Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

The movie is described as follows.

Sometimes the hero you are meant to be lies just beneath the surface.

This summer, DreamWorks Animation dives into the turbulent waters of high school with a hilarious, heartfelt action comedy about a shy teenager who discovers that she’s part of a legendary royal lineage of mythical sea krakens and that her destiny, in the depths of the oceans, is bigger than she ever dreamed.

Sweet, awkward 16-year-old Ruby Gillman (Lana Condor, To All the Boys I've Loved Before franchise) is desperate to fit in at Oceanside High, but she mostly just feels invisible.

She's math-tutoring her skater-boy crush (Jaboukie Young-White, Ralph Breaks the Internet), who only seems to admire her for her fractals, and she’s prevented from hanging out with the cool kids at the beach because her over-protective supermom (Oscar nominee Toni Collette, Knives Out), has forbade Ruby from ever getting in the water.

But when she breaks her mom’s #1 rule, Ruby will discover that she is a direct descendant of the warrior Kraken queens and is destined to inherit the throne from her commanding grandmother (Academy Award winner Jane Fonda), the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas.

The Kraken are sworn to protect the oceans of the world against the vain, power-hungry mermaids who have been battling with the Kraken for eons. There's one major, and immediate, problem with that: The school's beautiful, popular new girl, Chelsea (Emmy winner Annie Murphy, Schitt's Creek) just happens to be a mermaid. Ruby will ultimately need to embrace who she is and go big to protect those she loves most.

— Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken's website description[2]

• Lana Condor as Ruby Gillman, a shy 16-year-old kraken who is desperate to fit in at Oceanside High.
• Toni Collette as Flora "Flo" Gillman, Ruby and Sam's overprotective mother who doesn’t want her daughter to go to the sea with her would-be friends.
• Annie Murphy as Chelsea, a snobbish mermaid-turned-human and the popular new girl at Oceanside High.
• Sam Richardson as Finn Gillman, Ruby and Sam's uncle and Peter's brother
• Colman Domingo as Peter Gillman, Ruby and Sam's father and Flo's husband
• Jaboukie Young-White as Connor, Ruby's skater-boy crush who only seems to admire her for her fractals.
• Liza Koshy as Margo, a fellow student at Oceanside High.
• Blue Chapman as Sam Gillman, Ruby's younger brother.
• Jane Fonda as the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas, Ruby and Sam's grandmother and Flo's mother who ascends Ruby to her throne.

Additionally, Will Forte, Anna Faris, Ramona Young, Echo Kellum, Eduardo Franco and Nicole Byer have been cast in undisclosed roles.

In June 2021, TheGWW reported that a film originally titled Meet the Gillmans was in production at DreamWorks Animation, with casting taking place and an expected release year of 2022. Paul Tibbitt of SpongeBob SquarePants was announced as the director, with Pam Brady confirmed to write the film. Lana Condor, Laura Dern, and Michael Sheen were circled for the roles of Ruby, her mother, and father, respectively, while Annie Murphy was attached to play the role of Clarica. Chris Kuser and Christi Soper will serve as executive producers.[3] Production was also expected to start in 2022.[4]

On March 14, 2023, the cast and crew were announced via Universal Pictures Ireland's website. Along with Condor and Murphy's roles confirmed, other new cast members of the film include Toni Collette, Sam Richardson, Liza Koshy, Will Forte, Colman Domingo, Jaboukie Young-White, Blue Chapman, Eduardo Franco, Ramona Young, Echo Kellum, Nicole Byer, and Jane Fonda, while Kirk DeMicco (replacing Tibbitt), Faryn Pearl, and Kelly Cooney Cilella were revealed as the director, co-director, and producer, respectively. DreamWorks Animation also announced its official title to Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken.[5] The cast and crew were publicly announced two days later.[6]

According to Animation Magazine, Cilella stated that the film has been in the works for several years. It was first pitched to DreamWorks about a family of sea monsters that were moved to the land and are hiding in plain sight. She stated: "Our heroine is such a lovable character and I’m so excited for audiences to meet her and fall in love with her the way we have, because she starts the movie as a quirky, slightly insecure but bighearted character, but she’s harboring a secret that she can't tell her friends. But ultimately the kraken is awakened inside her and there’s no hiding this. She learns that her destiny is so much more than being an average high school teenager, and she’s destined to be the next big protector of the seas. Her journey is self discovery and embracing that side of her that had been dormant for so long, and for her to become a fully actualized character was such an exciting story for me to tell on such a grand scale." DeMicco stated that he cited John Hughes films, Easy A (2010), Lady Bird (2017) and Booksmart (2019) as his inspirations. Pierre-Olivier Vincent serves as the production designer, taking inspiration for the main character from the body of an octopus and bringing the "curviness to all the design language of the film", from the cars to the underwater world.[7]

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken will debut at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 15, 2023,[9] and is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on June 30.[7] In December 2022, Deputy Manager Director of Universal Pictures International Italy Massimo Proietti revealed that the film would be released in the summer of 2023.[10] On March 16, 2023, following the release of the official trailer, it was revealed that Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken would be released on June 30, 2023, taking the original release date of Illumination's Migration.[7]

As part of their 18-month deal with Netflix, the film will stream on Peacock for the first four months of the pay-TV window, then will move to Netflix for the next ten, and then will return to Peacock for the remaining four.[11][12]

• Official website
• Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken at IMDb