NIMONA

US, 2023, 11 minutes, Colour.

Voices of: Chloe Grace Moretz, Riz Ahmed, Eugene Lee Yang, Frances Conroy, Lorraine Toussaint, Beck Bennett, RuPaul, Nate Stevenson, Nick Bruno, Troy Quane.

Directed by Nick Bruno, Troy Quane.

This is an animated feature, geared for a more adult audience. It is based on a graphic novel by ND Stevenson. Part of the interest and intrigue of the film is its animation style, the backgrounds of knighthood in castles in something of the Arthurian vein, the range of characters and their depiction, but, especially, Nimona who is an exotic creature, a shape-shifter, young, energetic, serious but with a sense of humour, irony, coming to the rescue of a knight in distress, using all her shape-shifting talents (vividly visualised) in her quests, battles, achievements. She is voiced with emphasis on conviction by Chloe Grace Moretz.

To that extent, the narrative is something as expected. There is Ballister Boldheart (voiced by Riz Ahmed), a commoner raised into a Knight’s world, involved in battle, losing an arm (and getting a robotic replacement), involved in the death of the Queen, on the run, in need of saving, in need of reinstatement. And, Nimona is continually his saviour. The other principal character is an actual Knight, Ambrosia’s Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang). He has been in confrontation with Ballister but they reunited, a bond growing between them. And so, a range of adventures, shape shifting, final restoration.

However, the graphic novel and the film version have led to quite a number of discussions about identity, sexual identity, gender, transgender, same-sex love.

Nimona is something of a they rather than she. Nimona has elements of both boy and girl and can shape shift to either. There is also a queer subtext surfacing, the relationship between Ballister and Ambrosiaus, comradeship, affection, and then naming it as love.

(The writer of the original graphic novel ND Stevenson - who voices a character as do the directors - later came out as a trans-man.)

So, an adult animation film but also a dramatisation of contemporary gender identity issues.