Yeah, I have a coloring book about mermaid myths from around the world, and it seems more or less evenly mixed with good and evil mermaid myths. Some kinda have Blue and Orange Morality that's hard to even categorize as good or evil by our standards.
With the mermaids in this movie, part of the problem may be the fact that they're The Ageless unlike the Krakens. While the Krakens have to change and grow with new generations like humans do, the mermaids don't. Of course this means mermaid society won't change as quickly.
It's telling that the mermaid Ruby faces isn't another teenager like herself, but a bitter adult who was her mother's foe (and could likely be older than her mother or even her grandmother).
Disgusted, but not surprisedStoryboard artist Jon Magram just uploaded a 4 minute alternate storyboard for the film, featuring Ruby and Chelsea's ditch day. It's likely from the film's "Meet the Gillmans" era. From what we know about that time with Paul Tibbit at the helm, it was described as "SpongeBob SquarePants meets Coneheads" by Timothy Lamb
, Character Lead Artist.
Someone in the comments compared it to Sasha and Anne which really works and could have been a better angle to go with. Basically, they should have kept it as an So L.
It's better if you think of it as a story about bridging generational divides not unlike Turning Red. Which makes the Big Bad being an ageless foe all the more fitting.
Disgusted, but not surprisedAlthough this movie differs from those examples in that it has an actual Big Bad.
Disgusted, but not surprisedJon Magram's storyboard already gave several ad ideas revolving around Take That! on The Little Mermaid... and not giving away big spoilers at the ending.
Chelsea stealing stuff and causing trouble is already a good enough indication that she's not like Ariel at all. Didn't require flaring big neon signs saying "CHELSEA IS EVIL AND IS THE FINAL BOSS!"
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/teenage-kraken-director-gets-honest-000236666.html
This is looking to be good news, though this depends on Dreamworks (as they have the final say), but if the director has his way: Ruby Gillman 2 will likely be a thing, despite the film's poor box office earnings.
Though Dreamworks was probably banking more on the streaming service's results over the box office earnings.
Edited by VioletParrfan1989 on Jul 8th 2023 at 7:52:22 AM
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Why would that (i.e. the people assuming she's just a mischievous friend) be a problem? The whole point of a Twist Villain is that the viewers should be misled into believing that the character is relatively harmless and then get surprised that said character is the villain.
In this case, it wasn't just that people thought she was Ruby's friend, its that some people thought they were going to be lovers or something. It doesn't matter if nothing in the marketing suggested that. People would have been upset if they thought they were going to get lesbians and instead just got a traditional "hero vs villain" story.
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It DEFINETLY spiraled into shipping REALLY fast,but the general consensus was that Chelsea would either be good but misguided, coerced, or something of that nature and they'd actually become friends for real since the trailer made it so obvious that people thought there HAD to be a twist of some kind. That it was all played completely straight and the trailer DID spoil whatvwas apparently a big twist was really that disappointing.
I suspect that people would have felt that way regardless of how much the trailer showed. I remember that Netflix Wednesday show, and the trailers told the viewer little about the plot or characters other than the title character. But we knew there was going to be a quirky blonde girl who would basically be the opposite of Wednesday in the show, and they would be roommates. We knew very little else.
Nonetheless, many people instantly jumped on this, and began "shipping" them, and even writing fanfics about them. This was all months before the show premiered, or we knew exactly what kind of relationship or dynamic these characters would have. People just knew that there were two cute/hot girls that they wanted to see in a relationship because...
Anyway, I still think people would have reacted differently if the villain in Ruby Gillman had been male instead of female.
People would write fanfics REGARDLESS of anything the showrunners for either series or movie. The ones for Wednesday likely did it intentionally knowing it would generate speculation and thus publicity. If the villain of Ruby Gillman had been male, the speculation would be he was similar to Hans from Frozen or some Lord Farquad type or "Nice Guy" type of douche. I'm basing my posts on what I've read on other threads, youtube, and reddit all which have the same take that they expected a twist like the one I mentioned with them being disappointed that the trailer spoiled everything.
That's kind of the issue. There's nothing wrong with your statement, but it just feels like they could have done much more. It also doesn't help that a plethora of other movies have done the same or similar story beats and arguably better(Luca, Turning Red, Sky High, Encanto) in terms of trying to fit in and dealing with generational trauma and parental issues.
An animatic for a very important late scene in the film was released on Youtube.
The video title is a spoiler, so I don't feel that embedding it is wise, though most people who care to see the film have presumably done so.
It's a different take on a scene still in the movie, but the difference is definitely worth noting.
Chelsea being Nerissa's daughter is a concept that made it to the animatic phase, so people trying to think that Chelsea was simply lying have been somewhat validated.
Edited by Grounder on Jul 19th 2023 at 7:14:22 AM
They sacrificed a more nuanced story regarding Chelsea and the mermaids. with a lot more interesting depth and characterization angles for a twist villain? Now I don't feel so bad about the movie flopping given what it threw away. If they ever make an animated series I wouldn't be surprised if it's an Alternate Continuity and they keep the early concepts on it
Prettiest Meta Knight Gijinka, ngl
