Help! I'm A Fish
Year: 2000
Director: Stefan Fjeldmark, Michael Hegner & Greg Manwaring
Starring: David Bateson, Terry Jones, Jeff Pace, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman & Michelle Westerson
Runtime: 82 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 01/12/20
Director: Stefan Fjeldmark, Michael Hegner & Greg Manwaring
Starring: David Bateson, Terry Jones, Jeff Pace, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman & Michelle Westerson
Runtime: 82 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 01/12/20
Occasionally I see posts come up on my Facebook feed of people sharing images of relatively obscure children’s films and asking if people remember what film it is. There’s always one of them that I distinctly remember, mostly because of how often I see the image crop up, but also because I remember going to the cinema with my mum to see it and it’s one of the first films I remember seeing at the cinema. That film is Help! I’m A Fish.
Help! I’m A Fish is a 2000 Danish animated children’s film which received international releases between 2001 and 2006. It tells the tale of impulsive teenager Fly, his younger sister Stella, and their nerdy cousin Chuck who meet a scientist who has created a potion that grants the drinker the ability to turn into a fish, as well as an antidote that will reverse the effects. After mistakenly drinking the potion, turns into a starfish and is lost at sea. In an attempt to save her Fly and Chuck also drink the liquid (turning them into a flyfish and jellyfish respectively) and seek to find her before the potions effects become permanent. Meanwhile a great white shark and a pilotfish swim through a cloud of the antidote and gain intelligence, the pilotfish, Joe, takes initiative and begins to create an intelligent fish army that is under his control.
Help! I’m A Fish is a 2000 Danish animated children’s film which received international releases between 2001 and 2006. It tells the tale of impulsive teenager Fly, his younger sister Stella, and their nerdy cousin Chuck who meet a scientist who has created a potion that grants the drinker the ability to turn into a fish, as well as an antidote that will reverse the effects. After mistakenly drinking the potion, turns into a starfish and is lost at sea. In an attempt to save her Fly and Chuck also drink the liquid (turning them into a flyfish and jellyfish respectively) and seek to find her before the potions effects become permanent. Meanwhile a great white shark and a pilotfish swim through a cloud of the antidote and gain intelligence, the pilotfish, Joe, takes initiative and begins to create an intelligent fish army that is under his control.
It’s a fairly entertaining premise and though the film could probably do with being a tad longer to really allow for some more character development, it’s a generally enjoyable kids film. The most interesting thing about Help! I’m A Fish though is that it managed to bag two pretty big acting names, and one future star and everyone seems to have completely forgotten about it. The films villains, Joe and Shark, are voiced by Alan Rickman and Terry Jones respectively. Rickman in particular imbues Joe with a lot of character and makes him quite a devious villain as a result. The other star I mentioned is none other than Aaron Paul who almost a decade later went on to star as Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad. Paul voices Chuck and is without a doubt the most talented voice actor of the three leads.
The animation quality certainly shows its age now, and in comparison to bigger budget productions from animation houses like Disney and Dreamworks looks noticeably rough around the edges. But it does have some great character design and uses of 3D animation in tandem with the traditional 2D style. The film also has a great cheesy 00’s pop filled soundtrack with some of the songs even making it to British radio stations at the time of release. As well as this pop soundtrack there are a couple of original songs which are pretty good, in particular 'Intelligence' which is very reminiscent of 'Be Prepared' from The Lion King.
It was a total bomb at the box office though, only making back $5.6 million of its $18 million budget, so that certainly explains why so many people haven’t heard of the film.
If you haven’t seen Help! I’m A Fish before then it’s not a film you should rush to watch, as despite being enjoyable it’s nothing incredible. But for those people a similar age to me that wonder what that film was about the kids that turned into fish, here’s your answer. I would argue that it’s absolutely worth tracking down a DVD copy for fans of Breaking Bad though just to hear a young Aaron Paul!
The animation quality certainly shows its age now, and in comparison to bigger budget productions from animation houses like Disney and Dreamworks looks noticeably rough around the edges. But it does have some great character design and uses of 3D animation in tandem with the traditional 2D style. The film also has a great cheesy 00’s pop filled soundtrack with some of the songs even making it to British radio stations at the time of release. As well as this pop soundtrack there are a couple of original songs which are pretty good, in particular 'Intelligence' which is very reminiscent of 'Be Prepared' from The Lion King.
It was a total bomb at the box office though, only making back $5.6 million of its $18 million budget, so that certainly explains why so many people haven’t heard of the film.
If you haven’t seen Help! I’m A Fish before then it’s not a film you should rush to watch, as despite being enjoyable it’s nothing incredible. But for those people a similar age to me that wonder what that film was about the kids that turned into fish, here’s your answer. I would argue that it’s absolutely worth tracking down a DVD copy for fans of Breaking Bad though just to hear a young Aaron Paul!