Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

Director: Kirk DeMicco

Voice cast: Lana Condor, Toni Collette, Annie Murphy, Sam Richardson, Colman Domingo, and Jane Fonda.

When we’re growing up, there are many times when we feel a little monstrous.

For many of us, it happens around adolescence: bodies are changing, emotions are huge. And because we’re trying to figure everything out, we can’t help but notice how different we are.

That’s probably why there’s no shortage of coming-of-age stories that use monsters as metaphors. The latest entry in this genre, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, blends teenage angst with a fun and vibrant take on sea-creature lore that subverts fairy-tale expectations.

When you grow up, all these little water goons will be yours to command.

Directed by Kirk DeMicco, the animated movie follows Ruby Gillman (voiced by Lana Condor), a teen kraken who lives among humans in a seaside town. Sweet and relatably awkward, Ruby is a 16-year-old mathlete with a lovingly overprotective mom (Toni Collette), a crew of loyal friends (Liza Koshy, Ramona Young, Eduardo Franco) and a crush (Jaboukie Young-White) who‘s not as unattainable as she might believe.