‘Lesbian Space Princess’ review: Queer Australian animation could be a crowdpleaser

Dirs/scr: Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese. Australia. 2025. 87mins

Queer coming-of-age tales have gotten one thing of a staple, so it’s good to see Australia-based queer writer-directors Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese strive one thing totally different with their animated musical comedy Lesbian Area Princess, which is ready, you guessed it, in a “gaylaxy” far, far-off. But a lot of the movie nonetheless feels fairly acquainted, regardless of some sensible sight gags and enjoyable pop-cultural jokes and puns (the villains, who exist solely in 2D, are referred to as the “Straight White Maliens”). This shouldn’t put a damper on the movie’s prospects on the LGBTQ+ competition circuit following its Berlin Panorama premiere, nevertheless, because it’s a vibrant and life-affirming crowdpleaser.

A vibrant and life-affirming crowdpleaser

Saira (voiced by Birdeater’s Shabana Azeez) is the adolescent daughter of the lesbian royals that rule the small planet of Clitopolis, which appears prefer it was designed by Japanese animators who solely just like the sparkly colors within the crayon field. In an excellent instance of the extent of humour discovered all through, it’s talked about a number of instances that Clitopolis “is difficult to seek out” – a minimum of for anybody not of the lesbian persuasion. 

Although emotionally not fairly mature, the titular area princess is head-over-heels in love with Kiki (Bernie Van Tiel), a bounty hunter — a minimum of on paper, we don’t actually see her hunt all that a lot — who dumps Saira early on for being boring, sending her spiralling. To make issues worse, Kiki is then kidnapped by the Straight White Maliens and Saira must go and rescue her ex on the different finish of the universe. Her considerably by accident chosen mode of transportation is a dingy previous spaceship with a management system entertainingly voiced by Moulin Rouge’s Richard Roxburgh, who performs the function as if 2001: A Area Odyssey’s HAL had been a clueless white male chauvinist.

On her approach to obtain the unimaginable, Saira after all has some emotional rising as much as do, a lot of it because of her encounter with Willow (Gemma Chua Tran), a self-professed Goth chick to enhance Saira’s emo lady. In one of many function’s handful of songs, Willow serenades Saira in a low-fi, folky tune that’s about as unique as its lyrics: “I’ve bought a crush it’s true/and it’s on you.” What works significantly better is the aspiring chanteuse’s Taylor Swift-like comeback after she’s friendzoned as quickly as Kiki calls Saira to remind her she must be rescued, and impressed line which offers the one actual stomach chuckle.  

The supposed viewers for this vivid journey is unlikely to care concerning the movie’s lack of originality within the story beats and character-development areas so long as the movie delivers on different ranges, which it largely does. It appears appropriately poppy and interesting and, whereas there are a couple of longueurs, on the entire Lesbian Area Princess zips by, whereas delivering fairly a couple of chuckles alongside the way in which. It’ll additionally make a terrific double invoice with the extra uproariously comedian lesbian indie traditional Codependent Lesbian Area Alien Seeks Identical.