Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

There are, of course, only so many stories to be told in the world. But it's rather unfortunate for Ruby Gillman that she shows up at cinemas less than 18 months after the far superior Turning Red was banished directly to Disney+ rather than getting a fair shot in the spotlight.

Teenager Gillman is likeable enough with her trio of buddies and problems with her mum - who is forbidding her to go to prom because it’s being held on a boat and she’s not allowed anywhere near the sea. Ruby knows she’s pretending to be a human, but it turns out she doesn’t know the half of it. The problem is, Turning Red’s heroine Meilin had a very similar set of circumstances and trajectory but her tale was much more cohesive, both in terms of straightforward storytelling and its emotional arc. Is it fair to start a review by saying, if you want to see a teenager turn into a monster who isn’t really a monster and work stuff out with her mum and gran this should not be your first choice? Probably not, but call me the class bully because here we are.

With that out of the way, Ruby (voiced by Lana Condor) is not without her merits. She’s a personable teenager with the sort of peppy hopefulness that should appeal to young audiences. She’s planning to go to that prom anyway, if she can just summon up the courage to ask her crush Connor (Jaboukie Young-White) to go with her. But when the prom proposal goes amok, both of them end up in the water and Ruby discovers, in a manner that recalls sweet-natured Luca, that she’s not just a run of the mill sea creature but a giant kraken.

This sets the stage for conflict with mum (Toni Colette), encounters with her “grandmamah” (Jane Fonda, having a ton of fun) and a surprising friendship with a mermaid (Annie Murphy), who adult viewers, at least, may find a tad suspicious. There’s an enjoyable verve to the animation from Kirk DeMicco, Faryn Pearl but everything feels disjointed. Under the sea there’s a sort of Trolls-like irreverence at work, as Ruby tries some of the kraken powers on for size. Back on land, however, the story seems less wedded to adventure and more concerned with fitting in and being who you are.

While the undersea segments are visually impressive, they feel almost like extended pop videos in places, when the real meat of the story lies, as it so often does in animations aimed at children, in the heart of family and friends. Things happen rather than develop, meaning this is more likely to appeal to younger children rather than older ones who might prefer more emotional heft. It’s a small point but they should also have passed the script by an international reader, having a gag rely on something like “escrow” is just one of the very American jokes here that are destined to sink rather than swim with an international audience.