An awkward 16-year-old was never going to enjoy hearing the words “Your body’s going through changes” from her dad, but when those changes include changing into a gigantic mythological sea monster, it’s especially squirm-making.
Ruby Gillman (voiced by Lana Condor) only wants to fit in and go to prom, but that’s tricky when your family are blue and passing themselves off as Canadians. Her bustling, overprotective estate agent, Agatha (Toni Collette), refuses to allow Ruby near the ocean, a punishing prohibition in a seaside town where all events – including the prom – are amphibious.
Finally, a confetti-related mishap during Ruby’s attempt to ask out skater-boy crush Connor (Jaboukie Young-White) reveals the terrible truth. Ruby, as the title indicates, is a kraken. And not just any kraken: Ruby is a royal kraken, destined to take the sceptre from her queenly grandmother (Jane Fonda), and to defend the ocean from evil mermaids.
Director Kirk DeMicco and co-helmer Faryn Pearl are spinning a lot of plates with Ruby Gillman, a likable film that can’t decide if it’s a Turning Red-style menstrual metaphor, a generational conflict story, a Nickelodeon teen diary sitcom, or Harry Potter except with creatures of the deep.
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Pam Brady, who co-wrote South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Team United States: World Police, is one of three screenwriters, but it can be hard to detect her hand or humour in a busy film that flits by.
The starry cast and pleasing character designs enliven material that feels simultaneously stuffed and shallow.
It’ll do well enough for summer-break popcorn-lovers, but as DreamWorks Animations go, it’s no How to Train Your Dragon.
In cinemas June 30th
