YMMV / NIMONA (2023)

• Accidental Aesop:
  • Though the overt lesson is that individuals should be understood rather than demonized for being different, it can be argued that the movie also makes a point about how all that is needed for evil and prejudice to flourish is inaction from those around them and nobody willing to confront them openly about their wrongdoings. The Queen's murder could have been avoided if Diego had dared to openly show Ballister the footage of her swapping his sword, or revealed it as proof of his innocence at any point afterward, but because he did nothing, Ballister was forced into teaming up with Nimona to try to prove his innocence another way. Ambrosius refuses to openly side with Ballister when forced to choose between believing in him (despite clearly knowing something's wrong) and upholding his duty as Gloreth's descendant, and as shown through the Director's Engineered Public Confession, his attempt to confront her in private over his suspicions would only have lead to his death. Even when the Director’s confession is publicly aired, all it takes for her to remain in power is revealing that Nimona is a shapeshifter and claiming that it was her instead in the video, using the public's belief in her and the Institute to deflect the accusations and further demonize both Nimona and Ballister for their attempts to expose the truth.
  • Similar to Zootopia, the film can be viewed as a "reform/dismantle the police department" allegory. Knights are the cops of this world, and a lot of their decisions are based on inherent prejudices for those they see as "monsters". It's only after being on the other side of the law or empathizing with those that they previously held prejudice against are the more moral individuals like Ballister and Ambrosius able to change things for the better.
  • The importance of community for LGBTQIA+ individuals. At the beginning of the movie, Ballister only expresses affection for Ambrosius in private, and only Ambrosius says "I love you" throughout the movie. It's only after meeting another openly queer person (Nimona) who he has a platonic relationship with and is unabashedly herself that Ballister can kiss Ambrosius in public. Similarly, there's a brief Imagine Spot where Ambrosius goes on a rant, before cutting back to him stoic saying he's fine, he has a Freak Out and echoes exactly Nimona's reaction to his cutting off Ballister's arm; Nimona very much represents his own Hidden Depths.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Gloreth. Did she truly betray Nimona and knowingly establish the Institution as a corrupt police state? Keep in mind that during her "legendary battle" with the "monster", she was a child who panicked after Nimona unwittingly destroyed her village. It's quite possible that she was only acting to try and get Nimona to leave for her own safety and the adults in the village used her and her experiences with Nimona as a figurehead to prop up their beliefs about what makes one a "villain" perhaps preventing her from ever trying to make amends with her friend in the process.
  • The Director. While she is undeniably the Big Bad, is she truly villainous or just acting in accordance to a life of being indoctrinated by the Institution's beliefs? Keep in mind that up until witnessing the Director's true nature firsthand, Ballister idolized her and was initially horrified and in disbelief when he first found out the truth. Also, were her dreams foretelling the destruction of the walls truly prophetic, or delusions caused by her paranoia?
  • Is the legend of Gloreth a deliberate lie on the part of The Institute or something that has been adopted as historical "fact" over the last thousand years? After all, Nimona is presumably the only one still alive who personally remembers it and she isn't exactly getting to tell her side of things.
    • On that note... did Nimona actually remember her past with Gloreth clearly prior to the big flashback sequence, or had she forgotten after all the intervening time? Her violent response to the flashback could indicate memory loss, or it could just be a reaction to more recent traumas - namely, Ballister's rejection of her.
  • Why did Nimona not talk with Ballister or make an appearance during the Time Skip? Is it because she needed that time to regenerate her body from the explosion of the cannons, or was it to make people think she's dead to be seen as a martyr and end the public's hatred for those who are different?
  • Did Nimona fully intend on sacrificing herself, or did she know she'd survive by changing into a phoenix that could come back to life?
  • Was Todd genuinely changed when he brought flowers to Nimona's memorial wall and smiled at Ballister, or was he just doing it due to the changed attitudes of people and not wanting to ruin his image?
  • Were Ballister and Ambrosius ever ostracized because they were gay? While Ballister was always looked down upon because he wasn't a noble, and Ambrosius because he's dating the afformentioned Ballister, how much of the motives for their maltreatment were due to homophobia?
• Awesome Music:
  • K. Flay brings the colorful, punk-flavored "T-Rex", fitting Nimona's chaotic and rebellious energy. Can be seen as Heartwarming in Hindsight as it was the first song she was able to listen to after going deaf in her right ear.
  • "Because I'm Awesome" by The Dollyrots plays over the castle fight sequence, and certainly is indeed awesome.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Try to find one person who wasn't satisfied when Todd crashes into a giant video screen and explodes. He survives with a broken arm, but still, many people are happy that his jerkass behavior got punished.
  • The Director dying in the explosion while trying to shoot Nimona with a laser, while Nimona sacrifices herself to save the kingdom.
• Common Knowledge: It's become popular for certain detractors of the film to claim that the climax, in which Nimona transforms into a kaiju-sized monster, invalidates the message of the film and proves that the Institute was justified all along in its fear of monsters, often pointing out how much of the city she destroyed in her rampage or how many people must have been killed as a result. Problem is... Nimona is never seen deliberately hurting or killing anyone over the course of this "rampage" apart from the Director (who was attempting to commit mass murder via collateral damage), and the only elements of the city she's seen deliberately damaging are a hologram projector and a viewscreen. For good measure, most of the actual damage to the buildings is clearly seen being inflicted by the Institute itself, from missed airstrikes to Todd's mid-air collision.... and it would have been even more significant if the Director had her way.
• Complete Monster: The Director is the seemingly benevolent leader of the Institute who proves herself to be the only real monster in the Kingdom. Fanatically adherent to the traditions of Gloreth, the Director is so stoutly dedicated to maintaining the status quo that when the Queen tries to Knight a "commoner", Ballister Boldheart, the Director views it as an affront. She murders the Queen and frames Ballister for it, chastising his societal status as proof of his villainy and using it to further oppress the citizenry. When Ballister and his new "sidekick" Nimona discover the Director's treachery, the Director orders them both killed and shows herself willing to murder the loyal Ambrosius for questioning her. Due to the Director's prejudiced actions, Nimona is driven to a despair-induced transformation into a leviathan; the Director proceeds to turn one of the Kingdom's giant cannons onto Nimona, uncaring it will kill thousands of her own citizens. Even when Nimona is shown to be harmless, the Director refuses to be redeemed, and personally attacks her own Knights so the cannon can fire. Despite her claims to care about the Kingdom, the Director only values its conservative, oppressive tyranny, and shows herself willing to wipe out half the population to slake her bigotry.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With fans of Spider-Man: Spider-Verse, since Nimona and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse were released close to each other and covered similar themes regarding belonging, discrimination, and LGBTQ+ allegories, as well as both films using a Painted CGI art style.
  • Also with She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. ND Stevenson worked on both, and designed both settings with a Dungeon Punk / Schizo Tech aesthetic, and there are many similarities between Ballister and Ambrosius' relationship and Catra and Adora's.
  • With Turning Red as both movies involve girls being humans (or apparent humans) transforming into large reddish animals and climaxes that involve Kaijus^note concept art shows that the fight between Mei and Ming was originally planned to have both of them be kaiju-sized.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Ballister being framed as a villain just as he was about to be knighted, and the reveal that he was betrayed by his boss because a “low class” outsider being promoted would upset the kingdom’s social order, bears an uncanny resemblance to this film’s journey in being canceled by the studio that owned it, just as it was preparing for release, for its queer characters and themes being perceived as threats to the social norm. Though it may also read as Heartwarming in Hindsight in that Ballister eventually gets his happy ending, and the film found a way to release after all.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: When Nimona shapeshifts into Ambrosious in order to get a confession out of the Director, Ballistair calls her acting a bit over the top and says "You're not going to win any awards". Chloë Grace Moretz would go on to win an Annie for Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting in a Feature Production.
• Ho Yay: Nimona had a friendship with Gloreth that can be interpreted as an example of a Pseudo-Romantic Friendship with when the two were children, the pair openly hugged each other and were generally inseparable.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Some people chose to watch this film because of the fact that it was supposed to be Blue Sky Studios' last movie, seeing this as their way of paying tribute to the now-defunct company. Some also encouraged watching it as a way to stick it to Disney for canceling the film and shutting down Blue Sky.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Did you really think Nimona would bite the dust in the finale?
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Fans have noted a trend of Nimona looking more and more psychotic in each image released for the film.
  • Ballister's Puppy-Dog Eyes, which have been compared to "a wet cat" and the TBH/Autism Creature.
  • Fanart frequently portrays Nimona as being friends with Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk from Across The Spider-Verse, as the two of them share a love of anarchism.
• Moral Event Horizon: If The Director hadn't already crossed it when she murdered the Queen and framed Ballister for it, she practically pole-vaulted over it when she orders the wall cannon turned inward to the city to destroy Nimona. This is after Ballister had already talked Nimona down, as well as with full knowledge that the cannon strike would destroy a large portion of the city and kill thousands of innocent people.
• Narm Charm: The scene in Nimona's flashback where we see who Gloreth really was, that being a little girl and Nimona's first friend, ends with the character doing her signature pose and saying what would become the Institute's rallying cry. But said Catchphrase is a coming out of the mouth of a squeaky child, which would normally make such an intense threat sound completely laughable if not for how powerful a tear jerker the rest of the scene is.
• Rainbow Lens:
  • Nimona's propensity for shapeshifting can be read as allegorical for someone who is gender-fluid. She can never stick to a single form for very long because she feels more comfortable shapeshifting than simply picking a shape and staying in it, acting confused when Ballister asks her to stay in her "true" form; while she's consistently referred to with she/her pronouns both in and out-of-universe, she also tends to be a little annoyed whenever Ballister refers to her as a girl. Her first human form is that of a young girl with long hair and soft features, and her current humanoid shape is more androgynous, with more masculine hair and neutral clothes. She's viewed as a dangerous "other" to a society with strong hierarchical values, and the one person who treats her with kindness is the Straight Gay Ballister, showing a form of LGBT solidarity. It helps this view that the original comic’s author came out as trans/bi-gender in 2021.
  • Initially, even Ballister is suspicious and distrusting of Nimona, struggling to accept her shapeshifting, much to her disappointment. This reflects how even other members of the queer community who aren't trans still usually have preconceived notions and thoughts about gender they have to work through when accepting trans people.
• Realism-Induced Horror: This is the reason why the Director, and by extension, the societal values she holds steadfast to, are so frightening. In stark contrast to Nimona's fantastical shapeshifting powers, the Director's bigotry, manipulation, position of power, and persistent belief that they are in the right are chillingly realistic. Many people like the Director exist in real life. Not to mention, history has many, many examples of discrimination against minority groups, ranging from "mere" prejudice to outright genocide.
• Special Effect Failure: While the film is really good at displaying its storybook aesthetic, the side effect is that colors look flat and frequently lack complex shading on characters, most obvious in lighting conditions that would make sense to do this (Nimona in Ballister's "secret lair" for example). This makes the film oftentimes very odd to look at, and is most notable with Nimona's many animal forms, as they are almost consistently the same shade of pink-red regardless of if they are indoors or outside. As noted by the Nostalgia Critic in their review, the final film look like it's using a first-pass CGI render, rather than using a later render with more definition on the models and a refined color palette. Considering this film's stop-and-start production history however, it's possible the animators simply didn't have time to improve it.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: In contrast to the above, the film's storybook artstyle is a point of large praise among its fans, capturing the aesthetic very well.
• Watched It for the Representation: The news that the film features an open gay romance front and center, and that this was one of the reasons Disney scrapped the film 75% into production, brought in a lot of viewers eager to see a queer love story and to demonstrate that LGBTQ+ stories deserved to be invested in.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The movie, despite having a PG rating and being Lighter and Softer than its source material, has a surprising amount of blood, an onscreen death, a main plot talking about Fantastic Racism, Nimona's backstory being about how she was mistreated for being seen as a monster by society, and later trying to commit suicide in the film's climax before being stopped by Ballister.

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