Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is a 2023 American animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation. Directed by Kirk DeMicco and written by Brian C. Brown, Elliott DiGuiseppi and Pam Brady, it stars the voices of Lana Condor, Toni Collette, Annie Murphy, Colman Domingo, and Jane Fonda. The film follows a shy Kraken girl named Ruby Gillman who is desperate to fit in at Oceanside High. When she breaks her mother's rule by going into the ocean with any would-be friends, she discovers that she is a direct descendant of battle-hardened krakens who have protected the sea from evil mermaids for generations, and is also destined to inherit the throne from her grandmother.
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken had its world premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 15, 2023, and was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on June 30. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the voice acting and characters but criticized the screenplay. It was a box-office failure, grossing $46 million against a $70 million budget.
Plot
In the town of Oceanside, Ruby Gillman and her family are secretly Krakens. Determined to fit in with humans, Ruby's mother Agatha forbids her from going near the ocean, including her school's prom at sea. Ruby's friends Margot, Trevin, and Bliss convince her to ask out her crush Connor anyway, but she accidentally knocks him into the water. Ruby jumps in and saves Connor — unknowingly triggering an underwater transformation — but new student Chelsea Van Der Zee takes the credit.Noticing bioluminescent suction cups on her fingers, Ruby hides in the school library, but transforms into a Giant Kraken. She is spotted by Chelsea and Agatha, whose ocean-dwelling brother Brill has been summoned by Ruby's transformation. Agatha calms her distressed daughter down to human size, and Ruby confronts her parents, who explain that the women in their family turn into powerful Giant Krakens while underwater.
With a reluctant Brill's help, Ruby sneaks into the ocean to meet her grandmother, the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas, who reveals that Ruby is in line to rule as protector of the ocean. Other creatures have tried to seize power, including Leviathans, Umibōzu, and most dangerous of all, Mermaids. The evil Mermaid Queen Nerissa found the Trident of Oceanus but was defeated by Agatha, who hid the Trident before abandoning her kingdom for a life on land.
Returning home, Ruby is attacked by vengeful sea captain Gordon Lighthouse, but is saved by Chelsea, who is actually a mermaid. Gordon's footage of Ruby in Kraken form goes viral, but Chelsea befriends Ruby, taking her on a "Super Sea Girl Ditch Day". Chelsea suggests that by finding the Trident, they can end the war between Krakens and Mermaids; her mother, Nerissa, was killed trying to recover the Trident from the Well of Seas.
Grandmamah trains her granddaughter to master her Kraken powers, unaware she is using them to practice entering the Well of Seas, and Ruby neglects her friends to spend time with Chelsea. Ruby's father Arthur, younger brother Sam, and Brill trick Gordon into "capturing" their pet sea creature Nessie, letting him believe he has ended the Kraken threat. Ruby tries to introduce Chelsea to her mother, but Agatha is unwilling to trust a Mermaid and forbids her daughter from returning to the ocean, but an angry Ruby transforms and storms off.
Agatha confronts Grandmamah, who explains that Nerissa never had a daughter, while Ruby retrieves the Trident but is betrayed by Chelsea, who reveals herself to be Nerissa. Trapping Ruby underwater, Nerissa surfaces to use the Trident to destroy the Krakens, interrupting prom night as she fights off Agatha and Grandmamah. With encouragement from Brill, Ruby arrives to face Nerissa and saves the prom ship. Combining their powers, Ruby, her mother, and grandmother destroy the trident, and Nerissa is captured by Gordon. Ruby's classmates hail her as their Kraken hero and she reunites with her family and friends while Connor accepts her invitation to prom, and Agatha and Grandmamah reconcile.
Sometime later, Ruby and her family have embraced their identity as Krakens, while Ruby and Connor become a couple. Brill warns that a Devil Whale is heading toward the Kraken Kingdom, and Ruby leaps into action as the protector of the seas.
Voice cast
- Lana Condor as Ruby Gillman, a shy 16-year old kraken girl who is desperate to fit in at Oceanside High and has the ability to turn into a giant three-legged kraken when she is in the ocean like all royal female krakens do. She is described by the film's producer Kelly Cooney Cilella as "a really normal teenager".
- Toni Collette as Agatha Gillman, Ruby's overprotective real estate agent mother who has the ability to turn into a giant four-legged kraken when she is in the ocean.
- Annie Murphy as Chelsea Van Der Zee, the snobbish, popular new girl at Oceanside High. She is secretly Queen Nerissa, the evil queen of the mermaids with a vendetta against the Gillman family.
- Colman Domingo as Arthur Gillman, Agatha's husband and Ruby's supportive father.
- Blue Chapman as Sam Gillman, Ruby's 7-year-old energetic and loyal younger brother who loves to play dodge ball. He is loosely based on co-writer Brian C. Brown.
- Jane Fonda as Grandmamah Gillman, the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas, the mother of Agatha, and Ruby and Sam's maternal grandmother.
- Sam Richardson as Brill Gillman, a kraken male who is Ruby's dim-witted and enthusiastic maternal uncle, Grandmamah's son and Agatha's brother.
- Will Forte as Captain Gordon Lighthouse, a kraken-obsessed old sailor with a peg leg who works as a tour guide and has a crab named "Davy".
- Jaboukie Young-White as Connor, a skater-boy who became Ruby's love interest.
- Liza Koshy as Margot, a dramatic girl and Ruby's best friend.
- Eduardo Franco as Trevin, a gamer and one of Ruby's friends.
- Ramona Young as Bliss, a goth girl and one of Ruby's friends.
Production
Development
Screenwriters Brian C. Brown and Elliott DiGuiseppi initially pitched the story of a family of sea monsters living on land in plain sight to Chris Kuser, a development executive at DreamWorks Animation. Titled Meet the Gillmans, the script drew from their shared memories of growing up in Oviedo, Florida as well as Brown's personal experiences as a first generation Cuban American, The Gillman family are loosely based on Brown's real life family.First time feature producer Kelly Cooney Cilella came on board as producer in April 2019. She previously worked as a story coordinator on Shrek 2, a development executive at DreamWorks Animation and a producer on the short film Bilby.
With original director Paul Tibbitt at the helm, and the addition of another writer, Neighbors from Hell creator Pam Brady, the film slowly started moving forward. In 2020 Faryn Pearl, who had known Cooney Cilella while working on Trolls World Tour came on board as the film's first head of story.
Cooney Cilella assembled her crew for the film, with Pierre-Oliver Vincent as production designer and Dave Walvoord as visual effects supervisor, the two having worked together in their respective roles on How to Train Your Dragon 2 and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Jon Gutman as Head of Layout, who had worked on this position on The Croods: A New Age. First time lead editor Michelle Mendenhall, and first time art director Frederic William Stewart gave the film a unique look, and promoted some of the employees who worked on Trolls World Tour into first time leadership roles during the production, and also brought in some talent from DreamWorks's TV division for this film.
Cooney Cilella wanted to bring the film in a new direction, so after Tibbitt stepped down from his role as director, she contacted Kirk DeMicco, who had most recently directed the 2021 film Vivo to be director with Pearl being promoted as co-director. Tibbitt was credited in the final film under "special thanks".
Additional material for the film's screenplay was provided by Baby Mama writer/director Michael McCullers, Meghan Malloy, and the film's co-directors.
In June 2021, website TheGWW reported the film to be in production. Production was also expected to start in 2022. On March 14, 2023, the cast and crew were announced via Universal Pictures International Ireland's website. Many of the main cast was confirmed, while the director, co-director and producer were confirmed also respectively. DreamWorks Animation also announced its official title as Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. The cast, crew, and official title were publicly announced two days later. Following the release of the film's second trailer in May 2023, Mike Mitchell, a longtime DreamWorks director who had recently set up his own production company Mike Mitchell Productions, was revealed to have served as executive producer.
According to Animation Magazine, Cooney Cilella stated that the film had been in the works for several years. It was first pitched to DreamWorks about a family of sea monsters that were moved to the land and are hiding in plain sight. She stated: "Our heroine is such a lovable character and I'm so excited for audiences to meet her and fall in love with her the way we have because she starts the movie as a quirky, slightly insecure but bighearted character, but she's harboring a secret that she can't tell her friends." DeMicco stated that he cited John Hughes films, Easy A, Lady Bird and Booksmart as his inspirations. Pierre-Olivier Vincent serves as the production designer, taking inspiration for the main character from the body of an octopus and bringing the "curviness to all the design language of the film", from the cars to the underwater world.
When asked if there had been plans for the mermaid world to be shown in the film, DeMicco stated; "there was an opportunity, but we had to make choices. And, so we always felt like if we had done that, we would've lost so much of the time, the personality of who is really getting to know Chelsea. And it worked well for our themes of the fact that they are all in hiding."
In addition, DeMicco said that there were other story ideas that were cut from the film, such as some of the monsters shown in the statue room that were originally intended to be featured in the story.
The film was dedicated to Nick Levenduski, a crowds artist on the film who died before the film was released.