Okay, first things first: I saw this with my eight-year-old daughter. She beamed all the way through, and when I asked her what she thought of it, she made her hands into the shape of a heart and said it was "amazing." She is the target audience, so her opinion holds more water than mine.
Anyway, 'Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken' is a fun little animated flick that doesn't measure up to its potential. On the one hand, it's a sympathetic look at the difficulties of being a teenage girl and there's a lot of emphasis on the mother/daughte relationship. In that sense, it's a bit like a wetter version of 'Turning Red.' On the other hand, it's an inverted telling of the Kraken myth that reimagines the tentacled giants as saviours rather than monsters and essentially inverts the story of 'The Little Mermaid.' In that respect, it's reminiscent of the fairy-tale dismantling of 'Shrek.'
Sadly, 'Ruby Gillman' isn't as good as 'Shrek' or 'Turning Red.' It doesn't skewer its target as brutally as the beloved green Ogre did in his first two films, nor does it reach the depths or poignancy of Mei and her mother.
What it does manage though is to be a perfectly light-hearted and entertaining way to spend a weekend afternoon. Lana Condor's lead performance makes Ruby into an effortlessly likeable lead, and it does raise a couple of decent laughs. There's a running joke about how none of the townspeople realise that Ruby and her family, all of whom are blue-skinned and have fins instead of ears, aren't human and simply accept the excuse that "they're Canadian." Plus, the climactic setpiece where a prom night boat party is interrupted by a Kaiju battle is pretty decent. It's also a feast for the eyes and is a colourful, lively film where there's something to engage your optic nerves on every shot.
It does feel a bit like 'Ruby Gillman' is Dreamworks playing it safe and making a run of the mill kids flick. This is especially noticeable in that one character, who is clearly modelled after a certain red-headed Disney Princess, isn't as bitchy, shallow or malevolent as you might hope. Taken on its own terms though, it's a fun and lively ninety minutes that's full of eye candy. And the eight-year-old film critic sat next to me loved every second.
Anyway, 'Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken' is a fun little animated flick that doesn't measure up to its potential. On the one hand, it's a sympathetic look at the difficulties of being a teenage girl and there's a lot of emphasis on the mother/daughte relationship. In that sense, it's a bit like a wetter version of 'Turning Red.' On the other hand, it's an inverted telling of the Kraken myth that reimagines the tentacled giants as saviours rather than monsters and essentially inverts the story of 'The Little Mermaid.' In that respect, it's reminiscent of the fairy-tale dismantling of 'Shrek.'
Sadly, 'Ruby Gillman' isn't as good as 'Shrek' or 'Turning Red.' It doesn't skewer its target as brutally as the beloved green Ogre did in his first two films, nor does it reach the depths or poignancy of Mei and her mother.
What it does manage though is to be a perfectly light-hearted and entertaining way to spend a weekend afternoon. Lana Condor's lead performance makes Ruby into an effortlessly likeable lead, and it does raise a couple of decent laughs. There's a running joke about how none of the townspeople realise that Ruby and her family, all of whom are blue-skinned and have fins instead of ears, aren't human and simply accept the excuse that "they're Canadian." Plus, the climactic setpiece where a prom night boat party is interrupted by a Kaiju battle is pretty decent. It's also a feast for the eyes and is a colourful, lively film where there's something to engage your optic nerves on every shot.
It does feel a bit like 'Ruby Gillman' is Dreamworks playing it safe and making a run of the mill kids flick. This is especially noticeable in that one character, who is clearly modelled after a certain red-headed Disney Princess, isn't as bitchy, shallow or malevolent as you might hope. Taken on its own terms though, it's a fun and lively ninety minutes that's full of eye candy. And the eight-year-old film critic sat next to me loved every second.