Who is cutting onions in here?

Sometimes great things come from failure, and I have to say Netflix has really been turning it around lately. With the exception of Blood & Gold, it’s been pretty much nothing but Bs and As here at How About Notflix for Netflix, and the question is; can they knock it out of the park again with Nimona?

Yeah, pretty much.

Nimona is a film based on the graphic novel of the same name created by ND Stevenson. Directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, the film is a 3D animated feature set in a medieval-futuristic kingdom. Meaning there are knights and stuff but people also have cell phones and holographic televisions. The last Bruno/Quane film I’ve seen was 9 in 2009, but the duo clearly put a lot of passion into their animated films like Spies in Disguise and The Peanuts Movie, among others.

The film stars Chloe Grace Moretz as the titular Nimona, a shape-shifting creature outcasted from society as a monster. Moretz of course bleeds charm in just about every role she plays and easily takes the spotlight, and this movie is no exception to the rule. Accompanying Moretz as the focal point is Riz Ahmed as Ballister Boldheart, a knight who finds himself on the wrong end of the law questioning both himself and his kingdom. I’ll let you watch the film to figure out what happens. You may recognize Riz from his uh…you know, let’s just say he played a role in Jason Bourne and leave it at that.

Which isn’t to say Ahmed isn’t worthy of the role, he also brings a lot of charm to the character and the two play off each other quite well. Boldheart has a problem as he’s in lesbians with fellow knight Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang) who kinda chopped his arm off and is leading the hunt to find him. Awkward. Also present is Frances Conroy as The Director of the knights, Lorraine Toussaint as Queen Valerin, Beck Bennett as Sir Thoddeus Sureblade, among others. In short, a cast iron set of actors. And one gayer and with more pronouns than…Actually RuPaul is in this film too.

It’s safe to say the animation in this film is damn good looking, the product of Annapurna Pictures along with a fantastic soundtrack composed by Cristophe Beck who has a portfolio possibly bigger than Danny Trejo except with a lot more passion retained. The plot kept my attention through the entire 99 minute run-time, which is why I’m avoiding talking much about it here, and there’s plenty of heart-wrenching and emotional moments to enjoy and weep at. The characters feel like real people as opposed to one-dimensional joke machines, and overall the movie is pretty well hung in the talent department. You can also tell the creators actually care about the characters rather than ticking boxes.

Impressively this film is one of the rare to have the critics and the audience in agreement; 94% and 93% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes.

I’d like to end this review by saying I hope Bob Iger sees this film and eats shit for it. Disney shut down Blue Sky Studios in 2021 and Nimona was one of the films cancelled along with it. In 2022 Annapurna Pictures picked it up and signed an exclusive with Netflix, and hit 3.2 million views in the first week. In a world where Disney’s cabal of morons and scumbags are busy destroying just about every major property they own and Marvel and Indiana Jones films are barely able to break even, abandonment was really the best thing that could have happened to Nimona. Let it grow in the hands of someone who gives a damn.

Kathleen Kennedy definitely says a lot of slurs behind closed doors.

A+