bought Fox and shut down Blue Sky Studios and many in development projects with Nimona being among them despite being about 75% complete at the time. According to former staffers Disney pushed back on the film's LGBTQ themes and the same sex kiss which may have been a factor in cancelling it. Thankfully like other cancelled animated Fox projects like The Magician's Elephant the forthcoming Escape from Hat, and the in development adaptation of Eric Powell's The Goon, Nimona found itself revived as a collaboration between Annpurna Pictures and Netflix and after an 8 year journey and I'm happy to say it was well worth the wait.
First on a purely technical level, Nimona looks fantastic. The creative team have done a fantastic job adapting the simple but charming art style of Stevenson's comic and with the film's mixture of cel shading and shadows it really does feel like a graphic novel come to life with some dynamic movements and designs that are truly breathtaking to look at. The animation on Nimona is especially to be commended because the way she moves and shifts from one form to another is near pitch perfect in its execution which is further complimented by the expressive faces each of the characters has that offers a wide range of emotions. Artistically speaking, the Kingdom in Nimona is a really unique take which I can only describe as "Medieval Futuristic" and its very much a mixture of Princess Bride by way of Blade Runner in terms of its mixture of fairy tale iconography mixed with holographic billboards and hover cars that creates a world that's got some many amazing details intermixed to make this feel like a living breathing world.
But Nimona doesn't rest on its visuals alone and they're in service of a great story with compelling characters. While needless to say the creative team have made some changes adapting the episodic graphic novel to fit in a feature film narrative, the story's core remains very much in tact even in spite of little details and side characters having been excised for the sake of a more focused narrative. Riz Ahmed is quite good as Ballister and his relationship with Ambrosius equally well played by Eugene Lee Yang is an endearing one that you do get invested in and it's probably been slightly strengthened in translation as the film starts off more tonally consistent as opposed to Nimona which started off more anarchic and silly while gradually getting darker (not a criticism of the book, they're both good in their own way). But at the center is undeniably Chloe Grace Moretz as Nimona who is pitch perfect in her casting and delivery. Moretz does incredibly well in the role as her rapid fire and hard edged delivery is well complimented by the animation team in a manner that reminded me of the perfect marriage of animation and performance that went into Robin Williams' Genie from Aladdin. Moretz gets some solid laughs out of her appetite for destruction, but she also gives us a heartbreaking undercurrent to her performance that we see more of as it's revealed her abrasive edge is a shroud for her inner pain. All these characters and threads culminate in a really satisfying way and I won't dare spoil it for you.
Nimona is a great animated film in a year where solid animation hasn't exactly been in short supply. I really can't say enough good about this film other than you owe it to yourselves to see it. Funny, exciting, heartbreaking, visually interesting. At this point I'm just repeating myself.
