Duckyworth's Thoughts: Help! I'm A Fish ~ 2000

47 min read

Deviation Actions

Duckyworth's avatar
By
Published:
6.9K Views


EDIT: Forwarded from :iconvindurza:
there's a new hack out there in DA THEY SEND YOU A REPLY THAT LOOKS LIKE "hey check this out *insert link* DO NOT CLICK THE LINK ITS A HACK. PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD!! >={

Hello, my friends, and welcome to the next Duckyworth's Thoughts review! :wave:

Time for us to have a look at another film I feel is underappreciated.... A cult classic that I feel has been chucked aside and denied the chance it deserves...Like Home on the Range, it may be humble, it may not be the BEST film I've seen, and it may have flaws, but I'm happy I saw it. :) It's cute, it's creative, and the flaws may be noticeable, but they don't make the film BAD... :D
On top of that, I can describe this film as a more humble version of Finding Nemo or Ponyo, and yet another film I feel deserves more love than it has, and like Vuk the Little Fox and Rock and Rule, it shows just how I can be pleasantly surprised I can be by an animated film that may not be as special at first glance, but when you look at it, you can see what you've been missing out on......
Let's look at the Danish underwater adventure –
'Help! I'm A Fish'. :w00t:

DT 63 - Help! I'm A Fish by Duckyworth

The film revolves around three children, Fly, Stella and Chuck, who, while exploring one day, come across a crazy professor called Professor MacKrill, who has made a magic potion that can turn people into fish. Unfortunately, they end up drinking the potion, and they turn into fish and are now lost in the sea... They only have 48 hours to find the antidote which can turn them back into humans, but unfortunately, the antidote has been stolen by an evil fish named Joe, who has become addicted to the antidote, and with his newfound intelligence, he plans to build an undersea empire in the glory of himself, who he considers the smartest fish in existence....... :iconwoooplz:
When I heard that premise alone, I was hyped to 'SEA' this film. :XD: I actually first saw this film when I was younger, at the age of 6... But unfortunately, the film hasn't re-aired on TV... :cries: Luckily, I saw the film again on the internet, and it was JUST as good as I remember... possibly even better than I remember. :aww:
And, even better... the same company who made THE FLIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS – A.Film A/S, made this – in fact, the director of that atrocious farce, Michael Hegner, directed this and made up for his past mistakes - and they somehow managed to redeem themselves for that HORRIBLE piece of tripe... Now THAT is impressive, like Disney being able to make up for that atrocity The Wild with FANTASTIC films like Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph... :clap:

Let's start off with the characters themselves. :D
First of all, these child characters are WELL written... I like these child characters, like Coraline, Wybie, Russell from Up, Cody from Rescuers Down Under, Tails :icontailsplz: and some other child characters I like, these are GOOD examples of child characters. :aww:
Fly is the 'tough guy' of the three main characters, who reminds me a little bit of Cody from Rescuers Down Under mixed together with Jim Hawkins from Treasure Planet and Hogarth Hughes from The Iron Giant. :) I like his design, I like how he's someone who likes to explore, and likes to be a little bit of a rebel and a mischief maker, when he decides to leave the house to go fishing and doesn't want to be kept in one place – he wants to do his own thing... But still, he shows definite affections for his family and his friend Chuck, and even admits that earlier in the film that he was wrong to act the way he was before. :) He sometimes makes fun of his friend Chuck for being a know-it-all, but he soon appreciates how important it is to use your brain, and he actually manages to OUTWIT the villain at the end, making him more of a three-dimensional and likeable character – unlike Pips from Fern Gully or Omar from Rock and Rule, he's not just a tough guy, he shows he has some definite brains, and it shows that JUST acting tough is not enough to get through life, sometimes, you HAVE to use your logic to succeed... and not only does this boy succeed, he EXCELS. Probably one of the more developed child characters I've seen in while. :aww: Sure, he may be a bit reckless at times, but unlike HORRID characters like Kayley from Quest for Camelot or Bella Swan, he does try his hardest instead of being all bark and no bite, and you really do feel emotions for him and hope he comes out okay... and he doesn't CONSTANTLY whinge and does actually know when to be quiet at times... Like that sad moment when he ADMITS he shouldn't be so reckless all the time.... :( I also find it touching when we see his relationship towards his younger sister... unlike how horrible Max's older sibling is to him in Where The Wild Things Are, I can see some compassion between them... After they've turned into fish and when Fly throws his sister above his head and catches her... That was pretty cute... :giggle:
As for his name..... Fly? Really? :rofl: What, was BEE too dumb a name for his mom to call him? :XD: Sounds like he belongs in the group McFly... If he's Scottish, that confirms it... :lol: Perhaps the name is in light of his love for fishing. :) I like the joke that is in the film about the lure he uses – a 'California Fly-Fish' toy, and he says it looks like a handsome fish... and funnily, he turns into one after taking the fish potion.... and still has hair. :D
Also, for his age, he's pretty TOUGH.... I mean that, because later in the film, he gets PUMMELED by the Head Crab, and not only does he get a bad cut in his side that causes him to BLEED :icondoomed3plz: -
:iconnostalgiacriticplz::iconsaysplz:You know- for KIDS!
But he also manages to, WHILE IN THIS STATE, stay with his friends all the way, defeats the villain by OUTSMARTING, and STILL manages to climb his way out of the drain system when he turns back into a human.... ALL while in a state that seems like he's seen worse days than BLACKAVAR from Watership Down....
:wow: Wow... is this boy BIGWIG from Watership Down in human child form?! He seems that hardy... :rofl:
I can also imagine that voice coming out of that character – for some reason, he reminds me of Russell from Up with that voice... and maybe a little bit of Victor from Frankenweenie. :D
The only thing I found a little bit strange about Fly is how he recklessly deletes Chuck's program on his laptop and when he DOES throw a transformed Stella out into the sea.... :ohnoes: But still, it's like when Wybie gives Coraline the Coraline doll and yet he STILL redeems himself by helping Coraline defeat the Other Mother... Fly DOES make up for his flaws... Unlike SOME characters I've analysed in the past that have flaws... But they NEVER make up for them... :no:
Oh, and the little 'haters gonna hate' 'walk' he does in one point of the film REALLY gets me laughing. :XD:

Another thing I like about the child characters is that they do ALL actually DO something of value in this film... Unlike with Kayley from Quest For Camelot, Pippi Longstocking, Bella from Twilight, Niko from The Flight Before Christmas and Ryan from The Wild, these child characters are not simply obnoxious little burdens that constantly get in the way and do nothing to prove themselves but somehow STILL get rewarded at the end – Kayley for example did absolutely NOTHING to prove herself a knight, making Garrett do all the work and yet SOMEHOW still getting something she DIDN'T deserve at the end and Niko and Ryan are just obnoxious little pawns who are more trouble than they're worth – in this film, ALL of the children do something of value. :clap: For example, Fly may seem like the main character at the beginning of the film, but Chuck and Stella also get chances to prove themselves – when Fly is badly injured, Chuck helps him out and finds a way back to dry land from the sea, and Stella does help find pieces of the antidote potion and above all, she is really sweet. :aww:

Stella is, in my opinion, a GREATLY MADE child character. :aww: Listen to this, she looks like a mixture of two of my LEAST favourite female characters of all time – Pippi Longstocking and Vanellope Von Schweetz from Wreck-It Ralph.... :iconshockedfaceplz:
Yeah... read that and tell yourself... How FRIGHTENING does that combination sound?! :nuu:
But somehow, they STILL made a likeable character out of it... Her voice is SO sweet... :love: She reminds me of Penny from The Rescuers, Olivia from Basil the Great Mouse Detective, Vuk from Vuk the Little Fox and the baby rabbit from Robin Hood, who I also found adorable... :love: For me, this was the voice Vanellope SHOULD have had... If Vanellope had THIS voice... She would me MUCH more tolerable... Stella does not SCREECH in the slightest... :phew: True, she does constantly say she's thirsty in one scene when they arrive in Professor MacKrill's lab, but they did need SOME way to get them to turn into fish... :shrug:
And when she turns into a starfish (next to the OLD Patrick Star from the OLD episodes of Spongebob, I found her design ADORABLE. :giggle: One of the CUTEST starfish in cartoon history... And her relationship towards her brother, as I said, is pretty sweet. As I said before, she isn't JUST a little burden who contributes nothing – the friendship she makes with a seahorse Sasha :love: is one of the cutest relationships I've seen recently, and she actually does ask Sasha to help them out later in the film and they DO help to find components for the antidote..... And of course, the scene where she has to say goodbye to Sasha..... When I was a child, and when I last saw this, to be honest, the scene was REALLY hard to watch.... :cries: But luckily, Sasha and Stella get reunited at the end of the film. :love: I'll talk a bit more about  Sasha later. :meow:

Chuck is a child genetics prodigy, who reminds me of a mixture between Dizzy from Rock and Rule and Bob from Frankenweenie... and maybe a tubbier version of Seymour from Little Shop of Horrors (1986)... :XD: I like the fact that it's actually a larger boy that is the smarter one in this film, as that's something you don't see that often – usually, the largest character is the DUMBEST one (even some of my dumber characters are.. unfortunately, the tubbier ones ^^;) but here, like with Al in Ratchet and Clank and Dizzy in Rock and Rule, it's strangely refreshing to see the large boy be the genius of the group. :phew: Like with Fly and Stella, his voice fits his character so well.... :D And of course, when he takes the fish potion.... I have to admit, it is pretty funny when you see that he's turned into a jellyfish, and he turns angry and red. :XD: Another thing I like is that he's NOT just intelligent, at the end of the film, HE'S the one who comes to Fly's aid when Fly is badly wounded, he finds the way back to the lab where the antidote is, AND he manages to fight off a bunch of hungry piranhas when the villain throws the children into the piranha tank... It is pretty amusing seeing a JELLYFISH perform karate kicks, let me tell you... :rofl:
He makes up for his inability to swim earlier on in the film, and he's not just a smart guy who can't take care of himself... Like Francis from Felidae, Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bentley from Sly Cooper, Sandy from Spongebob and Basil from Basil the Great Mouse Detective, he is REALLY effective at not only outsmarting his adversaries, but he can actually fight his way out when he has to. :) Perhaps I should have put him on my Top 10 Favourite Heroic Boffins list... Consider him a number 11 spot, I guess. :aww:

Sasha is, as I said before, an adorable little seahorse that Stella befriends, but unfortunately has to put back in the sea when she first meets her... But luckily, they do meet up when the children are turned into fish. :aww: She reminds me of Mystery in Spongebob Squarepants, not just because she's a seahorse ^^;, but because she also appears a little bit wary around Stella when they first meet each other, they do develop a very firm friendship, and it does tug on the heartstrings pretty hard when Stella has to say goodbye to Sasha when she learns that Sasha can't accompany her to back to the surface, because Stella ISN'T selfish enough to want to keep Sasha – she KNOWS she has to let her go to keep her safe from harm. :cries: Like Stella, Sasha is not JUST a cute character, she does contribute to the team... When the children are captured and locked in a cage, Sasha steals the key from the guard and helps them escape and she also helps find pieces of the antidote for them... Unlike the characters in Legend of the Guardians: Owls of Ga'Hoole and The Wild, she doesn't JUST turn up in a contrived way to help the characters out and suddenly disappears, never to be seen again, she DOES have a genuine point. :aww: Plus, I have to feel sorry for her when she has to partake hard physical labour for the villain... And plus, the way she escapes is FAR less contrived than the way Kayley escapes her captors in Quest For Camelot – a block drops from above, and Sasha ACTUALLY swims in a way so it breaks her harness.. She doesn't JUST do NOTHING to get out of trouble like Kayley did... :clap: And when the children return to normal, seeing Sasha return is pretty sweet... And above that, I did like the scene where Professor MacKrill works with Chuck to make a solution that turns Sasha into a REAL horse. :D Even if her snout does look a bit STRANGE on a real horse, I must admit, Sasha deserved to be with the one she befriended, and Stella deserved to have a friend like Sasha, as they did work for it... Unlike Bella and Kayley who DID NOTHING but somehow got rewarded for it – Okay, okay, I'll try to STOP going on and on about those two HORRID characters, but it just goes to show how much BETTER this film was written than BOTH Twilight and Quest For Camelot, and how much more likeable and memorable the characters are. :aww: And luckily, Sasha doesn't start eating money, stoves or even ELDERLY FISH like Mystery did....
And Sasha is a good name for her – Mystery is a nice name too, but Stella didn't say 'I knew I should have named her Debbie...' :XD:

Professor MacKrill, played by Terry Jones (one of the Monty Python crew :XD:) is an eccentric scientist who strangely enough, reminds me of a much more kind version of Professor Screw-eyes from A Dinosaur Story. :giggle: He's a marine biologist, and while undergoing research of global warming and the polar ice caps melting, flooding the earth...
Wait, wait...... An environmental message? :wow: And it's SUBTLE? :clap:
His song was SURPRISINGLY catchy in this film (as were MOST of the songs – I'll get back to those. :D) and I did enjoy the whole recipe for his fish potion, and how he had the foresight to make an antidote. :D Not really much I can say for him, except that I liked him overall, and I did enjoy his design, eccentricities and voice. :D

The next character I'll talk about is one that may look a bit familiar.... Chuck's mother, Anna. Yep, who does she look like? :XD:
How many twin sisters does Aunt Fig from the Tom and Jerry Movie HAVE, exactly!? :rofl: We had Mrs Prysellius from Pippi Longstocking, and now we've got Chuck's mom. :XD: But out of these three triplets,  Anna is probably the one that's most tolerable. :XD: She's the children's babysitter early on in the film – so at least the parents in THIS film don't commit any terrible parenting mistakes, they at least hire a babysitter :aww: - and she falls asleep while reading a story to Stella (must be one thrilling story... Was she reading her the Twilight novels? :rofl:) and has doodles drawn all over her – which makes her look EVEN MORE like the Matchmaker from Mulan – she does look a bit like that hilarious woman already... :XD: And even though she may seem like a pushy, bossy large woman you OFTEN see in films, you have to at least give her credit that she has a CLOSE bonding with her son Chuck... And I MEAN close... Somehow, she seems to have a psychic connection with him quite a few times in the film – when Chuck turns into a jellyfish and when he screams after being attacked by the villain... :XD:
And best of all, she isn't forced to be subjected to the pig-tailed peabrain Pippi Longstocking, so she's more fortunate than her APPARENT twin sister Mrs Prysellius... :XD: She's also much more memorable than the other parents.... the parents of Fly and Stella – Bill and Lisa.... and to be fair, they aren't TERRIBLE characters, they're actually quite pleasant parents, and unlike Prancer from The Flight Before Christmas, Denethor from Lord of the Rings, Buck from Chicken Little and Samson from The Wild, they are always ready to help their children – they some GENUINE concern for their children when they learn that they are in trouble and.... for some reason, they remind me of the characters from The Iron Giant in their design.... Maybe the same people that animated them animated Bill and Lisa. :aww:

Now let's move onto our villain for the evening... :evillaugh: A SURPRISINGLY effective villain, and a very underrated one in my opinion..... JOE. :iconprussiaplz:
Wait.... his name is JOE? :iconspongebobwutplz:
Yeah...  not the most EVIL name for a villain, but then neither is Kazar in The Wild, Ruber in Quest For Camelot, Strickland from Top Cat (2011) or........ urgh, BLACK WOLF in The Flight Before Christmas.... ^^; And Joe is MUCH more creative than all of those villains, and the absolute best part about him?
His VOICE. :XD: Alan Rickman. Judge Turpin from Sweeney Todd and Professor Snape from Harry Potter. :evillaugh: And he does sound extremely cool and suave in this, and has a creepily cool and collected voice... It is pretty funny hearing such a sinister voice come out of a FISH. :D I keep expecting him to say – 'You gandered at my ward... Joanna. You gandered at her – YES, sir, you gandered.' :giggle:
Joe himself is a pilot fish who was at first cleaning out the teeth of a shark, but he is the first fish who had a taste for Professor MacKrill's anti-fish antidote, and because of his, he considers himself the smartest fish in the ocean, and becomes a power-hungry dictator who plans to take control over all the fish in the sea, like a pilot fish version of Plankton.... :evillaugh:
So, yes, Joe wants to, you guessed it, take over the world... :iconofcourseplz:
But like other villains I've seen, his goal may be slightly generic, but he has some pretty inventive additions to his character. :D First of all, I find his design pretty cool. He reminds me a little bit of a fish version of Hexxus from FernGully, and he sounds a little bit like him too.... and perhaps if you mixed together one of the clowns from Killer Clowns from Outer Space and Gill from Finding Nemo. :D But instead of making pollution seem attractive, Joe makes EVOLUTION seem attractive... :XD:
After drinking the antidote, he uses it to evolve many other fish, and because he is the first to have tasted it, he has been dubbed the ruler of this part of the sea.... and I have to admit, it is actually a little bit CREEPY how zealous all these fish are to consider Joe as their 'god'. ^^; When I saw them smiling freakily and staring at him, I kept thinking of the Unitologists in Dead Space chanting 'Altman be praised...' :lol:
But as I said, his song reminds me of Toxic Love in FernGully, and it is a pretty catchy song – another song which I am really surprised was as catchy as it was. :D It reminded me of Be Prepared from The Lion King too.... Alan Rickman's voice reminds me of SO many things, for some reason. :) Here are the lyrics to the song so you can see how awesome they sound –
'Once there was a lonely silence.
And not a speck of hope in sight
And every tiny bubble burst
On its journey to the light.
But the spark of creation will flicker again.
It's a brand new era about to begin.

Now we've been caught, we've been sold,
And left out in the cold.
Evolution's been passing us by.
With this potion in hand,
We've been given the chance.
It's time to turn the tide.
Come join me and seize this opportunity.
Alter your destiny.
One single drop
Will be enough
To put you on top.

Intelligence. Say you'll lead the way.
Intelligence. Have a sip today
We owe it all to Joe.

One potion, one ocean, One ruler of all.

It's a vision I've seen,
It's the world of your dreams
It's a pearl in the palm of your hand.
And with the power of speech,
It is all within reach.
We can swim to the promised land.

Promise us, Joe,
You'll be our kinda' guy.
Such an amazing guy.
King of the cod, Lord of the krill, The prince of the swill

Intelligence, Say you'll lead the way,
Intelligence, Have a sip today
We owe it all to Joe.
King of the cod, Lord of the krill, The prince of the swill.'
Joe and Hexxus should do a duet together, in my opinion... I can imagine it now. :XD:
'It's a vision I've seen, It's the world of your dreams, It's a pearl in the palm of your hand. And with the power of speech, It is all within reach. We can swim to the promised land.'
'Slime beneath me, MMMM. Slime up above me. Oooh, you'll love my, hah, hah, hah, Toxic Love.'
Now that I think about it, it seems a tad religious, the song singing about the promised land and sparks of creation... :D
But other than a great singing voice, I love the relationship Joe has with his shark lackey.... Joe has to make a balance between ruling with brute strength and with intellect. When the shark keeps showing that he's more physically strong than Joe, it is pretty funny seeing how Joe has to actually be careful around the one he used to clean the teeth for before they took the antidote... A rare incidence where the ruler has to be wary around the lackey. :D
When Joe talks about building statues to one of his servants via... communicator fish, still not sure how that works, but I'm not questioning it either :shrug:, it reminded of me of Plankton in the Spongebob movie when he said 'This monument celebrating my glory isn't gonna build itself!' Perhaps Plankton observed Joe's plans, and then decided to take the plan up a notch by working in the Mind Control Helmets, and maybe he decided that he was too smart to need any antidote... :lol:
One thing that is also pretty cool about Joe is that he has one of those classic fatal addictions to the antidote – it's something he can't get enough of, and he actually ends up NEEDING more of the antidote, as he seems to become pretty addicted to it judging by the lengths he goes to to get more – child endangerment, locking them up until they reveal the recipe, sending out ARMIES to get it.... Is the antidote the ONE RING OF POWER to you, Joe? I can just imagine you bending over it and saying 'My precious....' ^^;
And also, his death is one of the most creative – but most creepy, I've seen in a while. :fear: He steals the antidote from Chuck later in the film's climax, and he swims off with it, but then Fly catches up with him, and calls him a stupid fish. Repeatedly asking Joe harder and harder questions, Fly tricks Joe into having to take more of the antidote to turn himself into a smarter human.... If a horrifically UGLY human that evolves pretty graphically, and sounds like a more grotesque version of The Elephant Man.... And then, after he's become a human..... Joe DROWNS. :iconbrainfreeze3plz:
:iconnostalgiacriticplz::iconsaysplz:You know – for KIDS!
I'm glad that they didn't just make him die via gravity like so many villains do – they came up with a very clever idea for a death – making it so that even a character as smart as Joe can be tricked by Fly due to his addictions, and how they can make a death seem so  surprisingly fresh. :) I can't really think of any other villains that drowned, so I give the film credit for coming with an original death. It just makes Joe a much more underappreciated villain, and one I think deserves more credit. :clap:
:iconthecrazyoneofthegang: says:
'There's that one thing that I seem to always judge, the villain death. Maybe it's because I'm twisted in the head, but an animated movie will often get bonus points from me if the villain death is creative and/or dark, because it shows the crew behind the movie had real guts to put that kind of stuff in and know that kids would be okay with it (so long as we keep it within the rating it's okay *happy music plays*)
Joe of course gets full marks because, not only was his death creative, but it also showed that Fly outsmarted him all on his own with his own quick-thinking, not just through dumb luck or last-minute assistance from a side-character. Fly played on Joe's need to be smarter to force him to evolve (graphically :fear: ) until he destroys himself. That took brains, and also lead to my favourite lines in the film:

Fly: "what happens when a fish drinks too much antidote?"
Joe: "It becomes a human."
Fly: "Can a human breathe underwater?"
Joe: "Of course not! uhhhhhhh..." *dead*
and then we have the happy image of his corpse floating down the drainage pipe, because this is a FAMILY picture!'

The great white shark in question is creatively called...... SHARK. :iconthatsgreatplz: Looks like Pippi Longstocking's skill in naming animals touched THIS film too... :hmm:  But still, The Shark is like a mixture between Bruce from Finding Nemo and Patrick Star (the OLD Patrick Star, which explains why he's funny :D), and strangely enough, he seems to have a Cockney accent... :lol: Anyway, when I first saw this film, I didn't know whether to find him funny or TERRIFYING... :o I mean, the first time we see him, he CHOMPS into a crab SPURTING BLOOD :iconmrkrabsscreamplz:
:iconnostalgiacriticplz::iconsaysplz: You know – For KIDS!
But still, the way he spoke, and repeatedly referred to the children as 'little snacks' made me laugh quite a bit. :giggle: But still, HOW MUCH DOES THIS SHARK EAT?! :lol: He eats more than BOMBUR from The Hobbit – which, sure, his size explains that, but he eats four servants of Joe, a fish who annoyed him, The Crab who I'll mention in a bit and he actually DOES put the children in his mouth in an earlier scene, but spits them out for Joe... When he put them in his mouth, when I was a child, that scared the HECK out of me.... ^^;  As I said, I like how Joe and the Shark constantly flip-flop back and forth between being in charge of each other – Joe dubs himself smarter than the Shark and even FIRES him at one point, but the Shark points out that Joe promised to give him a place of power, and that Joe USED to be the one who cleaned his teeth, AND he even intimidates him into making him the Captain of the Guard... before Joe fires him and tries to trick Fly into being the Captain of the Guard in return for the antidote. Also, the Shark says, in a pretty dumb voice :XD:, that they don't need any more antidote, they're smart enough already... And many of the expressions he pulls get me laughing. :rofl: He ends up being sucked up by the motor of MacKrill's boat, and after a funny scene where he's swirling around and around while yelling at Joe and eating The Crab, he gets his head stuck in the motor funnel. :XD: I question what happened to him next, and where he is now, but oh well, any defeat is good enough for me. :D He's not made dumb JUST to be dumb, he is pretty fun.... if a bit unnerving at times. :D

The final character here is The Crab.... again, creative name... :hmm: He's the first fish Joe deliberately gave the antidote to, the head of Joe's rock crab soldiers, and shows great interest in trying to move up the ranks. He guards the children's cage in one scene, and Fly tries to trick him into opening the cage for him by 'testing his strength on the bars'. But I like how they don't make the crab THAT easy to fool, and he instead tests his strength on the KEY to the cage, cutting it in two. ^^; Anyway, we don't see much of him after Sasha steals the key off him when he's sleeping (yeah... great watchman duties there, crabby... :lol:) but when we do see him.... the dirt really hits the fan... :fear: He shows he's tired of playing second fiddle to Joe and The Shark, steals the antidote that the children made and evolves himself to make himself stronger, and worst of all, he WALLOPS Fly, causing him to BLEED!! :iconshockedfaceplz:
Yeah, when I was a child, that made me jump out of my chair when I saw it! The film was nowhere near that intense before that point, but then.... I actually felt pretty worried.... ^^;
Luckily, all his crab soldiers get sucked up by MacKrill's boat motor, and when he tries to beat up Joe, the Shark eats him. :w00t: But still, he was one soldier who was full of surprises... ^^;

Okay, characters done, now onto the other elements. :)

The animation... is REALLY great to watch. :D Animators from The Iron Giant, Pocahontas, The Lion King, Fern Gully, An American Tail, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Felidae, The Princess and the Goblin, Balto, Once Upon a Forest, and...... sigh, Quest for Camelot :no: .... worked on this film, and in all those films, I did like the animation (even Quest For Camelot, to its credit, had a few good pieces of animation. :aww: But sadly, that couldn't save the characters, story and music in that film... ^^;), and here, this is no exception. :) Some of the CGI does look a tad dated now... But come on, over 13 years, CGI has definitely improved, and it's bound to look a bit dated now... But still, even if it's dated, the CGI holds up pretty well, in my opinion. :) I was actually surprised watching this again when I saw how IMPRESSIVE the animation is.... It felt like it was worthy of Disney – and considering the fact that some of the animators on this used to work for Disney, it all figures – true, maybe not as good as Don Bluth, but still, I did feel that Disney would be proud of how great the animation is. :aww: Some of the things like the octopus the children encounter hasn't held up as well, but still, give them points for definite effort. :)

The voice actors, as I said before, are really good in this film – all the voices fit their characters perfectly, and even the CHILD actors seem to be trying their hardest. :aww: For many of the voices I haven't heard before, I really wish they move on to bigger and better things, because I feel they would fit into the acting world really well. :)

The music is, as I've mentioned once or twice, really great. :D Usually, I'm not really a fan of the pop music that the film uses, but in this case... It works really well and it really nice to listen to. :D Most people, unfortunately remember this film JUST for the song 'I'm a Little Yellow Fish', like with how Quest for Camelot is just remembered for The Prayer... :( But at least in 'Help! I'm a Fish''s case, the song DOES actually fit well into the film, unlike in Quest for Camelot where they stupidly toss it in a half-assed manner into an action scene with no respect for the angelic music whatsoever... :hmm: But in HIAF's case, the characters who sing sing well, the music is great to listen to, and.... even though I feel the film could have had one or two more songs – like with Basil the Great Mouse Detective – the ones that make it into the film are a welcome addition. Again, I was surprised how catchy the music was and how some of it kept with me so well over the years... Even unconsciously, I found myself thinking of the tunes, they were so memorable. :D
Here are some links to some of the songs in the film. :headbang:
Ocean Love - www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsSb_b…
I'm a Little Yellow Fish – www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lejU7…
Fishtastic – www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC371P…
Intelligence - www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5ptpu…
Do You Believe In Magic? - www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOJ5cH…
Close Your Eyes - www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AK3G6…

As I've said before, it also surprised me how DARK the film can get at times... :fear: As well as child endangerment, the idea of the children only having 48 hours to turn back into humans, the villain death, how much The Shark eats and the surprising amounts of BLOOD this film crammed in, we also get a pretty hard to watch scene when everyone thinks Fly didn't get turned back into a human, and they mourn his apparent death... and it seems that Anna accidentally STEPS on him... :iconohfuckplz: That is a PRETTY harsh scene... But luckily, we see Fly is alive, climbing out of the water pipe as a human - he has a limp due to the injury he had, but other than that. he's fine... :phew: The Fly imposter in question? That pesky California Fly Fish... :shakefish: They should really throw that out before it causes anymore trouble! ^^; But of course, like Don Bluth, this film has the philosophy that children can cope with anything as long as a happy ending is attached. :aww: And we end with Stella being reunited with Sasha, Sasha being turned into a horse, Professor MacKrill building a water slide, Chuck allowing Fly to share his computer... and everyone lives happily ever after..... Except for Joe... whose corpse is floating down a sewage pipe.... ^^; Still, I wonder if Professor MacKrill will find more of a use for his fish potion in the future.... Hopefully he will......
That is, if they ever made a sequel for this film.....
But unfortunately, this film never had a sequel made... Which is actually a good thing, because this film doesn't deserved to be ruined by a half-assed sequel like Vuk the Little Fox was by A Fox's Tale.... :fear: Thank GOODNESS a sequel was never made!! ^^;

As I said, I know I keep saying this over and over, but this IS a good film I think you should check out. :aww: True, some of the effects may have dated, and the story may not be the most solid - as it does feel a bit rushed at times - the film does seem a tad too short for me, and I felt that for some people, the whole mention of global warming melting the ice caps may seem a bit unneccessary - just telling a story where three children are turned into fish by some kind of potion or magic would have been fine on it's own... But that's what they focus on most, and that's where the charm and likeability comes from. :aww: The characters are memorable, the music is catchy, the designs and scenarios are fun, I felt it didn't resort to pop-cultural references that much, if at all, instead relying on it's OWN ideas - which some people see as a plus, and of course... the animation is GREAT, as we've come to expect from the animators that have worked on some films I mentioned earlier. Like many other films I like, it has stood the test of time.... :clap:

So, while this film may not be the best I've seen, and it WAS a huge flop at the box office :( , it was definately creative.... And it remains a fave of mine, which I think it deserves, as it is sadly underrated.... Like Home on the Range, Rock and Rule, The Black Cauldron, Return to Oz, and some other films I've reviewed, it deserves more love. :aww:

Here are some quotes from my friends who commented on my poll for it. :)

:iconthecrazyoneofthegang: says –
'An incredibly under-appreciated flick, I never got a chance to see this in theaters because trailers made it look pretty lame and my mum refused, however I watched it on TV a few years back and loved it. Beautiful animation, a great voice cast, and some pretty inventive designs too.
I felt so bad for this movie when it was released in the US, did you see the box art? it was freaking abysmal.
I don't know what was going through the minds of the US marketing, but they must have been taking something strange and ungodly illegal to look at this:
i2.listal.com/image/1928405/60…
and think "pfft, that won't sell this movie, we need something more like this:
www.theneitherworld.com/hiaf/i…
What in the name of Alan Rickman is that?! It's not even the same title. I double-checked to see if this was a rip-off, because it certainly looks like something Sparkplug would vomit up, but no, this was the cover for the real movie....why USA? Why would you do this?'
:iconvuk-91: says –
'One of the movies I enjoyed play repeatedly back then.'
:iconsims3man68: says –
'Just watched it today. I'll try to keep my opinion short and sweet.

................

OMG IT WAS SO AWESOME I'M IN LOVE!!!!! :iconhellyeahplz:'
:iconvindurza: says –
'What the comment above mine says ^'

Sadly, the link I watched in on was on Veoh, so I had to download Veoh player to watch it, but still, I think you should check this film... It is worth every single second... And, while I appreciate that many people haven't heard of it, and it does have some noticeable problems, I still feel it should be checked out.... :aww: We can all agree, it doesn't have as many flaws as THE REEF does.... :fear:
Because trust me, a film that may have been the inspiration FINDING NEMO and SHARK TALE had deserves more credit than it may currently have. Maybe I'm being a bit of a conspiracy nut, but I felt that may be where those films got the inspiration for those films from, especially considering the designs, ideas and characters.....
But still, I'm glad I fished this out of the gallery of forgotten films we have in the world... And in my opinion, it definately proved to be the catch of the day..... :giggle:



Next time, I shall go back to Tim Burton, and review another undead adventure of his.... The film that makes marrying the dead seem plausible....
Corpse Bride! :w00t:


COMING DUCKYWORTH'S THOUGHTS –
:iconbluebulletplz:Beavis and Butthead Do America
:iconbluebulletplz:The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists!
:iconbluebulletplz:Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas
:iconbluebulletplz:An American Tail
:iconbluebulletplz:Animal Farm
:iconbluebulletplz:Pokemon - Lucario and the Mystery Of Mew
:iconbluebulletplz:Pokemon - The Rise of Darkrai
:iconbluebulletplz:Brave
:iconbluebulletplz:A Cat In Paris
:iconbluebulletplz:Basil The Great Mouse Detective
:iconbluebulletplz:Pokemon - Jirachi:Wishmaker
:iconbluebulletplz:Dracula (1931)
:iconbluebulletplz:Hellraiser
:iconbluebulletplz:Hellbound: Hellraiser 2
:iconbluebulletplz:The Silence of the Lambs
:iconbluebulletplz:Zombieland
:iconbluebulletplz:Hot Fuzz
:iconbluebulletplz:The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari
:iconbluebulletplz:Freaks
:iconbluebulletplz:Fright Night
:iconbluebulletplz:Frankenstein
:iconbluebulletplz:Bride of Frankenstein
:iconbluebulletplz:Casablanca
:iconbluebulletplz:The Godfather - Part 2
:iconbluebulletplz:The Godfather - Part 3
:iconbluebulletplz:We're Back - A Dinosaur Story
:iconbluebulletplz:The Cat In The Hat
:iconbluebulletplz:The Princess and the Goblin
:iconbluebulletplz:Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
:iconbluebulletplz:Corpse Bride
:iconbluebulletplz: Stan Helsing (:iconfacepalmplz:)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Friends: :iconalmiras: :icondaveiscoolyeah: :iconnathaldron: :icontimaman: :iconkaozima: :iconluna-chii:  :iconpokelover897: :iconarcticsage-zaiphod: :iconjakkatten: :iconthebigman0706: :iconshaprite91: :iconripperthescraftyplz: :iconmrmadmanx2: :iconcrazynutbob::iconmiharuwatanabe: :iconthecrazyoneofthegang: :iconcocoafox895:
My sister :iconoctodogphotography:D

Design by harleshinn
CSS by moonfreak
© 2013 - 2024 Duckyworth
Comments24
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
pokeheartless's avatar
Ive seen a few scences......and from the few



This movie is full of INTELLAGENCE