“Mixed Animated Fantasy Fare”
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What You Need To Know:
RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN is fun overall, but the plot is lackluster until halfway through the movie. Ruby is a typical, relatable teenager who feels out of place. However, when she becomes a kraken, viewers may not feel as connected to her. RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN has a positive moral worldview stressing motherhood and restoring family, but there is some teenage rebellion and two references to a girl asking another girl to the prom. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.
Content:
Light moral worldview with some redemptive elements about family, motherhood and the sacrifice that mothers do for their children, but there are some Romantic elements where the title teenage character is rebellious, her mother doesn’t tell her child the truth and has a bad relationship with her own mother (this is resolved toward the end but there’s not much of a plot until halfway into the movie), and there are some other Romantic elements of following your heart and doing what you want against your parents’ orders, marred by two references to a girl asking another girl to the prom, but this isn’t shown later in any prom scenes, plus there is a trident with magical powers in the story;
No foul language;
Light cartoon violence where characters fight under water, characters fall from great heights, character destroys multiple buildings, characters fight in large fight, and both are in jeopardy
No sex scenes or depicted sexual immorality, but there are two mentions of a girl asking another girl to prom, but this is not ultimately shown later in any prom scenes;
No nudity;
No alcohol use;
No smoking or drugs; and,
Lying, deceit and talking back to parents, but these issues are resolved in the end.
More Detail:
Ruby is a teenager who has always found herself out of place, because she’s a kraken living in a human world. Ruby comes from a line of royal female sea creatures who can grow huge, to protect the ocean from power-hungry mermaids. Ruby’s mother and father, who love each other deeply, have decided to live on land with their family, rather than in the water as a kraken. This means that Ruby can’t be in the water and can’t attend her prom because it will be held on a boat in the water. Ruby goes to school and tells her friends the sad news she can’t go to the prom. However, she decides to go anyway and not tell her parents. She will also ask the boy she likes to go with her to the prom.
When Ruby asks Connor to attend the prom with her, he accidentally falls over the edge of the ocean pier into the water. Ruby jumps into the water to get him. However, she turns into a huge kraken and sends a signal into the water. Ruby saves Connor, but also becomes so huge that she accidently destroys the school library. She’s totally thrown off when this happens because her mother never told Ruby this would happen if she went into the water.
Not long afterwards, Ruby returns to her smaller size, but the signal her body sent into the water notifies her Uncle Brill. He comes to visit and tells Ruby about her grandmother and leads her to her. Her grandmother, Grandmamah, turns out to be a queen of the krakens. This means that Ruby is a princess. Ruby is overwhelmed by this information and must decide to either stay on land or stay with her Grandmamah.
When going back toward land, Ruby sees a classmate, Margot, in the sea and discovers Margot is actually a mermaid. The mermaids and the krakens have been in a war for years, but Margot believes the mermaids and the krakens can be friends again if Ruby finds a trident with magical power that can unite the two groups.
Can Ruby restore the relationship between the krakens and the mermaids and end the war? Can she restore the relationship she has with her own mother, who didn’t tell her about all these things from the past?
RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN is a fun animated movie overall, but it doesn’t have a strong, cohesive plot until 45 minutes or so into the story, halfway through the movie. The story in RUBY GILLMAN has some relatable concepts when Ruby is shown as a teenager who goes to school and feels out of place. However, when she becomes a kraken, viewers may not feel as connected to her character.
RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN has some moral elements stressing motherhood and family, but it also has some cautionary elements. Ruby discovers her mother just wants to protect and take care of her family, which is promotion of motherhood. However, Ruby’s mother has a bad relationship with her own mother, though this relationship is restored in the end. Also, the mother hides a lot of information from Ruby and isn’t open with her about the past and about what exactly being a kraken means, though she learns she was wrong. Ruby herself decides to rebel against her mother, just as her mother rebelled against her own mother. This gets resolved by the end of the movie, but rebellion is the leading conflict. Finally, there are also two mentions of a girl asking another girl to go to the prom, but there aren’t any prom scenes depicting this.
All in all, therefore, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children for RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN.
