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Description

Yep, I said that I’d start up my review series again, and well, here I am! So without further ado, let’s dive into today’s movie.

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    I have a soft spot for lesser known animated movies. I also have a soft for hand-drawn animated movies, especially if said movie is well animated. I ALSO have a soft spot for children’s movies that aren’t afraid to be dark or edgy when they need to. Today’s film fits nicely into all three of those categories. What movie is this, you may ask? Well, if you are asking, then why haven’t you read the title yet?

    Help! I’m a Fish is a Danish hand drawn animated film from the year 2000. It’s about a group of children who discover the lab of an eccentric marine biologist named Professor Mac Krill, who’s developed a potion to turn humans into fish if the polar ice caps ever flood. Of course, one of the children accidently drinks it, which, long story short, leaves everyone becoming fish and winding up in the ocean, where they must find the antidote before 24 hours pass, or they’ll stay fish forever. Meanwhile, the antidote has been found by a pilot fish named Joe, who drank some of the antidote himself, making him smart enough to sound like Severus Snape from the Harry Potter films. It’s also made him smart enough to realize that he can build an army with the antidote and rise to power. Of course, the children need it too, and Joe’s not willing to share it. On the contrary, he wants them to tell him the ingredients for the antidote so that he can make more.

                I personally love this movie. It may not be a groundbreaking masterpiece on par with the works of Disney or Studio Ghibli, and a lot of the aspects of it surface at about average on a critical standpoint, but it’s still a really enjoyable, underrated movie that kept me entertained the whole way through, and that’s just fine with me.

                Let’s take a closer look at the story. It starts out with a boy named Chuck, who’s a happy-go-lucky 13 year old boy who lives with his parents and younger sister, Stella. Fly is about to leave to go fishing, but his parents are leaving to go on a date, and their Aunt Anna comes to babysit. Of course, she brings along her son, a fat, snobbish science nerd named Chuck. Fly ends up sneaking out after Anna falls asleep, bringing along Stella and Chuck (So the latter won’t go wake his Aunt) with him, and thus starting the plot. One minor critique is that the pacing here is a bit too fast. Right after the opening credits, we’re shown Fly in his room, who then immediately heads downstairs to leave for his planned fishing trip. Thankfully, the pacing improves as the scene goes on.

                The writing for the movie remains pretty good for the most part. One thing I thought was neat that this film did was show just how much the parents of our heroes are concerned for them throughout the movie. This helped give the film its serious side. The main plot is also well told, with a decent balance of lighthearted-ness and drama. The villains are threatening, and they provide a good amount of conflict for the main characters. However, there are a few flaws in the story that are worth pointing out. For one, when the parents contact the police about the missing children, the police don’t do a single thing about it, saying that they have more serious things to worry about. Um, three children just went missing! Don’t you think that’s worth at least a little bit of your time? Seriously, isn’t it the job of the police to take on these kinds of cases? There are also some parts of the movie that get a bit tedious. For example, there’s a scene where Fly and Chuck are arguing, and it goes on a bit longer than it should. Without giving anything away, I could pretty much tell what was going to happen next, and I just wanted the movie to get to that.

                The characters in this film are a decent and likeable. Fly, the protagonist, is confident, energetic, and at times, somewhat reckless. Chuck, on the other hand, is very smart, and he acts much more serious than Fly. He’s more aware of the danger that he, Fly, and Stella are in, and this makes him very pessimistic throughout most of the film. We’re shown just how much Fly and Chuck’s personality’s conflict with one another; Fly’s carefree and borderline reckless nature and Chuck’s more cautious outlook. This creates a very satisfying balance between the characters. It’s a balance we’ve seen before in other children’s media, but it’s still handled pretty well in this movie. Then, there’s Fly’s younger sister, Stella. She doesn’t get as much development as her brother and cousin do, but the movie does do something with her: After turning into a fish and winding up in the ocean, she finds a seahorse that she briefly saw before, which she names Sasha. They become friends very quickly, and I’ll admit, it’s a pretty sweet relationship. And yes, Sasha does end up helping out later on.

                Joe, the villain of the movie, is a pilot fish who swims alongside a shark partner. He and the shark get a mouthful of the antidote, causing them to become smart. Of course, Joe just happens to be evil, and Shark is demoted to his dim-witted sidekick. Joe soon comes up with a plan to build a civilization of intelligent fish with the antidote, with him as their leader. I do admit that this is a nice break from villains who simply want to rule the whole world, or destroy it. However…why did they have to name him Joe? His character is effectively intimidating, so why couldn’t they have given him a cooler sounding name? Something like, I dunno, Reznor or Kodan…anything other than Joe!

                Next is Professor Mac Krill, the inventor of the potion that started everything. He’s a silly, scatterbrained scientist who’s a lot of fun in his debut scene. One thing to note is that despite being a genius scientist, he lacks common sense, seeing how he lets three children into his lab, even having them help him test the potion. However, this isn’t a flaw with the movie’s writing; it simply shows that he’s not practically perfect in every way, much like the rest of the human race.

                Next, let’s talk about what has to be one of my favorite aspects of this movie, the animation. The animation in this movie was a split production between Denmark’s A. Film A/S, Germany’s Munich Animation, and Ireland’s Terraglyph Interactive Studios. The hand-drawn animation in this film looks positively beautiful; everything has a nice and fluid movement to it. Characters are given a great range of expressions, and they move exactly the way they should. There is also some CGI in the movie, which is used for things such as various sea creatures, such as fish, crabs, and whales, as well as certain miscellaneous set pieces. While the CGI doesn’t look that great at times, and does admittedly stand out from the hand drawn animation, it’s still a passable job. As for the artwork overall, I think it looks really good. There designs for the characters are really good, there are a lot of really nice visuals in the film, and the animation and the background artwork fit together perfectly. It’s a shame this film isn’t that well known in the animation community, because it’s easy to tell a lot of effort went into the animation.

                The music score in this film was composed by Søren Hyldgaard. The score itself isn’t that memorable on its own, but still it manages to do its job just fine. The music for each scene fits nicely, and it’s never too distracting from what goes on in the film. It’s also worth noting that there are a couple of both pop songs and musical numbers in this movie. The pop songs are admittedly kind of catchy, but they’re also very cutesy in nature, and they aren’t going to appeal to the older crowd as much. However, I will say this: I do like the movie’s theme, which plays at the very end of the film into the credits. It’s got the same style as the two that play in the movie, but I find it to be a bit better then both of them. Next, let’s talk about the two musical numbers in the movie, one sung by Professor Mac Krill, describing the ingredients for the potion, and the other sung by Joe to a crowd of fish about gaining intelligence. Mac Krill’s song, “Fishtastic”, is a fun, catchy tune that Mac Krill thought up to help him remember the potion’s ingredients. Joe’s song, “Intelligence”, is one heck of a villain song that has an eerie beat, an awesome chorus, and some pretty cool visuals. This is easily my favorite song in the film, and it definitely makes up for the cutesy euro-pop tunes that I mentioned earlier.

                One final thing I feel that’s worth mentioning is just how dark and violent the film can get at times, especially for one that was rated G when it came to the U.S. When we’re first introduced to Joe and the shark, we see the shark eating a crab, and a fair amount of blood spills into the water. Later on in the film, there’s a scene where Fly loses his confidence that he previously held…by getting it punched out of him by one of Joe’s henchmen, a crab. He then falls onto the sea floor, with more blood trailing out of him. There’s also another fairly chilling scene that I won’t spoil, but trust me, you’ll know it when you see it. I actually like the inclusion of dark moments like these; it provides a nice balance with the lighthearted elements from the film, and it shows that the filmmakers respect their audience enough to not sugarcoat everything in their movie.

                To conclude, “Help! I’m a Fish” is a great, underrated film that has a fun story, enjoyable characters, and fantastic animation. It has some noteworthy flaws, but they’re flaws that don’t keep the movie from being any less enjoyable. I’d definitely recommend this movie to anyone who loves animation, or anybody who simply enjoys a good children’s movie.

MY RATING:

Description

Yep, I said that I’d start up my review series again, and well, here I am! So without further ado, let’s dive into today’s movie.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I have a soft spot for lesser known animated movies. I also have a soft for hand-drawn animated movies, especially if said movie is well animated. I ALSO have a soft spot for children’s movies that aren’t afraid to be dark or edgy when they need to. Today’s film fits nicely into all three of those categories. What movie is this, you may ask? Well, if you are asking, then why haven’t you read the title yet?

    Help! I’m a Fish is a Danish hand drawn animated film from the year 2000. It’s about a group of children who discover the lab of an eccentric marine biologist named Professor Mac Krill, who’s developed a potion to turn humans into fish if the polar ice caps ever flood. Of course, one of the children accidently drinks it, which, long story short, leaves everyone becoming fish and winding up in the ocean, where they must find the antidote before 24 hours pass, or they’ll stay fish forever. Meanwhile, the antidote has been found by a pilot fish named Joe, who drank some of the antidote himself, making him smart enough to sound like Severus Snape from the Harry Potter films. It’s also made him smart enough to realize that he can build an army with the antidote and rise to power. Of course, the children need it too, and Joe’s not willing to share it. On the contrary, he wants them to tell him the ingredients for the antidote so that he can make more.

                I personally love this movie. It may not be a groundbreaking masterpiece on par with the works of Disney or Studio Ghibli, and a lot of the aspects of it surface at about average on a critical standpoint, but it’s still a really enjoyable, underrated movie that kept me entertained the whole way through, and that’s just fine with me.

                Let’s take a closer look at the story. It starts out with a boy named Chuck, who’s a happy-go-lucky 13 year old boy who lives with his parents and younger sister, Stella. Fly is about to leave to go fishing, but his parents are leaving to go on a date, and their Aunt Anna comes to babysit. Of course, she brings along her son, a fat, snobbish science nerd named Chuck. Fly ends up sneaking out after Anna falls asleep, bringing along Stella and Chuck (So the latter won’t go wake his Aunt) with him, and thus starting the plot. One minor critique is that the pacing here is a bit too fast. Right after the opening credits, we’re shown Fly in his room, who then immediately heads downstairs to leave for his planned fishing trip. Thankfully, the pacing improves as the scene goes on.

                The writing for the movie remains pretty good for the most part. One thing I thought was neat that this film did was show just how much the parents of our heroes are concerned for them throughout the movie. This helped give the film its serious side. The main plot is also well told, with a decent balance of lighthearted-ness and drama. The villains are threatening, and they provide a good amount of conflict for the main characters. However, there are a few flaws in the story that are worth pointing out. For one, when the parents contact the police about the missing children, the police don’t do a single thing about it, saying that they have more serious things to worry about. Um, three children just went missing! Don’t you think that’s worth at least a little bit of your time? Seriously, isn’t it the job of the police to take on these kinds of cases? There are also some parts of the movie that get a bit tedious. For example, there’s a scene where Fly and Chuck are arguing, and it goes on a bit longer than it should. Without giving anything away, I could pretty much tell what was going to happen next, and I just wanted the movie to get to that.

                The characters in this film are a decent and likeable. Fly, the protagonist, is confident, energetic, and at times, somewhat reckless. Chuck, on the other hand, is very smart, and he acts much more serious than Fly. He’s more aware of the danger that he, Fly, and Stella are in, and this makes him very pessimistic throughout most of the film. We’re shown just how much Fly and Chuck’s personality’s conflict with one another; Fly’s carefree and borderline reckless nature and Chuck’s more cautious outlook. This creates a very satisfying balance between the characters. It’s a balance we’ve seen before in other children’s media, but it’s still handled pretty well in this movie. Then, there’s Fly’s younger sister, Stella. She doesn’t get as much development as her brother and cousin do, but the movie does do something with her: After turning into a fish and winding up in the ocean, she finds a seahorse that she briefly saw before, which she names Sasha. They become friends very quickly, and I’ll admit, it’s a pretty sweet relationship. And yes, Sasha does end up helping out later on.

                Joe, the villain of the movie, is a pilot fish who swims alongside a shark partner. He and the shark get a mouthful of the antidote, causing them to become smart. Of course, Joe just happens to be evil, and Shark is demoted to his dim-witted sidekick. Joe soon comes up with a plan to build a civilization of intelligent fish with the antidote, with him as their leader. I do admit that this is a nice break from villains who simply want to rule the whole world, or destroy it. However…why did they have to name him Joe? His character is effectively intimidating, so why couldn’t they have given him a cooler sounding name? Something like, I dunno, Reznor or Kodan…anything other than Joe!

                Next is Professor Mac Krill, the inventor of the potion that started everything. He’s a silly, scatterbrained scientist who’s a lot of fun in his debut scene. One thing to note is that despite being a genius scientist, he lacks common sense, seeing how he lets three children into his lab, even having them help him test the potion. However, this isn’t a flaw with the movie’s writing; it simply shows that he’s not practically perfect in every way, much like the rest of the human race.

                Next, let’s talk about what has to be one of my favorite aspects of this movie, the animation. The animation in this movie was a split production between Denmark’s A. Film A/S, Germany’s Munich Animation, and Ireland’s Terraglyph Interactive Studios. The hand-drawn animation in this film looks positively beautiful; everything has a nice and fluid movement to it. Characters are given a great range of expressions, and they move exactly the way they should. There is also some CGI in the movie, which is used for things such as various sea creatures, such as fish, crabs, and whales, as well as certain miscellaneous set pieces. While the CGI doesn’t look that great at times, and does admittedly stand out from the hand drawn animation, it’s still a passable job. As for the artwork overall, I think it looks really good. There designs for the characters are really good, there are a lot of really nice visuals in the film, and the animation and the background artwork fit together perfectly. It’s a shame this film isn’t that well known in the animation community, because it’s easy to tell a lot of effort went into the animation.

                The music score in this film was composed by Søren Hyldgaard. The score itself isn’t that memorable on its own, but still it manages to do its job just fine. The music for each scene fits nicely, and it’s never too distracting from what goes on in the film. It’s also worth noting that there are a couple of both pop songs and musical numbers in this movie. The pop songs are admittedly kind of catchy, but they’re also very cutesy in nature, and they aren’t going to appeal to the older crowd as much. However, I will say this: I do like the movie’s theme, which plays at the very end of the film into the credits. It’s got the same style as the two that play in the movie, but I find it to be a bit better then both of them. Next, let’s talk about the two musical numbers in the movie, one sung by Professor Mac Krill, describing the ingredients for the potion, and the other sung by Joe to a crowd of fish about gaining intelligence. Mac Krill’s song, “Fishtastic”, is a fun, catchy tune that Mac Krill thought up to help him remember the potion’s ingredients. Joe’s song, “Intelligence”, is one heck of a villain song that has an eerie beat, an awesome chorus, and some pretty cool visuals. This is easily my favorite song in the film, and it definitely makes up for the cutesy euro-pop tunes that I mentioned earlier.

                One final thing I feel that’s worth mentioning is just how dark and violent the film can get at times, especially for one that was rated G when it came to the U.S. When we’re first introduced to Joe and the shark, we see the shark eating a crab, and a fair amount of blood spills into the water. Later on in the film, there’s a scene where Fly loses his confidence that he previously held…by getting it punched out of him by one of Joe’s henchmen, a crab. He then falls onto the sea floor, with more blood trailing out of him. There’s also another fairly chilling scene that I won’t spoil, but trust me, you’ll know it when you see it. I actually like the inclusion of dark moments like these; it provides a nice balance with the lighthearted elements from the film, and it shows that the filmmakers respect their audience enough to not sugarcoat everything in their movie.

                To conclude, “Help! I’m a Fish” is a great, underrated film that has a fun story, enjoyable characters, and fantastic animation. It has some noteworthy flaws, but they’re flaws that don’t keep the movie from being any less enjoyable. I’d definitely recommend this movie to anyone who loves animation, or anybody who simply enjoys a good children’s movie.

MY RATING: