First Take: Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken - the summer holiday box office battle starts here

SYNOPSIS: A shy adolescent learns that she comes from a fabled royal family of legendary sea krakens and that her destiny lies in the depths of the waters, which is bigger than she could have ever imagined.

After the return to the Puss in Boots franchise in February, DreamWorks Animation wanted - at long last - to make a brand new, original IP to open in between The Last Wish, and fellow sequel Trolls Band Together. They had one idea that they wanted to develop - so after many years of development, their film about a family of sea monsters has finally made it to cinemas, and while it ain’t their strongest, it does have some really well thought out ideas. 

Kirk DeMicco directs this one very well, coming in at an hour and a half, it feels like the perfect length, but where this film ultimately fails slightly is the script from Pam Brady, Brian C Brown and Elliott DiGiuseppi, as the sheer amount of years in development hell clearly show - some elements feel like recent rewrites, others feel like they were written in 2012, and then there’s a character who looks suspiciously like the hero in a film released by the studios’ animated rival, but written to be a villain. Coincidence aside, that is a bold call. As ever for a film like this, the animators at Dreamworks absolutely nailed this, much like they did on Puss in Boots earlier this year, and it is so good to see them find their own style for each film rather than sticking with what they know best. Handling the score - on her first major Hollywood film as main composer rather than an assistant - is Stephanie Economou, and she feels like a good fit for a Dreamworks film of this nature, having spent years learning from the likes of Harry Gregson-Williams (who provided the score for Shrek back in the day), and she’s done some bold new things for this one, making it a proper showcase for future work.

The cast are pretty good, with Lana Condor leading this group quite admirably, and when you have people like Toni Collette, Jane Fonda, Annie Murphy and Sam Richardson involved, you know there’s some franchise potential- rounding it out is Will Forte, Jaboukie Young-White, and for the UK cut, Heart Radio presenters Pandora Christie, Jason King and Kelly Brook do the traditional ‘localisation’ that Dreamworks seem to do for each market. This is a relatively decent film all things considered, and while it is going to be competing with Elemental, Barbie, and other family films going into the summer holiday period, this could become a bit of a sleeper success as the next few weeks progresses.

THE VERDICT

Having a one week head start on Elemental here in England might’ve helped its box office chances, but Ruby Gillman is a perfectly fine for what it is - families will enjoy it, it’ll play well with the kids, but ultimately it’s a return to the formulaic Dreamworks approaches of the late 2000s. After all, one particular joke felt like it was lifted out of South Park. That’s how long it’s taken to get this film done.

RATING: 3/5