Jonah Naplan   July 25, 2023

The safest and most inoffensive thing I can say about “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” is that it’s nothing special, primarily because the film is safe and inoffensive. Released just two weeks after “Elemental,” which itself released two weeks after “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” this movie bends all the way down to reach for the lowest hanging fruit. Effectively, of course. But especially in a realm of inventive animation that keeps topping itself spectacularly, this modestly entertaining animated movie is sure to be lost and soon forgotten in the crossfire.

Ruby (Lana Condor) and her cheerful family—overly protective realtor mother Agatha (Toni Collette), father Arthur (Colman Domingo), and high-energy little brother Sam (Blue Chapman)—are residents of a coastal town called Oceanside. Our awkward teenage protagonist stands out like a sore thumb amidst her high school classmates—she’s blue, fishy, and also lacking a nose (a detail I could not stop thinking about). But most mysteriously of all, Ruby is forbidden from going in the ocean, and even attending her school prom located on a seabound boat. We, the audience, know the title of the movie, and can kinda sorta figure out why her mother enforces this rule. But that secret is for Ruby to stumble upon herself, of course.

Her shock and awe is at first caused by an accident: the boy she’s tutoring in math—whom she also has a crush on and plans to ask to the dance—the frizzy-haired Connor (Jaboukie Young-White) falls into the ocean, and by instinct, Ruby jumps in to rescue him. One thing leads to another, and in a very similar vein as Pixar’s “Turning Red,” Ruby discovers that she is actually a massive, scaled and tentacled, three-legged kraken living in disguise as a human. Petrified and on the run, she learns all about her family heritage—every female ancestor in her lineage had the ability to transform into these creatures once their skin hit the water, including her own mother, and a grandmama she never knew existed—the kraken queen, voiced by a merciless Jane Fonda.

The krakens are at war with the mermaids, stoking uneasiness into a friendship between Ruby and new girl Chelsea (Annie Murphy), a red-haired, closeted mermaid reminiscent of Ariel in a winking but not derivative way. Ruby believes that her friendship will somehow mend the wounds of the past, digging new ground for the union of the two clans. But not only does Ruby still have so much to learn when it comes to utilizing her kraken powers, but her mother, estranged from her grandmother, refuses to speak with, let alone collaborate alongside any of her family, already frustrated enough that her brother, Ruby’s Uncle Brill (Sam Richardson), has arrived at their doorstep unannounced.

“Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” has beautiful animation, but that’s to be expected these days. The greatest competition this movie faces is the race for creativity. It never does anything that pops or sticks in our head. No idea that strikes us as new or exciting. For all its heart and cozy family moments, “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” feels especially dry. It would almost certainly be nominated for Best Animated Feature if it was released in a year with only ten other movies, but in 2023, after high watermarks for both animation and cinema, period, we come to expect a little bit more from our DreamWorks projects.

Younger kids will like the movie the most, and that seems to be the clear objective of director Kirk DeMicco, infusing his film with plenty of slapstick and loads of valuable messages that the kids can take home. Still, “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” follows all the same plot beats of most animated movies out there, and doesn’t do a whole lot to put its own spin on the tired formula.

Admittedly though, I have never seen a movie that boastfully features three enormous krakens battling it out against a smoldering mermaid (to mostly obfuscating effect), but “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” does it, and probably just as well as anyone could. The flashing colors and vibrant light radiating from this sequence is perhaps my favorite thing about the entire movie, a creative decision that stands out. But as “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” retreats to pulling from the definitive bag of animated tricks in the aftermath of the battle, we commemorate all the missed opportunities and are haunted by all the “almosts.”

Now playing in theaters.