Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is the film that The Little Mermaid should have been. From the animators at Dreamworks, its deep sea setting is colourful and full of mystery, where that film’s was a visually murky CGI bore. And it has all the girly pluck, friendship and charming adventure that The Little Mermaid was too busy plumbing the depths to achieve.
Directed by Kirk Demicco (who also made Vivo), this animated story follows Ruby Gillman (voiced by Lana Condor, crackerjack star of All The Boys I’ve Loved Before), a shy 16-year-old struggling to fit in at school, and ineffably drawn to the sea even as her overprotective mother (Toni Collette) insists she stay away from the water. She soon learns why: she’s actually descended from a powerful kingdom of under-the-sea cephalopods known as krakens, straight from the doom-oriented sailor’s myths of old.
This time, mermaids are the bad guys: it’s the krakens who have been protecting mere mortals from the wicked, briny clutches of the mermaids all along.
Thrust into adventure when she transforms into a giant, tentacled purple-blue monster with glowing suckers (a tough break if you’re trying to blend in with the other kids at school), Ruby has to shake off her shyness and fear of the bigger world and learn to be brave. She finds that she is the rightful heir to the mighty Warrior Queen (the legendary Jane Fonda, naturally), who encourages her in a righteous quest not only to protect the humans on shore, but to be unafraid of who she really is: powerful. After all, Ruby may be an academically gifted mythical ocean princess, but she still struggles to ask a boy to go on a date with her.
The animation is intentionally simple and unreal: even the humans have bright-coloured skin, overly large eyes, and drooping bodies that easily lend themselves to growing a few flippers. This is about as far from the intricacy of the Spider-Verse as you can get, but it knows it is intended for the most family-friendly audiences, and the animated style has a storybook sweetness to it that younger viewers will enjoy.
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is an endearing adventure story, and a lovely little parable about acceptance, belonging, and finding the bravery to be different – who wouldn’t like that?
