This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Dreamworks Animation is a frustrating animation studio. They’ll make something as mediocre as Abominable, and then turn around and create one of the great animation franchises, the How to Train Your Dragon films. I’m back to mad frustrated thanks to Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, a movie content to placate to 5 year olds and alienate everyone else.
Ruby (Lana Condor) is your typical shy land-based teenage girl, good at math but awkward at everything else. She’s got her group of friends (Liza Koshy, Eduardo Franco, Ramona Young), and a crush on the boy she’s tutoring, Connor (Jaboukie Young-White). However, her mom Agatha (Toni Collette) and dad Arthur (Colman Domingo) have neglected to tell her that she’s a kraken. And, she’s got a grandma (Jane Fonda) who is queen of the sea, protecting it from evil creatures like Nerissa the mermaid (Annie Murphy).
If you’re making a movie for young kids, that usually means a color explosion is coming. That’s certainly true for Ruby Gillman. The minute the teenage kraken hits the water, we are overcome with all parts of the color spectrum, as the shy Ruby grows into who she’s going to be. Jane Fonda’s grandma gets introduced here too; she’s having a ball being the alpha, cackling and howling with glee at helping her granddaughter grow into her own. The relationship between Ruby, grandma, and Agatha is the emotional foundation of the movie, doing a decent job explaining the differences between generations of women and why they become who they become.
But here’s the rub. Pixar and Disney rarely talk down to kids when telling their stories about growing up. Dreamworks more often then not equates 5 year old with simple story, and then simple story with dumber story. Adults are going to be bored by minute 30, with the “plot twist” visible from a mile away, sucking any suspense from the movie. At its worst, Ruby Gillman sacrifices honesty for the sake of expedience or colors, giving us a series of half formed characters that either needed more or to be cut from the movie entirely because they serve no real purpose. Too bad, because when done right, this story could have been something like Turning Red. Instead, we got the bullet points version.
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is an air conditioning movie. If you’re a tired parent with no AC in the summertime, take your kids to the theatre to see it, and zone out for a couple hours in the cool air. And at least your kids with think krakens are cool and mermaids are bad. Come on, a kraken is amazing! Liam Neeson didn’t inspire nonsense memes by saying “Release the mermaid!” did he?