Watched Nimona recently and although it was a fairly enjoyable film and I would still recommend a watch. I got a bunch of thoughts about its ending and themes and how despite it trying to build itself up as this cool queer anticop story it fails to stick the landing and instead suffers from Treasure Planet syndrome. I've decided to ramble it out under the keep reading link so spoilers for Nimona starts there

So this movie is built upon a "knight system" which is established to be an obvious cop parallel, where the knights are essentially the police of this world. The allegory doesn't stop at the job description however, as the movie takes a bold move and introduces this system as very corrupt early on; from the main character being framed by a high-ranking, police-adjacent authority, to revealing that the entire system was built on false hatred and intolerance, to Nimona outright stating that it doesn't end at the true perpetrator, but that "the WHOLE system is corrupt". Time and time again we are given proof of how the knights, whether purposefully or not, hurt, indoctrinate, and brainwash the innocent. This is a great message, and they did an excellent job of carrying it throughout the runtime until doing a sudden 180 at the end. Not only do we see the cop system still in place, with knights in universe portrayed clearly on screen, but they're painted as good with a member playing soccer with a child. They tried to reject corruption by denouncing their founder, yet they still intend to perpetuate the job built to maintain her ideals from the ground up.

Despite attempting to dive into more meaningful territory with a daring dive into a serious modern problem, the ending they gave us was palatable and conveniently perfect in a way that satisfies everyone on a shallow level, which only works with a message that's equally shallow and inoffensive. This sort of trying to have cake and eat it too conclusion is what I refer to when saying Treasure Planet syndrome, as watching the movie gave me deja vu for the same faults- because, while Treasure Planet attempts to weave a unique and subversive narrative that touches upon deeper subjects which would lead up to an unconventional yet impactful end, what they finished with was jarringly standard hogwash where they attempted to tie lose ends in a conventionally pretty, corporate-ceo approved bow. For example, one of if not the main plot of the movie was Jim Hawkins addressing his trauma regarding an absent father that abandoned him and his mom at an early age, finding a better father figure in John Silver and gradually healing from his past with a better role model. Yet at the end, the cycle repeats itself as John ends up leaving (just like Jim's father) with narry a negative emotion from Jim. Jim then goes to cop academy where, despite his journey being about rejecting societal expectations and gaining self-improvement and growth through his own means, he becomes an A-Plus goody-two shoes cop loving poster boy in no time. The syndrome also hits particularly hard with Captain Amelia and Doctor Doppler, where despite their relationship being a man and woman, it still openly rejects heteronormativity with natural romantic progression (no love at first site bullshit) that involves Amelia being way more masculine and competent than Doppler and him being the well meaning yet gullible scientist. Even the way they flirt is subversive, with Amelia calling Doppler's eyes beautiful (a traditionally feminine descriptor) rather than the instigation being made by the man. Yet at the end, heteronormativity hits as Doppler is shown suddenly more assertive and masculine as he dips Amelia in a dance, not to mention their children fall into the trop of the girls looking exactly like the mother and the boy looking exactly like the father (Also. they put a bunch of makeup on the baby girls????). In short, Treasure Planet Syndrome is writing a subversive plot/story that ends abruptly in a palatable perfect way that sacrifices both natural progression and its messages in an effort to create a more appealing happy end. A movie that I think actually LANDED its subversive storyline was Strange World, where it successfully carried through with it's deeper narrative and provided a slightly uncomfortable yet incredibly understandable and meaningful ending.

One last thing before I stop my ramble- the queer rep in Nimona is pretty bad. I mean don't get me wrong, the main character (who is canonically mlm) is fine and I'm always happy to see upfront representation in my media, but the man he was saddle with as his boyfriend treats him terribly throughout most of the movie, to the point where I was genuinely shocked seeing them together at the end. His boyfriend is this nepotism golden child who's beloved by everyone and so neck deep in the corrupt system that he: slices off the mc's arm (just says a vague sorry later), spends most of the movie refusing to trust or believe him, spends most of the movie trying to hunt him down and arrest him, easily succumbs to peer pressure when it comes down to hurting him, prefers to stay loyal to the system rather than his bf, barely questions the situation, and refuses to listen to his bf provide him with explanations or answers. Even the MC recognizes how much he hurt him, because he ends up outright BREAKING UP WITH HIM and begging him to leave him alone, only to get back with him at the end like nothing ever happened. I want a happy ending for canon queer couples as much as the next guy, but if they wanted a happy end, why did the write the love interest to be so awful? They could've made him question the motives of his superiors and the entire situation more, he could've gone out of his way to seek out an explanation before forming his own conclusion, he could've made more attempts to break the rules for harm reduction, to try and understand what happened, hell to try and TALK to the MC- it's really baffling how they tried to paint this as true love when what should've happened is the MC getting a better spouse. I see this as an extension of Treasure Planet syndrome and trying to have and eat cake at the same time mentality, to say I wasn't surprised when I discovered this movie was written by the people behind modern She-Ra would be an understatement.