With its same sex-coupled hero, its shapeshifting “monster” heroine at war with the “small minded,” its score adorned with “The Banana Splits Song,” a street sax player covering “Careless Whisper,” and characters testing a futuristic car sound system with a little “metal” — “Breaking the Law” by Judas Priest, whose lead singer Rob Halford is gay — one could get the idea that the Netflix animated action comedy “Nimona” is kind of Pride Month appropriate.

It’s a fast and sometimes funny fantasy with an anime vibe. Jokes and sight-gags are more important than plot originality or coherence or characters that are little more than caricatures. And it’s a parable, about the “monsters” we’ve always feared, the “unknown” which we fear instinctively and the labeling we seem to need to do by reflex.

Our title character, Nimona, is a smart-mouthed badass, a shapeshifter with a yen for “breaking stuff” and rejecting labels. What…is…she?

“I’m NIMONA!”

“That’s not an answer!” But in the minds of the makers of the movie, it is.

Riz Ahmed voices knight-to-be Ballister, the first commoner ever to be entrusted with protecting this ancient kingdom that has survived, thanks to knights trained by “The Institute,” into the age of hover-cycles and laser-swords.

“Monsters” are what they’re trained to battle, even though nobody goes outside the walls of the city (How do they…eat?) or can remember the last time they saw a monster. The creed handed down to the knights is “never let your guard down.”

Ballister Boldheart will join his partner Ambrosious Goldenloin (subtle as a leather parade) in the knights and take up the sacred duty.

But upon receiving his sword from the queen (Lorraine Toussaint), his sword “goes off” and kills her. He loses his arm in the scuffle to escape. Sir Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang) and the doltish “bro” Sir Thoddeus Surebland, aka “Todd” (Beck Bennett of course) are charged with tracking the “Queen Killer” down.

That’s when this brawling, short-haired pixie Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz) hears about him, decides he needs a “sidekick,” and pitches in with the “breaking stuff” to help get him out of the jam and maybe “find the real killer.”

Mayhem ensues, as Ballister and his replacement mechanical arm are saved time and again by the shake-shifting dynamo who loves the idea of teaming with “the villain” and who growls “METAL” any time some opportunity for a fight comes up, or a fight that’s just finished is worth relishing.

“She” can be “He” if need be, young or old — whale, gorilla, ostrich, rhino or shark, depending on the situation. Just don’t “label” her and for the love of Gloreth — the founding queen of the kingdom — DON’T call her a “monster.”

The animation is in what is starting to look like a Netflix house style, characters with sharp features, angular edged settings, a distinct “Klaus” color palette. The film began life as a Blue Sky production and Annapurna produced it via outsourced animation houses.

The action’s throughline is simple enough, but the jerky, pieced-together feel of the narrative betrays the half-a-dozen writers given a “story” credit here. It’s kind of nonsensical in ways you usually only see in anime.

It’s got a class consciousness that we figure will be the subtext right up to the point when the gay references begin. The messaging and the jokes are prioritized, with the gay musical cues punctuated by Nimona, having taken the form of a whale, crashing through the knights’ locker room and showers.

“Cold in here?”

Yeah, that penis shrinkage joke will go over the heads of kids. But animated or not, is this really a children’s film? Pretty much.

But positive “don’t judge” messaging and all, it plays like a project more invested in representation and that gay-tolerant subtext than in its actual text. How many kids will give a hoot that George Michael and Rob Halford’s music is referenced and that Rupaul is in the voice cast?

But Moretz makes the title character a wired verbal dervish, all energy and ideas. She’s helped Ballister outfit his “evil lair.”

“Evil lair..Evil LARRY! That’s a totally metal VILLAIN name. You should totally…”

“NEVER gonna happen.”

The various pink critters her character changes into are cute enough sight gags accompanying her almost non-stop banter.

And if kids lose their fear over the color pink watching this, so much the better.

Those are a saving graces for a well-animated film whose middling story might otherwise render it an animated also ran.

Rating: PG

Cast: The voices of Chloë Grace Moretz, Riz Ahmed, Frances Conroy, Eugene Lee Yang, Rupaul, Beeck Bennett and Lorraine Toussaint.

Credits: Directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, scripted by Robert Baird and Lloyd Taylor, based on the novel by ND Stevenson. A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:42