'Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken' Review: DreamWorks' Coming-of-Age Kraken Tale Swims Smoothly
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken
PG: Some action, rude humor, and thematic elements
Runtime: 1 Hour and 31 Minutes
Production Companies: Dreamworks Animation
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Director: Kirk DeMicco, Faryn Pearl (co-director)
Writers: Pam Brady, Brian C. Brown, Elliott DiGuiseppi
Cast: Lana Condor, Toni Collette, Annie Murphy, Colman Domingo, Jaboukie Young-White, Liza Koshy, Sam Richardson, Jane Fonda
Release Date: June 30, 2023
In theaters Only
Since the dawn of time, Krakens have gotten a bad rap. So what if they sink ships? Some of them might've had colonizers on them. You don't know. The latest DreamWorks Animation project, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, tries to correct that misconception by asking, "What if Krakens were superheroes and also had anxiety?" It doesn't all come together swimmingly, but it brings the magical girl warrior archetype to the big screen.
As the eldest daughter to a family of Krakens living amongst humans in a coastal town, 15-year-old awkward teenager Ruby Gillman (Lana Condor) tries her best to keep her head down at her high school, hiding her Kraken identity from her friends and math tutor/skater-boi crush Connor (Jaboukie Young-White). Her mom, Agatha (Toni Collette), forbids Ruby from going to the ocean. One day in a failed attempt to ask her skater-boy crush out to junior prom, Ruby enters the water and accidentally unleashes the Kraken abilities she never knew she had. Soon, Ruby learns that her mom and dad, Arthur (Colman Domingo), have been harboring secrets from her: family-connected superpowers, extended family members like Agatha's goofy brother Brill (Sam Richardson) and Grandmamah (Jane Fonda), and the fact she's a princess from a bloodline of warriors. With all these pressures she faces, Ruby finds refuge with a popular new girl named Chelsea (Annie Murphy), who happens to be a mermaid, the Kraken's greatest enemy.
As Ruby Gillman's opening follows the nerdy math-wiz titular lead and her teenage problems, a not-quite-refreshing but positively nostalgic aroma fills the air. Many versions of a Ruby Gillman-type exist; The anxious ordinary girl (or Kraken) who discovers her newfound powers while facing everyday high school dilemmas describes the magical girl warrior archetype. It has not reared its head since the early 2000s with shows such as Sailor Moon, Winx Club, and The Life and Times of Juniper Lee (deep cut, right?). Funnily enough, Kirk DeMicco (The Croods, Vivo) said he took inspiration from John Hughes and classic teen comedies like Easy A for this project. Writers Pam Brady, Brian C. Brown, and Elliott DiGuiseppi must've gotten inspired by the shows I listed above, for the film follows very similar plotting but keeps its atmosphere. The first half of Ruby Gillman gleefully checks all the MGW requirement boxes when she eventually meets her long-lost grandmother, who offers to be her mentor.
I don't know if DeMicco or co-director Faryn Pearl chose to have Ruby’s squiddy movement correspond with her emotions—her leg wraps around the other when she’s near her crush—especially during high school scenes. But it gives the movie a distinctive entertaining flair. That also applies to how every character's motion aligns with their personalities—Krakens more fluid and noodly, and Mermaids egotistical in every pose—instead of constantly being in movement because the animators are having fun and trying to make cute visual gags for kids.
It goes without saying that because it's a DreamWorks Animation project, the film is bright, colorful, and of excellent quality. Credit goes to production designer Pierre Olivier-Vincent (How to Train Your Dragon) and the background art dept, who designs a stunning environment via the coastal town of Oceanside. It has a distinctive kaleidoscope pop like a Polly Pocket playset. The character design department provides circular, wide-eyed designs reminiscent of WB Animation's Smallfoot, but these designs are unique for a studio like DreamWorks.
For a breezy 90-minute runtime, the writers find an entertaining contextualization of Ruby's family legacy and the conflict between the female family lineage (only the women get powers). Ruby finds herself at the epicenter of this century-long beef between Krakens and Mermaids that she's pessimistic towards, especially when she befriends the beloved new girl Chelsea. Through those brief scenes of them bonding, an intriguing conflict persists, one where Ruby must use her newfound powers to defy her family's legacy and break a generational cycle of war or become the warrior her grandma expects her to be. Ruby Gillman sadly takes the easy way out, conforming to the likes of every "epic blockbuster" of today.
Despite having the MGW blueprint, Ruby Gillman's unfortunate timing of being another “family generational conflict” between Ruby, Agatha, and Grandmamah coming off the heels of Disney flicks Turning Red and Strange World, which featured those elements done better, doesn't do it any favors in the originality area. Though consistent with the story told from Ruby's perspective (fun fact: this was originally a family piece called Meet the Gillmans), its weaknesses stand out whenever it traverses to the mommy issues. Once the whole story of their lineage is detailed, that sense of conflict comes across as minuscule. If Toni Collette and Jane Fonda voice your mom and grandmother (respectively), there's no need to resent either member.
Ruby Gillman follows every other high school movie trope where the safe girl rebels against her mother's orders and starts hanging with the popular girl, abandoning her close “squad.” That said, Chelsea and Ruby's friendship was genuinely cute. This movie's marketing emphasizes taking jabs at Little Mermaid, especially with the self-obsessed Chelsea. Nevertheless, their characters have good chemistry, and Lana Condor and Annie Murphy's voice performances are delightful. It had every opportunity to carry out a theme of enemies becoming friends. Still, somebody at DreamWorks must've seen an early cut and said, "Nah, this is getting too smart. We need to franchise this," and turned its climax into every other derivative blockbuster spectacle fight sequence. But in this case, the finale is pretty dull. It had high ambitions but couldn't do much with budget restraints.
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is an entertaining family flick for the magical warrior girls who don't often get a fantasy sea-based heroine. Despite its narrative making a little splash in originality, it's still a swimmingly solid watch for the family.
