Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kirk DeMicco
Written by	Pam Brady Brian C. Brown Elliott DiGuiseppi
Produced by	Kelly Cooney Cilella
Starring	Lana Condor Toni Collette Annie Murphy Colman Domingo Jane Fonda
Cinematography	Jon Gutman
Edited by	Michelle Mendenhall
Music by	Stephanie Economou
Production company	DreamWorks Animation
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	June 15, 2023 (2023-06-15) (Annecy) June 30, 2023 (2023-06-30) (United States)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$70 million
Box office	$46.1 million

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is a 2023 American animated teen comedy film directed by Kirk DeMicco and written by the writing team of Brian C. Brown & Elliott DiGuiseppi and Pam Brady. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures, the film 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.

Stephanie Economou composed the film's musical score. It features new songs from Rita Ora, Mimi Webb, The Linda Lindas, mxmtoon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Freya Ridings.

The film had its world premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 15, 2023, and was released in the United States on June 30. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the voice acting, animation and characters but criticized the screenplay. It was a box-office failure, grossing $46 million against a $70 million budget, with projections of an $80 million loss for Universal. Despite this, it was the most watched film on Netflix when it debuted on the streaming service in February 2024.

Plot

In the seaside town of Oceanside, 16-year-old Ruby Gillman lives with her family, trying to fit in with humans despite being krakens. Her mother Agatha forbids her from going to prom because of its location being on a ship in the ocean. At Oceanside High School, Ruby initially refuses, but her friends Margot, Trevin, and Bliss convince her to ask out her crush Connor. Before she can ask, she accidentally knocks Connor into the water. Ruby jumps in and saves him, but Connor believes he was saved by the new girl Chelsea Van Der Zee who tries to befriend Ruby. Ruby notices bioluminescent suction cups on her fingers and hides in the library. She attempts to call Agatha, but decides against it. To her confusion and horror, she transforms into a giant kraken and accidentally destroys the library after being startled by the librarian.

Ruby panics after being spotted by Chelsea and runs to the lighthouse to hide. Agatha notices and chases her, reuniting with her brother Brill along the way, who had been sent to retrieve Ruby by her grandmother after she sensed the Pulse emitted by Ruby’s transformation. Finally catching up with her, Agatha calms the distressed Ruby down and she shrinks down to her normal size. At the house, Arthur, Ruby's father, and Sam, Ruby's little brother, discover Ruby's transformation. Agatha explains how Ruby’s earlier mishap triggered the transformation and that she also turns into a giant kraken.

Angered that Agatha withheld the truth from her, Ruby sneaks out to meet her grandmother, the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas, with a reluctant Brill's help. Grandmamah reveals to Ruby that she is a princess and next in line to take the throne, to her shock. She also explains that outside the leviathans and the Umibōzu, the mermaids are actually the most malevolent creatures in the seas and how Nerissa found a powerful trident called The Trident of Oceanus to rule the ocean. Agatha, the greatest Kraken warrior, trapped them for all eternity. Ruby declines the throne, but is thankful to have finally learned the truth. On her way home, she is attacked and almost killed by an elderly sailor and Oceanside tour guide, Gordon Lighthouse. Chelsea, who reveals she is a mermaid, saves and helps Ruby escape, much to Gordon's disappointment.

Ruby tries to return to her normal life, but footage of her in her Kraken form becomes viral. She has a "Super Sea Girl Ditch Day" with Chelsea, who tells her that her mother, the mermaid Queen Nerissa, was supposedly killed trying to retrieve the Trident. She asks Ruby to get it to help unite the Krakens and Mermaids, so Ruby trains with Grandmamah to be powerful enough to get it.

On prom night, Ruby tells her mother about Chelsea, but Agatha, disappointed and outraged that Ruby made friends with a mermaid, forbids her from seeing her grandmother, leading to a frustrated Ruby running back to the ocean to grab the Trident for Chelsea while Agatha confronts Grandmamah, with the latter stating Nerissa never had a daughter and the former realizing Chelsea is not who she says she is. Ruby succeeds in retrieving it but is betrayed by Chelsea, who reveals that she is Nerissa and uses Ruby to help her reclaim the trident to exact her revenge on the Krakens. Nerissa sheds her disguise and traps Ruby before going to destroy Oceanside. Agatha and Grandmamah try to fight her off while Brill finds a demoralized and wounded Ruby. After he encourages her, she goes to the surface to stop Nerissa. Nerissa overpowers Grandmamah and Agatha but is confronted by Ruby, who engages her in a duel over the trident, revealing her secret to her friends and Connor.

Nerissa gains the upper hand, but Ruby disarms her, realizing that the Trident can be destroyed with enough power. Ruby attempts to reason with Nerissa to no avail, so she, Agatha and Grandmamah combine their laser eyes to destroy the trident, defeating Nerissa and shrinking her to her normal size, where Gordon cages her. Ruby reconciles with her mother, reunites with her friends, and asks Connor out to prom, which he accepts, while Agatha and Grandmamah also reconcile.

Sometime later, everyone returns to their normal lives. The Gillmans become more popular and successful than before. Ruby and Connor become a couple and she becomes the protector of Oceanside. Ruby then enters the sea upon being informed by Brill that a Devil Whale is heading towards the Kraken Kingdom.

Voice cast

• Lana Condor as Ruby Gillman, a 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 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 Queen Nerissa, the evil queen of the mermaids with a vendetta against the Gillman family who poses as Chelsea Van Der Zee, the snobbish, popular new girl at Oceanside High.
• Colman Domingo as Arthur Gillman, a male kraken who is 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 one of 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.

Additionally, Echo Kellum and Nicole Byer respectively voice Doug and Janice, Internet personalities Preston and Bri Arsement portray a home buyer and a tourist respectively, web film commentator and newcomer Juju Green voices a gym teacher, father and daughter webstars Salish and Jordan Matter portray a kraken kid and the school principal respectively, sound designer Randy Thom voices the Gillman family's pet sea creature Nessie and a confetti cannon, Spirit Untamed producer Karen Foster voices the school librarian, newcomer Atticus Shaindlin voices Topher, folk musician-songwriter Suzanne Buirgy voices Carol, and vlogger/podcaster Emma Chamberlain voices a reporter.

Assorted students are voiced by Sydney Bell, Ricardo Hurtado, Qalil Ishmail, Merk Nguyen, Caleb Pierce, and Tiffany Wu.

Production

Development

The film's original title.

In 2016, screenwriters Brian C Brown & Elliott DiGuiseppi pitched the story of a family of sea monsters living on land in plain sight to many major studios and producers, including Brad Grey at Paramount Pictures, Nancy Utley at Fox Searchlight Pictures, Kim Zubick of Zubick Films, Ivan Reitman of The Montecito Picture Company, Wyck Godfrey of Temple Hill Entertainment, Julie Yorn, and Todd Garner of Broken Road, but was rejected by all of them. Eventually, they pitched it 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 of 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 people that worked on Trolls World Tour into first time leadership roles during the production, and even brought in some talent from Dreamworks's TV division for this film.

Cooney Cilella wanted to bring the film in a whole new direction, so after Tibbit step down from his role as director, Cooney Cilella contacted Academy Award nominee Kirk DeMicco, who had recently made Vivo to be director with Pearl being promoted as co-director.

Additional material for the film's screenplay was done by Baby Mama writer/director Michael McCullers, Meghan Malloy, and the film’s co-directors themselves.

Animation and design

Character designers Timothy Lamb & Guillermo "Willie" Real designed hundreds of different design iterations of Ruby and her family, eventually leading to the final look modeled by Charles Ellison, with additional tweaks by modeler Hannah Kang, supervisor Megan Lea Walker, and surface artists, Andy Harbeck and Rachael Yang.

Additional characters were designed by Craig Kellman, Annie Award winning character designer of The Bad Guys Taylor Krahenbahl, Julien Le Rolland and many others.

One challenge was the design of the hair for the film's villain Nerissa. The VFX department headed by Lawrence Lee created a Fluid Implicit Particle (FLIP) simulation which was used to simulate the character's interaction with the surrounding ocean. With an additional level set fillet generation technique was used to blend the ocean mesh with the water hair geometry.

Two mixed-media sequences for the film were designed and animated by Richard Ramazinski using an animation style called Katie-Vision.

A total of 892 people including 412 artists were involved in the production of the film.

DreamWorks Animation Glendale animated the film, and Skywalker Sound was responsible for sound mixing and editing.

Casting

To make this film different from previous DreamWorks films, the directors wanted to have rising internet celebrities to voice some of the minor characters, rather than having crew members from the studio voicing them.

Music

Main article: Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (soundtrack)

To find the right composer who can fit Ruby’s teenage life, the producer and directors decide to go with a whole new sound in score than the very traditional orchestra score in most animated films. In the summer of 2022, Long Island native composer Stephanie Economou was given the script for the film, she had a meeting with the filmmakers to give her freedom to write the score her way and signed on as the official composer for the film, which is Economou’s first animated feature film she’d ever scored. While she was reading the script, she had heard sounds of Dream Pop and Synth Pop that became the basis for the score.

Economou’s influences while making the score for the film are Beach House, Slowdive, M83, Jaguar Sun, Cocteau Twins, and The Cure, For the first theme suite she wrote for the film, which was Ruby’s Theme, she wanted a melody that was going to reflect her life as an ordinary teenager. She played around finding a theme for her, and found something that was quite lyrical and heroic. Economou also experimented between styles and genres of music for the score. and for Chelsea, she used a poppy and more peppy sound that is a Pharrel type pop, like Missy Elliott. She also used world instruments like didgeridoo and vocals and conch shells, to bring in something new in film score.

Economou came up with Synth-Pop sound while Ruby’s on land, and a dream pop sound while Ruby’s in the ocean, with a little bit of Indie Pop in between. Which makes the story feels like a late 90’s-early 2000s teen film where it was ordinary teenage life, with more guitars and synths, including a rubber bridge guitar.

Economou also brought in Ari Mason, in order to create a kraken language choir. which was in Scandinavian folklore. Inspired from old Norse syllables and invented syllables.

Economou also brought in musicians with instruments that have been rare in film score, which includes a omnichord, Ocarina, Conch shells, a electro acoustic harp and a Bohemian crystal instrument.

For the score, anything that was not orchestral Economou recorded as she is writing the music. For six months, she remotely recorded those sessions with the soloists.

While the orchestra score is recorded for 6 days at Abbey Road Studios in London, England, with the Directors, producer, co-producer, their assistant, and the story & editorial supervisor see the process firsthand. Economou also conducted her own score with the orchestra during the sessions.

British singer-songwriter Mimi Webb performed the original song "This Moment", released on June 23 as a single, a week before the film's release. The song was a last minute addition after using a tempt song As It Was by Harry Styles in a particular scene in the film, where it was replaced by This Moment, which was written by DallasK, Lauv, Jacob Kasher and Amanda “Kiddo AI” Ibanez, and was originally going to be performed by Lauv, but he passed on it and it was given to Webb. The soundtrack album was released on June 30, 2023, the same day as the theatrical release, in addition to the original song "Rise" performed by Freya Ridings, which plays during the end credits, She first performed the song live 3 days earlier at Dreamworks’s Glendale campus.

Songs

To give the film to have teenage angst, the producer Cooney Cilella, wanted actual songs for the film influenced from teen comedies from the 90s and early 2000s, which have songs that give these films personality, and to do that, she brought in music editor Sherri Ozeki. during production, songs by Blondie, Rocket from the Crypt, Meg & Dia, Leona Naess, VersaEmerge, Katy Rose, Verbena, Harry Styles, 10,000 Maniacs, Holly McNarland, Paramore, Liz Phair, Jimmy Eat World, and others were used for scenes that eventually never made it to the finished film.

In the end Music Supervisor Natalie Hayden created a playlist that eventually became the right songs to used for the film with 17 total songs heard in the film. Which features new songs by Rita Ora, Mimi Webb, Freya Ridings, The Linda Lindas, mxmtoon, Raye, Sigrid, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The song Pink Venom was used in the film because some of the people that worked at Dreamworks are also Blackpink fans. Christopher Cross’s classic hit Ride Like The Wind was used in the film after it was suggested from Cooney Ciella’s husband, who is a yacht rock fan.

Release

Theatrical

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken debuted at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 15, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 30. The film was screened early on June 19, 2023, at various Regal Cinemas theaters as part of the chain's "Monday Mystery Movie" promotion.

In December 2022, Deputy Manager Director of Universal Pictures International Italy Massimo Proietti revealed that the film would be released in mid-2023. On March 16, 2023, following the release of the first trailer, it was revealed that the film would be released on June 30, 2023, taking over the original release date of Illumination's Migration.

Home media

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken was released on Digital HD on July 18, 2023, 18 days after its theatrical release. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 26, 2023.

The film was released on NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service on October 20, 2023, and streamed on the service for four months as part of their 18-month deal with Netflix. The film moved to Netflix on February 20, 2024, becoming the most watched movie on the platform, having topped the chart for three days, and three weeks in the top 10 chart. It was seen by over 12.3 million viewers. The film is expected to return to Peacock in December 2024.

Reception

Box office

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken grossed $15.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $30.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $46.1 million. With projections of an $80 million loss for Universal Pictures, the film is the second-lowest-grossing film from DreamWorks Animation, and was considered a box-office failure.

In the United States and Canada, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken was released alongside Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The film made $2.3 million on its first day, including $725,000 from Thursday night previews. The film debuted with $5.5 million, becoming DreamWorks Animation's lowest-grossing opening weekend of any of their feature films to date. The film's sixth-place finish also made it the studio's lowest-ranking three-day opening weekend, tying Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas from 2003. Several publications attributed the reasons for its low opening to the film's limited three-month marketing, unclear target age group, an original film not based on an existing IP, its title, the trailers, and competition from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Elemental.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 65% of 98 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is littered with too much flotsam and jetsam from better animated features to stand as a true original, but its inherent sweetness and lively style make for likable enough family entertainment." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 50 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 68% of filmgoers gave it a positive score.

Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a positive review, writing, "South Park veteran Pam Brady, who shares screenwriting credit with Brian C. Brown and Elliott DiGuiseppi, brings all kinds of funny ideas to the film, which DeMicco does an admirable job of executing. But there's a simpler, more sincere movie underneath it all that seems to be taunting audiences, like a glowing shape from deep below." Tara McNamara of Common Sense Media gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, writing: "A parenting gold mine, this literal fish out of water story is completely entertaining and enjoyable for all ages, with plenty of positive messages. The message to kids can be applied in a variety of ways: "shine your light"." Kate Erbland of IndieWire gave the film a C+, and wrote in her review, "Kids are always in need of gracious tales about the power of being yourself in a world not necessarily built to embrace differences and stories like "Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken" can do that, with fun to spare. But why not get more splashy?"

Other critics felt that the storyline was underdeveloped and that the film failed to live up to its potential. Rachel LeBonte of Screen Rant rates it 2.5 out of 5 stars, calling the film "endearing" and praising the voice cast, but saying that it may have trouble making an impression with so many other options. She wrote, "That is Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken's biggest flaw: It doesn't go beyond surface-level. As Ruby gets more involved with the ocean and her burgeoning friendship with fellow sea creature Chelsea, her ties to the human world fall away, lessening the overall impact of her arc." Leigh Paatsch of Herald Sun awarded the film 1.5 out of 5 stars, writing, "Visually, the movie becomes more of an eyesore as it slithers along, while the story mashes up some confusing marine mythology with contemporary plotting points seen to better effect in Pixar's recent release Turning Red." James Berardinelli, film critic for ReelViews, awarded the film 2 out of 4, stars writing, "Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is one of the most inconsequential big-screen cartoons to reach theaters this year."

Alonso Duralde of The Film Verdict gave the film a negative review, writing, "Plays like the result of feeding the screenplays of recent Pixar titles Luca and Turning Red into ChatGPT and then animating the results. Unfortunately, this new coming-of-age tale doesn't come anywhere near the depth or delight of its predecessors." Greg Nussen of Slant Magazine awarded the film 2 out of 4 stars, writing, "Sweet but narratively thin and didactic, the latest from DreamWorks Animation always seems as if it's trying to find its footing." Robert Kojder of Flickering Myth gave the film a negative review, writing "Even though the voiceover performances and some character relationship dynamics are serviceable, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken drowns itself in flat animation, questionable plot choices, and too many ideas."

Accolades

Accolades received by Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
Hollywood Music in Media Awards	November 15, 2023	Best Original Score in an Animated Film	Stephanie Economou	Nominated
Annie Awards	February 17, 2024	Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in an Animated Feature Production	Prashanth Cavale	Nominated

Further reading

• Morris, Iain (2023). The Art Of Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken. New York: Abrams. ISBN 978-1419770203.

External links

• Quotations related to Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken at Wikiquote
• Media related to Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website
• Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken at IMDb