A Netflix movie made in 2023 by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, featuring voice actors Chloe Grace Moretz as Nimona, Riz Ahmed as Ballister Boldheart, and Eugene Lee Yang as Ambrosius Goldenloin. It was a wonderful PG movie, adventurous and fantasy-filled, connecting with people who may feel a bit like outcasts, making monsters not seem so bad once you finally see them.
Nimona was an eye-opening story about how monsters turn into monsters only when people see them as such. It stars Nimona, a shapeshifter viewed as a monster since she can turn into other beings. The only person she found who didn’t see her as a monster was Ballister, an outcast knight who had been framed for the murder of the queen. She saw him as an outcast and found no one liked him either, and their connection with each other grew over time. Even after she’d shown her shapeshifting abilities, it seemed he’d grown to love her. Though there was a twist in which she was revealed to be a monster who was over 1000 years old, with Ballister only trying to be accepted into society to show he’d been framed. Even his boyfriend Ambrosius had been after him, but eventually even Ambrosius had turned to Nimona and believed her to be the enemy, even knowing Ballister and her were helping each other.
The voice acting was absolutely outstanding. Each of them fits the characters perfectly. I wouldn’t want them to have different voices because it was really great. I felt the emotion, and it was believable that they were committed to their characters! The one that really stood out to me was Nimona’s voice actor, because I loved how she could switch from funny to sad in a snap. It was great voice acting!
I liked the emotion and the way she was always so chaotic. Somehow, in every chaotic thing she did, it always worked how she wanted. There wasn’t much that I didn’t like- only the other people’s reaction at one kiss scene between Ballister and Ambrosius, because it was a kiss between two guys, but it was very small. My favorite scene was when Nimona turned into Kwispy, who was a cereal commercial mascot, but it was derogatory towards monsters. I thought it made so much sense because they slay Kwispy in the commercial to get the cereal, but it teaches even these small kids to hate and slay monsters, even if they’re someone like Nimona. Nimona, who is only chaotic and careless because of how everyone treated her in the past. It made me feel bad for Nimona because she saved a child and still got called a monster. It shows that they can’t view her as good even when she’s trying to be.
I recommend the movie for people who like punk-based chaos, or to watch it with a friend. I say watch it with people who don’t mind seeing a bit of LGBTQ+ based things, but it really will be a good movie for anyone. I rate this movie a 10/10 because I love movies with a lot of symbolism and meaning behind them, and Nimona really did it for me.
