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My Movie Review on Help! I'm a Fish

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”.

In this film, three children consisting of Fly (played by Jeff Pace), his sister Stella (played by Michelle Westerson), and their cousin Chuck (played by Aaron Paul) are forced to stay together while Fly and Stella’s Mom (played by Teryl Rothery) and Dad (played by John Payne) are away on a date, leaving Chuck’s mother (played by Pauline Newstone) 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 (played by Terry Jones). 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 (played by Alan Rickman), 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 seemed and 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” 3 1/2 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.

(These pictures down here are only of the people I could find pictures of. They don’t consist of the entire cast.)

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