So what are you expecting from a film called Lesbian Space Princess? A countercultural screed with a blast of porn maybe? Once upon a time, maybe. But these days things are slightly less urgent. “Real-life girlfriends” (their scare quotes) Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese want to tell us an animated story that’s light and bright and very cute, with swear words and some cultural critique slid in on the downlow.
Take “downlow” on advisement because it’s all set on the planet of Clitopolis – “famously hard to find” – where, as things get going, our heroine, Princess Saira (voiced by Shabana Azeez) is being dumped by her girlfriend Kiki (Bernie Van Tiel), who is sick of her needy behaviour. Before Saira can get into the business of full-time wailing, she learns that Kiki has been kidnapped by the evil Straight White Maliens, who used to be the most powerful creatures in the Universe and are now hoping to trap Saira using Kiki as bait. What they are really after is her labrys – the double-headed axe and lesbian feminist symbol – which the Maliens will use as a battery to…
You don’t need to know it all but the long and short of it is that Saira needs to re-connect with her life force to summon the labrys, which is something a lesbian space princess is expected to be able to do when she comes of age. So, a double adventure for Saira, an internal one to find her inner grunt and an external one to rescue Kiki, who had better show appreciation.
With quite a few “fucks”, some cartoon pubic hair and breasts, this is clearly not the sort of thing many eight-year olds will be sitting down to watch. They wouldn’t get the cultural references or the psychological angle – Saira’s insecurity stems from her parents’ total absorption in each other – and they would probably be mystified by Saira’s gloomy, timid, paranoid self-obsession rather than find it funny.
The whole thing bombs along in a Family Guy kind of way, so if you miss one joke there will be another one along in a few seconds. There are songs, by Varghese, songlets really, like Gay Pop Band and Are You Seriously Friendzoning Me?, which are sweet and funny and slightly reluctant to take up too much of anyone’s attention.
The big plus is the way it has little pops at a range of targets. The Straight White Maliens’ endless bitching about the new world actively conspiring against them, or Saira’s ancient spaceship’s onboard computer (voiced by Richard Roxburgh, probably the only name you’ll know) being a repository of some very old-school attitudes – “What do you guys think about the sex scene in Blue Is the Warmest Color, the computer asks at one point, “you guys” meaning lesbians in general. But Hough Hobbs and Varghese also have a go at queer culture and lifestyle, like its fastidious hyper-correctness over pronouns and, more generally the strictures of behaving as expected: the gay straitjacket.
It’s Australian, but you might have guessed that by now, a general irreverence to everything being one of Australia’s refreshing gifts to the world. And it’s brisk, which is a plus too. It’s won a whole load of awards at various festivals, mainstream as well as the more expected, and so the next question is obviously will there be a follow-up? I see Varghese has written and directed a short, I’m the Most Racist Person I Know – Azeez again doing voicework and Hough Hobbs on production design – which makes it sound like a new target has been identified. Will there be a longer version?
Lesbian Space Princess – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2026
