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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Peter Bradshaw

Nimona review – a shapeshifter and a knight join forces in queer science fantasy

Undeserved badass reputation … Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed) with Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz)
Undeserved badass reputation … Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed) with Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz). Photograph: Netflix

The web comic and graphic novel Nimona by ND Stevenson was an adventure in queer science-fantasy; now it has been mainstreamed into an animation directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, who made their feature debut in 2019 with Spies in Disguise.

What has emerged is a buoyant and good-humoured LGBTQ+ parable, set in a kind of retro-futurist kingdom, super-modern and hi-tech in every way but with a medieval-style queen and a court of knights who have competed hard for the honour of the title “sir”. One of these is Ballister Boldheart (voiced by Riz Ahmed), a lowborn person of colour in love with fellow knight Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang), and Ballister is about to be officially dubbed in a gigantic stadium ceremony halfway between the Hunger Games and the Super Bowl.

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