Nimona is a movie with a very troubled past! This thing was in production forever and it is the last ever movie from the acclaimed Blue Sky Studio. This was a casualty of Disney buying Fox, but Annapurna Pictures picked it up and they handled it so it could get over the finishing line. It would eventually be released on Netflix on June 30th, 2023.
How to Download Nimona
You can download or stream the film from Netflix. Click on the Download button at the end of this review.
The Movie Review
I highly recommend you read up on the making of this movie and the drama with Blue Sky Studio and Disney and the reasons for them shutting down the studio and declining to put out this movie. It is fascinating stuff and shows that Disney is not this big friendly diversity embracing company they like us all to believe they are, and I am a huge Disney fan that is saying that!
The setting of Nimona is really cool. This is a fantasy movie, but while it has your standard fantasy tropes, it is a “future fantasy” world meaning that there is also technology here too. It makes for a very interesting place for the movie to take place and there are not many other fantasy movies that I can think of that blend magic and technology together like this.
The first main character we have to talk about is Ballister Boldheart who is voiced by Riz Ahmed. Ballister has dreamed of being a knight forever and he is just about to have it come true! However, on the day Ballister is supposed to be crowned as a knight, he is framed for killing the Queen and becomes the most wanted man around!
Ballister is frantically fleeing for his life when he comes across a mischievous and wild teenager called Nimona. Nimona likes to cause trouble, she can shapeshift and is a lot of fun! I love the way that Chloë Grace Moretz (check her out also in The Addams Family, Tom & Jerry, and The Equalizer) brings this character to life. She starts off as kind of obnoxious, but you grow to like her by the end of the movie.
Nimona tells Ballister that she can help clear his name, but there is a catch. The catch here is that Ballister has been training to be a night that is supposed to track down and kill “monsters” such as Nimona! He is pretty much out of options so he decides to let her tag along as his sidekick as they try and prove what really happened on that fateful day.
Visually, Nimona is a real feast for the eyes. I love the world and the characters here, but the whole movie has this cell-shaded look to it. It gives it a kind of video game look and I really do like it. So many animated movies these days all have a similar look that is either like a Pixar movie or like Into the Spider-Verse so it is great to see something that has its own identity like this.
I also want to say that Nimona is a more “mature” kind of kid’s movie. Do not get me wrong, this is a family movie, but I was surprised by the blood and death here. It is not going to scare your kids or the screen is never covered in blood and guts, but it is certainly more than you usually get with a kid’s movie like this.
You know, I feel like we have had some big movies released so far in 2023 and I would put Nimona up there with the best of them. This was a fun time and I could see myself watching this again at some point. If you are in the mood for a fun fantasy movie that has a bit of a twist to it, check this out.
