Review: Lesbian Space Princess is as delightful as its title

They say that opposites attract, and Saira, the eponymous Lesbian Space Princess from the delightful new Australian animation, certainly hopes that's true. She's recently fallen hopelessly in love with Kiki, a badass bounty hunter who is everything Saira is not. Saira is a homebody, scared of everything, easily overlooked. It's always been that way for her, the underwhelming daughter of extremely popular queens. She's always in the Single Zone at the Lesbian Ball. No one seems interested in her magic tricks. Kiki, on the other hand, is brash, bold, a force of nature that always goes after what she wants, and always gets it. She has her sights set on adventure, new conquests, etc. etc.

So it makes sense that after two weeks, Kiki gets tired of Saira and ends the relationship (if it can even be called that). She's ready for new frontiers. So Saira is left alone, as usual. On her birthday. Which is also the day before the Lesbian Ball. Ouch.

Writer-directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese have cooked up something truly special with Lesbian Space Princess, which is a scrappy little movie with an incredible joke-hit rate. It's colorful, silly, wholly original. There's a mumblecore quality to it. Despite its galactic scope, this mostly feels like a low-key hangout movie that isn't afraid to go out on weird limbs to find a fun joke. It's kind of a musical, but all of the songs are super short. It's kind of a space opera, but the stakes are pretty low. It just is what it is, striding along with an easy confidence that makes it feel really refreshing and chill. It's an extremely good time.

The narrative motor here is Kiki getting kidnapped by the Straight White Maliens (brilliant), who use her as bait to lure Saira to them. As a royal, Saira has the ability to summon a labrys, which is the battery necessary to power the Straight While Maliens' super-powered Swedish chick magnet. (Yeah, this movie is very silly.) For those who don't know -- like me before watching this movie -- a labrys is a double-sided ax that has been used as a lesbian symbol. I would wager that Lesbian Space Princess features the most instances of a character saying "labrys" in film history. Guinness needs to confirm. 

Along the way, Kiki meets some fun supporting characters, like her problematic ship (which is definitely a misogynist, and likely a homophobe, racist, etc.) and a charming nonbinary singer named Willow. Every character is voiced to perfection, perfectly finding that sweet spot of being funny while also feeling very lived-in, fitting the mumbly lightness of the proceedings. I was proud of myself for clocking Kween Kong, who plays a weapons-obsessed drag queen who helps Saira unlock her potential.

The movie looks like something you might see on Adult Swim, but has its own distinct personality. It's super colorful, nice to look at. The character outlines are done in a glowy purple which gives everything a pleasant shine. The character designs are fantastic. I love details like Kiki's hairy legs, the the subtle differentiating details between the Straight White Maliens.

The main sell here is definitely the humor, which I would call "sweet raunch." It's really impressive to me how this manages to go for it in all ways without feeling like it's trying too hard to be edgy or over-the-top or gross. There's blood and violence, nudity, sex, drugs, but it never grates or feels at odds with the inherent sweetness of these characters and this story. Under all the shenanigans is the story of Saira learning to love herself (can I get an "amen"?) for everything she is, rather than constantly criticizing herself for everything she isn't. The way that all of the R-rated elements provide scaffolding for that journey of self-discovery, along with texture and color, is really impressive.

And man, some of the jokes are just (most of them, really) are so good. There are plenty of dumb-funny sight gags like the Royal Pussy (not a cat) and the accepted descriptor of Saira's home planet of Clitopolis ("surprisingly hard to find"). There's some nicely-delivered referential humor (including nods to S-Club 7 and Blue is the Warmest Color). Some of my favorite scenes are the ones where the Straight White Maliens work on their tactics to win over women, which are hysterically funny and enhanced by Kiki's frustrated commentary. It's amazing to have villains in a movie who can utter lines like "The whole universe is built around you, Lesbian of Color," where said lines feel completely earned and within the tone of the piece.

Which is really the headline for me here. A lot of the time, queer animation (or queer entertainment in general) can easily tip into the realm of being too sassy or arch or whatever, like it's scared to come from a place that's a little more tender, authentic, rough. It's the sort of Drag Race-ification of comedy, where everything has to be so dialed-up and caricatured to the point where it feels a little cheap or over-done, wink-wink, nudge-nudge. (And I say this as someone who loves Drag Race and often finds it really funny!) But Lesbian Space Princess avoids falling into those traps, instead sticking to its guns to deliver something that's queer and raunchy and funny but also feels like it's coming from a real place. It's ironic that this space-crossing adventure feels so grounded, but that's a testament to how finely-tuned Hobbs and Varghese's vision is here.