What Could Have Been / Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

Storyboard sequence with Ruby and Chelsea, made 1-2 months during the production of the film, with Chelsea originally not Nerissa herself.

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken

What Could Have Been in this movie.

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• The film was initially helmed by Paul Tibbitt, who's fittingly best known for showrunning the famous nautical animated comedy SpongeBob SquarePants from 2004 to 2016. Around August 2021 he was replaced by Kirk DeMicco, shortly after the release of DeMicco's previous film Vivo, when DreamWorks Animation wanted the project to take a different direction with 18 months left for completion with it finally being approximately finished in March 2023.
  • According to the interview linked above, the initial pitch dates all the way back in 2015 with actual production beginning in early 2020 shortly before COVID-19 had impacted the studio making comparisons to Pixar films Luca and Turning Red coincidental as well as this film's accusation of being a deliberate Take That! to The Little Mermaid.
  • The original story synopsis pitched the film as a "weird family" comedy with Coming of Age Story themes under Tibbit's leadership, much in the vein of The Croods (which was ironically co-directed by his directorial replacement, Kirk DeMicco) and Neighbors from Hell (which was created by Pam Brady, about a family of demons living in earth in order to stop a drill that would destroy Hell).
    • The Gillmans would've been a regular sea monster family rather than the descendants of a royal Kraken lineage in the final product. This contrasts with the action-comedy angle of the finalized version of the film, which opts to add the family facing off against evil psychotic mermaids.
    • According to Timothy Lamb, who's the film's Head of Character Design, this phase of the film was simply pitched as "SpongeBob meets Coneheads".
    • As implied by this early storyboard draft by Jon Magram, Chelsea's toxic relationship with Ruby would be more nuanced than in the final film, with Chelsea being a bit of a kleptomaniac as well. It's also implied that the conflict between Krakens and Mermaids was added later in the film's production. Given Chelsea doesn't bother to be deceptive around Ruby, this would suggest her motives would've been largely different from how it played out in the final script.
    • In another storyboard draft, there's a segment giving time to Ruby hanging out with Trevin, Margot, and Bliss near a market, while establishing their characters. Ruby discusses reading about the oldest sea creature, which she describes as sometimes triggering a strong interest in understanding the sea's deep wonders. Margot discusses her fantasies about theater acts, and Bliss shares her homemade charcoal and bay rum soap. Upon hearing of a pleading caged octopus named Terry, Ruby dips from the group to stealthily rescue the creature (demonstrating an ability to morph her tentacles in a transport cage). Things go south when Ruby becomes overwhelmed by other pleading creatures within the market, blowing her cover. Luckily, the established quirks of Ruby's friends help to provide Ruby time to escape, where Terry is thankful and implied to keep her in mind.
• According to Daniel Richtman and The GWW, there were a few alternate casting choices in mind.
  • Ruby could've been played by Rachel Zegler or Brittany O'Grady, but they were too busy due to schedule conflict.
  • Agatha could've been played by Laura Dern, Regina King, or Uma Thurman.
  • Arthur could've been played by Michael Sheen, Ty Burrell, Josh Duhamel, Jimmi Simpson, or Oliver Hudson.
• During the casting phase, Chelsea was known as "Clarica".
  • In her concept design, Chelsea was originally going to wear longer pants and go barefoot.
• Monstrous mermen and mermaid designs were conceptualized by Lutgardo Fernández. David Perez, with assistance from Craig Kellman, offered their own touches with creating different body types and exaggerated sinisterness.
• During pre-production visual development, Connor underwent various design changes while keeping his skater-boy trait. One design by Megan Walker featured Connor depicted as a blond white guy. Another design by Timothy Lamb makes him a dark-skinned, lanky blonde with an earlier Ruby design. By the time Charles Ellison modeled the finalized look by Craig Kellman, Connor was originally depicted with black hair, rather than his navy blue and purple combo.
• Various Giant Kraken designs for Ruby, balancing her monstrous features with her feminine qualities, were toyed around between the 2017-2019 era of the project. Character designer Timothy Lamb pitched ones where Ruby is green-skinned with translucent scales forming a skirt, and a design with stalk eyes with bodily sea coverings. Danny Williams even made a scale model depicting Ruby with seaweed hair, while carrying over the "skirt" trait.
• David Perez and Craig Kellman designed a merman logo, reminiscent of some depictions of King Neptune/Poseidon with a trident, that was supposed to be hanging around various shops in Oceanside.
• In a storyboard pitch by Darren Webb, the sequence for Ruby's destructive transformation within Oceanside High was planned out differently in some aspects.
  • Much like the final film, Ruby retreats into the library after instinctively saving Connor from drowning as a Giant Kraken. However, in the storyboard, the library is active and Connor accidentally finds Ruby there. This leads to the two teens talking about whether Connor witnessed a tentacled creature, which Ruby awkwardly denies. Meanwhile, Ruby's legs are slowly and uncontrollably morphing into proper tentacles, causing her to notice and cautiously slip away from Connor who's barely the wiser.
  • The transformation continues to ramp up in a vacant gym, where Ruby stumbles under the bleachers. Similar to the film, she commands her phone to call her mom, only to accidentally dial Connor. Here he gets to quickly react to Ruby fumbling to end the call. Ruby's leg tentacles show more autonomy, to the point where they try to drag Ruby around and pull in a seagull. After reprimanding her own limbs, Ruby thinks she has gotten control until she finally grows to fill the gym's back half. Instead of the librarian, a janitor walks in and slowly realizes Ruby's presence, causing the Reactive Continuous Scream.
  • Agatha's reminiscing story to calm Ruby down back to normal is also different. The final film has Agatha recall how she helped Ruby save a beached whale, dubbed "Clarance J. Whifferton", but ultimately laughed off Ruby's attempts to try and keep him as a pet. In the storyboard, Agatha recounts how her first open house as a realtor, unfortunately, had a skunk stink up the place. This earned Agatha's brand "Gillmans Gross Realty" for a couple of years. She also added an additional story, during Sam Gillman's fifth birthday party, Nessie accidentally inks the kindergarteners in the bouncy house. Finally, rather than being surprised by Brill outside of the lighthouse, Ruby is shocked when her and Agatha return to the car.
• An early animatic for movie's climax by Darren Webb shows that Chelsea was still a separate character from Queen Nerissa, instead actually being the deceased queen's daughter and wishing to avenge her mother's death in addition to retaking the throne. Agatha is also shown as regretting having killed Nerissa. In addition, Gordon's realization that the Gillmans are Krakens plays out differently. Darren comments that he was generally fine with the alternate direction change the filmmakers chose for this point in the final film. He rationalizes that it removes the blood on Agatha's hands by claiming she directly killed Nerissa, opting for a surprising twist that her long defeated foe arose to take personal revenge and ruin her family.
  • Co-director Faryn Pearl reveals the change was done to make Chelsea's conflict with Agatha more "personal" in nature with the decision of making the two the same character being done relatively late in production.
• A collage of different animatic scenes by Darren Webb depicts a few alternate scenes. A confident Ruby gets more opportunities to snark at Chelsea in their climactic battle. Ruby also manages to get her hands on the trident at some point, and zoom around the same Lighthouse established to be her low-point hiding spot earlier.
• Darren Webb would later release multiple storyboards/sequences showing how the third act could've played out in greater detail
  • The earliest of these endings he drew out depicts Chelsea being sealed along with the Trident of Oceanus after a chase and fight throughout the same training location Ruby went through. Chelsea would've destroyed an emptied out prom boat thinking it had the teenagers of Oceanside still on board who then take pictures of her failure to post on social media, tricked into climbing onto land, electrocuted upon the trident impacting the lighthouse, lose the trident when the remaining Gillmans, Brill, and Gordon seize it with an anchor upon which Ruby dives down and snatches it, and in pursuit Chelsea is finally imprisoned in the same confines when her hair gets dragged along with it.
  • Another shows Ruby isolating her onto dry land after attaining the power to control the ocean currents itself granted upon being recognized as a protector. Ruby would have used her newfound power to drag down Chelsea's watery hair burning it in the process. This storyboard also mentions krakens having the ability to regenerate lost limbs as brought up by Brill saying he's lost and regrown multiple tentacles over the years whenever he didn't do things Grandmamah's "way".
  • Another depicts Ruby using her newly attained hydrokinesis to stop Chelsea out of her own "protection" and even acknowledging it was her who helped her achieve self-actualization. Chelsea briefly suggests redemption given her backstory as a traumatized orphan but it's Played for Laughs and Ruby immediately makes it clear she no longer trusts her and so Chelsea swims away.
• An alternate take on the Dance Party Ending, conceptualized by Darren Webb, featured Grandmamah offering her body and raised tentacles as platforms for prom goers.
• Concept art by Julien Le Rolland dating back in 2020 depicts a scrapped sea monster character by the name of Megalon as well as Chelsea in her human form with kraken-like tentacle appendages where her legs should be.
• At some point this would have been Chelsea's design resembling more of an adult woman dressed in hippie attire. According to concept artist/modeler Charles Ellison, it was scrapped for looking too old and not fitting the correct tone they sought for the film.
• At some point Agatha would've had the moniker of "Siren Slayer". While mentioned by Chelsea much to Agatha's discomfort in Darren Webb's storyboard above, a separate storyboard by Carlos Romero reveals it would've been given to Agatha by Grandmamah herself in celebration of her achievements in the mermaid-kraken conflict, specifically for how she could "stack bodies like no one else".
  • Another deleted scene by Carlos Romero depicts an alternate opening with Ruby's morning routine and the Gillmans' originally claiming to be from Portland rather than Canada.
• Storyboards and concept art by Arielle Rosenstein dating back in 2020 shows Chelsea having the ability to hypnotize others using her hair and even offers Ruby to hypnotize Connor after finding out about her crush for him.
• In an interview with director, Kirk DeMicco, Chelsea originally would've attained her popularity among the students of Oceanside via mind control drawing inspiration from mermaids/sirens in mythology and how they lure people with their songs but realized it wasn't necessary.
• A storyboard by Tom Caulfield depicts adult mermen during the war despite the final film suggesting mermaids are a race of perpetual teenage girls.
• A pre-production test animation by William Salazar showcases Ruby's transformation into a giant kraken resulting in her growing a tail as well.
• An early storyboard by Naz Ghodrati-Azadi depicts Chelsea having to hide her mermaid half on dry-land using a dress rather than walking around on human legs.
• A storyboard by Ryan Savas showcases Chelsea betraying and harming Ruby before transforming into her monstrous form. Ruby would've also had been mad at Chelsea for lying to her and regrettably states that Agatha was right about her to which Chelsea responds mocking Ruby for ever trusting a mermaid like her to begin with.
• According to an interview with producer Kelly Cooney-Cilella and co-director Faryn Pearl, the third act being a kaiju fight between a gigantic Kraken vs Titan Mermaid was a relatively late decision with multiple takes on how the third act could've gone brainstormed prior. It was finalized to be a fight of that magnitude in order to service for an epic sense of scale they sought for the film. In the same interview, Grandmamah's name actually came from Jane Fonda herself during a recording session, she was otherwise gonna simply be called Grandma.
• From the director's commentary:
  • The Well of Seas went through multiple revisions best suited to actually be a challenge for a giant kraken to navigate.
  • Multiple prologues were considered, one of which even having Gordon narrating.
• As mentioned under co-director Faryn Pearl's comment in Word of God, Chelsea was originally to have been blonde rather than a red head similar to that of Ariel.
• In this layout preview of the movie, during Ruby's imaginary sequence when they introduce Connor, originally he was gonna ask Ruby to go to prom with her, which she would say yes. An alternative version of the line "Alge-bro" can also be seen there as well, and Margot's line was cut after Ruby wasn't sure of going to prom.

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