Nimona

I had to travel a very long way to catch this in the cinemas as it will only be a week and it's gone, but really worth the long journey for his super fun, super fantastic animated film from Annapurna and Netflix. Animation by Blue Sky Studios who were shut down, but finished by DNEG Animation.

Ballister Boldheart voiced by the brilliant Riz Ahmed, is framed for murder, he goes on he run, and a girl, called Nimona, played with such comic energy by Chloë Grace Moretz, wants to help, total chaos rains.

Like Spiderverse, it comes out firing, with such great fun, a simple great story along with some stunning great visuals, all thanks to the production design, which a mix of classic Disney of 'Sleeping Beauty" done in a French pastel like animation style, and it is just brilliant.

Chloë Grace Moretz, really went mad fun doing, the nutty but loveable Nimona, Riz Ahmed plays it cool and quirky, Frances Conroy is very stern, Lorraine Toussaint, is royal like.

The hour and 41 minutes runtime goes quick, it's very lean and does not, like a great deal of films need any editing. I just wish this was showing in IMAX as this would look and sound epic, some great action sets and great soundtrack.. Worth the hunt at the cinema. Based on a Graphic novel which I have to check out.

Nimona has become a somewhat unique and troubled production, partly because it was based on a web comic that got its film rights picked up by Blue Sky Studios (sometime after Disney bought Fox I think) only to be cancelled after 75% of the film was completed; then Netflix and Annapurna Pictures came into the rescue and saved the film from oblivion. And it's become a success too: people are already making fan-art, remixes, and reviews are glowing for this unlikely underdog of a film.

Now the film itself is like a cyberpunk Legend of Zelda mixed with trace elements of Blade Runner, Zootopia, Monster's Inc, Kick Ass, and the subversive fantasy tropes of Shrek (with additional satire for society and government institutions). It's also a good, briskly paced time in this medieval cyberpunk land of flying horse carriages, glowing swords and doe-eyed children evoking anime kids and Disney heart melters too. The vibe of this film... it's unlike anything from PIXAR, DreamWorks or even Blue Sky; and maybe that was part of the reason the project suddenly ceased to be. It's good that Netflix picked the film up RIGHT from where Blue Sky left off.

Nimona has a world in it that's just begging to be explored even further, because the film itself is like the tip of an iceberg in a self-aware way with its in-universe life of dragon-themed cereals, toys and of course the soldiers being the Gate Keepers of a world dictated by myth. So what other myths exist in the world of Nimona? Who knows?

As a film Nimona is un-pretentious entertainment that knows it's audience likes multilayered worlds that live beyond the screen, that animation is best when it's a remix of long-standing tropes and styles making for an experience that's unconventional yet it becomes a foundation in itself.

Nimona gets 4/5 stars. 8/10 IMDb points.

This animated movie is an adventure. The design of the world blends high-tech with mediaeval while mixing in a pop punk soundtrack that propels the on-screen action to a break-neck pace at times.

This leaves us with a fantasy show suitable for kids but with a deeper message regarding tolerance, propaganda and control that adults will find themselves reflecting on after the mayhem has stopped.

The tone can vary from Saturday morning cartoon silliness to the heartbreaking effects of isolation and loneliness, without inducing whiplash due to the carefully built characters on all sides of the story.

Highly recommended. I just hope they release the complete soundtrack soon.

I went in knowing nothing of the comics or the troubled production history, so I didn't have any expectations. I thought this would be just an entertaining animation movie on par with most Pixar products as I thought it would have more of an edge than Disney movies. So I was very pleasantly surprised by the originality and quality of Nimona! Yes, some parts are a bit predictable but in this day and age that's almost impossible to avoid so that's not an issue for me. But the rest, from the story to the directing and of course the gorgeous animation, is top notch and made me sad it was already over when the end credits rolled out! Highly recommended!

It's funny how I initially read about Nimona (2023) as an upcoming animated film on Netflix, which inspired me to read the graphic novel, which itself made me watch the animated film when it came out. And while the movie was good, it was missing some of what made the graphic novel great. But that's always going to be the challenge of adapting a book into a movie. Using the source material as inspiration helped make this film a tight story that works for the medium.

Sure, I would have liked to have seen an animated film in the distinctive style of the graphic novel. The emotions and climax didn't have enough time to get deep enough-like they did on the printed page. Still, I can accept that movies like The Shining (1980), Ready Player One (2018), and Nimona are distinct and different, but just as good as the books they're based on. An exact adaptation is pointless when the source material already performed this service. Nimona hit the right amount of frenetic action and visual gags that could only work in the animated format.

As a PG-rated movie, they replaced the edgy bits of the graphic novel with some childish jokes to appeal to a younger audience. Even so, Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz) was wonderfully sadistic and her "evil" expressions made me laugh out loud. Overall, the voice acting was superb, and the animation was clean-or at least as clean as the recent trend of "stylized" animation can be. Is it as game-changing as the book? Not really, but it's a fun film to watch. And, as I said in my review of the book, the more science fantasy stories we have like this in the world, the better.

A fun animated film inspired by the graphic novel of the same name, I give Nimona 4.0 stars out of 5.