Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Ruby Gillman – Teenage Kraken review says the film embraces the delightfully twisted and original concept that krakens are good and mermaids are bad. It swims against the current of conventionality, and is all the better for it.

Ruby (Lana Condor, from the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before franchise) is a matheletic teenager desperately trying to fit in at Oceanside High, without letting her fellow students know that she comes from a long line of krakens. These are not the violent and vicious Pirates of the Caribbean krakens, but undersea warriors who are charged with protecting the sea…

…especially from those evil, witchy mermaids. But Ruby doesn’t find out about her unusual heritage or her regal place within the kraken realm, until she breaks her mother’s (Toni Colette) rule to never go in the water. Her boy crush was drowning, what choice did she have? Once emerged, genetics start to take over.

She is not half as excited as viewers are to find out that her grandmother (Jane Fonda) is the queen kraken, and Ruby is her successor. There’s a subtle message of female empowerment  here. Girls rule the seven seas and are not the docile subjects of a benevolent king or his witchy nemesises, as they are in some underwater adventures we’ve seen of late.

Nor does Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken try to hammer home the annoying, ubiquitous, and wildly erroneous message that “You can be anything you want to be if you just try!”

Swim as hard as you like, young guppies, you are never going to be a mermaid. I learned a long time ago that try as hard as you may, you will never succeed, but could possibly get arrested, for attempting to realize your dream of becoming Mrs. George Clooney.

But I digress. Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken should be celebrated for what it is, not for what it isn’t. Signature DreamWorks Animation’s visuals are gorgeous and imaginative, not to mention just plain fun. The krakens in all their glory look like a cross between disco queens and Mayan goddesses. How fun is that? I predict a lot of kraken Halloween costumes in our future.

And I also predict a lot of fun for the whole family at the cineplex for those who go to see Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. I invited giant white labradoodle therapy dog Frankie Feldman’s homeroom teacher and her three daughters to see it with me, and they were all enchanted.

Their takeaway message? “Don’t be afraid to be yourself.” Now that message holds water.

Rated PG

1 Hour 30 Minutes

If this Ruby Gillman – Teenage Kraken review encourages you and the kids to swim over to your local cineplex, find times and tickets at Fandango.com.

Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Ruby Gillman – Teenage Kraken review says the film embraces the delightfully twisted and original concept that krakens are good and mermaids are bad. It swims against the current of conventionality, and is all the better for it.