Lesbian Space Princess review: A tender and irreverent Australian animated feature that’s easy to love

With the declarative title Lesbian Space Princess, you know you’re in for something sassy and unusual.

The Australian animated feature springs from the creative loins of Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese, and will surprise all lucky enough to be in its irreverent yet wholesome presence.

That’s a really difficult line to walk, to make something that revels in genitalia jokes but has such a tender, beating heart at its core. Yet Hobbs and Varghese pulls it off thanks to their deft writing and smart pacing. You’re never inundated and you’re never left wanting more.

What you are is having a rollicking time with a parade of witty jokes and incisive references throughout a story that is much deeper than you’d expect. And all in a neat 87-minute package that effortlessly does a lot with not much.

Lesbian Space Princess has been winning over audiences on the festival circuit since its February premiere in Berlin, where it picked up the Teddy Award, and then an audience award at the Sydney Film Festival, but now is in wide release around Australia.

The titular Lesbian space princess is Saira (Shabana Azeez). She’s the royal offspring of Queens Anne (Madeleine Sami) and Leanne (Jordan Raskopoulos), the beloved leaders of their planet Clitopolis, which is protected by a space bubble from the rest of the chaotic universe.

Unlike her mums, Saira is not comfortable in the limelight nor with her destiny as a future ruler. She’s really more of a shut-in and suffers from anxiety. Azeez’s voice performance perfectly captures Saira’s self-doubt and discomfort at taking up any space at all.

The one person that seems to break through is girlfriend Kiki (Bernie Van Tiel), a “cool girl” bounty hunter who promptly dumps Saira after the princess’s love-bomb scrapbook of their two-week relationship.

Saira is shattered and retreats back into her room, dripping in despair over her once-again singledom and the upcoming ball. That is, until Kiki is kidnapped by three Straight White Malians (Aunty Donna trio Mark Bonanno, Zachary Ruane and Broden Kelly), who holds uses her as bait to lure Saira.

Saira has something the Straight White Maliens want to power their “chick magnets” – her Royal Labrys, a mystical weapon that Saira was supposed to have conjured as she came of age, in a series of embarrassing public rituals almost designed to humiliate her.

Despite her crippling anxiety, Saira musters up the momentum to embark on a quest to save Kiki, encountering a sentient problematic ship (Richard Roxburgh) with a misogynistic attitude, a goopy moon crystal planet and bubblegum folk-pop idol named Willow (Gemma Chua-Tran), who is brimming with optimism and enthusiasm.

Lesbian Space Princess gives the initial impression that it’s slight and all levity thanks to its dead funny sense of humour and colourful animation, but the writing is sharp.

Take the Straight White Maliens, a trio of flat rectangular incels whose actions are driven purely by their desperation for a date. As much as they’re sad losers powered by cliches – gaming out scenarios on how to pick up in a bar – and don’t recognise women as actual souls, there’s also a generosity in how they’re portrayed.

Despite the barbs, this is an earnest film that wants to believe in the best of its characters, even when they’re narcissists or idiots. It doesn’t punch down and even when it’s punching up, they’re not fatal blows. It’s more about recognising that someone else’s issues doesn’t have to become yours.

Ultimately, it’s not so much about them as it is about Saira, and how she steps into her power and battles against all the internal barriers that hold her back from becoming and being comfortable with who she is.

Lesbian Space Princess is a winning, lovable film that genuinely tickles and hugs while also giving you plenty of reasons to laugh and rave about how wonderful it is that this little pocket rocket of a film was made here at home.

Rating: 4/5

Lesbian Space Princess is in cinemas