Nimona

Well, this is a bit different. Sci-fi knights? Yeah, I can dig that. There's a lot of fun to be had here but a lot of meaning and dark emotion runs right alongside it. I do have a bit of a gripe about two of our main players being gay though. No, I don't have a problem with anyone's sexual persuasion, it just seems like every movie these days has to include a gay or lesbian couple. It's like there's some Hollywood mandate that demands it. Even when it adds absolutely nothing to the story being told. Great watch. Be prepared to cry.

This review may contain spoilers.

Nimona might be the most joyful film I've watched in a very long time. Anime or not, it's just.pure.unadulterated.fun!

Putting aside for a moment the serious subtext of the story, Nimona is a first-class super-hero, and with very real, very human emotions. On top of all that, she is a first-rate comedian too. "Arm chopping is not a love language." (Nimona read Chapman's book!) If I heard she was going to be at the Improv, I'd be looking for tickets!

Chloë Grace Moretz hit this character right over the outfield wall. The script, the animation, and Chloë combine to make Nimona completely magnetic. Empathize with a character? I was totally in love.

Riz Ahmed, the other lead voice, leveled rig...

The Queen has broken with tradition and elevated a commoner - "Boldheart" to knighthood. She hopes that this will offer a proud and positive future to her country but, unsurprisingly, she has her detractors and when she is brutally killed at the ennobling ceremony, the kingdom turns on it's erstwhile hero. Even his boyfriend, fellow knight "Goldenloin" seems to be against him and so he must flee into the darkness. It is here that he is sought out by the eponymous teenage creature who determines to help him prove his innocence. Using her amazing morphing skills and both of their courage, they quickly discover that there was a conspiracy to frame him, and it goes right to the top! Can he thwart the ambitious plotting and restore some semblanc...

I see why this didn't get major production backing. There may be a place for the original hero in medieval times that vanquishes the monsters being female because for some reason the males who normally did that sort of thing were either unavailable or incapable; and there may be a place for a couple of primary male warrior characters being attracted to each other instead of the opposite gender despite that unlikelihood among warrior types; and there may be a place for the queen being black because maybe at some point in the hereditary line of a predominantly white society one of the royals in line for the throne married a black person, and then their child married a black person, and that just continued ever after. And there may be a place ...