Ruby Gillman kinda frustrates me...
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- čas přidán 9. 07. 2023
- So last week I saw Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken in theaters. And I found it to be very average. But it didn't just end there. After discovering some other stuff about the movie like cut story elements, I decided to make this video. Hope you guys enjoy.
The Cut BFF Storyboard: • Ruby Gillman, Teenage ...
Music:
Dive Man - Mega Man 4
An Adventure in Atlantica - Kingdom Hearts (PS2)
Light Plane (Remix) - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Kinugasa, Kobayashi, & Mizutani - Life Is Beautiful [Deadly Premonition] - PPF - Zábava
So basically they validated the grandma’s racism that all mermaids are evil….
What a great lesson to teach kids. Yikes.
@@blueflare3848 they didn’t really think it through very well
Based teaching!
So you calling hogwarts racist then?
@@rubyblood8764 I don’t know what you are referring to but probably lol
Making Chelsea actually Nerissa hurts this whole movie so much it even validates Grandmamah's racism. How anyone writes this with no stopping to thinking how bad its applicability would be...
Hilariously they were different characters in the storyboards, hopefully they get a sequel or TV series to separate the characters because damn
Grandmamas racism, 😂
It coming out around the same time as Nimona and Elemental is pretty funny. Both movies about not discriminating, especially with Nimona’s message being about discrimination ppl don’t want to depict as bad, makes Ruby look even worse.
It being released when spiderverse and some other movies about subverting expectations and not falling into tropes just set it up for absolute failure. That and like elemental the marketing was totally awful
I mean, yeah it validates her racism cuz it's true.
I think the movie would have been better if they, yes, addressed these criticisms, but also have Chelsea a redemption and made her Nerissa’s actual daughter.
they could still go down that route if there's a tv series or sequel tho
I'm still trying to trick myself into thinking Chelsea is Nerissa's daughter.
@@Flash-FireCC Hell, i don't care about the canon anymore, gonna headcanon Chelsea as Nerissa's daughter anyways 'cause it does make more sense in every aspect. idk how true it is, i need more pre-production info, but apparently at some point it was the case.
@@miserirken I have that exact same thought
@flashfire3169 they were originally separated, until they had the "genius" ideea of merging them together, check the storyboards
Fully agreed. Having Chelsea be exactly who she said she was, with her and Ruby trying to mend the rift between their peoples, would have been a way more interesting story than having her be just one more twist villain to add to the world's growing pile of them 😟
She wasn't even a twist villain thanks to the trailers.
@shadowbeast9671 Technically, she's a villain WITH a twist, but that really doesn't make things any better
EXACTLY, PLEASE, PLEASE NO MORE TWIST VILLAINS. Like Frozen is probably one of the most successful animated films of the last 20 years and Hans was probably one of the worst parts of it.
Haven't you heard the love letters people are writing to DreamWorks for the past few months? They love love love these plain villains. They can't get enough of them!
@@sthuvbot Interesting to see someone else thought of Frozen because I was considering writing about it. Even an excellent villain would've been a poor fit for that film because there was already so much conflict in the plot. Elsa's inner conflict, her failed relationship with Anna, and the heroes vs the environment. The more conflict there is, the more each line is diluted and done poorly. By which I mean to say, Hans being a villain literally made the rest of the story worse.
I think the story would be far more interesting if Chelsea was legit Nerissa's actual daughter but her problems were the reverse of Ruby. Chelsea having a family of tyrants she wants to get away from so she attends Highschool to hide from them, but her popularity makes it hard for her to hide. It would make Ruby appreciate her family more but also question if all Mermaids are evil, and potentially challenge her family's beliefs.
You can have the accuracy of mythology, but you can STILL find some good ideas to make them misunderstood!
Imagine after both sides start fighting, someone questions why they are even doing this in the first place. And eventually, they loose track of their own history of how it started.
It's not because the story or the plots, all is good and already perfect or "Just right"
The only problem is on marketing strategy that's so poorly done. And that the reason this movie end up having low revenue. Since Dreamworks not even afford any advertisement to introduce the movie into public, specially for new franchise movie like this one
In fact i barley even see any advertisement from this movie, not even banners ads or Television ads nor CZcams ads. Barely even ads on theater itself
Some people doesn't even know this movie exist
I'm myself know this movie literally from SHORTS video at CZcams, not even from the trailer. And after i get the short i begin to search the trailer and see it if the movie worth to be watch,
*And all i can say, it's worth every single penny*
You got the emotions, got the cuteness of the characters, got the plot twist, and got the character development
Just the marketing strategy very poorly done. That's it
While with the elementals i literally see the ads everywhere even in KFC when i had lunch that day. The fact that half of elementals budget only goes to advertisement lol. The elementals would end the same as ruby gillman if they not doing any advertisement
In another fact that the budget cost $200million lmao 🤣
Most of it goes into ads
Half of that elementals movie budget literally bigger that all ruby gillman budget that only $70million
It's all depends on the marketing strategy. Even trash film can be successful if they have insanely good marketing strategy (like those click bait)
Could have been a story about these girls becoming great friends and uniting their people
People like Chelsea too much to want her to stay evil. They tried making her unlikable, and ironically fans adore her. How ironic
YES! Also I am SO sick of the "popular girly girl vs introverted shy girl" that necessary have to fight each other and can never be friends. Since Dreamworks is kinda known for reversing tropes I hoped that they wouldn't have done it, but I guess I was wrong.
some people would argue that chelsea being a redeemable person would undermine the whole reversing tropes angle they had going on but the whole point of subverting a role commonly seen as a "villain" is that they're meant to show that they're not cartoonishly evil, they're just like any other person. so it's kinda... missing the point of a movie all ABOUT subverting tropes to just make someone else cartoonishly evil instead imo... also with how they tried SO hard to subvert the whole kraken = bad/mermaid good idea, they basically tripped and faceplanted on the even more prevalent popular girl = evil/nerdy girl= good in media that people are going to identify way more on -
That would have been way more interesting of a story. Good to know I basically watched the whole movie through trailers...
@@singoflovesongsshould have added another mermaid or siren for that role.
My freaking god. You SERIOUSLY did a superb job explaining why Chelsea is a character that is just filled with wasted potential and why she doesn't work. She really could have been an intentionally flawed character who, while she does have her not so good traits, is deep down good inside and does genuinely want to be friends with Ruby.
But nope! Apparently, all you have to do is make Chelsea the big, bad evil villain just because and have a VERY convoluted explanation for why she ended up being evil. It really bogs the film down so much and shows why it could have been a lot better than it ended up being.
She is to likable to be unlikable
I feel like they tried to redo Jack Horner without really knowing why he works in Puss in Boots. Horner works because he’s balanced out by villains who have motives and sides to their morality so having a villain who is pure evil works well.
Horner was also someone who was genuinely quite vile from the start and only got even worse as the film went on. It's why he ended up being such a satisfying villain and why he really worked. Helps that he also ties with Puss's wants to find the star(albeit actually succeeding at it, only to end up meeting his demise in the end), alongside the other ties the other two antagonists have for him(those being Death being Puss's fear of losing all of his lives and eventually dying and Goldi being Puss's wants to find someone that is truly close to him). That shows why he really ends up working so well, on top of having plenty of hilarious moments and just being a great threat.
Chelsea doesn't really work the same way, though. When we first see her and in fact throughout the whole film, she is mainly quite excitable, if a little too overzealous, and does want to be friends with Ruby throughout. It's not until the very start of act 3 that we get to see just who she really is... ...and she's about as two dimensional as a villain as you can get. Very, very weak and her motivations of her fighting Grandmahmah are as weakly explained is it can get. It's just a massive 180 and not one that works at all.
@@tristanmichels5721 I think they just wanted to rip on Disney’s The Little Mermaid Remake
Wait, so do people still want actual villains in animation nowadays, or is just a Disney-specific nitpick that was meant to die out anyway??what's so bad about Chelsea being a full on villain really, y'all are clearly biased because her design checks all the right spots of the "mainstream cute/ attractive" ; redeeming her kills the subversion that she embodies in this movie.
Edit : Admittedly though, the trailers/ previews give out WAYYY too much of the plot (and twists). But even still.
Having Chelsea be a twist villain doesn’t sit right with me for a few reasons. 1. I’m sure this wasn’t the filmmakers’ intention, but it kind of makes for an accidentally pro racism/segregation message. It essentially ends up saying your racist relatives are right and you shouldn’t even try to build bridges or hope for peace & unity 2. It relies heavily on demonizing femininity & the “typical” teenage girl in a way that most media is finally starting to move past. Like, why can’t the nerdy girl and the preppy girl genuinely be friends? Why is it taken as a given that the more conventionally girly girl doesn’t have any nuance or conflict of her own?
It's actually surprising that she was even meant to be a "twist" villain since the trailers already had her be evil from the start.
Would be better if Chelsea was merely just a rival from school that is ironically just a reular human Ruby butt-heads with (and she isn't actually a mermaid) or if Chelsea redeems herself and both her and Ruby can end the generational war between their species (thus uniting both kingdoms of the ocean).
And maybe give some moral ambiguity and grey areas for both krakens and mermaids which would make for a more interesting plot than a typical "good vs evil".
Chealsea being manipulative bitch and not having redemption arc is fine with me. I only disappointed they did not explore their dynamic more
And also, i dont like the fact that chelsea is so much older than ruby. Gives off creepy vibes
I honestly wish Chelsea was a more complex character like death from puss in boots for example it’s honestly hard to tell if he’s like pure evil or if he’s just a guy doing his job
Death isn’t absolutely pure evil, but he did break the rules of his job to go kill some guy that he personally dislikes. he’s just kind of a dick.
i feel like it was less outright breaking the rules, and more bending them to justify his vendetta against Puss. But ya, still, Death wasn't being evil, he was just being vindictive to the guy who was disrespecting him.
I think it would be more accurate to compare her to Goldilocks, a villain with a personal and sympathetic motivation that just puts her at odds with the protagonist.
Death is a guy who only does his job. Death is not evil and we will face it eventually if the fate feels like it. He's dick, but only to Puss. And to be fair, his criticisms against Puss pre-character development are on point. There are many dead people who deserve to live and even want to live but not given a chance (I do believe that despite being hard-nosed about his job, Death feels bad for them), yet the people who live are apparently wasting their lives (the reason of his hatred towards Puss).
@@evagarcia865 At least being a dick isn't Velma levels, right?
The only thing that bothered me was the character designs for the humans. They were just kind of really ugly lol. The only one who wasn’t was Chelsea but she’s a mermaid so I guess she doesn’t count
Chelsea was one of the ugliest but you do you
Fr I’m just really starting to dislike the smooth and blob like character designs with the incredibly realistic clothing and hair, it’s so unbelievably distracting
For the krakens and Chelsea was fine but the rest yeah no
Yeah the humans look like AI tried to render Wendell & Wild making love to Wallace & Gromit.
The love interest skater guy literally jumpscared me when I saw him pop up in the trailer
I actually do like this movie, but I do think it's pretty obvious that they initially had something different in mind, but rewrote it at the last second for the sake of cashing in on an admittedly golden opportunity to dunk on Disney again.
Not sure that it was worth it
That sure did backfire for them
@@lightdarksoul2097 I agree. Especially since changing Chelsea to have been evil all along kinda sorta completely undercuts the movies underlying theme of not judging others by appearance.
@@nathanbentley1939 Still I do feel bad for the many animators it is a very stylish movie
The thing is though they’d still subvert expectations if Ruby and Chelsea both had good intentions and do want to end the long history of hatred. They set up in the little mermaid that the octopus/kraken like idk lady is evil and becomes way worse later on and Ariel is the hero. If they made it so that in this situation, they’re both a hero that goes against what the little mermaid set up that would mean both sides aren’t bad theres just a misunderstanding but nuh uh they gave the lesson that all people in a group are all terrible and deserve everything bad coming to them. What a great lesson!!! It could’ve been a good lesson to younger audiences that even though there was a war or fight that divided people, that doesn’t mean everyone in one side or the other is bad.
When the clip of Chelsea and Ruby just hanging out dropped, i thought "oh! Chelsea is going to be sympathetic, and maybe even get a redemption arc! Also the stuff they're bringing up about the war hurting both of them and how pressured they both feel to carry on their families legacies is neat, can't wait to see this explored- aaaaand it's all in the trash ok'.
Damn, what a shame. Why did Grandma have to be right? It really would have been better if Chelsea was good and originally looked bad because popular girl automatically = mean girl in most media, but the twist that indeed she is wonderful would be great. I agree with your points. I was looking forward to this movie too, ever since I first heard about it. I felt like the only one but this just ruins it for me. I appreciate your review, don't get me wrong! But if this is the plot, it really is disappointing. Maybe the twist has been done to death already so her actually being evil is different from the typical storyline, but cliches can be fun if done appropriately, and your proposed fix would make it worth watching. Now...? I'm gonna pass
Even better. The movie could had treated Chelsea like a 2nd protagonist. She could be shown conflicted after stealing the mcguffin but some other mermaid/s also intrude in the plot and make her more confident in her newfound beliefs and fights to make things right
That’s actually why I skipped on the movie as well. I checked Wikipedia to see if she was really evil or not, and was so disappointed
@@homer6292 tfw racist grandma was right all along
Great message for kids watching yep
@@homer6292bro xenophobia is also bad 💀
@@homer6292 how is xenophobia justifiable?
This movie tried so hard to subvert expectations ("all the big scary sea monsters are good while all the cute and pretty mermaids are evil") and be unpredictable, but in the end, it ended up being more predictable in terms of storytelling and plot twists.
And yeah, they really shot themselves in the foot by literally spoiling everything that happens in the film.
Whoever was in charge of the marketing and advertising of this film: congratulations, you basically killed any hopes of this movie making back its budget.
There's also an irony in that they basically say "the monstrous kraken is good, the beautiful mermaid is bad" but then when Chelsea transforms, she also becomes monstrous (pointed out by the trailer itself). Like, you could then say that it is an allegory to say that people are what they are despite looks, but it falls totally flat when they build the case against mermaids by pointing out their monstrous traits. It's just a mess of a message. They could have at least salvaged their message a bit about looks not mattering by keeping her looks the same in her giant form and saying "despite her beauty, she is evil". So like... are they saying appearance matters or not? Very mixed signals.
I'll probably never write it, but I had this idea for a fix-it fic where Chelsea is the granddaughter of Nerissa, who was slain in the war and had her spirit locked away inside the trident. Chelsea is being manipulated by her mother to reclaim the trident and take over the ocean for mermaid-kind as the new queen, but in reality she was only ever intended to be a new, living vessel for her grandmother's spirit to possess. Chelsea befriends Ruby to further that goal, but at some point develops a genuine friendship with her and her family, finding the Gillmans to be a much warmer, happier household than her own mother, who's probably kind of a gaslighting Mother Gothel-type character. At some point though, the trident is stolen, Chelsea gets possessed by Nerissa, the kaiju battle happens and Ruby manages to separate Chelsea from Nerissa and the two of them band together against Nerissa and her daughter to defeat them. The day is saved, Chelsea, now alone in the world and believing she has no place at Oceanside, is about to walk away, but Ruby stops her and tells her that the Gillmans could be her new family, if she'd like. Happy ending, Ruby and Chelsea grow up as sisters and Chelsea learns that she can be more than just a pretty face and a means to an end, while Ruby becomes more confident in who she is and embraces her dorkiness.
i havent seen the movie yet and if i do im just gonna pretend this is what happened instead of chelsea actually being nerissa
Hell yeah, this is a good rewrite!
Why are all the comments version better than what we got?!
as someone who’s extremely autistic about invader zim, that’s literally exactly how zim passes as a human. dib points out how his skin’s green, he has no ears or nose, he has three fingers, he has a pak that’s literally the only way he can stay alive, his dog is literally neon green and talks and walks on two legs
and all zim does is go “i have a skin condition” and everyone gets mad at dib for “being mean to zim over his skin condition.” it’s basically a running joke how dib is the only one to point out how zim is very obviously not a human (most of that being bc zim is so arrogant that he’d rather wear the worst disguise possible than pass as a human) and nobody believes dib bc zim says it’s just a skin condition. dib’s sister gaz knows zim is an alien, she’s seen his base and his tech and his true form as well as other irkens like tak, she just chooses not to say anything bc she’s basically the audience insert. she notices the pattern in every episode: 1) zim tries to take over the world 2) dib catches zim in the act and tries to use it to prove he’s an alien 3) one of them gets clumsy and destroys the evidence that proves zim is an alien 4) gir does something stupid 5) everything’s back to normal, zim still hasn’t conquered earth and dib still isn’t taken seriously on his proof that aliens and other cryptids are real
INVAEE ZIMM IS T( BEST !!! OMGS
I miss the show
I'm pretty sure Zim is actually really incompetent and thought his disguise was good, he was just lucky that humans are even more ridiculous than him lol
@@SLYKM oh no that’s literally not it /g, i’ve watched and rewatched it hundreds of times!! in the first episode, he goes through human disguises critiquing them like “too fat”, “too skinny”, “too weird”, “too ugly” (the one he calls ugly is actually an Easter egg, it’s the creator of the show, Jhonen Vasquez), and when he sees the one that looks most like him (which is just contacts and a wig) he goes “INGENIOUS!!!!!” and chooses that one. he’s so arrogant and cares more about looking like an irken than passing as a human native to earth and somehow it doesn’t backfire at all except with dib
@@transmascsrreal yea I kinda feel like we're saying the same thing. He thought it was good bc of his tastes and didn't think of the integrity of his mission.
Chelsea being Nerissa didn’t bother me too much , but they could’ve at least added some more motives behind her actions. Something like her parents were killed by krakens or humans were polluting the ocean reefs, so the mermaids had to go deeper in the sea which encroached on kraken territory which led to the conflict.
The final battle for me was also just underwhelming because there really was little to no damage done to Oceanside from 4 giant ocean beings (apart from the one house) having an all out fight. It also made no sense for Nerissa to showcase her new trident powers on land when there was only one other kraken at Oceanside. If she really wanted to eliminate all krakens why not attack the palace. Grandmama was older and the only giant kraken, so that should’ve been an easier fight. Even having the battle at the palace would’ve easily raised the stakes of the battle with the potential destruction of a community and the entire kraken population.
This could’ve worked better as an animated series instead of a film.
Agreed
Or maybe a straight to streaming film, which it looks like it was meant to be at one point.
Sending this to theaters was DOA
I know I think they really nailed it with the film, and they have.
Welp part 2 coming out in 2026
Also, the movie had a false premise. Most stories about mermaids never show them in a good light. Other than the Little Mermaid (all versions) and very few exceptions. Mermaids are the bad guys.
True, but, most people only know mermaids from The Little Mermaid, and parodies/references to that movie. They don't know that in general most older stories portray mermaids as seducing people then drowning them.
It's like how in older stories unicorns were portrayed as vicious creatures capable of destroying entire armies of people. But, if the only thing people know about unicorns is My Little Pony, the prevailing consensus is that unicorns are kind-hearted creatures that love little girls (which does fit into the traditional portrayal since their weakness was virgin girls).
They should have had the part where mermaids ate humans
@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917So what’s the difference between Mermaids and / Sirens?
@@ashblossomandjoyoussprung.9917 I just remember even in Peter Pan the Mermaids tried to drown Wendy. Both in the book and in Disney's movie
@@magmaspacer1967 Nothing much, they're two mythologies of a similar thing/premise.
They try to be so anti disney (MUST HAVE IRREDEEMABLE VILLAINS) That it completely backfire on them, because turns out "doing the opposite of what ever the competitors is doing" doesnt always = box office win.
Holy shit- this movie was being worked on since 2017??? Wow- that is a NIGHTMARE. Like I remember seeing work like pre sketches for elementals dating back to 2021, but that was when they were figuring out which direction to go artwise. Like Jesus Christ. This movie seems like it was production HELL.
6 years isn't ridiculously long for an animated movie. It IS long, but not bizarrely long
@@cloverbun2574 I wasn’t saying it was bizzare, Spider-Man across the spiderverse took 5 years to make- but still- for a movie that seems very simple in concept and script, this seems like they had a lot of other ideas that didn’t make it.
It gets even worse, apparently. One DreamWorks artist posted his work for the film and said that it dated back to "8 years ago". Meaning it started pre production as EARLY as 2015.
There's no denying, it's clear this film sadly had a really messy production and the team clearly did not have an easy time trying to crack what it wanted to be.
@@tristanmichels5721 honestly I feel like that tracks considering that this was dreamwork’s first movie that wasn’t adapted from a pre-existing property. It’s a lot easier to modify and adapt what already exists rather than make something original
This movie got hit hard by covid. It also got reworked several times, they changed director and the whole tone of the movie.
it's pretty ironic that the character meant to be an obvious jab at Disney ended up being the most interesting and appealing character of the entire cast, even if she was wasted potential.
Every fanartist seems to go out of their way to make her "hot"
Funny thing - when the mermaid was lying she had believable motivation and character traits. Once she revealed her "true" face she became sooooo 2 dimensional, it hurts! The first scene with her and how concerned she looked when Ruby ran away. Geez I would love to see a twist where she is a flawed but good.
Worse actually - she becomes not only 2 dimensional but also incompetent as well.
Chelsea was probably the most intelligent character in the story, but as soon as she has the trident in her hands she instantly turns into an idiot.
- She just drops a few rocks on Ruby and just leaves her without checking if she is dead or at least unable to fight again? (Ironically that part would have worked better if she actually felt some sympathy for Ruby and could not bring herself to kill her.)
- She had what she wanted with the trident. A intelligent villain would have just left, found and reassembled the other mermaids who were still in hiding and come back with an army in her back.
Instead she goes on a rampage all by herself.
- She did not even need to instantly tell Ruby that she tricked her and fight her, just tell her that she was going to contact the other mermaids and convince them to "make peace" and Ruby would have most likely believed her.
-And even if she felt the need to attack the Kraken Royal Family right away, would it not make far more sense to go after Ruby´s grandmother first?
Instead of her mother who had been hiding on the surface and not been involved in the mermaid/kraken conflict for the last two decades? Instead she just ignores the kraken queen, combined with not finishing Ruby off that gives both of them plenty time to go after her and then she faced three giant kraken at once because of her own stupidity.
@@jps6071 My guess is: there were 2 teams of writers. One knows how to do characters and don't know how to do pacing. Second one can pace script better, but sucks at characterization. And they did half of the movie each... because... i don't know - it started rushed but interesting at least >.< Now I want to see the movie it could've been (
@@panpanplusplus Yes - that´s a possibility.
Also they probably wanted to keep the 90 minutes time for the movie, so the villain had to be defeated quickly.
They did the same mistakes with Hans in Frozen, he had moments when his reactions were sincere or he was faking even when nobody was watching. You don't need your twist villain to act evil whenever other people turn their back but don't give them sincere expressions like that, liars will never look so concerned for people they don't care about or manipulate.
@@jujublue4426at least with Hans in frozen it was a case of too good to be true
If they want Chelsea to be the villain, just give Chelsea a twin sister or something and you'll get your villain, an interesting dynamic, and a potential good side to the mermaids. Remember when Chelsea mentioned how mermaids don't age, what if the twin sister is tired of the fighting like Agatha is but doesn't leave the relationship. What if the twin sister is hesitant to bond because she knows Ruby will eventually grow old and leave her behind. That sounds a good movie and potential plot thread for a sequel
As much as I love the movie, I really wish they explored the war between the Kraken and the mermaid I also want to know the backstory between Chelsea, a.k.a. Narissa, and how she survived the war! I also want to know how Ruby Mother Became the warrior Kraken and The falling out between her and her mother!
I know right? I thought it could be a HTTYD but it's not :(
What makes u like the movie?
I like the movie because of the animation how to do the ocean! Well, I guess we can give enough more backstory to the characters!
I know Dreamworks probably wanted to make Chelsea the haha crazy twist villain to poke even more fun at Disney but I feel like if they wanted to make her the main villain they could have at least explored her backstory and side of the story more. (Or alternatively make her a misunderstood one which would play out close to how you suggested.)
Latter.
The ironic thing is Dreamworks made this movie as a snide comment against Little Mermaid to undercut Disney, but in the process made their movie more unremarkable with making Chelsea the twist villain but not actually because she was marketed as the main antagonist.
And even more ironic now how Elemental is rebounding and now currently has an approximately $311 million box office worldwide while Ruby Gillman has so far has netted only $34 million.
Disney probably said this to Dreamworks after seeing Elemental rejuvenate and Ruby Gillman sink further into the abyss :
“Ha Ha!”
@@bingchungussee dream wolf history it was just not at the remake per say
This film wanted to have a jab at Disney so much they accidentally made the racist grandmother prejudice correct and you never make the racist Grandma prejudice, correct
Grandmamah: People are racist against us, and believe were evil!
Also Grandmamah: All merfolk are evil!
How is, "you shouldn't be racist to this group... you should be racist to that other one instead," considered acceptable messaging in a family film? Or any film?
like, I'm not sure if anyone else felt this, but during the movie, I felt that there were some moments where Chelsea was expressing guilt or regrets for what she is about to do to Ruby.
So when she just goes completely ballistic I was like "bruh" cuz it was just so out of pocket to me and such an easy way out of telling a good story with compelling motivations and reasoning. Like if that trident was genuinely something the Mermaids needed to survive and have equal representation or something.
also as a random, unrelated note, I absolutely noticed how the first enlarging/transformation scene was actually kinda cool, but then the movie just... NEVER does that transformation again??? when she jumps into the water. she just casually dips out of the frame and comes back as a Kraken?? like what?? even I felt the laziness/lack of budget from that.
Ikr. Like at first, in the bathroom, when Ruby said “You’re on land one day and you already fit in. I’ve been here all my life, and I still feel like a freak.” Chelsea looks like she genuinely feels and understands Ruby. Eyes don’t normally lie.
@@jianpu8064 RIGHT??? LIKE THEY HAD TOTAL CONTROL OVER HER EMOTIONS, THEY PURPOSEFULLY MADE HER LOOK AND FEEL THAT WAY BUT THEY RUINED IT
@@woogee513 I saw someone post about that exact moment saying that it felt like they were setting up the first half of the movie so Chelsea could have a redemption arc, but then went ahead and wrote an entirely different second half and tbh yea. I agree wholeheartedly.
the deleted scene storyboards really make me even more sad seeing what we could’ve gotten Aldo the marketing
This is the best, most detailed review of this film that I've seen. All other reviews just kind of spam the same opinions over and over again:
_"It SUCKS-!"_
_"The story was basic-"_
_"The character designs looked like NOODLES-"_ etc.
Not saying that none of these statements _weren't_ true, but the other videos I saw never expanded upon these opinions. They just stated them as matter-of-fact and expect people to just accept it with no explanation. I appreciate the fact that you gave EXAMPLES _as well as_ possible _solutions._ It felt like you ACTUALLY watched the movie, unlike 80% of the so-called CZcams reviewers out there who have a habit of just reading a Wikipedia summary page, watching a few OTHER CZcams reviews, and then attempting to make _their own_ very generic video.
THANK YOU fir this.
One of my issues with the movie is the entire premise.
See, I’m a big fan of pirate folklore, and in pirate folk lore, sirens are evil mermaids, and they would enslave krakens.
What makes me ticked off is that dreamworld is typically a studio that does it’s research when it comes to folklore surrounding the story, but it seems they threw that out the window in favor of dunking on Disney with a mermaid for a villain instead of having an actually fun story that retells pirate tales in a modern setting.
That boat captain guy would’ve been a great villain- imagine if he went from being the laughing stock conspiracy theorist to trying to steal the trident from the palace so he could kill all sea monsters and the krakens, mermaids, and maybe even the other monsters mentioned have to work to stop him
@@axolotlfairy2473 while yes, that might seem logical, in pirate folk lore krakens were neutral and mermaids were actually friendly towards humans and would help them get their ship back above water if they were scuttled.
Now, TBH, a really unique story would pick up on a war between the krakens and the sirens but in the modern day.
But to all their own.
Said it elsewhere; but it's been a while since I've seen an animated kids movie just write off an entire non-grunt race as evil like it was nothing. Movie goes out of its way to be like; "the mermaids control the banks" levels of uncomfortable lol
Its funny; because this is the story they went with AFTER the rewrites, so I'm interested in seeing the postmortem on what they had planned for the movie originally.
“Mermaids control the banks! Mermaids orchestrated the October Revolution! Mermaids backstabbed the Krakens in the back in WW1!”
@@cianbuckley7120Ruby: "sure grandma let's get you to bed"
It would've been such a sweet movie if they had the girls unite everybody and change the grandma's mind. I feel like there arent as many feel good and innocent kids movies anymore.
Dib: “Look at the freakish blue skin.”
Zim: “Filthy Earth boy! It’s a skin condition.”
Dib: “And what about no ears? Is that apart of the ‘skin condition’ too?”
Zim: “Yes.”
(Invader Zim Dialogue modified to fit KRAKEN premise)
"Don't judge a book by its cover... except mermaids, screw em'."
Interesting message....
I think you could also fit in a small arc with Rudy’s Mom and Grandma with you revised plot.
Like right after Chelsea is ‘betrayed’, Rudy confesses to her mom what happened, so her mom confronts her Grandma about how her foolish quest to destroy the Mermaids has done nothing but destroy their family, and vows to permanently cut ties with her.
Then at the end, grandma realizes that she lost everything and gained nothing, and so helps Rudy and Chelsea destroy the Trident, meaning the two peoples could live together.
I feel like chelsea being the "twist villian" doesn't rlly seem right to me. Now if the grandma or rubys mother was the twist villian, it would make the movie so much better and make sense because of grandmas racism towards mermaids and how she doesnt like them or how she thinks mermaids are the "bad guys" when they're rlly not. Also another thing that bothered me in the trailer is how NOBODY and i mean NOBODY noticed how ruby had blue skin,tentacles, and flappy limbs and they still thought she was a human. Now if it was luca (the 2021 movie) i wouldnt rlly have a problem because the producers and writers actually made luca turn into a human even tho he was a sea monster and it actually made the humans in that movie believe he was actually a human. Lil bit Too cliché? ehh maybe, but im just saying luca had a better plot and potential than this movie.
Ehh I forgive that a little since it’s pretty much zim “I have a skin condition”shit
The movie message is literally: is someone told you that some races are bad - that's actually true
I really want to see a full behind the scene documentary on what the hell happened here. All those original storyboards seem so much more interesting and fun than what we got and that saddens me. I was really hoping this would be a really fun movie but it’s really just fun animation with a lackluster… everything else.
A few plot changes I would personally have made:
Chelsea IS the daughter of Queen Nerissa (who died in the mermaid-kraken war) and feels pressured to get her hands on the Trident of Oceanus to prove that she's just as "worthy" to rule her kind as her mother (i.e. a power-hungry conqueror). But it is revealed that Nerissa's soul was trapped inside the Trident, and when Chelsea touches it, she is possessed by her own mother, and then freed after the final battle and the Trident's destruction. Shaken by the unpleasant experience, Chelsea now questions her kind's selfish, evil ways. A sympathetic Ruby offers her a second chance to try to be friends, and maybe one day find a way to unite their races for real (sequel bait! 😉) Others are sceptical, ESPECIALLY Ruby's Grandmamah, but after being chewed out by Agatha for her fixation on fighting, she respects her granddaughter's choice and promises that she'll work on changing her one-dimensional view of mermaids.
Connor turns out to be gay (like his voice actor Jaboukie White-Young). While this means Ruby's crush on him is unrequited, he still appreciates her as a friend, and when other students learn that she's a kraken and start calling her a "freak", he stands up for her, saying something like "Once people like me were treated the same way, but we've moved on from that. Can't you do the same for Ruby?"
Ruby's cute, bouncy little brother, Sam, needs more focus and appreciation! The marketing tried to pass him off as just "annoying", but in the actual movie he proves himself to be very loyal, brave and good-natured, and more excited about his sister's giant kraken abilities rather than being bitter or jealous (also, maybe go into his feelings once he realizes that, as Ruby's sibling, he is in fact a kraken prince?). He also helps to keep Gordon Lighthouse from capturing Ruby, AND distracts Chelsea/Nerissa to help the ladies during the final battle. After that, I would have included a moment where Ruby gives him some heartfelt thanks and a hug, indicating that the two are going to have a closer bond from now on 😊
I love this but it feels too Disney if ya get what I mean.
@@WarioWareFan01010 No, sorry, I don't know what you mean...
You know. The villain reformation and representation.
@@WarioWareFan01010 But it WOULD also be consistent with the themes of peer pressure and wanting to be accepted, right?
Yeah I guess so.
It's so bad that they made Chelsea and Nerissa the same person because it also makes Chelsea look like a groomer. She disguises herself as a teenage girl to get to Ruby, despite Chelsea/Nerissa being way older than Ruby and probably even older than her grandma and mom!! 😬
I pray that this gets a tv show because I need more Chelsea. She has the most potential out of the chatacters and she's my favorite.
We are all inhaling copium they fix her character (retcon pls)
This movie really feels like a pilot for a tv show... that sadly won't happen now (probably). Like the ocean, there are ENDLESS possibilities (not the Sonic Unleashed song of the same name... that is pretty good though)
I enjoyed what i got (a 7.5 out of 10 for me) but yeah, I did feel disappointed in places. It is FAST. Lol. I wish the actual kraken world got a bit more time in the spotlight and not like... 2 minutes. Lol. And actually, you kinda just nailed the rest. Especially about Chelsea. I also want to add that I wish they actually spent a bit more time together before the obvious twist happens. I really liked their conversations.
People are mixed about whether or not Chelsea should have gotten redemption at the end... I am kinda in the camp that wanted to see the possibility. In fact I thought that was what they were gonna do Especially when Ruby still wants to stop this constant fighting even when she got betrayed. She still believed that there was still some GOOD inside of Chelsea.
Anyways, I went too much on a tangent there. ~~Clearly I cared enough about this movie to even do that~~ xD and I would LOVE to see more. But we probably won't unfortunately.
You certainly show more care than Universal or at least the movie's marketing team. Seriously, whoever they are, they need to be fired! This movie deserved better. It's not fair to the directors and writers who have spent years coming up with this idea and these characters, it's not fair to the animators and designers who put in the hours to bring this world and these characters to life, it's not fair to the actors who gave it their all in their performances, and it's just not fair to Ruby Gillman herself and what she represents. She just wanted to fit in and feel welcomed. Now she'll be remembered for having the worst opening of any DreamWorks movie.
Can we talk about that one friend of Ruby's? Idk her name but the one that's basically Wednesday?
Yeah, they call her behavior "catastrophism" in the movie, because she's always coming up with dark upsetting scenarios, but it didn't take long for it to become painfully clear, that they have no idea what catastrophism even is, and they just wanted an edgy character.
To catastrophise is to think up bad or scary scenarios and then panic about them as if they're plausible. For example, if you're the type of person who always locks your doors before going to bed, and one day you find out you forgot, most people would say "yikes, that could've been bad. I'll try to remember next time" but someone who catastrophises, would say "ANYONE COULD'VE GOTTEN IN", have a panic attack about it, and then never let it go even though it would have already happened if it was going to.
This girl in the movie enjoys coming up with spooky scenarios, and has a distinct lack of fear about it. If you're like that, then you're not catastrophising, you're a murder mystery writer.
And their lack of understanding anxiety (especially after Puss in Boots) just left a bad taste in my mouth.
Also everything about the mermaid and wasted potential and pacing and stuff, but he already said that so whatever.
It's such a strange experience that I liked the film, but I love what it could have been? Like there's a deleted version of the friendship montage with Ruby and Chelsea that feels much better paced and actually feels authentic? Like it's a fleshed out relationship, but throughout we see Chelsea being frivolous and selfish with her abilities. I think she would have been a much stronger antagonist if instead of being a supervillain, she was just a toxic friend/bad influence.
I think Whats interesting is that a number of people have been saying they wanted villains in their movies again but ironically this movie might of benefited more from not having an outright evil villain.
People have said they wanted villains who are just plain evil bc whatever passes for the sympathetic villain and twist villains (like Chelsea) are so overdone. I think it's got to the point it would have been a bigger twist if Chelsea wasn't an antagonist but this whole movie feels like you've basically watched the best it can give from the trailers alone.
@@tarotsushima3332just because you doing not usual doesn’t make good..hell the theme of the movie would benefit from a moral grey villain
This movie is proof that tropes are not inherently bad.
Having Chelsea be redeemed or making her nerissa’s actual daughter would’ve helped. The moral of the story with the twist just sounds like “yeah this entire species is bad we must hate them, you grandma is right”
A villain works if it's a villain from start to finish, if you give me a villain in the last 15 minutes with the charisma of a plastic fork and depth measured in nanometers its not going to land
For this being your first movie review I’d say it was pretty good! You brought up everything that should’ve been talked about and your idea of Chelsea not being a villain is actually a good idea.
They should have focused on the struggles of Ruby's and Chelsea's friendship and have the final battle occur over a misunderstanding or Chelsea over hearing Ruby's grandma bad mouthing her or something.
Honestly, one of my biggest issues is that it doesn't feel like there's a single consequence in the movie for anyone.
The Captain just forgives and instantly accepts the krakens as friends when he's told about their secret, and that they lied to him.
Chelsea/Narissa is basically free to do what she wants because she's powerless, and her capture is played as a joke. She doesn't even seem all that upset that she lost.
The entire world knows about the krakens and mermaids at the end of the movie, and NOTHING CHANGES. They aren't more famous because they were already famous, to an extent, so they play essentially the same montage from the beginning showing their successful lives with them saying "I'm gonna be even better at X now because I've stopped hiding that I'm a kraken."
Ah, also, we barely see Ruby's friends interact with her as friends, or Connor interact with her. Ruby pretty much ditches everyone for Chelsea, so, their relationship is only developed to the point of "We care about Ruby," and without a "Ruby is kinda being a bad friend right now," moment for them their development is "We care about Ruby," to "We care about Ruby," which makes them feel pointless.
Like, this doesn't feel like an actual movie, it feels like the pilot episode for a tv series where interesting stuff could happen later. The characters don't really develop at all (the grandma hates mermaids at the start, and still hates mermaids, for instance) with only real development being that the mom hates the grandma less at the end.
Just feels pointless as a movie.
@@donatran6418 Honestly, from the trailers I kinda thought the grandma would die protecting Ruby from Chelsea when she turned evil.
Like, what I thought they were setting up was "It's a different time, grandma, mermaids and krakens can co-exist," then the grandma dies when Chelsea betrays Ruby, which galvanizes her to become stronger to avenge her grandma.
I think my words after I saw this movie was “they had a nice set up, but I’ve never seen a movie be so determined to be EXACTLY what you think it is before.” They really said “expect nothing from this movie”
As someone who's seen and actually enjoyed the movie, I can say I completely agree with you. I too feel sad for Ruby. I was actually really excited when I first saw the trailer. But when it was over and I was walking out of the theater, I was thinking to myself, "Huh, that's it?"
Honestly, I think all the film's problems (the lame twist villain, unexplored relationship between Agatha and Grandmama, krakens vs other sea monsters, etc.) can be traced down to one big problem: RUSHED PACING. If the film had 20 or 30 more minutes to flesh out the characters and explore certain issues, it probably would've been better received.
Anyway, hopefully DreamWorks or Universal will give it a second chance and give it a series on Netflix or Peacock. The premise is very similar to other shows like Jake Long: American Dragon or My Life as a Teenage Robot, there's lots of world-building they can explore (maybe even correct some of the mistakes they made like Chelsea and Ruby's relationship), and the fast pace might work better for a show than the movie. Plus, DreamWorks has a good track record when it comes to continuing their more forgettable, midtier movies with shows. So I'm holding out hope.
Unfortunately knowing how much of an epic disaster this film has been at the box office I doubt they’ll make any form of continuation or spin-off series.
Part of me feels they put all their eggs in one basket last year for Bad Guys and especially Puss in Boots 2
For months I believed that the trailer is actually baiting us like DreamWorks wants us to believe that mermaids are bad by showing us Chelsea being a villain.
But nah it's the same there is no difference😭😭😭
The Nerissa twist was garbage, legit worse than Hans from Frozen. Even if Chelsea didn't get redeemed in the end, I think those unused scenes of her bonding with Ruby were really needed, as it establishes a stronger bond within the two that was not present in the final product. It would give Ruby a better reason to trust in Chelsea's plan, it would make Chelsea more sympathetic as she would be aware she's giving up a friendship that could've been genuine for a generational rivalry, and it would strengthen the message of how dangerous toxic friendships could be.
Tai Lung and Ramses are good examples of villains who have moments of showing sympathetic qualities, but also being far too gone for redemption. And Chelsea...could've been that as well, which is very frustrating.
Well, since the movie will probably get a TV show, how would you continue the plot? Personally i really hope they do Chelsea some justice and go with your plot ideea, make it so that Nerissa is actually her mother (as was in the storyboards originally) and pick up the conflict from there
Warning: my shitty "writing" ahead, open to criticism. Sooo here's my unprofessional, probably dumb ressurection of the plot, return to the storyboards, when Chelsea and Nerissa were separate characters: Chelsea(the mermaid we see in the movie) is not actually Nerissa but a pretender. The real Nerissa is her mother(imagine a narcissistic abusive, manipulative parent) and she sent her out as a sacrificial lamb, while manipulating her into believing this was for the good of mermaids. Nerissa, her own mother sends her out expecting her to die sacrificing her own daughter, her own flesh and blood, so that the Krakens remain in a false sense of security about her true fate. While in the cage, Chelsea awaits for her mother to rescue her... but nobody came. She has now truly lost everything, her own mother letting her to rot, and to further let things go sour, she has to answer for her mother's crimes. And she is left in the cage without a family and without her fame and reputation... now she has nothing, and Ruby has everything she ever wanted. So here I imagine it can go 2 ways, either Chelsea goes full vengeful out of envy and hatred, blaming the krakens for her situation, or she redeems herself, and becomes better. A professional writer could probably make this work
@@scoutfan911 Seriously, how come DreamWorks hasn't hired you yet? I'd love to see a relationship between "Chelsea" and her "mother" and maybe even a redemption arc between her and Ruby.
@@scoutfan911Damm that's so good! This needs more attention❤
@@landohundoamigo5122 hmmmm I imagined something similar to Hunter and Belos, or Zuko and Ozai. if you guys would like it I can extend this into a full fanfic
@@scoutfan911 I wouldn't mind. Go for it dude.
Basically captured what everyone thought, so don't be too hard on yourself. From what I gather EVERYONE wanted Chelsea to not actually be completely bad and hoped that the "give away" of the trailer was actually a twist to make it seem like she was a straightforward villain when she wasn't. But obviously, that was tossed out the window with a 500 lb weight attached. Which is completely reasonable. In this day and age, it is laughable to think a movie would say "all x are y" and mean it, yet this movie did. So I guess it subverted expectations, but in the worst way. You could maybe argue that it was skipping the now tired trope of "villian isn't just a villain" as it did with Jack Horner in Puss and Boots the last wish, but the key difference is he was a human but just HE was a villain. You still had goldilocks, another human, who turned around and the narrative is never brought up about race or where someone comes from, just the individual themselves. So as you said, just such obviously missed potential, it hurts. The even more ironic part is that they also just did the movie "The Bad Guys" specifically going after the blanket statement of "all x are y" and breaking it down.
This is like if in Megamind, Metroman was revealed to be just an asshole that did everything for fame and becomes the main vaillain.
I agree. I also think their advertising was off. I like being able to guess what happens in a movie, but im always pleasantly surprised there's something unexpected that I didnt guess because it makes it better. There was really no reason for me to even sit down and watch it because I already knew what would happen
I think Chelsea could still work as a villian if you rework the plot a bit. Like, she wants revenge on Rubys mom for her mothers death. But that gets internal conflict when she becomes friends with Ruby. But she still thinks Rubys mom has to pay. And that leads to her knowing revenge is what her mom wants but Chelsea is not sure if thats what herself wants. Wherein we can get into generational hate, and how it manfiests to become a cycle.
That was the original plan but they changed it
While I know for a fact that DW didn't intentionally make the movie give a problematic message.
But the way Agatha, Arthur, Granmamah, and Brill hearing the news of Ruby befriending a mermaid, is already giving them red flags without even knowing she's Nerissa or even getting to know her is such a bad move from DW.
They could've just have a scene of the school, or Ruby's friends, or even Connor asking/telling Agatha straight about Ruby's new friend 'bad influencing' her, which immediately gives Agatha red flags since Ruby always follows the rules and has no problems following them whatsoever ( even telling her from her presentation video that she loves them ).
I understand the message what this movie is saying, 'Don't just
trust someone immediately regardless how vulnerable you are'.
But DW should've reread their script all over again if there's something problematic with their writing, and when they do, they have to rewrite or else the audience will took their message in the wrong way.
I don’t think that was message….
@@Yami-mugoni613 You're talking about the 'Don't trust someone immediately regardless how vulnerable you are" or DW unintentionally making a double standards between the krakens and the mermaids?
While I may get the message wrong about the first part, since the movie is about Ruby and Agatha's relationship, but there are so many things going on that it's confusing on what theme this movie is suppose to tackle.
Spoiling the final act in the trailers was probably the worst move possible. If they focused on Ruby questioning her grandmother's claims about Mermaids by showing Chelsea's side of the story and none of the third act, maybe people would have actually gone to see it. Sure, the twist would have still been shit, but at least it would have BEEN AN ACTUAL TWIST.
I'm still so sad that they mad Chelsea just straight evil (with or without the Narissa twist, especially with).
Having Chelsea and Ruby being the mains and having the conflict revolving around trying to get their people to stop hating each other and focusing on prejudice and past traumas from the war being the "villain" and conflict between the girls coming from their respective parents/grandparents who are still struggling from the effects of the war would have been a much more interesting and satisfying story. It makes me sad cuz I love the designs and was so excited until the online marketing spoiled the whole plot and showed they weren't doing anything interesting with what is honestly a really cool concept.
They could have made different generational layers:
The grandparents are pissed and full of trauma and prejudice from the war that they may never get over.
The parents are sick of the conflict and want to escape from it by moving or ignoring it.
The children are open-minded and want to mend old wounds and make things better.
Instead we got generic boss fight between good and evil.
That would have been amazing especially if they did want to turn it into a series. The series could focus on how different gens are handling Ruby and Chelsea's attempts at fixing things. Hell add in the other sea creatures as well
Bro, you are making every point I had. Ruby could’ve been a really great movie it had the potential to do so, but it’s pacing and marketing did it no favors.
That pacing was so horrendous it’s not even funny, like that was my biggest issue. It was just jumping from 1 scene to another and leaving out writing it definitely needed. The movie IMO needed at least 30 extra minutes and a rewrite of the entire middle to end of the story.
I really hate the marketing just told the entire story.
I hate there being a lack of other creatures.
They could did a story where grandma wasn’t right, but wasn’t wrong either.
Kinda Like a not every sea creatures is evil that a few bad apples shouldn’t spoil the bunch. Having grandma recognize not being prejudice too different species and ruby learning that she need to be careful.
Have Chelsea be actually Narissa daughter would’ve be great too, like they could’ve have her still be the bad guy working under her mother. I do like the plot twist of them being the same person too and they could’ve did that but had other mermaids come to stop her again to show like yeah you can still have the mermaids be self absorbed and narcissistic, but they still aren’t all bad and they want to stop being oppressed.
SO MUCH WASTED POTENTIAL of a story. As a Writer myself I hate seeing potential waste in a decent movie.
Even with Chelsea’s “plot twist”, I think the ocean life aspects weren’t explored enough. The Kraken folk was just her family outside of the crowd of people for a second. The way the “war” sounds like it’s on-going but no one asks “where are the other mermaids now?”.
My only guess is for the movie makers to do this would be to make sequels. Can you make a mermaid redemption arc its own movie? Are the other listed creatures going to appear and have traits contrary to the older Krakens, with Ruby being a sort of a bridge between oceanic species? Is something like the worlds governments finding the trending Kraken videos going to tie the Gillmans to their human life? Will the little brother actually do anything aside from be good at dodgeball, or will he have an ethical journey of whether or not he should be in human sports or bring those sports to the ocean and vise versa? You would think it has potential and it’s almost the worst part - the missed potential, but the set up isn’t enough in my opinion and there’s not many clues to indicate that whomever made the movie would come back around again to explore their own world.
I would like if Chelsea was actually Nerissa’s daughter instead of being her, and at first she was in it for to take over the trident, but after she got along with Ruby, she felt bad and didn’t want to do it but she also didn’t want to disappoint her mom.
The fact that they actually made adverts saying the villain was a villain, and it turned out she WAS a villain was...a HORRIBLE idea. You advertise a character being PURE evil, then you watch the film and BAM-she's not pure evil, but instead she was just snsrky Ariel! THAT-and as said by multiple smart people in this comment section, how it pretty much justifies the grandma's racism. You NEVER justify the racist grandma!
Like, this film had great animation, but something clearly went wrong during production because it just leaves the audience with a VERY bad message. Elemental may not have been perfect, but at least that's a B+ movie with a GOOD message for the most part.
dreamworks shouldn't make parodies, they should jus focus on the good part of stories and just make it better. Megamind is a perfect example
Exactly
It worked with Shrek and to a degree Megamind but yeah
I was so sad that chelsea actually ended up being a bad guy, like, it would've served the movie a lot better if she was good and the grandma needed to learn not to lump an entire species together under the banner of "evil"
The way they could've saved this movie is by having the grandma be the bad guy, NOT the mermaid. Then the whole final battle could've been either a worried dream sequence caused by the racist views Ruby's grandma spewed at her. Or it could've been a fabricated fight that would've served some kind of purpose.
But no. I wasted a hundred BUCKS to watch this with my family. Even my family were caught off guard by how fast i left the theater when the movie ended.
If the plot twist makes the story less interesting than it would have been without the twist, it's just not a good twist
I’ve seen some people read this movie as a metaphor for living with autism in the public school system, which I can understand and think could’ve been a really good concept, unfortunately that metaphor sort of falls flat and just leaves you with a lot of wasted potential, on top of that the whole idea that every race of sea creatures other than krakens, but especially this one specific race of sea creatures, are all vicious evil monsters leaves some pretty… questionable implications
I agree with your points. When I initially saw the film, I immediately liked the animation style and the general idea of the plot. However, like you said, several plot points appeared to be skimmed over, rushed, or botched completely. when I saw the trailers, I assumed Chelsea was going to have a redemption arc of some sort, because why would you spoil the end to the film in the trailers? The trailers overall misrepresented the film. Because of the way they directly pointed mermaids out as “vain narcissists,” I expected there to be, again, a touching redemption arc or a life lesson about not judging a person by their history. However, the character arcs (or lack thereof) that actually ended up being present in the film were extremely underwhelming. I still liked Ruby Gillman, don’t get me wrong! I just feel like the plot wasn’t what it could’ve been.
They could have included Nerissa and let Chelsea be Nerissa’s daughter. Give more motives and context to the fight, both Ruby and Chelsea talking about their mommy issues. Chelsea running away from her evil mother and Ruby looking for a live of her own both trying to make peace between the two races. Making Chelsea literally Nerissa was too cringey to me… literally an old lady pretending to be friends with a teenager (?)
As someone who’s watched every episode of invader zim that comparison was extremely accurate.
It's a shame that so many ideas about how this movie could have gone were more interesting than what we got. The movie also tries to act like it's so shocking to have Chelsea be evil, but by this point, Dreamworks doing this "villain is really the hero" is something they have done before.
From what I have read about alternate scenes, there was a plan where Chelsea was telling the truth about the Krakens killing her mother, but was otherwise still a one-note villain. That idea seems like it was scrapped because the audience would find her sympathetic.
Given how long the movie was in production and how many rewrites it went through, it's no surprise it turned out this way.
When you said that you felt sorry for this film, that's exactly how I felt! This movie had a shot at being a solid entry in the Dreamworks catalog, with a positive message and an interesting premise. Unfortunately, all of that was squandered. I'm seriously considering writing up several alternative scripts, just to prove it could have been done.
As someone who is an Invader Zim fan, I can say that the joke is accurate.
I completely agree. I thought visually it was beautiful. I imagined all the beautiful merch. All the things I’d buy at the universal studios parks but, it just left me underwhelmed. It felt like it wanted to be turning red but wasn’t. It felt like it wanted to pull a Shrek and make fun of Disney films “ the little mermaid “ but I just didn’t do any of that well. I wanted to love it.
And, Shrek 2 has already poked fun at The Little Mermaid 19 years ago, so that means, they're just using the same gag, except it's used to remind us that we live in a society where redheads and Caucasians, no matter the gender are seen as 'problematic' to current year.
@@seancarroll136huh?
I love how the movie portrayed racism as a good thing cause Granny was totally in the right for being racist.
Peabody and Sherman is actually such an underated movie that people don't guve enough ceedit
i honestly thought the mermaid girl was gonna get redeemed bc when the main character is talking about how she wants to fit in, she has a look that looks like, genuinely sad and doesnt seem for show. but no i guess LOL
My problem with the movie is it shows emotion while not showing enough.
Take Agatha’s sacrifice for example.
We’re constantly told how the mother sacrificed everything but we’re never actually shown what she sacrificed. You could say she sacrifice her family but when she interacted with them she’s not exactly happy to see them so it doesn’t really make sense.
You can say the Crown but once again she doesn’t seem to care about the crown at all.
You could say the ocean but there’s no scene that indicates this, if there was one scene where we had Agatha look out the window and look into the ocean helplessly and longing then it would make sense. It would tell the watcher that her she misses her family, she misses the ocean but we don’t get any of that.
My problem is how the pacing of the movie is, among other things yes, but it's the thing I noticed first. I even started questioning if they made all movies like this when I was watching them when I was younger just so they can condense it for my young feeble mind 🤣. It's so swift, more than usual. I really thought when I was watching it.
Yeah, I was worried I wouldn't think much of this movie if I saw it. Thanks for saving me 91 minutes
A slight tweak to your plot change suggestion:
The trident corrupts. Chelsea's sincere, and when Agatha first captured the trident from Nerissa she realized the corrupting power. Being unable to destroy it, she hid it and then went into hiding herself to also avoid grandmama, who similarly wanted the corrupting power. Ruby therefore has to convince Agatha and Grandmama to help destroy the trident as a way to save her friend, not just to stop an evil mermaid.
As it is, the story only exists as a response to the Disney animated The Little Mermaid, as it's a protagonist/antagonist swap with no commentary on why that change was made. I mean, Chelsea/Nerissa is straight up Ariel. It's so blatantly lazy.
I rememebr in a different comment section dicussing imagining this as funny little different kind of subversion of a story of generational trauma,with Chelsea being the case of being allowed to cut away from her horrible family meanwhile Ruby is the case of having a mom who was justified and ending the cycle. Fun story writing
You pretty much nailed the issue with the film. I also feel bad for this movie, it could've been the next Shrek on mocking Disney. It's a pity that the plot feels underwhelming and marketing behind it didn't help as much. It goes to show that DreamWorks can only make awesome films 1/5 per release.
Say what?
@@dylansharp8471 who?
The thing is that mocking Disney was first before anything else
I'm so glad you made the point about the 3rd act and how it should've been changed to show that not all mermaids are bad, same as not all krakens are bad. But instead the movie expects you to take mermaids being evil at face value, with no depth or reason to it? It kinda upsets me. Because how are we meant to say this about krakens but not mermaids? There could've been a really good lesson in there for children to not believe all horrible things said about a certain group of people. Not quite sure what the moral was here.. Good video tho!
Preach man preach! I was looking forward to this film because the art community was loving the different animation style Dreamworks was going for(even though a lot of the characters are a bit quirky) and because it introduced giant creatures, and also Chelsie. She was my favorite character by far but then they ruined her by making her Nerrisa, which wasted so much potential. I also love your twist much more and it just makes me more frustrated that they did not make it at least interesting. There was so much potential for this film especially because it would dunk on Disney's Little Mermaid, but it sadly backfired on them.
The one thing that I loved probably the most was the amazing cinematography for the giant monster battle. The angles were amazing and made them feel more giant with the open water.
The reason I'm not going to see this movie, is because when I saw a trailer of it in a cinema, my literal reaction was "Ughhh, I've seen this sort of plot a million times, no thanks!" And now that you talked about it - I feel the same way as you. There was so much potential there! But they went the cliche, "safe" way instead. What a shame.
It’s even more disappointing after last year when Dreamworks gave us sleeper hits such as The Bad Guys and especially Puss in Boots 2.
@@RB01.10 Not all works of the same studio share creators. To be honest, I don't know any of the creators of these movies, but that's kinda like expecting all products in a grocery store to be same quality? In every place, there's always a bunch of "disappointments" 🤷
I don’t even thing that the cliche way? Because that would usually make the sadist speciescidt grandma the villain and redeem Chelsea
@@Yami-mugoni613 I meant the general vibes of "here's this RELATABLE awkward nerdy high schooler, but she's also SPECIAL with SECRET HERITAGE and there's this popular girl at school who's OBVIOUSLY evil-" the trailer was showing off. It's 100% boring and predictable.
(I haven’t seen the entire review yet but) yeah I also felt very let down in a frustrating way.
From how obvious and in your face they spoiled the plot in the trailers, and I was hoping since Dreamsworks likes doing Twists.
I was hoping maybe, Chelsea is actually good and it’s the grandmother who’s actually brainwashing ruby.
I mean, she literally sounds so manipulative in the trailer.
Even if it wouldn’t entirely fix the movies other problem, it at least would of been something than having the “twist” that the said bad guy is actually the bad guy.
Also cause I loved their friendship, wich was one of the only interesting things (until it got ruined) since I saw potential.
How did this movie get made but not Me and My Shadow? :/
Nothing annoys me more in movies than when the trailers basically reveal the entire movie AND plot twists within 5 minutes
I knew this movie probably wouldn't have been a box office hit, but I wanted to give it a chance because I thought the trailer was going to be good. But then I saw it and now I wish to have waited for the Barbie movie.
What really rubbed me wrong was the plot twist with Chesley.
Spoiler- She an adult disguised as a teenager. Like WHYY!
It was one thing to be like Sasha from amphibia but this, no as soon as it came up all my respect went out of the window.
I wish this movie focused on friendship drama and how family can heal you after a bad time.
This is why I cringe on fanart of Ruby and Chelsea together because EEEEEEWWWW! Why are yall shipping them?! That's just sick and wrong! SHE'S A OLDER LADY DISGUISING A TEENAGER! And now that reminds me of Colleen Ballinger being like that to her underage fans which just now got revealed the same time the movie came out.
@@christiandacanay3086most people probably didn’t see the movie and just the clips and thought they were a ship
@@Yami-mugoni613 and yet they still ship it, ignoring what happened in the movie. I would never ship Ruby and Chelsea even with a 10 foot pole.because it's just that disgusting.
I think someone else in the comments suggested it first, but they could make the trident be some possessed artefact in which the spirit corrupts the wielder into evil. What if Nerissa isn't the mother of Chelsea, but is also not Chelsea herself? What if Nerissa is the spirit from the trident corrupting Chelsea and later getting full control of her?
Who knows? Maybe the whole war started because both the krakens and the mermaid wanted ultimate power. Maybe krakens and mermaids lived harmoniously and were both guardians of the sea (though the slight rivalry can be shown in that one side became more extremist which resulted in some mild division, but not enough to result in a war yet) before the trident made everyone kill each other. And maybe a truce can be made where the trident is destroyed and both krakens and mermaids work together to defend the ocean and the surface world from any danger.
So many wasted potential.
I think the trident was based off of the one Ursula steals from King Triton in The Little Mermaid, also the fact is that Ruby's grandmother is an octopus creature with Ursula's hairstyle as well.
This is really great for a first movie critique ! It’s a bummer that this movie didn’t reach the potential it clearly has.
I get it why people dont like this movie or straight up hate it
But from my experience the movie actually surprised me because i honestly wanted to go see it when the first trialer came out (although it kinda spoiled in the trialer), overall I actually enjoyed this movie and I respect your opinion
Great Video 👍