June 29th, 2023 
Jackson Murphy 
N.D. Stevenson’s popular graphic novel finally comes to life with the long-awaited animated feature Nimona, about a girl in a futuristic/medieval society who joins forces with a knight to clear his name after he’s accused of murder. Directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quane (Spies in Disguise) are excited for audiences to experience this action, humor and emotion packed adventure, which premieres this Friday June 30th on Netflix. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity).
Jackson Murphy: For animation fans who have been reading about this for years, who knew it was at Blue Sky, and now it’s at Netflix, they’re thrilled it’s finally here. Nick, when that day came when you knew this movie was saved, how did you feel?
Nick Bruno: I mean, that day is like today, Jackson. (laughs)
Troy Quane: Talking to you right now! (laughs)
NB: Honest to God, we’ve had such a tremendous backing from so many people constantly blowing wind into our sails. It’s because of what this movie’s about. It’s about acceptance. It’s a love letter to all those who have ever felt different or misunderstood. It’s something that’s universal and we all think is very, very important. And that’s, ultimately, what’s kept it alive. So we never had any doubt. Although sometimes…
JM: Troy, in listening to the voice performance from Chloe Grace Moretz as Nimona, this punk rock girl who’s got such spunk, with the pink hair, the complexities of that voice performance seemed very challenging. And she really pulled it off.
TQ: Oh absolutely. Can’t say enough about Chloe. She is a ball of insane energy, and she brought it every single time we were in a booth together. We would challenge her with “Say it faster! Say it crazier! Go go go go go! Now you’re a gorilla! How would a gorilla say that?” And she was always willing to play and have fun. And that’s a hard thing to do. People don’t realize you’re just sitting in a voice booth by yourself — nothing else around you — and you’re building this world… and you’re building a character who’s now a seven ton whale — and now a mouse. You have to find all that entertainment in there. But even bigger… as you unpeel the layers of Nimona, you start to realize that a lot of that disruptive and that big comedy and energy is a cover for some serious wounds… some emotional truth that she uses to hide. Chloe is so masterful at weaving in-between big performances and then suddenly jumping to a moment of sincerity and then realizing where she was and covering it again. It was such a deft performance. So much fun and she gave us so much trust and it helped bring this character to life in ways we couldn’t have imagined.
JM: That’s so good. And you mentioned Nimona turning into all these animals. Nick, in transforming her into all these animals, visually, how did you want to approach that?
NB: One of my favorite films as a kid was “The Sword in the Stone”. It really was this afformational journey of this kid turning into a squirrel and a fish. It was cute and fun. But what I love about this is Nimona’s shapeshift is as fluid as her mind is. It’s how she feels and what she wants to turn into. When she wants to feel big and strong, she turns into this giant gorilla. When she wants to be silly and have fun, she can turn into this goofy little otter. It really is however she feels and it’s always fun. And I feel like all of us in our journey of life have done our own shapeshifts sometimes to find acceptance in the world that we’re in. What I love about Nimona is that she knows who she is. She’s gonna be who she is the way that she feels in that moment.
Directors Troy Quane and Nick Bruno (left) and Jackson (right)
TQ: And we stressed with the animators that her shapeshifting isn’t a magic that happens to her. It is part of who she is — it’s intrinsic to the DNA of that character, so all those transformations aren’t external things. They’re very much driven internally.
NB: One of our writers, Pam Ribon, described it in the movie as that feeling just before you sneeze, and I love it. It’s something you have to do.
JM: And Troy, Ballister is who Nimona teams-up with. A new knight. Quite a situation. He’s essentially framed for murder. He’s voiced by Riz Ahmed, who was so good in “Sound of Metal”. I could tell he also put a lot of effort into this character.
TQ: Yeah. Riz is a phenomenal actor. He worked so hard to perfect the role and bring life to it. He’s funnier than anybody realizes. But the key for us in casting Riz is the connection to who that character is. Ballister is suffering the judgments of a society that’s built up in caste systems. Riz had done an amazing speech to the British Parliament of the importance of diversity and representation in the media. And it’s something he brings to the acting, producorial and music choices he makes. The shapeshift Ballister does… trying to fit in and be accepted was something Riz connected to on an incredible level. He really just helped bring him to life.
JM: That’s great. Nick, there’s this new perspective you guys bring in on what it means to be a sidekick. Can you expand on that a little bit? For people who are used to seeing buddy movies, some of the thoughts you bring up are interesting.
NB: Well that’s great. What I love in this movie is: Nimona says she wants to be a sidekick but she’s driving the car there. She’s this elemental creature who can do anything and be anything. If she really wanted to, she can stomp the whole kingdom, but she doesn’t. She wants a friend, acceptance and to live in a world where we see each other for who we really are. But it’s very nice that she says, “Sidekick.”
JM: Troy, when we get to the third act, you present this theme of “Life is worth living” in really honest and touching ways. As you approach this, because it’s a movie the whole family is going to experience, how did you want to tackle this very serious subject?
TQ: With great care. With great honesty. It is a very important conversation and thing to experience — these are real experiences that people around us may have. It was the idea of feeling so lost and so unseen that takes you to places that are really hard to climb out of. And it does sometimes take one person to understand and to see and allow you to be who you are. We’re all messy. There’s no script for life. We can be angry and rage-filled and frustrated, but that doesn’t mean we’re not kind, compassionate and caring people. We have all of these colliding things that exist in all of us. It’s that ability to see that, look past that and see the person that’s beyond that. We took great care to be honest and truthful about that.
NB: Everything we do in this movie we try to do in the most authentic way. We’re just two fellas up here, representing a giant crew that’s poured their hearts into this movie, sharing their personal stories. We use those and put those into the film — at the hands of a mischievous Mary Poppins character who will find a way to use some sugar to help the medicine go down. We deal with some really tough themes but we do it in a fun way that’s not hitting you over the head. It’s exciting, but it still allows you to be authentic.
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