‘Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken’ Review: Coming of Age is a Sea Change

The protagonist of the clunkily named “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken,” a DreamWorks manufacturing directed by Kirk DeMicco, is a headstrong excessive schooler with a secret: She and her household are aquatic animals passing as people. Desperate to suit into the social scene in her seaside city, Ruby (voiced by Lana Condor) dutifully retains up the ruse, however gripes about her mother and father’ cardinal rule towards going within the ocean.

One day, the teenager tumbles into the waves and realizes their motive: Upon submergence, Ruby, like her mom (Toni Collette) and grandmother (Jane Fonda) earlier than her, metamorphoses right into a colossal tentacled sea creature. This system — conspicuously just like the one in Pixar’s “Turning Red” — could be sufficient to motor a film. “I’m a monster,” Ruby exclaims after a damaging mishap on terra firma, sending the needle on the viewer’s gauge for puberty metaphors flying into the crimson.

But on this chaotic, family-friendly affair, a lone figurative picture amid teenage drama won’t do. Ruby quickly ditches the shore, and her stresses develop to contain conniving mermaids, a salty, peg-legged seaman (Will Forte) and a magic trident tucked inside a submarine volcano. Not even the matriarchal hyperlink on the story’s middle feels satisfying, its good intention strangled by the plotty chaos.

Some evocative visible element helps unify Ruby’s unruly world. The architectural design in her coastal hamlet is a thought-about hybrid of midcentury trendy and nautical kitsch, and characters’ facial expressions are richly emotive. Underwater aesthetics are sadly sparer, accentuating the fluorescent marine fauna. Lurid neon blobs, like superstar voice actors, appear a prerequisite for animated adventures today.

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken
Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour half-hour. In theaters.