After a successful 2022, Dreamworks Animation is back in theatres with its latest film,
Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken. In the battle between mermaids and kraken,
who is truly heroic, who’s secretly a villain, and who lies somewhere in-between?
I’m Kyle with WickedBinge, and this is Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken: Good to Evil.
Obviously, major spoilers ahead for the film. As always, we’re going to start
with our most noble characters before working our way down. These characters are The Good.
Beginning with the recipient of our Gold Medal of Good, we have Nessie. Nessie is the Gillman
family pet, a silly-looking sea creature that acts like a typical dog. It’s pretty normal for pets in
animated films to be one of the most pure-hearted characters in them, and Nessie is no exception.
He shows a ton of love to his entire family, especially Ruby - we even see him comforting
her when she’s really upset. He also actively goes out of his way to help his family - like
pretending to be a sleeping Ruby when her mother checks up on her, or playing the role of an
attacking kraken baby in the plan to distract Captain Gordon from the actual kraken hunt. No
matter which way you slice it, Nessie is very much a good boy and certainly deserves the top spot.
Following him is our Silver Medal of Good recipient, Uncle Brill. When we first meet Brill,
he sort of comes off as that typical ‘goofy’ family member, making us expect that he’s going
to be obnoxious and just get in the way. But while Brill can be a bit dopey and is
certainly used as comedy relief, the guy’s got a good heart. He cares a ton about his sister,
Agatha, and encourages her to try and at least talk to their mother instead of continuing to
hide from her. Brill also helps out with the Captain Gordon distraction plan, and
when it looks like his niece may be in trouble, it’s Brill who encourages Ruby to get back up,
reminding her just how much her mother cares about her. Really, the fact that Brill is never
shown being jealous of the women in his family despite all the power and attention they get
and is instead their biggest cheerleader just shows how big of a heart this goofy uncle has.
For our Bronze Medal of Good, we’re giving it to Arthur Gillman, Ruby’s father. Arthur is a pretty
simple guy, and is certainly a bit more laid back compared to his wife. He spends his days working
at a shop and making ‘Ship-in-a-bottle’ streams, and he’s shown being incredibly proud of his
family. When things start to get stressful between his wife and daughter, it’s Arthur who tries to
keep a cool head and keep his family together. It’s also Arthur who leads the distraction team,
making sure Captain Gordon’s kraken hunt is taken completely off-course in order to protect Ruby.
Although he’s unable to ‘go big’ like the women kraken in his family, Arthur still tries to help
out in the film’s climax too, doing what he can to try and support his wife in the fight against
Chelsea. Much like Brill, Arthur shows that you don’t need to be a mighty warrior to be
a heroic person - you just need to know how to be a good and supportive family member.
Moving over to the human side of things, we have Margot. Of all the kids in Ruby’s friend group,
the dramatic and theatrical Margot seems to be the one that Ruby is closest to. Much like Miriam
in Pixar’s “Turning Red”, Margot is all about being that support for Ruby, encouraging her
to take a chance and live her life - even if it technically means being a bit of a bad influence,
given that she tells Ruby to sneak out to Prom when her mother says she can’t go.
She also helps Ruby with her prom-posal to Connor, giving her advice regarding it. Even
after Ruby begins to ditch Margot and the rest of their friend group to hang out with Chelsea,
Margot doesn’t hesitate to forgive her when Ruby apologizes at Prom, assuring that they’ll always
be there for her and that she doesn’t need to hide anything about herself from them. Really,
the only not-so-great moment with Margot is when, after being asked by another girl in
school to go with her, Margot says that she’s going to go to prom without Ruby. However,
considering just how many water-adjacent events Margot and the other members of the friend squad
had to give up just to keep Ruby company on land, this feels less like a betrayal
and more like a reasonable boundary, one that’s even understandable to Ruby.
Speaking of Ruby Gillman, the so-called ‘normal teen’ turned kraken princess is next on our list.
Although incredibly shy and awkward, Ruby is very spirited and sweet. Her mother, at one point,
tells a story about how a younger Ruby stayed with a beached whale for several hours, keeping him wet
with hose water until the tides came back in. This anecdote, along with the fact that Ruby tutors
students in math in her free time, shows how kind she can be. Ruby is also shown being brave,
both in how she jumps into the water to save a drowning Connor in spite of being afraid,
and in how she tries to do what she can to stop the fighting between mermaids and
kraken. But while Ruby has many good traits that lead her to ultimately being the film’s
hero in the end when she leads the charge in destroying the trident once and for all,
she’s still a teenager. Ruby can be very brash at times, resorting to lying and sneaking out
when she’s feeling frustrated with and betrayed by her mother. She can also be a bit selfish and
single-minded at times, such as when she ditches and ignores her friends to focus on getting the
trident with Chelsea, although this was more accidental than blatant and outright malicious.
Ultimately, these flaws don’t take too much away from the fun teen-turned-ocean-protector
that Ruby ends up being. We also want to add that we feel she easily earns our Lust Medal
through her absolutely huge crush on Connor, being probably the most lovestruck character
in the whole film, even if getting a date is (thankfully) not the only goal on her mind.
Nearing the end of our Good section is Ruby’s brother, Sam Gillman. Being in the second-grade
and having a bit of a hyperactive personality, it should be no surprise that the film has
him in the role of the typical annoying little brother. Along with being a dodgeball fanatic,
Sam’s other main focus seems to be on teasing his big sister, either by poking fun at her crush or
by asking invasive questions after her hidden kraken abilities make their appearance. But
while Sam can be a bit insensitive, he’s willing to fight for his family, joining his father when
they go out in a boat to try and support Ruby, Agatha and Grandmamah in the final big fight
against Chelsea. The kid’s a whiz with dodgeballs, and he’ll gladly use them to llprotect his family.
Finishing off the good, we have Connor, Ruby's skater-boy crush. If we’re being honest, there
really isn't much to Connor. He’s got those ‘cool and chill’ vibes, brushing off Ruby’s strangeness
and even finding her awkwardness adorable while also being shown to greatly appreciate
her tutoring. Later on, he tries to ask Ruby to prom, and although she essentially blows him off,
much like Margot he doesn’t hold this against her and is happy to dance with her when she finally
makes it to the big event. As sweet as Connor can be, though, other than being the seemingly-perfect
guy for Ruby by being understanding and nice, he really doesn’t do or add all that much, hence why
we couldn’t really put him any higher. We also feel like he sort of earns our Sloth Medal,
as while he may not be typically lazy, he’s not really shown going out of his way to do
anything interesting or helpful and he even gets damsel’d in the first act of the movie - but hey,
at least him nearly drowning inadvertently led to Ruby triggering her true kraken form.
Next up, we have the characters who have more than a few flaws,
but still aren’t quite villainous. Welcome to the Grey Area.
Let’s start off by finishing off Ruby’s friend group with Trevin and Bliss. Trevin is a gamer
guy while Bliss, despite her name, is a goth girl. Much like Connor, both of them are
pretty basic characters who don’t really do much other than add in a bit of commentary. Playing
into the ‘grim character’ archetype, Bliss is seen ‘catastrophizing’ throughout the film,
though she tries not to do it TOO much for the sake of her friends. Trevin, meanwhile,
is nice enough, though he does share Captain Gordon’s video of Ruby in her kraken form,
causing it to go viral. Obviously Trevin didn’t do this to purposely hurt Ruby,
given that he didn’t know it was her, but it still wasn’t great. Ultimately though,
they stand alongside Margot in showing their support for Ruby - which is still nice to see,
even if they tend to sort of blend into the background during the rest of the movie.
So, let’s move onto a character who has a MUCH bigger role - Agatha Gillman, Ruby’s
overprotective mother. Back when she was ‘cool’, Agatha was the ocean’s mightiest kraken warrior,
being the one to defeat the mermaids after stealing back and hiding away the trident.
After deciding to carve out her own path for the sake of her daughter, however,
this warrior-turned-real-estate-agent became pretty overprotective, always insisting that
Ruby and the rest of their family act as normal as possible and telling Ruby over and over to stay
out of the ocean. This led to Agatha repeatedly lying and hiding certain truths about their royal
kraken side from Ruby for the sake of protecting her, which just made things worse. It took Ruby
actively putting herself in danger for Agatha to fully face her past instead of just trying
to push Ruby towards ‘what was best for her’. But for all the mistakes that Agatha made,
she’s still a caring mother who would do anything for her family. She helps Ruby calm down after she
goes big for the first time, and even though she hates fighting and being around her own mother,
Agatha still steps up to fight Chelsea in the film’s climax. Although very flawed
in her methods, she’s far from a bad mother and certainly isn’t a bad person.
The same could possibly be said about Grandmamah, the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas. Based on what
the film implies, Grandmamah used to be MUCH worse, having a pretty bad temper and being
incredibly pushy and controlling for the sake of assuring the ocean had a kraken that could
protect it. There are still inklings of this, especially in her brief interactions with Agatha
where she voices her disapproval of Agatha’s life choices. But Grandmamah herself says that she goes
to therapy twice a week to try and control her anger, and while she does try to train Ruby into
a warrior, she only does this after Ruby outright asks for training. She still isn’t perfect,
as she can still be somewhat dismissive of both Agatha and Brill. Additionally,
even though they do make up somewhat, we also never see Grandmamah thoroughly apologize for
all she allegedly put Agatha through - we don’t get specifics, but it was enough to
make Agatha hate her, so it must have been decently bad. Still, in the end she’s willing
to compromise regarding Ruby’s surface life instead of pushing her to JUST be a kraken,
so at least there’s that. Her royal attitude and focus on glory and her family’s legacy as
warriors does give us egotistical vibes, and so we feel that she also easily earns the Pride Medal.
Finishing off our Grey Area characters, we have Captain Gordon Lighthouse. First introduced as a
rusty old sailor in Oceanside who works as a tour guide, Gordon becomes a side-antagonist of sorts
after he spots Ruby in her kraken form and makes it his mission to hunt her down. Despite being
the only one in Oceanside who’s obsessed with stopping the ‘evil beasts’, he’s still fooled
by the Gillmans’ ‘human’ disguises, making him an easy contender for the Darwin Medal as far
as we’re concerned. Seriously, you think a so-called ‘expert’ wouldn’t buy the whole
‘we’re from Canada’ lie. Still, this does lead to him forming a bit of a camaraderie with Arthur,
Brill and Sam when they become his crew. When he does eventually learn the truth,
Gordon does end up switching sides - although this is implied to mostly be done out of fear,
given that he begs Arthur not to eat him when their cover is finally blown. Gordon
is also shown making an apology video, so even if his own opinions on kraken still aren’t the
most progressive, he’s at the very least making sure others don’t see them as complete monsters.
We’ve finally made it to our Bad to Evil section - although,
it’s a pretty small one this time around, as there’s only one true villain in the film.
Our Gold Medal of Evil is going to Chelsea Van Der Zee. Also known as ‘evil Ariel’ by the internet,
Chelsea is the popular new girl at Oceanside High. First making a big splash by taking the credit
for Ruby’s rescue of Connor, Chelsea is seen throughout the film being a total manipulator,
always hiding her true intentions with a sweet smile. From pushing Ruby into
being rebellious to trying to gain sympathy with a fake backstory about her dead mother,
Chelsea is all about doing whatever she needs to in order to get what she wants - and what
she wants is to get revenge on Agatha and rule over the ocean. Once she reveals her true colors,
Chelsea - or rather, Queen Narissa - is shown to be incredibly cruel, callous and selfish. Not only
is she willing to hurt Ruby after pretending to be her best friend, but she also nearly drowns
the students on the prom boat, not really caring about anyone other than herself and getting a
kick out of causing panic and destruction. While perhaps a bit on the cliche and predictable side,
not at all being helped by the film’s spoiler-ific advertising, it still doesn’t change the fact
that Chelsea is evil through and through, despite her claims about simply being ‘pretty
and misunderstood’. Her power-hungry nature and 15-year long quest for revenge also earns her the
Wrath Medal as well as the Greed Medal, both of which are also well deserved in her case.