Of course, there might be a far less downbeat reason for the visual change: Stevenson might have requested it himself. Whatever the reason, though, it feels like a little bit - okay, maybe more than a little bit - of the uniqueness that made Nimona so charming is missing. It’s unclear quite why the look of Nimona the movie is quite so different from that of the graphic novel, although it’s tempting to hazard some cynical guesses: the more generic style likely allows existing assets to be reused, saving on time, effort, and money the look is also, depressingly, something that is more familiar to mass audiences, and therefore makes the movie a more attractive proposition to anyone unfamiliar with Nimona as they scroll through the seemingly endless options on Netflix on any given afternoon. Nonetheless, the look of the original graphic novel feels both stylish and simple enough that it defines the story… and to see it entirely absent from the animated movie feels at the very least like a missed opportunity. It’s not particularly detailed, although Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s success in bringing some of its alternate reality Spiders to life demonstrates just how well detailed models can be animated in the right hands. The animated characters as seen in this shared clip are, well, neither of those things.Īfter all, it’s not as if Stevenson’s original Nimona artwork would be too complicated to animate, surely: Angular and utterly, wonderfully abstracted from realism, it feels as if it’s a style that could be brought to life through direct translation into animation - something that would allow for any amount of playfulness in movement and direction. One of the true joys of Nimona as a graphic novel is Stevenson’s artwork, which is at once simple and filled with a confidence and personality that makes it alive and urgent in a way that other artists could only dream of accomplishing. That’s not a knock against the dialogue in the scene, or the voice-acting - although, admittedly, that’s not how I imagined Nimona sounded personally, but such things are subjective and pointless to get upset over (otherwise, I’d be complaining about every voice in the Cartoon Network Justice League cartoon from twenty years ago) - but, instead, about the character design.

To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Stevenson wrote, “THAT’S MY GIRL.” Except… it really wasn’t. In retweeting a pre-release clip of Netflix’s animated adaptation of his beloved graphic novel Nimona, N.D.

Five nights at anime comic strips