‘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 attempt one thing completely different with their animated musical comedy Lesbian House 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 generally known as the “Straight White Maliens”). This shouldn’t put a damper on the movie’s prospects on the LGBTQ+ pageant circuit following its Berlin Panorama premiere, nonetheless, 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 a superb instance of the extent of humour discovered all through, it’s talked about a number of occasions that Clitopolis “is tough to seek out” – a minimum of for anybody not of the lesbian persuasion. 

Although emotionally not fairly mature, the titular house 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 Her considerably unintentionally chosen mode of transportation is a dingy outdated spaceship with a management system entertainingly voiced by Moulin Rouge’s Richard Roxburgh, who performs the function as if 2001: A House Odyssey’s HAL had been a clueless white male chauvinist.

On her option to obtain the unimaginable, Saira in fact 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 woman. 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 acquired a crush it’s true/and it’s on you.” What works a lot 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 supplies the one actual stomach snigger.  

The supposed viewers for this vivid journey is unlikely to care in regards to 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 just a few longueurs, on the entire Lesbian House Princess zips by, whereas delivering fairly just a few chuckles alongside the best way. It’ll additionally make a terrific double invoice with the extra uproariously comedian lesbian indie basic Codependent Lesbian House Alien Seeks Identical.