It was ironic that while Disney was in the midst of its worst box office run for years, a movie the Mouse House actively allowed to slip through its fingers was riding a wave of critical acclaim to massive viewership numbers on Netflix, but the story of Nimona isn’t quite as straightforward as it may seem.
While Disney did actively shutter Blue Sky Studios following its acquisition of parent company Fox and place the animation outfit’s in-development projects squarely in the firing line, the higher-ups could have been even more spiteful and simply scrapped Nimona altogether.
Instead, the creative team were allowed to take what they’d cobbled together so far and shop it to interested parties around town, with Annapurna Pictures and Netflix ultimately banding together to save the comic book adaptation’s life.
Reflecting on the film’s fascinating history in an interview with Paste magazine, co-director Troy Quane gave credit where credit was due and praised Disney for not mothballing it completely.
“They didn’t shut down the movie. They shut down the studio, and the movie was a victim of that studio shutting down. The leadership at Disney did not shut the studio down with any kind of happiness in their hearts. We had strong ties to Pixar and to Disney. It’s such a small industry where everybody has pretty much worked with everybody, so there was no happiness in doing this. They did not have to let the movie go. And they did. And they let us take it across the finish line.”
It worked out for everybody in the end with Nimona winning rave reviews and topping Netflix’s charts, so you’ve got to hand it to Disney for not simply dragging the project round the back of HQ and putting it out of its misery.