SNAPSHOT
Sweet, awkward 16-year-old Ruby Gillman (Lana Condor) is desperate to fit in at Oceanside High, but she mostly just feels invisible. She’s math-tutoring her skater-boy crush (Jaboukie Young-White), who only seems to admire her for her fractals, and she’s prevented from hanging out with the cool kids at the beach because her over-protective supermom (Toni Collette), has forbade Ruby from ever getting in the water. But when she breaks her mom’s #1 rule, Ruby will discover that she is a direct descendant of the warrior Kraken queens and is destined to inherit the throne from her commanding grandmother (Jane Fonda), the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas. The Kraken are sworn to protect the oceans of the world against the vain, power-hungry mermaids who have been battling with the Kraken for eons. There’s one major, and immediate, problem with that: The school’s beautiful, popular new girl, Chelsea (Annie Murphy) happens to be a mermaid. Ruby will ultimately need to embrace who she is and go big to protect those she loves…DreamWorks Anim’s Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is directed by American filmmaker Kirk DeMicco, director of the animated films Space Chimps, The Croods, and Vivo previously … Produced by Kelly Cooney Cilella (Trolls World Tour, Trolls), with Faryn Pearl (The Croods: A New Age, Trolls World Tour) serving as co-director. (courtesy First Showing)
This looks delightful!
And, I must stress it’s not just because I shared a surname with the titular character, although obviously that did make instantly love her, and by extension, the animated feature in which stars.
I also love it because it looks like it has heart and humour in appealingly equal measure, which makes it perfect for me to take my animation-loving nieces and nephews along to see.
Quality guncle time is always a good thing but it’s even better when the movie we’re watching has great things to say and really imaginative ways to say it and I can’t wait to see this promising slice of what I hope will be animation gold.
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken releases 23 June in USA and 14 September in Australia.