Nimona

Plot

The citizens of a medieval-futuristic kingdom are protected by the Institute for Elite Knights, established by the legendary heroine Gloreth, who vanquished a "Great Black Monster" and enclosed the kingdom with a high wall one thousand years ago.

Ballister Boldheart is the first commoner to become a knight, as Queen Valerin is trying to change tradition so that "anyone can be a hero". During the ceremony, a laser shot from Ballister's sword kills Valerin. Ballister's boyfriend and fellow knight, Ambrosius Goldenloin, becomes distraught and disarms Ballister, dismembering Ballister's right arm in the process. Ballister becomes a fugitive.

As Ballister crafts a prosthetic replacement arm, he is visited by Nimona, a teenage outcast who has faced persecution for her shapeshifting abilities. Seeing a "villainous spirit" in Ballister, as he is facing similar treatment for his commoner origin and the murder of the Queen, Nimona declares herself to be his sidekick.

To clear Ballister's name, the duo kidnaps Diego, the squire who gave Ballister the sword. Diego gives them video evidence of the Director of the Institute secretly swapping Ballister's sword, revealing her to be the murderer. The duo confronts Ambrosius and the Director with the evidence, but the Director manipulates her knights into destroying it. Later, the Director is confronted by Ambrosius; she admits that she framed Ballister and murdered Valerin, as she steadfastly believes that strictly adhering to tradition is the only way to keep the kingdom safe from monsters. However, Ballister reveals that he has recorded the Director's confession, and "Ambrosius" turns out to be Nimona in disguise. When celebrating this in the hideout, Ballister posts it online, leading to public outcry.

The Director discovers that Nimona is the Great Black Monster defeated by Gloreth. She uses this information to convince the kingdom's citizens that it was a shapeshifted monster that had confessed in the recording, and paranoia spreads that anyone could be a monster. The real Ambrosius meets with Ballister and reveals Nimona's past, insisting that Nimona deliberately deceived Ballister. Shocked by the revelation, Ballister argues with Nimona and questions their friendship. Feeling betrayed, Nimona flees into the woods.

Voice cast

Chloë Grace Moretz as Nimona, a shapeshifter who takes the appearance of a teenage girl. She insists on being the sidekick to Ballister Boldheart.

Mia Collins voices Nimona's Demon Baby disguise.

Riz Ahmed as Ballister Boldheart, a former knight for the Institution who was kicked out when he was accused of murdering Queen Valerin.

Zayaan Kunwar as young Ballister

Eugene Lee Yang as Ambrosius Goldenloin, the champion knight of the Institution, direct descendant of Gloreth, and Ballister's boyfriend.

Frances Conroy as the Director

Lorraine Toussaint as Queen Valerin

Beck Bennett as Sir Thoddeus "Todd" Sureblade

RuPaul Charles as Nate Knight

Indya Moore as Alamzapam Davis

Julio Torres as Diego the Squire

Sarah Sherman as Coriander Cavaverish

Karen Ryan as Gloreth. Ryan also voices a knight version of herself, as well as providing additional voices.

Charlotte Aldrich as young Gloreth. Aldrich also provides additional voices.

Cindy Slattery as Syntheya - voice of the Kingdom. Slattery also provides additional voices.

Sommersill Tarabek as an Institute Analyst. Tarabek also provides additional voices.

Production

Development

In June 2015, 20th Century Fox Animation acquired the rights for an animated feature film adaptation of Nimona, a webcomic by ND Stevenson. Patrick Osborne was set to direct, from a screenplay by Marc Haimes.

The film was to be produced by Fox's former subsidiary, Blue Sky Studios, alongside Vertigo Entertainment. In June 2017, 20th Century Fox scheduled Nimona to be released on February 14, 2020.

In March 2019, The Walt Disney Company completed its acquisition of Fox, then in May 2019, the film was delayed to March 5, 2021. In November 2019, the film was delayed again to January 14, 2022. Through 2020 there was word that the film would be released in 2022, Stevenson stated in June 2020 that the film was still happening, and said the same in an August 2020 podcast. In August of that same year, Den of Geek reported that the animated film was still scheduled to be released in 2022, but gave no further details, with Deadline reporting the same in October.

Osborne would depart the film by March 2020, and after his departure, Nick Bruno and Troy Quane were brought on in to work on the story after directing Blue Sky's previous film Spies in Disguise (2019). Production would be done remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On February 9, 2021, Disney announced it was closing down Blue Sky Studios, and that production of the film was cancelled. Following the announcement, Stevenson said it was a "sad day" and that he wished the best for everyone who worked at Blue Sky Studios, while Osborne said he was "truly heartbroken" that the studio was closing its doors. Webcomics commenter Gary Tyrrell criticized the decision, saying, "Disney could have allowed a very different kind of young heroine... I mourn for those who would have found a vision of themselves in an animated version". Anonymous staffers at Blue Sky interviewed by Business Insider bemoaned the cancellation of the film, calling it "heartbreaking", arguing that the film "didn't look like anything else in the animated world", and saying that they believe it will never "be completed and released." The film was set to be the first use of Blue Sky's Conduit, a system that allowed artists to "find, track, version, and quality control their work." Had it been made, it would have been Blue Sky's first film with LGBTQ representation, as a few staffers confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the film had an "I love you" scene between Ballister Blackheart and Ambrosius Goldenloin.

Animation and design

Nimona was Blue Sky's most complex film produced. The studio had previous experience with 2D-stylization with The Peanuts Movie (2015). The film's design was influenced by Eyvind Earle and Charley Harper, using both of their styles to combine medieval and the modern world so that it "mirrored the world we live in." The team chose their styles as Earle used more fluidity and Harper used a more geometric and simple shape base, and they had to convey "both sides of the spectrum and both sides of the character ideologies." They also had to incorporate the novel's style as well, including circles for the free-form Nimona, squares for the traditionalist Ballister, and diamonds for the rigid Institute. "In the case of the pink-colored Nimona, her shape-shifting (rhino, whale, cat, gorilla) translated into an explosion of emotions." Aidan Sugano serves as production designer on the film, and described it as having elements of "sci-fi, medieval fantasy, knights, lasers, monsters, dragons, dramatic lighting, [and]... style". Additionally, Goldenloin's ethnicity was changed to be Asian and Ballister's last name was changed from Blackheart to Boldheart, and they were both modeled after Lee Yang and Ahmed respectively.

At the time of its initial cancellation, sources told Comic Book Resources that the film was "75% complete". Quane later clarified that the film was approximately "70% through layout": they had completed five fully animated sequences, along with character models, story reels, and locations at the time of Blue Sky's shutdown. The finished footage was shown to various people in the animation business, and convinced Megan Ellison at Annapurna Pictures to complete the project. Much of what Blue Sky did remains intact, as Netflix and Annapurna did not start from scratch. However, when DNEG's facilities in Montreal took over animation, different pipelines had to be built from scratch, including switching render engines from Blue Sky's proprietary render engine, CGI Studio, to Pixar RenderMan, but fortunately, the team had a blueprint from Blue Sky, and they were able to translate it and apply it with DNEG's technology. Storywise, about 90% of Blue Sky's version remained intact. As a tribute to the previous team's work on the film, a section of the end credits is dedicated to listing the entire staff of Blue Sky Studios, and several Easter eggs pay homage to Blue Sky throughout the film. Animation wrapped on October 1, 2022.

Music

In May 2023, it was confirmed that Christophe Beck had composed the film's score. American singer and rapper K.Flay performed the original song "T-Rex" as part of the single music in the film's soundtrack and released on June 23, the same day as the film's limited release date. The film's score album was released on June 30 by Netflix Music.

Release

Nimona was originally scheduled to be released in theaters on February 14, 2020, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through their 20th Century Studios banner, but it was delayed multiple times to March 5, 2021, and then for January 14, 2022. The film was pulled from Disney's release schedule and canceled after the closure of Blue Sky Studios on April 10, 2021. It was revived by Annapurna Pictures with Netflix handling the distribution and was scheduled for a summer 2023 release. The movie premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 14, 2023. The film received early screenings at select theaters on June 23 and 24, and released digitally on Netflix on June 30.

On February 19, 2024, Netflix released the entire film onto YouTube, and the video was privated after a week.

Reception

Critical response

The film received critical acclaim. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of 103 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Tapping a rich emotional vein with its splendid animation and thoughtful allegory, Nimona is a deeply lovable animated adventure." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Reviewing the film following its premiere at Annecy for Variety, Peter Debruge called Nimona "such subversive fun", praising the "hip and impulsive" character of Nimona, "outside-the-box" animation, LGBTQ themes and vocal performances—particularly that of Moretz, which he remarked as a "delicious sense of anarchy". Ben Travis of Empire compared the film to Shrek (2001) in their "satirical subversions of the fairytale formula" and wrote: "Both enthusiastically irreverent and deeply sincere, Nimona is a revisionist fairytale that forges its own path visually and narratively to beautiful effect". In The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck called it "a consistent delight" and commended the screenplay, direction, animation, score, and lead performances.

In Screen International, Wendy Ide called it a "slick, enjoyable package" with "a couple of distinctive selling points that should set it apart" and opined: "Whether or not they understand the film's subtext, younger audiences will no doubt relish the exuberant mischief and humour that Moretz brings to her voice performance—as well as Nimona's gleeful disregard for authority and her appetite for destruction". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film a score of 3 out of 5 stars and concluded: "Nimona is likable and engaging entertainment that finds its way through self-created chaos to some humane life-lessons". Associated Press critic Lindsay Bahr called it a "fantasy adventure with riot grrrl energy" and praised the animation, soundtrack and lead performances.

Future

In February 2024, Quane expressed interest in making sequels and spin-offs. In September 2025, Stevenson revealed, "There is a pitch I'm very excited about," in regards to a sequel, adding that "the conversation is far from dead."