No doubt many a point will be made about how much of what Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is attempting, and mostly succeeds in doing, has been done before, and quite recently. The difference lies in execution, and what it lacks in its mostly surface level comedy chops is perhaps compensated for in that the studio bringing the immigration-puberty metaphor is DreamWorks rather than Disney.

Ruby Gillman and her family are hiding in plain sight as things kick off, disguising their status as sea-dwelling creatures on land by informing people they’re…from Canada. It works, believe it or not, and the blue-skinned clan is doing fairly well, despite 16-year-old Ruby (Lana Condor) missing out on quite a bit of the high school experience in their sleepy seaside town due to her mother Agatha (Toni Collette) forbidding her from going into the water.

But you know how it is. One minute, your biggest concern is asking your crush to prom, the next you’ve disobeyed your mother’s one rule and have become a giant purple monstrosity. Girl, we’ve all been there right?

The difference is that Ruby discovers there’s even more to her story than her true identity being a mythical sea beast. She’s also royalty, and the women in her family are part of a long line of warriors who are sworn to defend the ocean from any and all threats. No pressure right?

Ups and Downs

Faster than you can say turning red, Ruby discovers there are drawbacks to this princess thing, like a Grandmamah (Jane Fonda) with rage and anti-human issues, the fact that her apparently badass mother kept a whole other part of her heritage from her, and Chelsea (Annie Murphy) the new girl at school, revealing herself to be a mermaid and inviting her on quest to end the feud between their species.

It’s a whole lot of directions for a teenager to be pulled in, and Ruby is soon lying to nearly everyone in her life, ignoring her loyal friend squad, discovering her new abilities thanks to her Grandmamah’s training sessions, and contemplating whether she truly belongs on land or the gorgeous ocean depths that also feels like her home away from home.

It’s also adorable, with the defined yet softly rounded DreamWorks animation keeping things light and family-friendly. It’s so funny and so familiarly grounded at times, the high point being when Agatha quietly sits with Ruby and lets her cry her way back into emotional stability after her first transformation, that you’ll have a hard time holding it against the movie when it fails to dive deep into its many twists and turns.

Little Mermaid Gone Awry

The real villain isn’t only obvious, it’s outright stated, not to mention a big part of the marketing, and the fact that Chelsea is a narcissistic redhead with a fishtail adds to the gleeful skewering of a beloved Disney trademark. But at heart, this is a generational mother-daughter reconciliation story, even if Agatha and her own mother share precious little screentime. Nor is there much discussion of why she gave up a life of royalty for the surface world her mother despised.

There’s more than enough to get us invested in them both, and what remains is still a deeply funny viewing experience that no one in the family could call boring, even if almost none it is surprising, save perhaps the playful inversion of the final battle, where we root for the one with tentacles. Leave it to DreamWorks to toy with such iconic imagery, which also scores points for a certain originality at a time when screens are saturated with ever more recycled IP.

The sweet sincerity is also bolstered by a supporting cast of characters, both human and otherwise, that keep our attention even when they spend the majority of the time shuffled off-screen. And it’s difficult to imagine a more fitting time for the release of Teenage Kraken when the ocean is showing numerous signs of biting back at the pesky humans. If nothing else, it’s a nice reminder that Disney doesn’t own everything yet.

Rating: 7/10 SPECS

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken opens in theaters across the country June 30.

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