Nimona

On the list of movies to finish before the end of the year we have Nimona. Now when this film was first released on Netflix I have only heard great things about it. And as films released on streaming services are eligible for Oscars we are covering all of our bases. So in addition to the review, is Nimona a contender for an Oscar or two?

Right off the bat I am invested in the story and its characters. I have a habit of yelling GAY at the screen as soon as I sense some slightly less than straight energy and I am nearly always right. They of course wrote that relationship very well. They were just gay and nothing else needed to be said, we love being treated like normal people. Their relationship throughout the movie was also very back and forth but it did a great job of adding to the emotional stakes of the movie.

Then of course we have our main protagonist, Nimona. First of all, her powers are incredibly cool. The ability to shapeshift into pretty much anything is truly incredible. It was obvious from her entrance that all she was looking for was companionship but when we actually went into the flashback of her trying to fit in literally everywhere until she found Glorin was super heartbreaking. The scene with Glorin was also really upsetting, for her heart to be so easily swayed by the adults around her after bonding with this little girl is really depressing. But it does a great job of showing how influence from others can change your viewpoint on a situation. And from this single instance there was an entire history and government set in place to save the people from all of these many monsters that were laying in wait just outside their city. Instead of all those many monsters actually being this one, scared, lonely little girl.

The relationship growth between Nimona and Bal was really well done. He had a lot of questions about them and their powers. In a way he kind of acted as an audience insert. Most audiences would really want to know the origin story of someone with Nimona’s skills but I love that their response was “I’m Nimona” like they're just them and you don’t need to know anything else. I love that we got a character that was so unapologetically themselves and didn’t feel the need to explain who they are. You may notice that we are using they/them pronouns because Nimona is actually very clearly a non-binary/trans character. Several times Bal asks them if they “can just be a girl” and Nimona’s response is always “I’m Nimona” there was no ambiguity in how our main character saw themselves.

The animation in this movie is incredible. So this was a comic book adaptation and the designs for the characters are very similar to the original artwork. The animators also did a really good job of making the film as a whole look like a moving comic book so you were fully immersed in the world.

I was so emotionally invested in this movie I absolutely cried at the ending. This is not only one of the best movies I’ve seen this year but it is definitely one of the best movies of all time. Nimona deserves to be nominated for the best animated movie Oscar, AND adapted screenplay. I will be genuinely surprised and disappointed if it doesn’t receive any nominations. Nimona is a 10/10 film, I award that to very few movies and even the ones that do, I don’t call perfect. But Nimona joins the shortlist of perfect movies.