Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken is a new coming of age film from DreamWorks that features a shy teen who is just trying to fit in at high school. However, things go sideways and her plans for prom don’t quite pan out when she learns that she’s a giant kraken. Worse, it turns out that the cool new girl is a mermaid, who everyone loves. Fabled royal giant kraken princess or not, nobody needs to learn that they are a kraken when they’re just trying to get through math class.

The written review for Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken is below (originally posted on Medium). If you’d like to watch the review on YouTube, here’s the link:

The story makes good sense on paper, and the script is solid, doing all the things that a well-made movie should do. It is DreamWorks, and they know how to tell a good story. However, Ruby Gillman was just a little too predictable for me, but I think that young kids will enjoy it. What I did like is that it gives an interesting take on the lost magical princess and the terrible sea kraken tropes.

The film also hits all the right points: teen girl finds out she’s a secret princess; evil mermaids come to destroy the krakens; teen kraken princess has to learn how to use her powers to confront the evil mermaid; and battle ensues in which she, her mother, and her grandmother band together to save the day. That is a little too simplistic of a summary, but it’s fairly on point and it’s nothing that you can find or infer from the various movie trailers.

Despite the predictable script, the characters are all well developed and likable. You really get the sense of these kids being high school kids and having to deal with all of the high school drama that comes up at that age. Ruby’s family dynamic is also well developed, giving her mother and grandmother some nice depth.

One of the most interesting things about the film is the animation. The background and scenery are a kaleidoscope of mesmerizing colors. It’s really the most fascinating part of the film, and they do a good job of highlighting the sea elements that glow underwater. It’s really very cool.

The artistic construction of the characters, however, annoyed me a bit. They seemed to be a combination of animatronic gummy-like beings and animation. The one exception is the Evil Mermaid, who is fascinating to look at on screen. They did a great job of designing in the evil fiery glow beneath her skin and her white frothy mane of hair. From an artistic perspective, the humans are also really well done. It was just Ruby and some of the other under water creatures who were a bit strange looking.

There were so many points when Ruby was out of the water that her hair looked like purple/blue gummy worms stuck on her head. It was just so odd that I kept thinking about gummy worms the whole time, and that really took me out of the film.

I usually don’t mind CGI and animation that isn’t totally perfect. I’m fairly easy to please in that department, but the weird gummy texture of the sea creatures just kept making me want to eat gummy worms.

I came away thinking that DreamWorks should partner with Trolli Neon Gummy Worms to make a Ruby Gillman gummy to go with the movie. I think kids would love it, but maybe that would be weird. Would kids really want to eat teenage gummy krakens? I’m not sure! I mean, I would, but I’m a little weird anyway.

Overall, Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken is a decent film. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a solid summertime family film that will get you out of the heat and into a nice cool theater with popcorn and gummy worms. Hah!

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