Shabana Azeez voices Kiki in Lesbian Space Princess

LESBIAN SPACE PRINCESS
Directed by Emma Hough Hibbs and Leela Varghese
Certificate: 15
☆☆☆☆

IMAGINE being voted the most boring gay princess in the universe. Can’t be good for your self-esteem.

That’s the starting point for this weird, funny, occasionally beautiful, sometimes cringey and always original intergalactic lesbian space adventure.

Saira (Shabana Azeez) has her heart shredded by the supercool Kiki (Bernie Van Tiel).
But when Kiki gets taken hostage by a set of baddies called the Straight White Maliens – a pastiche of the Aussie bloke stereotype – Saira has to step up and save the day.

Saira is joined on her quest by Willow (Gemma Chua Tran) and a space cruiser called the Problematic Ship (Richard Roxburgh), who ticks the awful man box brilliantly: he manages to condescend at every given opportunity. Girls can’t be pilots, he says for starters, and then that he’ll drop her off at a nail bar, a supermarket or pilates, and then they can go their separate ways.

This film was a hit in Australia last year and features some well-known queer actors from the other side of the world – their roles might mean something to the Aussie audience, but are a little lost in translation for us Brits.

There’s lots of fun with language and stupid gags (they search high and low for the city of Clitopolis and do some fourth wall breaking to help jolly things along). It feels like this film was a total hoot to write and make, and that joy and warmth comes off the screen and helps the silliness be more palatable.

This oddball animated comedy is a relationship, coming-of-age tale, aimed at a fairly nuanced audience. But it deserves to earn cult status, not so much for its forthright Antipodean gags, bad language and alternative narrative, but because it is highly original.

Animated adult yarns often run along the lines of Family Guy or Beavis and Butthead.

The constant gags come at a rat-a-tat level, like Family Guy seeks to do (though this is as far away from that series, politically speaking, as you can imagine). And it is much more fun, even if the puerile sex jokes wear a bit thin at times and offer some cringe moments too, and the blue language is often a case of swearing for the sheer sake of it.

At its heart this is a story about being yourself, overcoming frailty, depression and the trials and tribulations of finding your own way in life. Bravo, Princess.