By: Kelly Chia, Editor-in-Chief
Based on its premise alone, I knew the movie Nimona would have my heart; anyone who knows me, knows I adore a good found family story. The titular character, Nimona (voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz), and Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), team up as the kingdom’s antiheroes as they attempt to right the wrongs carried out by a kingdom set to antagonize them. This already sets up the archetypical hero-and-sidekick duo in a cute childhood fantasy film, but to my pleasure, I found so much more to love about the film.
Firstly, Nimona is truly breathtaking: it features gorgeously rendered rolling hills against futuristic automobiles, and tall stone castles with widescreen holograms. It is all at once, a world set in the future, but stuck in the past. And with the past comes overarching themes of prejudice the characters face together.
When I heard this movie featured queer themes and characters, I was nervous: the film’s primary demographic is younger children. How might that affect the portrayal of queer romance? To my pleasant surprise, although the characters do battle prejudice, it’s never quite central to their growth and stories. Instead, Nimona proudly features its queer leads with all of their complexities: Ballister’s relationship with his boyfriend, the hilariously named Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang), is pretty immediately established to the viewers. Admittedly, I was somewhat concerned that Yang’s presence in the film was a way to pull a queer actor into the film as a minor character. Instead, Ahmed and Yang portray a tender relationship, and their character arcs refreshingly show nuances true to their backstories, rather than their queerness alone.
Seeing them reminded me of how important it was to see queer leads be complex and joyous, and grow to become adults in happy relationships, and this film has plenty of this. Yes, the two struggle in their journeys, but it was hugely important for me to see their queerness authentically folded into their personhood and experiences. I was used to seeing queer characters used as a cheap plot point or an accessory to illustrate a main character’s empathy in mainstream media growing up.
This pride and confidence was something I saw in Nimona, too! She was a delight: an eccentric shapeshifter hoping to morph herself into the position of Ballister’s friend and wicked sidekick. I found her quips charming without being obnoxious, and as I learned more about her, I was drawn more into her story.
At one point, she openly declares that she is simply “Nimona,” refuting Ballister’s request for her to just be a “normal little girl.” It made me grin widely looking at her rebellious, shark-like grin. This simple, yet firm statement was one of several moments that felt affirmative: Nimona was simply, well, Nimona. She did not need to conform to anyone’s definition of who she could be, or what she could do.
The resonation of Nimona’s affirmation with queer themes is no coincidence: the author of the original comic book, J.D. Stevenson — who also created queer series like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power — confirmed that Nimona was a gender-nonconforming character, having created her when he was “a not-yet-out teenager” wrestling with gender concepts. I knew some child would see Nimona in all her glory, and maybe feel a bit more affirmation in themselves and their own identity.
But to me, the most incredible part about Nimona is its production. Its very existence on streaming platforms took a team who knew how important the story would be, and as I described, the fact that this many people worked hard to push this story is truly admirable. Walt Disney shut down Blue Sky Studios in 2021, effectively ending Nimona’s production, which was slated to release on January 14, 2022. According to some staff from Blue Sky, the studio faced pushback from Disney regarding Ballister and Ambrosius sharing an on-screen kiss. A former staffer said, “When the biggest entertainment company in the world creates content for children and systematically censors queer content, they are pushing queer children to dark places.”
Nimona was happily picked up by Netflix on April 11, 2022, after Blue Sky executives collaborated with production company Annapurna to finish the film. I’m glad that in this process, the film kept themes and scenes that are going to be important to so many queer children. Consider how many queer characters and moments in Disney films have been presented as queer representation, only for them to be reduced as a “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” cameo. It’s a miracle that this queer story got to live, after almost being extinguished. But like a phoenix, Nimona took off with Blue Sky, and I’m so glad it did. Children deserve seeing queer characters proudly be the emotional, fully fleshed out, joyful heroes of the story, fighting the injustices of their world as one community.
