Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken
Starring Lana Condor, Toni Collette, Annie Murphy, Jane Fonda
Directed by Kirk DeMicco

For as long as human history, people know that krakens are bad and mermaids are good, as krakens attack ships and pull them down into the depths of the ocean and leave no one alive, while mermaids are beautiful, ethereal beings who sing beautiful songs and rescue people in need. But what if all we knew about these water-dwelling creatures was wrong, and it was the other way around? What if krakens were the saviors of the deep, while mermaids were the terrors who threaten war in the oceans? "Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken" explores this concept but, sadly, since it's a children's animated movie, it pushes it on the back-burner in favor of a generic story of a girl coming into her own and dealing with changes that could alienate her from her friends.

Living in the seaside town of Oceanside, Ruby Gillman (Lana Condor) is a fifteen-year-old girl with a unique secret: she and her family are krakens, who have integrated themselves into the community and passes as Canadians when anyone asks why their skin is blue. Her mother Agatha (Toni Collette) is over-protective and doesn't want Ruby anywhere near the water, but when her crush Connor (Jaboukie Young-White) falls into the ocean, she dives in after him. Immediately she finds her skin changing, as she starts growing and tries to hide, but turns gargantuan and draws the attention of Gordon Lighthouse (Will Forte), a sailor who's been hunting kraken his entire life.

While Agatha tries to calm Ruby down, Ruby learns that Agatha was once a powerful kraken in her own right, but fled the ocean to live on land and raise a family. She investigates further by going back into the ocean and finding her grandmother (Jane Fonda), who's the queen of the kraken. Her grandmother wants Ruby to be her heir, but all she wants is to find a way to go to prom with Connor and her friends - but that's threatened by the arrival of new girl Chelsea (Annie Murphy), who immediately becomes popular and has a secret of her own - she's a mermaid. After learning krakens and mermaids have been at war for centuries, Ruby believes that they can change that by befriending Chelsea and finding the mysterious trident that would bring peace to both societies - but Chelsea has ulterior motives that threaten not just Ruby's life, but also her fragile mental state.


The Good:
Dreamworks will always take a backseat to Disney in regards to its animation, but "Ruby Gillman" has some beautiful animated visuals that attract the optic senses, especially when Ruby goes underwater and transforms into a beautiful large luminescent kraken. The film sustains itself with its vivid color schemes and gives the underwater world a breath of life that's surprisingly lacking in "The Little Mermaid" that came out earlier this summer.

The vocal talent of Lana Condor is exceptional, as she introduces us to Ruby Gillman as your typical fifteen-year-old girl going through the typical fifteen-year-old girl problems: wanting more independence, being shy around her crush, and harboring a secret that she worries if it's revealed will lead to everyone being afraid of her. Ruby is relatable and easy to root for, even if she's a bit naive, and that's due to Condor's vocal performance.


The Bad:
The story of "Ruby Gillman" is something you've seen before, and is pretty much beat-for-beat compared to Pixar's "Turning Red" released last year. Both focus on teenage girls coming into maturity. Both feature overbearing mothers who are protecting their daughters for "their own good." Both keep secrets where they turn into giant creatures. Both control their change by centering their emotions. Both have three unique friends who even look similar in animated appearance. Both end in an epic Kaiju battle with everyone watching (although this also differentiates between the two as well).

Maybe it's because the idea has been used for so many movies, but the beats of the film are predictable and safe. You know that Chelsea isn't who she says she is, and you know that Ruby will get her heart broken by the betrayal of someone she thought of as a friend. You know she'll rise to the occasion and find the confidence in herself to overcome her fears, and you know that in the end the family unit will be stronger than ever. It's a kid's movie after all, you're not expected to find some Shyamalan-level twist where everything falls apart at the final act.

The film dips it fingers into too many stories that never fully develop outside the mediocre. The biggest one is Ruby and her mother, but even that is stifled by the perimeter stories. Jane Fonda's grandmother is a one-note character who exists to do the traditional training montage and give the history between krakens and mermaids. Ruby's crush arrives at the start and disappears til the end, as does her friends. Chelsea's story is as ordinary as they come, with the traditional MacGuffin search for the trident that's about as hard as finding Waldo on a blank page with just Waldo in the middle. Then there's the sailor's endless quest to kill the kraken, Ruby's father and brother, and Ruby's eccentric uncle that all take up precious oxygen when it should focus more on Ruby and her mother and how her mother's lies really affected Ruby's psyche.


The Verdict:
While it offers something that children and teenagers can relate to and enjoy, "Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken" is weighed down by its stereotypical story and predictable beats that make for a forgettable film for everyone else.


The Score: B-