What is Nimona about? Netflix movie explained

❘ Published: 2023-06-30T11:13:50

Netflix

Nimona, a new animated movie starring Chloë Grace Moretz, is on Netflix now – so, here’s what it’s about, who else is in it, and if it’s worth watching.

Netflix may be most known for the likes of Stranger Things, Squid Game, and its seemingly endless stream of harrowing, wild documentaries, but it’s a force to be reckoned with in the field of animation.

Over the past few years, we’ve had The Mitchells vs the Machines, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (which won the Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards), The Sea Beast, Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood, and Klaus, the latter of which is already regarded as a rewatchable, modern Christmas classic.

So, as we head into the weekend, families and filmgoers may press play on Nimona – here’s what you need to know.

What is Nimona about?

Nimona follows a knight in a futuristic medieval world who’s “framed for a crime he didn’t commit”, and “the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona — a mischievous teen who happens to be a shapeshifting creature he’s sworn to destroy.”

Check out the trailer below:

The full synopsis reads: “When Ballister Boldheart, a knight in a futuristic medieval world, is framed for a crime he didn’t commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz), a mischievous teen with a taste for mayhem — who also happens to be a shapeshifting creature Ballister has been trained to destroy.

“But with the entire kingdom out to get him, Nimona’s the best (or technically the only) sidekick Ballister can hope for. And as the lines between heroes, villains, and monsters start to blur, the two of them set out to wreak serious havoc — for Ballister to clear his name once and for all, and for Nimona to… just wreak serious havoc.”

The movie comes from filmmakers Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, who earlier directed Spies in Disguise. It’s based on the best-selling graphic novel of the same name by ND Stevenson, with Robert L. Baird and Lloyd Taylor penning the screenplay.

In a conversation with Netflix ahead of its release, Bruno said: “Everyone was so drawn to Nimona. We were jealous because it seemed like everybody cared way more about this movie than the one we were on!”

The directors didn’t “want to shy away from horrible things that are actually in our world, but we also wanted to create a world we wanted to see… so, step one for us was just hearing everyone’s stories and making sure we were telling them with honesty. And I think the magic of this movie comes from the stories of people who know what it’s like to feel alienated, who shared their experiences with us and made sure the representation was authentic.”

Nimona cast: Who’s in the Netflix movie?

The Nimona cast includes:

Chloë Grace Moretz as Nimona
Riz Ahmed as Ballister Boldheart
Eugene Lee Yang as Ambrosius Goldenloin
Frances Conroy as The Director
Beck Bennett as Thodeus (Todd) Sureblade
Lorraine Toussaint as The Queen
RuPaul Charles as Nate Knight
Indya Moore as Alamzapam Davis

Nimona is described as a “spunky shapeshifter with a penchant for chaos and transforming herself into as many living beings as her heart desires. Hiding in plain sight in a world that fears her, Nimona offers to become Ballister Boldheart’s sidekick, thinking he’s a villain and, more importantly, an outcast like her.”

Moretz was fated for the role, given her portrayal of Hit-Girl in 2010’s Kick-Ass directly influenced the Nimona graphic novel. “I loved everything that Nimona stood for. To me, she was all about the acceptance of oneself no matter what the societal obligations or implications are.

“She stands for what it means to be an individual. She is unabashedly Nimona and she shirks any societal pressures and that’s something I always really admired and looked up to in a character. Plus, being able to voice her opposite Riz Ahmed was one of the most exciting things I’ve been able to do in a while.”

Is Nimona worth watching?

Nimona is most certainly worth watching: it has a 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes, marking near-unanimous praise.

The Hollywood Reporter described it as “cheekily irreverent and hilariously subversive… it’s a consistent delight”, while Empire wrote: “Both enthusiastically irreverent and deeply sincere, Nimona is a revisionist fairytale that forges its own path visually and narratively to beautiful effect. Insert celebratory shark-dance here.”

Variety credited Annapurna Pictures with helping the movie stand out, writing: “Not since Shrek has an animated feature had such subversive fun with the ‘happily ever after’ formula, although there’s no way the film’s punchy personality would have turned out the same if Nimona had remained a studio toon.”

The Jewish Chronicle also wrote: “I can’t think of a better time than Pride month for this beautiful LGBT story to be released and enjoyed by a wider audience of all ages.”

Nimona is available to stream on Netflix now. You can also check out our other upcoming Netflix hubs below: