(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-11-02 In 2015, screenwriters and childhood best friends Brian C Brown and Elliott DiGuiseppi, pitched a movie idea based on their childhood experiences growing up in their hometown of Oveido, Florida. The Idea: a family of sea-monsters who relocate to a seaside town in Florida, inspired by Brown’s family upbringings as Cubans relocating to Florida. It was Greenlit. over 8 years in production, a team of 870 people, 2 directors, a rookie producer, and cast of talented people later. It was the film that really reinvented the high school teen comedy genre film that used the animated film format. that film was Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken, released in the summer of 2023, this groundbreaking animated movie that helped flipped high school teen comedies upside down with a kraken as the main character. Executive Produced by Mike Mitchell, who directed the cult-classic Sky High, made this movie under his newly formed Mike Mitchell Productions (which previously produced the tv show The Barbarian And The Troll) under a co-production with Universal Pictures. producer Kelly Cooney Cilella, a native in Rochester, Minnesota, discovered the film idea while working at Dreamworks Animation in 2019, where the story was originally entitled Meet The Gillmans, and had a darker tone, Cooney Cilella decided to reinvent the movie under her vision, using the idea of Female Empowerment as the core of the movie. Which at the time was in the midst of a feminist revolution catapulted by the rise of the #MeToo movement. And Cooney Cilella decided to take it outside the family genre and into a new audience, Teens and Young Adults. Cooney Cilella brought on a core crew of talented people of rookie leaders that would go on to create an entirely new kind of animated film. One of those people was New Jersey native Faryn Pearl, who got her start as head of story, and later as co-director (making her the youngest female to direct or co-direct an animated feature film). others include First time art director Fred Stweart, Production Designer POV, visual effects supervisor Dave Wavloord, first time lead editor Michelle Mendenhall, and later with the arrival of Academy Award nominee Kirk DeMicco (who was born in the same hometown as the Jonas Brothers), who along with Pearl had reworked the entire film as co-directors and written the final screenplay. inspired by classic teen favorites like Mean Girls, The Princess Diaries, Easy A, Freaky Friday, and 10 Things I Hate About You. The film is about a young teenage girl named Ruby Gillman, who on the week of the big prom she wanted to go, had discovered that she was and her family are krakens, her mother Agatha was once a warrior princess who fought aganist the evil mermaid Nerissa, but hid the trident of Oceanus and after she and Arthur gave birth to Ruby, left her own kind and moved to the seaside town of Oceanside, where they would raised Ruby and Sam, along side their pet Nessie. Agatha is now a real estate developer, hard working and overprotected to her family, where she made anti-ocean rules in order to protect her family. But Ruby broke that rule after asking the pretty boy Connor to be the prom date. And Agatha gets a surprise when her brother Brill comes back to meet her. Ruby’s plan for the prom backfired when her Squad Solidarity friends, Margot, Bliss and Trevin ditched Ruby for the prom, and Ruby was in for a shock when the evil mermaid Nerissa comes back for revenge, disguising herself as a Regina George-esque popular new girl Chelsea Van Der Zee, who Ruby befriended later on because she is different, before revealing her true colors. when Ruby finds out she is a princess by her Grandmamah, the warrior queen of the ocean. Ruby must find her true destiny and go big. it was a groundbreaking film that fuses two film formats into one. A future cult-classic in the making. the film’s casting was brilliant, with almost every young female future superstar and actress have been in contention for the role, with Maya Hawke, Sydney Sweeney, Leah Lewis, Ciara Bravo, Angourie Rice, and Madeline Brewer in the running, but it was the hot young actress of the To All The Boys franchise, Lana Condor that landed the big role, it was her first major studio leading role and title role that was her breakthrough to superstardom, her comedy bit and acting chops have made this role amazing The role of Agatha was originally considered to be voiced by either Kristen Dunst or Katie Holmes, but either one turned it down. So the role went to Australian Oscar nominee Toni Collette in her first major animated feature film role. for the role of the villainess Nerissa, Amanda Peet, Claire Forlani, Dakota Fanning, Lily Collins, Ashlee Simpson, Isabella Amara, Kathryn Hahn, Taylor Swift and others were in contention, but it went to Canadian Actress Annie Murphy, who at the time had never starred in a major motion picture. It was that role that made her breakout major feature film role as Nerissa aka Chelsea Van Der Zee. Joining the rest of the cast are Colman Domingo, comedian Sam Richardson, SNL’s Will Forte, Comedian Jaboukie Young White, newcomer Blue Chapman, Liza Koshy, Eduardo Franco, Ramona Young, vlogger Emma Chamberlain (in her major motion picture debut), and a stellar performance by the legendary Jane Fonda as Grandmamah. The Soundtrack was a song filled journey through Ruby Gillman’s life, with original songs from Mimi Webb, BlackPink, The Linda Linda’s, Raye, Calabasas, Sigrid, Balu Brigada, mxmtoon, Rita Ora ft Fatboy Slim, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Freya Ridings, who wrote a powerful original song called Rise. It also featured a groundbreaking score from Grammy Winner Stephanie Economou, in her breakthrough film score, that gave her creativity and making something brand new in film score. The Movie’s animation and vfx were one of a kind, the character designs were original and different from the norm, it invented bendable character movements for the krakens thanks to head of animation Carlos Pertolas and a army of animators. The film crafted a brilliant original story thanks to head of story Glenn Harmon and his team of story artists that helped created the film from scratch. the movie’s message of female empowerment through generations resonates today’s audiences by breaking the genre rules of feature animation, and taking it to a whole new level thanks to co-directors Kirk DeMicco and Faryn Pearl. Ruby’s story could easily help the next generation of women everywhere by breaking boundaries they haven’t achieve yet. It was the movie that was made with Women behind the scenes leadership. It was that movie that could definitely become a pop culture phenomenon. A Kraken Will Always Answer The Call! 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