My Movie Review on Help! I’m a Fish · 7:17pm Feb 24th, 2019
Yo, what’s up everybody?
It’s me with another film review, only this film...isn’t a very well-known film.
The film I’m reviewing today is “Help! I’m a Fish”.
Here's the rundown of it:
Three children, consisting of Fly, his sister Stella, and their cousin Chuck are forced to stay together while Fly and Stella’s Mom and Dad are away on a date, leaving Chuck’s mother to watch over the kids. However, after the kids sneak out of the house and go fishing, they come across a laboratory owned by the eccentric, but warm-hearted Professor MacKrill. There, he shows them a potion that, with just a few ingredients mixed together, can turn humans into fish. He additionally shows them the antidote that can change humans back to, well, humans.
Although, when Stella unwittingly drinks the potion, she becomes a fish and is accidentally dropped into the ocean. Immediately, the professor, Fly, and Chuck go after her, but are separated during a terrible storm, with Fly and Chuck drinking the fish potion to keep from drowning.
Now, the children must find the antidote to turn themselves back into humans or they’ll be fish forever. All the while, they must evade Joe, a pilot fish who drank the antidote and became intelligent, intent on having more of the reversal potion in a lust for power.
I’m sorry if this summary gave away too much of what this movie is about, really. But this was the best I could do.
The story was definitely really straightforward. It isn’t the most complex I’ve ever seen, but it isn’t without heart and intrigue. I can tell that the writers put lots of thought, effort, and commitment into it. It’s totally got some imagination.
The vocal performances in the film were really top-notch as well.
Everyone was truly able to bring their characters to life, even by giving off such amazing personality and emotion. It was Alan Rickman in particular who truly blew me away, bringing such awesome charisma and maliciousness to his villain. I can’t help but feel surprised that he wasn’t hired by any of the big shot animation companies, like Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks. In addition, the characters overall were pretty fun and memorable.
The animation was impressive as well, especially coming from a pretty small non-American company. Particular elements that caught my eye were the computer-generated anglerfish, octopus, and the hand-drawn animation used with talking characters.
The music and songs were likewise fun, especially the song sung by Rickman when all of the fish are gathered together for a meeting and Joe promotes the potion to make everyone blindly follow him. Søren Hyldgaard did a great job composing for this film.
Unfortunately, I won’t lie that as a film made by such a small studio, it isn’t without flaws.
In many ways, the film sort of felt short and rushed, especially to where it needed to be longer somehow, like having some additional scenes to help things develop. 82 minutes just wasn’t enough.
The character developments of Fly and Chuck also kinda got me confused.
To help you guys understand who they are as characters, I shall explain.
Fly is the kind of person who’s brave and comes up with a plan right on the spot. But, he was also pretty reckless, often doing things without thinking them through. Chuck isn’t reckless like Fly because he likes to be logical and think things through. Although, his logical thinking tended to make it easy for his fears and doubts to control him.
I deeply admired the fact that Fly realized he should take the time to listen to others and think things over before acting. And I even admired Chuck realizing that he shouldn’t let his mind be filled with fear and doubt, but use it to do acts of courage and strength. However, because of how rushed and straightforward things were for me, Fly and Chuck’s developments felt more like a role reversing.
Another problem among them all, for me, was the professor’s reason for making the potion. Apparently, he made it because he thought that in the next century, the world would experience climate change. He thought that the polar ice caps (the Arctic and Antarctic) would melt and cause the world to flood, so he made the potion to “save” mankind and the rest of the land dwellers.
I have to admit, I literally couldn’t help but facepalm and roll my eyes that the professor would make the potion because of that very annoying political scam, and that the writers, directors, and producers would even incorporate it as Professor MacKrill’s reason for the potion.
In conclusion, however...despite these setbacks I mentioned, the film is still a pleasure to see. It’s also one that I gladly recommend for you all.
So, I rate “Help! I’m a Fish” 3½ out of 5 stars.
Rickman and Hyldgaard, I hope the two of you are resting peacefully now, because this film would definitely not be awesome without you two involved. This is truly something that lives up to both of your careers and talents.
Wow. Even with a Republican President giving NASA the full support of the Administration; thereby validating the evidence NASA has on Climate Change, you still deny it
I'm genuinely curious; who do you blame for creating such an elaborate 'hoax'?
This sounds like it could be pretty good, especially because of Alan Rickman. I’ll watch it someday.
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I don’t recall exactly who originated the concept of ‘climate change’, nor will I be pointing fingers at anyone in particular. But, I will say that the whole thing is all the fault of scientists who want nothing to do with God.
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Actually, there are more religious scientists than there are atheist scientists
And again, these scientists have the full support of an Administration that has vowed to be 'Champion defenders of the Christian Faith'' a title that they earned (at least from the more conservative ones anyway).
So when Christian Leaders support a research mandate that says that Climate Change is happening; where do you draw the conclusion that this is propagated by scientists who are against religion?
How do you draw that conclusion?
I saw this film a year or two ago and I really enjoyed it. It's crazy how those odd "Rare Villain Defeats/Deaths" vids on YT brought me to such a fun film. 😋
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The Bible.
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So if people who believe in the Bible support scientists who have evidence that Climate Change is real, but the bible tells you that it is a hoax...
Then either you are saying that you are not really a Christian or that the Trump Administration is not made of Christians.
Color me confused; but both of these seem to contradict almost everything you've said.
Maybe I've made this more complicated than it needs to be: Is there a verse of the Bible that disproves Climate Change?
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At the time of Noah’s Ark, and after the rain ceased, God promised that He would never again cause a worldwide flood, with the rainbow being the symbol of His promise every step of the way.
God would never allow the world to be flooded again, and therefore, global warming is impossible.
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1: The Scripture you are referring to says that God promised the He would never do it again.
These problems, however; are man made and not by Divine Design.
2: The Scripture credits God for having flooded the entire world.
What we are experiencing is not complete global destruction with a handful of humans and members of every animal specie being spared. Animals are actually going extinct this time around.
3: The Biblical Flood is part of the Old Testament; a covenant that the Hebrews had with God prior to Christ's crucifixion. The old covenant was undone when Christ gave his life for Humanity; and beget the new covenant that Christians refer to as the New Testament. As the New Testament has a very, very different view on God than the Old Testament; it is actually reasonable to suggest that the promises made in the old covenant do not apply to God.
4: The Bible suggests that there will in fact be an End Times; comparable to the Great Flood in terms of lives lost. If anything, God only promised not to do it with a Flood ever again but plans to do it in another way.
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The End will come. But it won’t be through global warming.
Plus, I actually know for a fact that whatever is causing people to say that it’s “global warming” is actually causing a lot more benefit than problems. People claim that things such as the oil pipes are threatening polar bears to extinction, but really, it’s actually helping them to continually thrive and grow in number.
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The issues cause short term benefits economical and social to the people who enact the changes and the consumer.
Wildlife is not in any positive way enforced by oil pipelines. From the landscaping to accommodate the construction crews and the construction itself; the natural habitat of the native wildlife is negatively affected.
Quite the bold claim that Polar Bears are in fact better off with the facts that their numbers are declining, their food source in decline, and the fact that their livable area is also shrinking.
Would you please show me something to support that?
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How do you know that, exactly?
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I have provided you a link in my first post citing supportive claims to what I have just said.
Where is your information to rebuke this?
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My information comes from my Dad. I don’t remember exactly where he heard it from, but, I trust him.
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Well, can't be helped then
You picked a side, and I respect that.
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Thanks.
Catching up a little with some of your reviews now. Full disclosure: not because we have the same tastes and preferences, but because yours are different in just enough places to deviate but not so many that I don't see it.
On that note: this was a European film from 2000, back when the climate change thing wasn't as politically charged as it now. More importantly, the scientist as you see him here is a trope quite common in European comics and animation, especially the Franco-Belgian ones, but it's known to pop up elsewhere.
Basically, the European stereotype of a scientist is close to the stereotype of a wizard or a high priest: they are isolated from the world, see things their own way, and often this isolation makes them a little off mentally in one way or another. The big difference with the American stereotype of a comic book scientist is the limits: the European trope doesn't have any. They'll make time machines and flying globes and a shrinking potion and no one bats an eye at it. In American comics, there's always some explanation to it, a logic that the reader can follow along with, like a newly discovered particle at the core. Likewise, crises involving these inventions don't go the same way: there's no clever way the machine can be made to work if it's broken, it's just broken and then fixed, no further questions asked.
All that to say: if you're not used to seeing this kind of trope, it can come across as a jab towards climate change. But the original intended audience has seen this kind of character before, and they knew/know this guy needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
Besides, of the three main characters, only one of them actually turns into a fish. Starfish are not fish, jellyfish are not fish. So obviously the potion doesn't work. Kudos to the film for making the song plot-relevant, though, having the kids remember the ingredients because it was sung was pretty clever, and original.
I grew up with this movie. It's great and it has a great soundtrack.
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Story Idea Involving Help! I’m a Fish