American high school is a shark pit at the best of times. But it’s particularly tough if, like Ruby Gillman (voiced by Lana Condor), you are a member of a family of krakens – blue-skinned, tentacled, invertebrate sea creatures – who have been passing as human for the past 15 years. And while Ruby thought that negotiating prom was her main challenge, it turns out that her mother (Toni Collette) hasn’t been entirely straight with her. Ruby has a monster-size problem.
Key to understanding it all is the grandmother she never knew she had, a warrior queen of the ocean, voiced with relish by Jane Fonda. The latest picture from DreamWorks Animation is a likable if slight story of teen crises, which combines the adolescent body-morphing themes of Turning Red with the fish-out-of-water story of Luca, plus an amusing pot shot at mermaids, little and otherwise (take that, Disney!).
