Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (2023)

• Year: 2023
• Released: 30 Jun 2023
• Country: United States
• Adwords: N/A
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27155038/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ruby_gillman_teenage_kraken
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/ruby-gillman-teenage-kraken
• Available in: 720p, 1080p, 1080p
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: PG
• Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure
• Runtime: 91 min
• Writer: Pam Brady, Brian C. Brown, Elliott DiGuiseppi
• Director: Kirk DeMicco, Faryn Pearl
• Cast: Jane Fonda, Lana Condor, Toni Collette
• Keywords: mermaid, high school, prom, female protagonist, kraken, fitting in,

	5.7/10
	50/100
	66% – Critics
	81% – Audience

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken Storyline

Fifteen-year-old Ruby Gillman learns that she is in the next legendary line of sea krakens. Despite her lofty destiny, she is desperate to fit in at Oceanside High. Ruby struggles even more to fit in when her mother forbids her from going to the beach. After disobeying her mother’s rules, she discovers that she is descended from the warrior Kraken queens and will ascend to the throne as the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas, her grandmother. The krakens are a race sworn to protect the world oceans from the vain, power-hungry mermaids by battling with eons. Ruby would need to embrace Chelsea, a mermaid-turned-human who enrolls at Oceanside High School.

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Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken Movie Reviews

Typical Movie Experience, Good Family Film

The film’s story/plot was lower tier for a Dreamworks Animation movie, but overall the film was decent. The film was at best comparable to Spies in Disguise (2019), Abominable (2019), or Ron’s Gone Wrong (2021) (comparable to these films in the following categories:).

The film’s animation was fairly good, on par with other animations of the last few years. Some “out of this world” character designs make the film more stand out a bit, but does not add to character memorability. The soundtrack is upbeat and chipper, with some more modern music. The score has some epic and heavy “hits/boojs” that rumble the theater, so it’s got an immersive aspect to it.

Characters were less relatable than characters of other other films, but still goofy and fun-loving. This is mostly due to the 2-dimensionality of the secondary characters, but generally audiences, especially children, will not care/notice and will laugh at their antics.

The film’s writing is reminiscent of Turning Red (2022), with a lot of parallels in the storyline such as: family lineage (females of the family turning into krakens), controlling the transformation by remaining calm, hiding the truth from the main character till they learn for themselves etc., with some slight variation. Basically what you’ve seen in the trailer.

I really look forward to the moral values and deeper meaning behind the films I watch, however I felt the film lacked in this area. The moral of the film is really to “love yourself” and to not hide it from others, but also trusting that “mothers know best.” While I like the morals, it’s not like Paw Patrol (2021) or Coco (2017), where the moral is both memorable and powerful (being emotion driven).

Overall the film is a typical movie-going experience, with some action, entertaining visuals and story, and upbeat soundtrack. Audiences will tend to laugh and enjoy the animation/color of the film more than they’ll watch for the story/emotional value. Worth a family trip to the movies, but more-so a one-and-done film viewing experience. 6.5/10.

Dreamworks at it’s Dullest

Despite the colorful animation and cute designs, it was honestly pretty boring.

Dreamworks Animation is a hit or miss for me as they have made some really fantastic movies in the past but also some pretty bad ones too. Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is clearly aimed more for the younger demographic and there have been films I have enjoyed that are made in that category. However, this one really didn’t do it for me.

The animation style and models are pretty good as they are colorful, beautiful and have some textures around them to provide the essence of sea life. Some of the dark underwater sequences have pretty good lighting, colors, and sound design throughout as it does add some decent atmosphere. The voice performances were okay. But that’s pretty much it really.

The concept about squids, octopuses, and mermaids in the underwater kingdom living in a modern environment is pretty interesting but the narrative really doesn’t take any full creativity with its concept as it feels really uninspired and bland for the most part. The characters really weren’t interesting and the dialogue provided was clunky and sometimes cringeworthy.

The use of pop songs and its soundtrack was pretty annoying, the tone goes quite all over the place, and the humor is pretty inconsistent. The humorous jabs from Dreamworks at this point is starting to get a little repetitive.

Overall, it has good intentions but it never got to have a huge punch as it wanted too.

2/10.

Prime real estate for the 6-14 age range

Here’s The 4K Lowedown on the advanced screening of “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” (PG – 2023 – Theater) Release Date: 6/30/23

Genre: Animated/Family

My Score: 7.3 Cast=9 Acting=6 Plot=5 Ending=9 Story=6 Art=8 Voice=9 Music=10 Family=6 Funny=5

A shy teen learns that her destiny lies in the depths of the waters, which is bigger than she could have ever imagined.

“Ok Ruby…have a completely, totally, ordinary day…you’ve got this.” This was a cute film…one that I think caters to the younger audience more so than the parents. This looked to be prime real estate for the 6-14 range, as it felt a lot like Turning Red. I would have bought it on physical…my autistic granddaughter would like this, I think. With good artwork, great voiceovers, and a fantastic soundtrack, this makes for a pretty good watch.