Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

"Leaked home media key art"

### Premiere date

June 15, 2023 (world premiere, France), June 24, 2023 (premiere, Poland), June 25, 2023 (avant-premiere, France), June 30, 2023 (United States)

### Rating

PG (some action, rude humor and thematic elements)

### Written by

Pam Brady, Brian C Brown & Elliott Diguiseppi

### Produced by

Kelly Cooney Cilella

**Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken** is an American computer-animated coming-of-age film produced by DreamWorks Animation. It is directed by Kirk DeMicco and co-directed by Faryn Pearl, and stars the voices of Lana Condor, Jaboukie Young-White, Toni Collette, Jane Fonda, Annie Murphy, Colman Domingo and Blue Chapman. It was theatrically released by Universal Pictures throughout June 30, 2023.

## Plot

Ruby Gillman lives with her family in the seaside town of Oceanside. Her mother, Agatha, forbids her from going to prom because it's on a ship in the ocean. At school, she originally decides not to go, but her friends convince her to ask out her crush, Connor. Before she can ask, Connor falls into the water. Ruby jumps in and saves him. However, she starts to become giant as a result of her touching salt water. Her mother finds out and chases her, reuniting with her brother, Brill, along the way. They calm her down and she shrinks down to her normal size.

Angry that her mom never told her about what she was capable of, she runs away to meet her grandmother with Brill's help. Her grandmother tells her that she is a princess and next in line to take the throne. Then, her grandmother also tells Ruby about mermaids and how her mother trapped them for all eternity. Ruby denies the throne, but is thankful to have finally met her grandmother. But on her way home, she is trapped by Gordon Lighthouse who almost kills her. However, Chelsea, the new girl in school, reveals herself to be a mermaid, saves her and helps her escape.

On prom night, Ruby goes to tell her mother about Chelsea. However, when she hears that Ruby made friends with a mermaid, she forbids her from seeing her grandmother. Ruby runs away to grab the trident for Chelsea. However, when she is able to retrieve it, Chelsea reveals her true colors, grows bigger, and traps Ruby before going to destroy the town. Ruby's mother and grandmother try to fight her off, while Brill finds Ruby sulking. After he gives her some words of encouragement, she goes to the surface to stop Chelsea.

Realizing that the trident can be destroyed with enough power, Ruby, her mother, and her grandmother use their laser eyes to destroy the trident together, defeating Chelsea and shrinking her down to her normal size, where she is stepped on by Ruby then captured by Gordon. She reconciles with her friends and asks Connor out to prom, to which he accepts. Sometime later, everyone goes back to their normal lives, with Ruby and Connor becoming a couple as she becomes the protector of Oceanside.

## Cast

* Lana Condor as Ruby Gillman
* Toni Collette as Agatha Gillman
* Annie Murphy as Chelsea Van Der Zee
* Sam Richardson as Brill
* Liza Koshy as Margot
* Will Forte as Gordon Lighthouse
* Colman Domingo as Arthur Gillman
* Jaboukie Young-White as Connor
* Blue Chapman as Sam Gillman
* Eduardo Franco as Trevin
* Ramona Young as Bliss
* Jane Fonda as Grandmamah
* Robin Williams as Kevin
* Gilbert Gottfried as Jason
* Randy Thom (voice design) as Nessie, a sea dog and the Gillmans' family pet.
* Echo Kellum as Doug
* Nicole Byer as Janice

Additionally, the Arsement couple voice a home buyer and tourist and Karen Foster voices the school librarian.

## Production

*Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken* was first pitched to the studio DreamWorks Animation about a family of sea monsters that were moved to the land and are hiding in plain sight. According to Kirk DeMicco, he cited John Hughes films, *Easy A* (2010), *Ladybird* (2017), and *Booksmart* (2019) as his inspirations. In June 2021, *TheGWW unofficially* reported that ***Meet the Gillmans*** was in production at DreamWorks Animation, with casting taking place and an expected release year of 2022. Paul Tibbitt, the director of *The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water* (2015), was confirmed as the director. Pam Brady was confirmed to write the film, despite the fact that she created a similar concept to Dreamworks back in 2010 called Neighbors From Hell (which is about a family of demons), which lasted one season on TBS. Lana Condor, Laura Dern, and Michael Sheen, among others, were circled for the roles of Ruby, her mother, and her father, respectively, while Annie Murphy was attached to play the role of Clarica (Chelsea). Chris Kuser and Christi Soper will serve as executive producers. Production was also expected to start in 2022. In October 2022, the film's title was secretly changed to *Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken*.
On March 16, 2023, the film, cast, and crew were publicly announced. Along with Condor and Murphy's roles confirmed new cast members of the film include Toni Collette, Sam Richardson, Liza Koshy, Will Forte, Colman Domingo, Jaboukie Young-White, Blue Chapman, Eduardo Franco, Ramona Young, Echo Kellum, Nicole Byer, and Jane Fonda, while Kirk DeMicco, Faryn Pearl, and Kelly Cooney Cilella were revealed as the director, co-director, and producer respectively.

### Music

On March 16, 2023, following the release of the official trailer, Stephanie Economou was confirmed to score *Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken*.

## Videos

RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN - Official TrailerOfficial TrailerRUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN - New TrailerOfficial Trailer 2Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken - Mermaid PSAMermaid PSA
## Release

The film was originally planned to be released in 2022, it was later moved to 2023 until it obtained its release date of June 30, taking Illumination's *Migration*.

In all theatrical showings, the US version of the film is accompanied by the Super Mario Bros. Movie short film titled *Game Over and Over* and the UK version is accompanied by a Despicable Me short film titled *Mooned*.

## Reception

### Box office

In the United States and Canada, *Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken* will be released alongside *Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny*, and is projected to gross $4–8 million in its opening weekend.

### Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of 18 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 60 out of 100, based on four critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

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. If you buy the notion that krakens shrink down to human scale — and that none-too-bright people might be daft enough not to spot them — then the high school scenes are charming. Ruby's a big nerd with a head for quadratic equations, and she's having trouble working up the nerve to ask her study buddy to prom (it's pretty clear he feels the same way about her). Not that overprotective Agatha would let her attend anyway."

## Trivia

* This will be the first DreamWorks Animation film to be authored in ACES (Academy Color Encoding System) as well as HDR (High Dynamic Range) for a completely unique viewing experience that takes full advantage of the medium.
* The film was originally planned for a REALD (3D) release but has been scrapped.
* This is Pam Brady’s Second collaboration with Dreamworks since Neighbors From Hell.
* The film was originally planned to be directed by Paul Tibbit but had been replaced.
* The last name "Gillman" was inspired by The Gillman from *Creature from the Black Lagoon*.
* This will be the first original film from the DreamWorks Animations since *Abominable*.

## References

1. ↑ Zahed, Ramin (March 16, 2023). Trailer Premiere: Director Kirk DeMicco and Producer Kelly Cooney Cilella Give Us the Scoop on DreamWorks' *Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken*.
2. ↑ aj.pennington (2021-06-16). EXCLUSIVE: Dreamworks Animation Sets 'Meet The Gillmans' For 2022 (en-US).
3. ↑ Campbell, Jacob (2021-06-16). DreamWorks Eyeing Laura Dern & Lana Condor For 'Meet The Gillmans' (en-us).
4. ↑ Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken on Facebook (en).
5. ↑ teenagekrakenmovie.com whois lookup - who.is.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Template:Cite news
7. ↑ Stephanie Economou Scoring DreamWorks Animation's *Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken* (March 16, 2023).
8. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (June 27, 2023). ‘Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny’ To Whip Up $140M+ Global Opening – Box Office Preview (en-US).
9. ↑ Fuster, Jeremy (June 27, 2023). ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Won’t Reverse Disney’s Recent Box Office Woes (en-US).
10. ↑ Peter Debruge (June 15, 2023). 'Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken' Review: DreamWorks Wrestles With How to Train Its Kraken Concept. *Variety*.