Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken follows the titular Ruby (Lana Condor), a 15-year-old girl who lives in the seaside town of Oceanside with her family, who all try to fit in and live normal lives despite being Krakens. Ruby struggles with life as a regular teenager – made all the more complicated by strict instructions from her mother Agatha (Toni Colette) – but a “prom-posal” gone wrong soon reveals long-hidden secrets about her lineage, and these revelations threaten to bring both sides of Ruby’s identity crashing together catastrophically.

Ruby Gillman has a pretty decent script, nothing groundbreaking and a little narratively scrappy in places but generally doing a decent job at communicating themes of isolation, identity and acceptance that are sure to resonate with the film’s younger audience. The central tension between Ruby, Agatha and Ruby’s “Grandmama” (Jane Fonda) is the strongest part of the writing, doing most of the piece’s thematic heavy lifting in a way that effectively challenges children and parents alike to think about their relationships with the world around them.

Unfortunately, a lot of the flick’s other story beats feel somewhat underbaked: this isn’t too much of a problem considering it gives its core conflict the room it needs to properly land (and its target demographic is likely to be more forgiving of this particular flaw), but there is a distinct lack of narrative cohesion outside of Ruby’s primary familial disputes, which brings with it a sense of wasted potential. In particular, the dynamic between Ruby and mermaid Chelsea (Annie Murphy) feels like it’s missing a scene or two to really shore up its connections to the feature’s overarching themes.

One thing Ruby Gillman does have going for it is very fun and visually striking animation: the characters get a lot of personality from their dynamic movements (particularly the Krakens, who lack bones and can get particularly loose and silly), and the lighting and rendering on the underwater scenes are beautiful in a way that will definitely set young imaginations alight.

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is a perfectly fine animated feature, full of heart and dripping with style and sincerity. Its script is a little lacking in places, but these holes in the ship aren’t enough to sink it, and the parts of the story that do work are likely to be very valuable for audience members who see themselves in Ruby.

Umar Ali

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is released nationwide on 30^th June 2023.

Watch the trailer for Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken here: