Make it a Double Feature: ‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ and ‘Nimona’
It’s safe to say that animated cinema has been very slow when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation. Thankfully, progress that’s been made in the past few decades. However, we’re still seeing Disney, a studio with such a strong hold on the field of animation that they own a partial stake of the Best Animated Feature Oscar, continuing to force their characters into the realm of subtext. More alarmingly, they’re even omitting LGBTQ+ storylines from their content. Despite Strange World having the first gay protagonist in a Disney animated film, given the studio’s track record, it’s led to theories that it having a central gay character is what led to Disney giving it little promotion.
But for this post, we’re focusing on the positives. This month’s recommended double feature is of two animated films where the protagonists get to be out and proud and save the world. Something we could certainly use this Pride Month and beyond. Also, two Netflix films that earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature and feature SNL alum Beck Bennett in a prominent supporting role.
First is the 2021 gem The Mitchells vs. The Machines. Directed by Mike Rianda in his feature debut, The Mitchells vs. The Machines follows Katie (voiced by Abbi Jacobsen), an aspiring filmmaker longing to escape her dysfunctional family, including her technophobic father Rick (voiced by Danny McBride). While on a road trip to college, Katie and her family find themselves as humanity’s last hope as the world is taken over by a villainous AI system known as PAL (voiced by the always-reliable Olivia Colman).
As its story involving AI and machines taking over the world becomes eerily relevant, the scene where PAL pulls off the immensely diabolical feat of turning the Wi-Fi off across the planet plays more like a documentary than satire. The montage of people erupting into a frenzy with chaos in the streets the literal minute after PAL switches the Wi-Fi off is all of us when the Internet on our devices or our homes goes down.
A humorously action-packed cautionary tale about how machines are on the verge of ruling the world, at the heart of The Mitchells vs. The Machines lies a story about how no matter how weird or strange your family may be, in the end, they’re still your family. Even if they see things differently than you, like how Katie and Rick don’t see eye-to-eye on technology, if they love you through thick and thin, their love is enough to overcome that. For Katie, her family’s love for her is so unconditional, they accept her being queer. While in only a brief, sole scene, the scene of Katie acknowledging her queerness is treated in a matter-of-fact manner. It’s no big coming out moment as it’s established that her family accepts her.
While The Mitchells vs. The Machines treats its protagonist’s sexuality in a delicate, incidental manner, queerness is more ingrained into the story of Nimona. So much so that it reportedly led to its initial cancellation by Disney when Blue Sky Studios was shut down. A groundbreaking story that almost didn’t see the light of day because Disney sees stories on colonialism, fratricide, Stockholm Syndrome, and forced child labor as more family-friendly than same-sex kisses and trans storylines, Nimona is a film that would’ve meant a great deal to people like myself.
Seeing the same-sex kiss that caused Disney to pull the plug involving protagonist Ballister Boldheart (voiced by Riz Ahmed) and Ambrosius Goldenloin (voiced by Eugene Lee Yang) was seismic to the point where I think of how adolescent me would’ve felt amazingly seen. He wouldn’t just rely on characters that exist in the realm of subtext like the X-Men or Buffy Summers to feel represented. Furthermore, in these trying times, it’s a greater thrill seeing Ballister Boldheart aim to tear down authority.
Primed to be a knight in his medieval kingdom, and the first commoner to do so, Ballister becomes a fugitive once he is framed for the queen’s murder with Ambrosius among those on his trail. Once he crosses paths with the titular shapeshifter (voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz), both embark on a mission to prove Ballister’s innocence and dismantle the institution that shunned Ballister as easily as it integrated him. Because the kingdom already sees her as a monster, she encourages Ballister to embrace his villain status and feel the same sense of despair as her.
As Nimona says in the movie’s most heartbreaking quote, she’s eager to combat the kingdom and its citizens who’re taught to hate those who’re different even if they’ve bruised her emotionally to the point where she’s lost her fight from within (“I don’t know what’s scarier. The fact that everyone wants to run a sword through my heart…or that sometimes, I just wanna let ‘em.”). But it’s thanks to the community she builds with Ballister where she slowly realizes that those in power will only make us feel powerless if we let them. Similarly, as the Trump administration does everything in its power to make us feel defeated, marching in protest or even achieving a small victory like getting out of bed to not feel too hopeless to leave the house is enough to show we’re not afraid. Above all, like with Nimona and Ballister, it is through community where we really forge ahead.
Along with its emotionally resonant storyline, Nimona also thrives on its stunning visuals and killer rock soundtrack. Like with The Mitchells vs. The Machines, it proves that representation indeed matters whether it’s through depicting queerness in a small but impactful matter-of-fact manner or a politically queer storyline. If you want good animated cinema and/or are a part of the LGBTQ+ community and want to see yourself as a hero, why not open the Netflix app and make it a double feature?
The Mitchells vs. The Machines and Nimona are both currently streaming on Netflix.
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Make it a Double Feature: ‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ and ‘Nimona’