“The ocean is a mysterious world.”
From portraying Lara Jean, a junior high school student who writes love letters to her crushes, Lana Condor now stars as a voice actress for an adolescent sea monster in DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming film “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken.”
As seen in the trailer, the coming-of-age animated movie tells the story of a shy 16-year-old girl named Ruby Gillman who seeks belongingness at her school, Oceanside High. However, she is not allowed to make friends with other kids at the beach as her overprotective mother (Toni Collette) prohibited her from getting near the water. Ruby also tutors her skater boy crush (Jaboukie Young-White) on math, who only appears adoring her for her fractals.
Once Ruby disobeys her mom’s rule, she will uncover the life-changing fate that is destined for her: Ruby is a direct descendant of the warrior kraken queens. She is part of a legendary royal lineage of mythical sea krakens and is ordained to take over the throne from her grandmother (Jane Fonda), a.k.a. the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas. Being part of this family, krakens are pledged to save the oceans by resisting the imperious mermaids. These mermaids have been fighting the krakens for more than a million years.
But get this: The school’s popular new girl, Chelsea (Annie Murphy), happens to be a mermaid. “You are a kraken hiding as a human,” Chelsea tells Ruby in the trailer.
With the responsibility Ruby has, she needs to take up her power in order to save her loved ones.
On Mar. 17, Lana shared that voicing Ruby is “one of the most joyous experiences” of her career. On Instagram, she wrote, “It has been my dream since I was a child to voice a character in a DreamWorks Animation.”
In the previous years, we also saw Toni Collette as one of our horror queens, with memorable roles in American psychological horror films “Hereditary” and “The Sixth Sense.” Now that the “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” movie has finally been set in stone, it’s highkey interesting that we will get to watch Toni portraying a motherly role in an animated film.
The upcoming film’s cast also has Emmy winner Colman Domingo, Emmy nominee Sam Richardson, and rising young actor Blue Chapman who’ll star as Ruby’s dad, uncle, and little brother, respectively.
The film is directed by Oscar nominee Kirk DeMicco and is set to premiere on June 30. We’ll just have to wait for further announcements for international screenings, including the Philippines.
Watch the trailer here:
Read more:
This fan-made “Shrek” remake is real, and it’s pretty good
Netflix is finally making a film about Philippine mythology
Still from “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” trailer