"Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken" is an animated feature film by DreamWorks Animation. Directed by Kirk DiMicco ("The Croods") and featuring the voices of Lana Condor, Toni Collette, and Jane Fonda, it relies too heavily on themes and tropes of other animated films to raise itself above being merely a serviceable watch.
In the seaside town of Oceanside, socially awkward teenager Ruby Gillman (voiced by Lana Condor) lives with her Kraken family who try desperately to fit in with regular humans. Ruby wishes to attend her upcoming high school prom but her mother Agatha (voiced by Toni Collette) forbids her due to the event taking place on a ship in the ocean. After being convinced by her friends to go anyway, Ruby musters up the courage to ask out her crush Connor (voiced by Jaboukie Young-White) as her date but she knocks him into the water by accident. Left with no other choice, Ruby jumps into the ocean and saves him but soon learns that exposure to sea water causes her to transform into a giant monstrous Kraken. When her family find out about her transformation, Ruby runs away underwater to meet her grandmother (voiced by Jane Fonda), the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas, to hopefully learn more about her origins.
Anybody with even a passing interest in ocean mythology should be familiar with the Kraken - a huge, terrifying sea monster that has become the stuff of legends among well-travelled sailors of many centuries past. The creature's large size and frightening appearance was said to strike fear into the hearts of those unlucky enough to sail into its territory, especially given its apparent ability to completely drag ships underwater to their doom. Although modern scientific explanations now exist to disprove this as nothing more than a myth, the popularity of the Kraken legend still continues even to this day thanks to its lingering presence in pop culture. One such example of this is the 2023 animated feature "Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken", which features the Kraken as a geeky high school girl wanting to be accepted by others, in a film that feels more like a lazy recycling of better social outcast movies rather than an attempt to create something hip and exciting for all ages.
Conceptually, I do kind of like the idea of a giant sea monster protagonist longing to viewed as normal, but at no point did I ever feel like it was being told to us in a way that can separate it from other movies that have already dealt with similar thematic plot lines. From the moment Ruby enters her high school and interacts with the other students, you can already tell right away what kind of movie this is going to be - the socially awkward high schooler must find a way to be accepted by others in spite of unusual circumstances. Sound familiar? That's because so many other movies have done this idea before. As a result, I just never felt fully invested in Ruby's character because I already know how it is all going to turn out for her in the end. It's obvious that Ruby's Kraken powers are going to show themselves at inopportune times to ruin important moments. This leads to cliched scenes where she bumbles her way through asking her crush out to the prom as well as her Kraken abilities causing accidental destruction to town property. The film does try to mitigate this with one mildly amusing joke - by having the Gillman family claim that they are originally from Canada, meaning that they do things differently over there compared to America.
In addition to this, there are also too many plotholes and unexplained elements that prevent the story from becoming fully engaging to the audience. We see that Ruby and her family have settled into their lives on the mainland, with her mother Agatha taking up a regular job as a real estate agent and her father Arthur (voiced by Colman Domingo) live-streaming himself building model ships inside bottles. At school, Ruby has a small group of close friends who always seem to support her and it appears that her crush Connor also reciprocates her feelings towards him. What bothers me here is that Ruby and her family hardly ever look like they're outcasts in the traditional sense, as they are each relatively well liked by most of the regular humans. They aren't seriously discriminated against for looking different nor does anyone question where they initially came from. Even the Gillman family's obvious sea creature physical appearances don't seem to deter anybody, so if they really are supposed to be outcasts, how come their unusual fishy features don't cause more people to ask questions? They all stick out quite prominently so either the townspeople are being incredibly polite or everyone is blind to what is right in front of them.
Also, it is established that the family chooses to live near the ocean because they require moisture to survive, even though this is the exact place that can lead to the very problems that end up arising for them. While this does make some sense due to their fish-like biology, there are plenty of other logical spots away from the ocean for the Gillmans to live, like an inland lake or a river in the mountains that would be better if they wish to avoid attracting too much suspicion. It's possible that they exclusively need salt water for moisture but this is never brought up at any point in the story so for all we know it could be any kind of water that helps them thrive. This may seem like a minor complaint to some but to me it is something that completely undermines the purpose of having a story about a family of Krakens wanting to live normal lives among humans when they are literally right next to the place that can expose them instantly at any given time. And to no one's surprise, that's exactly what happens.
Despite all of these storytelling issues, the film is at least very nice to look at. Scenes that take place underwater are quite beautifully animated, especially the ones where Ruby is swimming through the ocean embracing her Kraken heritage. There's also some solid use of atmospheric ambience when Ruby meets her grandmother (referred to as "Grandmamah") for the first time at her undersea palace. In what is essentially a scene of world-building exposition, Grandmamah tells Ruby the backstory of the Krakens through use of different coloured aquatic species such as Leviathans and Mermaids. What could have been something otherwise overlooked by most viewers becomes a visual treat for the eyes as Grandmamah explains the reasoning for the Kraken's underserved reputation as evil monsters of the deep. This is done via the illuminated neon-lighting which helps the audience better understand why the Krakens have to prevent another war from breaking out between the different species. If the film had included more moments like this, then perhaps it could have been a more enjoyable viewing experience the whole way through as opposed to just one cliche after another.
The film's voice acting is also handled rather well, with Lana Condor injecting some much needed likability into the title character. As generically written as she may be, I think Condor's energetic performance as Ruby prevented me from losing all interest in her as a whole, because she is at least knows how to command the audience's attention. I also thought Toni Collette stood out as Ruby's mother Agatha, who desperately tries to relate to her daughter's problems. Some of my favourite scenes were of Agatha and Ruby conversing as mother and daughter, with the two not always seeing eye-to-eye on how they should each be living their lives on dry land. Jane Fonda voices Grandmamah not just as a grandparent but as a regal figure, who takes her position as an underwater Warrior Queen very seriously. Though she's mainly there for exposition, Grandmamah does have one notable scene near the end which I did enjoy, even it was significantly shorter than I had hoped it would be.
Given the amount of creative problems that are holding it back, "Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken" isn't a complete misfire but it still leaves a lot to be desired. There just isn't enough in this movie that warrants a recommendation to anyone besides small children and their parents. It isn't what I would consider a bad movie by any means, as its quick pace prevents total boredom and at a modest 91 minutes in length, it is at least short enough to hold a young child's attention span. As for everyone else, you're better off investing that time in something far more worthwhile.
I rate it 6/10.
