ANI-MOVIES, *Nimona

A film that had been in limbo for several years, Nimona was originally in production by Blue Sky Studios, but as they were owned by 20th Century Fox which was totally bought out by Disney, the project got put on ice in the Mouse House warehouse next to the Lost Ark. At first, the story was a webcomic by She-Ra remake producer ND Stevenson that later had a novelization by Harper Collins which Blue Sky slated for their next adaptation. After they were sold wholesale to the Rodent Factory, the Disney overlords didn't want to complete it, possibly due to the dodgy subject(at least at the time of the late 2010s)of LGBT-themed material. However, a sliver of hope came from Stevenson's old friends at Netflix who ran the She-Ra remake which got the rights to the incomplete production and released it on to their streaming service. The fully-CGI movie is visually different from the comic, taking it from appearing like Adventure Time into something more like RWBY. Former Blue Sky animators Nick Bruno and Troy Quane took over direction on the movie which is set in what could be called a "Camelotpunk" theme mixing in high fantasy with high technology.

About a millenia ago, a monster was rumored to have attacked a city which was defeated by a mighty female warrior called Gloreth. Skip ahead to modern day and the city is walled off from the rest of the world and imbracing mideval traditions with futuristic gadgets like flying cars. The realm is similar to that in Strange World where as they are an isolated society that still manages to keep harmonious diversity with interracial and same-sex relationships being totally accepted. The only drawback to this is the system which only allows certain upper class citizens to become knights, or at least until the current queen allows a lowly commoner named Ballister into their ranks who has a bond with the hunky Ambrosius, a direct descendant of Gloreth. During Ballister's initiation, his sword suddenly transforms into a laser gun killing the queen and making everyone think that it was his fault with Ambrosius cutting his arm off during the scuffle. Ballister is now wanted for regicide and fitting himself with a robot arm. This gets the attention of a rebellious teenage girl going by Nimona who wants to be his sidekick believing him to be a serious villain. She finds the outlaw at his hideout and reveals that she is a shapeshifter that hates being referred to as a monster. Nimona pledges to help clear Ballister's name which leads them to discover The Director of knights was the one behind the assassination after switching Ballister's sword because she believed that allowing lower class citizens would eventually weaken the city's defenses. Even though they exposed The Director's conspiracy online, the corrupt official manages to brush it off claiming it to be fake news concocted by Nimona's powers and that the troublemaking teen is really the same monster that Gloreth reportedly defeated. This leads to a divide between the outlaw and his would be sidekick where she takes off remembering her past where Gloreth was actually Nimona's first human friend that was shunned by the locals which accidently causes a fire burning down the early village. Nimona has an emotional breakdown causing her to lose control transforming into a shadowy kaiju like a giant Venom symbiote and goes Godzilla on the city. The Director tries to stop Nimona with a huge laser meant for defending the wall by aiming it into the middle of downtown after Ballister manages to calm her down back to her human form, but she morphs into a tremendous phoenix in order to contain the blast leaving all the survivors to believe that Nimona sacrificed herself. As anyone could guess, Nimona survived being able to take a laser to the face as her shapeshifting allows her to regenerate after she appears to Ballister right before the closing credits.

Nimona is a sci-fi fairy tale which mostly succeeds at delivering its message of not letting your fears get the better of you when confronted with the unknown. The LGBT representation is spotlighted but doesn't become the selling point of the story as its more of an accepted part of life in an otherwise superstitious metropolis. Its character designs appear to reflect the current look of titles similar to Tales Of Arcadia. The movie departs from the plot of the original comic as it deals more in biological mad science instead of traditional old world monsters. Nimona is a refreshing change of pace for an animated movie that manages to avoid most of the cliched tropes that been plaguing modern Disney releases.