May 26, 2023

Watch Netflix Promo Premieres New Footage of “Nimona”

Last week, the first teaser for Nick Bruno and Troy Quayne's Netflix original animated feature film “Nimona,” scheduled for release on June 30, was released.

The teaser, however, was mostly picture book-inspired animation, unlike what will appear in the finished feature. Now, a new Netflix promotion for the June release has added footage from the full-length film, which will be released next month.

Nimona's footage begins at 6:33 and includes the best look yet and Riz Ahmed's Ballista Boldheart. There is also a clip of Nimona transforming as she and Barrister escape from a castle that looks like a mix of medieval times and offices.

As noted when the teaser was released, Nimona will look aesthetically familiar to fans of Patrick Osborne's Oscar-winning short film Feast. Osborne was the original director of Nimona when the project was at Blue Sky Studios, which was closed by Disney after its acquisition by 20th Century Fox.

Now that more footage is available, the similarities are much clearer. Many of the textures seen in this footage, especially the backgrounds, are completely flat. There is a deliberate lack of detail in many shots, and the world has sharper lines and angles than what we are used to seeing from many major studio CG animated films.

Perhaps off-putting to some audiences, but it's exciting to see a big-budget feature film take an aesthetic risk. It has certainly paid off recently with films like “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” “The Bad Guys,” and “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.” Time will tell if it pays off in “Nimona.