Ok, as a danish person, I can explain the red lemonade thing; here in Denmark we dont have lemonade, so in the original danish version, Stella mistook the potion for "saftevand"; a beverage made from berry juice, sugar, and water, and it's usually red. In fact, there is a brand often served in preschools that is the exact same shade of red as the potion.
When I watched it in Mexico (where I'm from btw) where this movie became a big hit, Stella confused it with "Aguita de sabor" (spanish for "little flavoured water" which she could be talking about that saftevand you mentioned or juice or any kind of flavored drink)
I do remember thinkin for looong asss about that ending tho' Like I was 6 years old when I actually saw it - and altho I never got it on VHR, I always have remembered that movie in particular - like about when I turned like 12 I kept thinkin every now nd then that *where* did Joe get that knowledge? Like he turned into human, but simply turning into smart human doesnt grant you knowledge you never studied
While Joe just drowning was strong for me as kid. Fly getting hurt by the crab was even more terrifying. Most children media have their character being invulnerable or just not visibly affected by physical ailments. Fly got slashed and spend the rest of the film hurt badly. It just a big hit of mortality for children.
That clip even jumped me while watching the video, and gave me a mild deja vu. Sorry for spelling "deja vu" like that, I just don't know where the accents go.
Honestly I think the way they defeat the villain is really good. Instead of just fighting him, Fly uses Joe's own ego against him. Joe wants to prove how smart he is and so in order to answer the questions fly asks him, he continues to drink from the potion and basically kills himself thanks to his hubris. It's also a really dark and terrifying death and I love it.
Agreed 100%. This way works way better than just a generic fight scene, while it would've been cool to see Joe's monstrous human form in action, simply turning him human to drown him is really clever. Hoist by his own petard, so to say.
When you furst watch this as an adult, yea it seems boring - but as a kid, this was terrifying and scared the shit out of me. The tension of the villian becoming stronger until he then realizes he fucked himself up is intense when youre still a child.
I also love how unique Joe's defeat was compared to many other villains. Not to mention his terrifying transformation and that gasp he made before he died.
Joe's death is horribly unsettling. Like, the anti-climax of it makes it more horrifying. There's no fanfare to it, no big to-do, nothing cinematic. He just drowns. The fact that it's so understated and effortless makes it weirdly upsetting. It just hammers home how easily people can just die.
Crabs blood is blue, so maybe the crab in the beginning was human turned crab and that’s how the professor knew about the 48hour window. Just a thought.
I think drowning was a perfect death for the villain. A fight in the lab with the parents pitching in to help would be very new age, it sounds like a Disney plot and honestly doesn't require much thought or imagination. The actual ending here was an interesting, unpredictable plot point and there's something poetic about a fish drowning.
I also think it's playing on the "power corrupts, and ultimate power corrupts ultimately" saying. Basically in his pursuit of power he gets so corrupted that he can no longer survive. All in all this is a good ending, and one of the best movies I can remember watching as a kid
I think rather than anticlimactic, it’s ironic, he wished to be human, he was fooled into doing it underwater and lead to his death, he became intelligent but not enough to not fall for that, it’s a good ending for a villain like him
@@JimmyBoy9878 The Cambridge Dictionary defines "irony" as "a situation in which something which was intended to have a particular result has the opposite or a very different result". Drinking the potion he fought so hard to get was supposed to make him "powerful" and instead it killed him. That's irony.
@@adreak9868 No it would be if the drink was to give him life but instead killed him. He did still get more power as he know has a einstein level brain with a human body..However he was so smart he still couldn't figure out that humans can't breathe.
Bloody hell, that takes me back. I wrote a few gags, did the character designs and storyboards for this thing - and believe me, they dialed down the horror of Joe's transformation into a (near) human. The character designs were also "softened" - the shark was rather a lot more menacing in my original designs. It's strange how the US and UK seems to shy away from fear in their products, having grown up on Astrid Lindgren we don't really avoid the topics of loneliness, evil, sorrow and death - everthing can be a formative experience, especially when presented safely through fiction.
Ikr? I always appreciated this film as a Danish/German one as you could tell from the story and the messages it sent, if this was Disney or Dreamworks it would've been made ''different'' and ''easier'' in a way. Also - I've LOVED this film since I saw it in theaters here in Norway around 20 years ago - and you worked on it?!! FANTASTIC.
Yeah its true, its usually a lot more censored in places like the us, especially now days. Thats really cool that you worked on the movie and the designs! I always loved the artstyle of the characters, especially the main group and the shark:) Is there by any chance a place or a website where the earlier designs for the characters are available to see?
As morbid as it is for a childrens film, the way Joe is defeated is pretty damn clever; using his ego against him. Didn't know about the pilot version of the movie though, at least it explains why and how some of the fish also started speaking with the kids parading the antidote around and spilling it
I remember watching this film as a kid at my grandparents' house, I'll be honest, Joe's death made my jaw drop because he dies technically on screen by drowning and I'm pretty sure drowning is one of the worst ways to die.
oh yeah, but it would be less painful for him to as he under water from the start. but for humans it gets pretty grim, stomach acids and seawater in your lungs kinds of grim.
As someone who almost drowned as a young child, it was a horrible experience. I was 3 or 4 and I still vividly remember it in my 30s. I was just at that point where my sight was going black and my body was about to breath in the water because I was losing control and about to lose consciousness when my dad got to me. Even though it was terrifying and painful (pain isn't exactly the word for it?) I had so much faith that it would all be okay because my parents would save me, and that's exactly what happened. Still traumatized me a bit though. 10/10 would not recommend drowning as a way to go out.
The only thing that always made me remember this movie from time to time was thinking about Joe's death. I remembered his gradually increasing grotesque form, resembling a zombie or something. And then I remembered the last question Fly asked him and he just... Drowned, and it is not epic, Fly has no overreaction, you hear no scream, everything cuts to silent and the body gets sent into the darkness of the pipe. I really, really liked that scene because of how disturbing and unique it was. I would probably have forgotten about that movie later on if it wasn't for it.
Alan Rickman always brought his A-game to everything, even to a weird, obscure kids movie from Denmark as a intelligence-hungry dictator of fish. Never a dull performance and no role was beneath him. Rest In Peace Alan, you were a fantastic actor taken way too early from this world.
Yup. That's one of the reasons (among many) that I like him as an actor, along with making almost every villain (minus two) he plays be sympathetic in the understanding of what they do, even though they are doing really bad stuff. Now I wonder if there were any other animated movies he has been in or any movies where he's had to sing, cause I know most British actors also have done theater
As you pointed out, that Joe's song was a discount "Be Prepared" from the Lion King... Should I tell you what... I just looked up the german voice actors that worked on "Help, I'm a Fish" and in the german versions of "The Lion King" and "Help I'm a Fish" Scar and Joe are even voiced by the same voice actor... "Thomas Fritsch" that is, who passed away recently... Rest in Peace
I like to refer as a joke (for most cases). It's okay to expose some mature scenes for children in cartoons/films. It makes easier for them to prepared later in life when they see some real shit *(and not become too oversensitive like some people today)*
@@1God1Fury I agree, some old Disney movies had some blood, some scary things, and edge to them. Without that stuff, they'd be annoyingly too cute/silly/fluffy. Don Bluth's animated features were a nice mix of cuteness, and nightmare fuel, and I honestly feel those had more backbone then modern family films' idea that being "mature," means being an overly-self-aware sitcom, that rarely takes itself seriously.
Honestly as a kid, I liked that there was visible blood when the characters got severely injured or died. Even if it made no sence from the realism and science point of things. 'cause in every other movie or a show, when a character got literally visibly stabbed or injured, with no blood at least on the weapon, or something, the injury just didn't feel like it mattered.
In a Finnish translation, it was also translated into being juice. And honestly... I don't know how would someone from the UK translate it into lemonade? Like... How? In what universe do they serve that thicc looking lemonade? :D
It's not really juice, but rather squash / cordial. It's very popular in Denmark, but I don't really think it's too popular in the anglosphere. Translating it as lemonade was probably a matter of localization, like how lemonade is often changed to squash / cordial in Danish dubs. I'd say it would probably have made more sense to make it juice, though.
I KNOW RIGHT! Like I remember this being an actual movie now years later, but when I was young I always wondered where I got these memories and images from? Was it just a dream?
I for one really like the more silent and dramatic scenes in this movie, like when the little girl finds the sea horse, and she wants to keep it but she's told to let it go so it can live, and its so hard for her but she does the right thing; and the ending. I did like that Fly gets really hurt, and they don't just brush it aside: he is in pain, he moves slow and he can't fight the bad guy, so he has to outsmart him. That scene is pretty dramatic too, even if it doesent have that much action
Ikr, those scenes were chilling when I watched it as a kid, and they're still chilling when I watch it as an adult. Not all the loud music or explosions or fire that movies these days have, just chilling silence. I also really like the scene where Fly gets hurt because it's in slow motion and with a color filter/darkened on the screen and black blood, and in silence. It just really shows the shock of the main character getting badly hurt, like a really long second, and then it turns back to normal speed when the shock passes and a dramatic sting is played to further to snap you out of the shock, as it then proceeds to play quieter music of tension. I dunno if everything I just wrote is easy to understand, I was just really excited because I love this movie lol
The bad guy's death was downright chilling as I remember it... For a kids movie it was rather dark but the lesson is true and everlasting (if my experience in high school is anything to go by) : Pride will always be the downfall of bullies.
"Fly is shown to be good at tricking people." "But then he tells Joe the truth about the antidote so that makes him not-so-clever." "But then Fly uses his wit to trick Joe into defeating himself? Nah that's anti-climatic."
what would be the alternative for that antidote scene? 3 people came from the above and one is a little girl starfish, so if joe think a bit he would then tell him to leave his sister behinde until he return in that 48 hourse time limit
The pilotfish got turned into a human because it works in reverse for fish. The scene where he died by drawing was actually pretty impactful. Atleast for me when I saw him drown on TV as a child
Oh my gosh. I didn't know that "I'm a little fish in the deep blue sea" came from this movie! I didn't even know it came from a movie. That brought back some memories. Also, as morbid as Joe's death was, I feel like a battle scene would be a bit cliche? Him drowning as a human because he was so focused on his goal that he didn't think about his situation or the consequences feels more interesting.
I find it funny that Chuck who is meant to be the kind of Nerdy character in the film just gets turned into an animal that literally has no brain or organs 😂
I'm from Mexico (where this movie became a big hit btw) and in the latin American spanish dub, Stella mistakes for "agüita de sabor" (spanish for little flavoured water) which she could refer to the saftevand you were talking about or juice or any other kind of flavored drink.
I only remembered two details from this film, one was the bad guy turning human, the other was the fly got stepped on fake out. That crunch noise honestly haunted me for years
for some reason this scene traumatized me more than Joe's death as a kid; maybe cause Fly was the good guy, idk but it's the scene that I always remembered the most
I saw it on tv and i loved it but never really fond it elsewhere 🤔 so i watched it every time I was on tv like the last unicorn that airs every Christmas day Germany is a strange place for tv...
Relieved to hear that I am not the only one here who had fractions of the movie left in my memory from when I was young, which led me wondering whether that movie even existed xD
13:44 well I think it's the other way around for Joe. If the kids stay fish for 48 hours they become fish forever. If Joe stayed human for 48 hours he would human forever.
Idk, I assumed it was "if you stay fish for 48 hours you'll never be truly human". Basically drinking the antidote turns you into that grotesque human mutant that Joe became. Feels a bit more fitting for a serum the doctor called out as experimental
always had a soft spot for this movie as i saw it countless times during my childhood, safe to say it was a pleasant surprise to see your review of it!
The reason Stella believes that is lemonade is because in the danish (and swedish, the version I grew up with) version she believes it is Raspberry juice. I have no idea why the english dub changed it to lemonad 🤔
Here in Ireland we have red lemonade. I was kind of surprised to hear so many people confused about that line, I grew up drinking blood-red lemonade over here so that’s what I always assumed she thought it was as a kid. d2wwnnx8tks4e8.cloudfront.net/images/app/large/5011026005226_3.JPG
I grew up in the 2000's (in england) and honestly i dont ever remember there being raspberry juice at all, i knew of cranberry juice but to a child itd taste horrible so i understand why they changed it to lemonade however it did throw me off rewatching this film recently
"If they have fourty-eight hours until they turn back into a human, why can a fish who's been that way his whole life turn back?" That's not how that works. Turning him into a human would be the opposite of turning the kids into fish. It affects them because they weren't turned into anything beforehand, they were always fish, thus the potion simply did the reverse of what the first did. [I guarantee you that if he survived, he'd probably have the same time limit to turn back into a fish.] So it's less like an actual antidote and more like a reverse of the first potion. They can change them because there's no first potion that could become permanent.
I've never seen the film but yeah I was confused by Steve's confusion, it's seems rather black and white to me, joe originally being a fish shouldn't have anything to do with it
Joe's death is surelly unsettling, but for me, the most screwd up thing about it is to think that he became a human, but at a small size that can fit inside a pipe... its kinda creepy to think about how a disfigured fish turned human would be in real life
I find its flaws charming as i valued the inventiveness of it all, and i never had a problem with the music still giving me lots of nostalgica. Nothing wrong with evil villain song, and the potion song was pretty inventiv. There's a lot that could have been change for the better but the violens is not one, I truly felt it when he was hit by the grab and it gave great stakes. and the villain death was not anticlimactic, seeing him turn into a monster manfish and drown was enough to make me remember that screen and give a great climactic final to the film
The fake-out at the end of the film where the main character get's stepped on always makes me feel sick but I still get a kick out of the fact it made it in to the film because it would of been a ridiculously dark ending let alone it being a fake-out.
The bad guys death had me laughing as a kid and i loved it because every film around the same time as this film had the "final fight" "Friendship beats all" and other overly used tropes while this film actually played on the villains personality.
Red Lomonade is actually a thing in Ireland I remember as a kid being surprised that I couldn't find it anywhere the first time I went to another country
Two things: 1: Alan Rickman fish is weird, I know the fish's name is Joe, but he's just Alan Rickman fish to me. 2: I love the soundtrack for this movie. That early to mid 2000s pop songs and animated movies are like chocolate and peanut butter, they just perfectly go together. I can't get enough of it.
The only way to make Joe’s defeat more horrifying would have him be to turn into a human, come up to the surface, but then, instead of fulfilling his grand ambitions, he has to waste the rest of his life away in a 9-5 job paying the bills. Maybe at a seafood joint for added irony.
Ngl. I disagree with most of your critiques, I felt the CGI was very fitting, Fly did have a character ark and I think the musical element of the movie was spot on. But take my opinion with a grain of salt, I can't comment on the specifics of the English version as I watched it in Danish where I suspect that some of the dialogue was localized differently than the English.
I've always felt the CGI looked incredible in this movie, the lighting effects are phenomenal for the time and they effortlessly match the artstyle of the painting backgrounds in a way that helps create a type of dreamlike underwater atmosphere that i feel is very unique.
It's nice to see that someone still remember that underrated masterpiece "I'm a little yellow fish in the deep blue sea!" is a song that I still remember "Fishtastic" was so catchy "Intelligence" sang by Alan Rickman classic But the best song for me it was, it is and will be "Ocean Love" it's an amazing song performed by Eddi Reader. It's so peaceful no matter in what language you're listening to that song Compressed to the opening scene it's a masterpiece. Gives me some kind of memories and feelings that I can't explain Nostalgic movie
this movie provoked so many emotions as me as a kid and an adult. slightly off topic to your comment but when you are talking about your feelings and nostalgia and stuff i just thought i'd share!
Just want to point out some things that either Steve missed from the movie, or that the English dub didn't mention - the reason behind there being a potion that turns humans into fish is because of the climate change and the polar icecaps melting within the next century. (So the movie actually deals with a topic that's valid more than ever today, and this movie came out 20 years ago.) I also disagree that Fly (called 'Svip' in the original version) doesn't get much character development - his impulsivity is what made them end up at the laboratory in the first place, and AFAIR he becomes much more cautious and thoughtful, and even becomes less of a smartass - in the start of the movie, you see him making fun of Chuck (called 'Plum' in the original) spending so much time on science and other "nerdy" hobbies, whereas in the end him and Chuck actually becomes best friends, and Chuck begins teaching him some of his hobbies - hence he sits with a computer by the water slide at the end, making him a lot more humble, and his broken leg even forces him against his impetuousness. I do agree that there definitely is some plot armor for the characters, and some pretty silly things in the movie, but I would argue that the designated audience (that being children) will never really pay attention to it, and perhaps even being a necessity to keep the audience interested. At least I never did notice those things mentioned, watching it as a child. Like other people said with Joe's death, I also think it excels and really is one of my favorite points of the movie, being both thought-provoking and anti-climatic, as it actually is. Danish cartoons have never really shyed away from adult themes like death in movies (except today really), so while I can see people from other countries considering it unfit for children, I think most Danes can agree with me on that. (Especially considering movies like Bennys Badekar, Samson & Sally, Aberne og det Hemmelige Våben, Fuglekrigen i Kanøfleskoven, Drengen der ville gøre det umulige etc.) Just my two cents, could of course just be the nostalgia talking!
"Can humans breathe underwater?" "Of course not-" *Bad Guy turns into a human and drowns* That shit haunted me for years and it's the only thing I remember from that movie.
I came in near the end when I first saw it, darn live TV and no Sky+ at that time, and I just saw Fry getting punched and there was blood and- I hadn't been introduced to anime and stuff yet (first exposure being coming onto Princess Mononoke right as a character gets clearly shot through) so blood in an animated kid's film was horrifying to my preteen self.
The animation looks very Don Bluth-esque in the finished film, but I've never heard any mention of it in relation to him or his teams. It also reminds me of some of Don Bluth's later films, where the quality of the animation was often jarringly superior to the quality of the scripts. It's a rather interesting glimpse into the state of the western animation industry during this late 90s-early 2000s period. Clearly talented hand-drawn animation teams seemed to be increasingly forced to make the most of stories that their technical skills felt like overkill for, while CG animation studios seemed to be almost poaching many of the better animation screenwriters of the time.
Yeah and I can actually answer a bit in regards to the Don bluth bit. A-film, the lead studio on Help I'm a fish actually worked on a lot of Don Bluth projects for outsourced animation, including Felidae, Ferngully, Balto, Pebble and the Penguin, All dogs go to Heaven 2, and A troll in Central park, amongst others. They also did outsourced animation for a few other American productions like Quest for Camelot and Eight Crazy Nights. Alongside that they worked on some more European 2D productions like Asterix and the Vikings and the Pettson and Findus animated movies. All while making their own movies as well starting with War of the Birds, and Jungle Jack/Jungledyret Hugo being their first major success that's still known to this day. But ever since around 2004 they've almost exclusively done 3D animation. Still as of today they're the largest animation studio in Denmark which right now is growing a notable animation scene with lots of smaller studios popping up and a major animation college.
@@222LoneWolf You're welcome. I'm actually now finding even more movies they worked on. Apparently they also worked on The Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones, An Extremely Goofy movie, The Lion King 2 Simbas pride, lots of other Disney sequels like Return to Neverland, Cinderella 3 a twist in time, and even the Goofy "How to set up your home theater" short, as well as the Curious George movie, and several TV productions like the Animated show "The Fairytaler" which I watched a lot of when I was a young kid.
This was a childhood favourite of mine, it use to air on Boomerang from time to time and when it did I would always watch it The scene that stuck with me for years wasn't actually Joe's death (though its still one of my favourite villain deaths in film) but actually Fly getting badly hurt by the crab general. It was the first movie that I ever saw that showed the main protagonist getting badly injured, to the point they they weren't able to move or do anything. It didn't give them plot armor and to me that made it more compelling, I really respect the film makers not being afraid to allow its main character to go through that
I despised that crab so much that I take great satisfaction in seeing him get eaten by the shark, the crunching sound as he gets devoured makes it more cathartic to me
Two things: One, this film is absolutely beautiful, even if it decides to be scary for kids. Reminds me a lot of "We're Back!" too. Two, if people back then saw what films were like now, I'm fairly certain this film would've been given better reception. I mean, I feel bad. Because this film flopped, I've never heard a thing about it and thus missed out on its beautiful animation.
let me put it this way, If Help I'm a Fish was a Disney movie it would have been massive. One of the best animated movies I've ever seen and that's not me overrating it
Yeah when I saw it as a kid I thought it was (and still is) a really good and beautifully animated film, the style reminds me of films like the iron giant and treasure planet. I wish we still had films like these nowadays.
Yeah, but at the same time, it showed how "Fly" (god that's a stupid name) finally got over himself and used his brain to fix the situation, instead of just assuming he could wing it, which is what consistently got them into trouble all throughout the entire film. And face it, tricking a fish into becoming human for the explicit purpose of drowning him, is pretty hardcore.
I thoroughly disagree with your assessment on the awkward jump ahead. We the audience know what happened to Stella, we were shown Fly throwing her out and we are shown Chuck finding out. There's absolutely no reason to show them having a chat about it then going to the boats. Honestly a lesser film would do that and in my opinion it would be a waste of time
@@kobe4212 He's probably only nitpicking because it's such a great film otherwise. After all, nothing is perfect, and if something may seem to be perfect, you gotta nitpick to find its flaws, but that doesn't make it a lesser film.
On the contrary, it shows Fly reacting to his own mistakes, and that moment is the threshold into adventure. It didn’t need to be a long scene, even just a few seconds of reveal and expression on Fly’s face. By cutting away, it can, but not necessarily does, cut some of the emotional investment in Fly and his motivation. I haven’t seen this movie so I can’t actually say that that is the case, though. Obviously his motivation is clear, but that moment would draw us closer to Fly as a character, potentially.
"Water tornado appearing out of nowhere" That's actually not true, since the tornado was an Effect of the machine that Proffesor and parents used to get all the fish from the bottom and find the kids. Tbh I have no other clue how they could look for them quickly in any other way.
10:09 Fun fact on that "Be Prepared" comparison: In the german version, the voice actor for Joe is actually the same as the voice actor for Scar. So that comparison is even more fitting now.
They have blue blood That's because copper plays the role in the crabs' blood that iron does in ours. The iron-based, oxygen-carrying hemoglobin molecules in our blood give it that red color; the copper-based, oxygen-carrying hemocyanin molecules in theirs make it baby blue
@@HenrikofEldenbright turns out that is actually a wierd optical illusion caused by how your skins absorbs and reflects light. even deprived of oxygen blood isnt blue, its a really dark color. Your skin absorbs the red light easiest, then green, then blue. So veins look green or blue because that is what is getting reflected back. Light is wierd stuff. Particle wave physics and all.
Great Scottish Railway produtions First aid responder here, that’s a dumb myth. A myth that doesn’t even make sense. Human blood is never blue. 🤨 What makes it red is haemoglobin, which is literally needed in order to pick up and carry oxygen, so you can’t have not-red blood.
So side note that kid that got turned into a jellyfish, is now effectively immortal. Provided nothing eats or kills him as some forms of jelly fish can literally revert there age and grow up again forever repeating this process.
This movie was my gateway for writing dark themes and people getting hurt. Seeing that the wounds the lil guy reflected in his human form as well fucked up my head.
I totally adored this film as a kid. I can’t remember why, I think there was some heart to it that resonated with me. It was also rare that I ever saw it, obscure as it was, and, well, scarcity can make something sweeter I feel. 6:51 I see no issue here. You can surmise from the dialogue and visuals that what you describe has transpired. You know when people don’t want films to assume we’re idiots? This is one of those times where the film is assuming we can connect the dots. Plus, I don’t know how long the run time is but I’ve no doubt that that sort of scene could’ve been cut for time. 11:20 says the guy who pronounces “escape” incorrectly… 13:43 the “antidote” is presumably a fish to human potion and being called an “antidote” colloquially. You know, like how they’re using the term fish instead “asteroidafucknowswhat”. Why it shouldn’t work on a person who’s been a fish for longer that two days is beyond me, but maybe the professor was just wrong…? 14:55 not to mention, why do the fish become people, but the seahorse becomes… a horse? What the fuck else is that doctor doing down there…? 17:52 I adore this song. They always played at the Cabaret centres of the caravan parks that my family went on holiday to. 19:26 oh good god, what an awful horror of a cover. This is some video brinquedo shit. I can’t believe they slapdashed a horrifying 3D cover to try and resell this film. Really sullies it.
I remember loving this movie as a kid and back then, I didn't realize how dark it was until I re-watched it as an adult. I recommend you watch and review the Soviet adaptation of The Jungle Book, as well as Valhalla from 1986 and Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings.
Bakshi’s LOTR is a whole different type of high compared to like Cool World or Fritz. Like.... MY POOR MAN SAM!!!! That’s my biggest complaint of the film. The BOTCHED him. BOI it’s bad. But I will admit, his adaptation of Frodo is personally better and closer to the book’s Frodo Baggins. I won’t say more Bc the LOTR community will literally kill me for even saying I liked some aspects of bakshi’s adaptation.
I completely disagree with your critique of Fly: the moral of his story was twofold : learn to respect his friend Chuck's computer and personal space but also to learn to be humble and attentive to other peoples needs. This is something you clearly glossed over in your critique and it's a pretty damn shame .
I actually agree with your assessment over Steve’s. In my humble opinion, based on observing Fly as a character. I would say that he learned how to apply information to his advantage instead of wise cracking remarks to get his way. An example of this would be towards the end of the film when he is in the final confrontation with Joe. By quizzing Joe on scientific and philosophical queries, he managed to use Joe’s ego against him which led to the main antagonist’s demise. I also think the relationship between Fly and Chuck developed from that of pure dislike to one of understanding where I would venture to say quite possibly a good friendship. So those would be my thoughts on the character Fly and how I came to appreciate his own arc of development throughout the film.
I don’t know why, but this movie reminds me “The Incredible Mr. Limpet” movie. A guy wishes himself to be a fish, and helps the army by helping them destroying Nazi submarines. The movie also has live action and animation in it like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” You should definitely check it out
In the Danish version, Stella thinks the potion is cool aid which would make more sense. They probably changed it to lemonade because the Danish word for Cool Aid has 3 Syllables.
This actually was a big childhood favorite of mine that I forgot about (just like with Alfred J. Kwak, which I only recently remembered, along with X DuckX and Sitting Ducks... Hmm, that's a lot of ducks, I wonder why I'm into them so much now, no idea...).
This movie is a very special memory of my childhood. I used to watch this movie like a hundred times when I was like 6 or 7 and didn't get traumatized. In fact, when the shark ate other fish i remember that was hysterical for me.
This movie takes me back when I was little Here in the Nederland's it was very hard advertisement for the kids. Reason, a pop group for little toddler/kids that songs it in our native language. day and day out on tv to promote it. Thank you for bringing those memories back.
Freaking K3, man.. yeah that movie got a lot of advertisement here because of that. Dunno if that affected the box office numbers for our region that much, though.
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i love you stevie
Steve, please do 'Summer Days with Coo‘
1 hours ago?!
no
BRO I REMEMBER WATCHING THIS ON NETFLIX
Ok, as a danish person, I can explain the red lemonade thing; here in Denmark we dont have lemonade, so in the original danish version, Stella mistook the potion for "saftevand"; a beverage made from berry juice, sugar, and water, and it's usually red. In fact, there is a brand often served in preschools that is the exact same shade of red as the potion.
Yeah, for any Americans it’s like that grape-juice that comes as concentrate
When I watched it in Mexico (where I'm from btw) where this movie became a big hit, Stella confused it with "Aguita de sabor" (spanish for "little flavoured water" which she could be talking about that saftevand you mentioned or juice or any kind of flavored drink)
So it’s a jelly-donut situation?
@@obviouslykaleb7998 When you have rice and seaweed, you make jelly donuts
In the Icelandic dub, she just mistook it for juice.
Edit: just watched it, I misremembered... she mistook it for soda.
"I'm a little yellowww fish in the deep blue seaaa!!!" what a absolute bop
That song was played at almost every early 2000s birthday disco I went to as a child!
@@causticwit and at holiday camps like butlins
soy un lindo pececin que en el mar es feliiiiiz
Sounds like a ddr song.
That song is pretty great, despite the tone of the movie 😃
I like how they didn't just overpower the villain, they outsmarted him.
Yeah exactly, if the parents came in to save them the ending wouldn’t feel the same
I do remember thinkin for looong asss about that ending tho'
Like I was 6 years old when I actually saw it - and altho I never got it on VHR, I always have remembered that movie in particular - like about when I turned like 12 I kept thinkin every now nd then that *where* did Joe get that knowledge? Like he turned into human, but simply turning into smart human doesnt grant you knowledge you never studied
666th like.
@@Ykskolme Ikr
What I want to know is how the guy wasn’t crushed when he turned into a human in a pipe that could barely fit a flyfish
While Joe just drowning was strong for me as kid. Fly getting hurt by the crab was even more terrifying. Most children media have their character being invulnerable or just not visibly affected by physical ailments. Fly got slashed and spend the rest of the film hurt badly. It just a big hit of mortality for children.
I honestly hated the crab for that. I always find it satisfying when the shark eats him shortly afterwards
That clip even jumped me while watching the video, and gave me a mild deja vu.
Sorry for spelling "deja vu" like that, I just don't know where the accents go.
That is exactly the only thing I remember about the movie!
This dude took every opportunity he could to throw in Spongebob jokes in this video and it’s brilliant.
exactly😂😂
U feeling it now mr crabs
Even in the KEEPS sponsor
Yeah I know
Adeptus ridiculous: am I a joke to you
Honestly I think the way they defeat the villain is really good. Instead of just fighting him, Fly uses Joe's own ego against him. Joe wants to prove how smart he is and so in order to answer the questions fly asks him, he continues to drink from the potion and basically kills himself thanks to his hubris. It's also a really dark and terrifying death and I love it.
Agreed 100%. This way works way better than just a generic fight scene, while it would've been cool to see Joe's monstrous human form in action, simply turning him human to drown him is really clever. Hoist by his own petard, so to say.
also umm yeah that THING wasnt human XD
When you furst watch this as an adult, yea it seems boring - but as a kid, this was terrifying and scared the shit out of me. The tension of the villian becoming stronger until he then realizes he fucked himself up is intense when youre still a child.
To be honest that silent death kinda fits into the theme of deep ocean.
I also love how unique Joe's defeat was compared to many other villains. Not to mention his terrifying transformation and that gasp he made before he died.
Joe's death is horribly unsettling. Like, the anti-climax of it makes it more horrifying. There's no fanfare to it, no big to-do, nothing cinematic.
He just drowns.
The fact that it's so understated and effortless makes it weirdly upsetting. It just hammers home how easily people can just die.
I feel sorry for any fishermen that finds his corpse. Worse then, kids on a beach seeing a mermaid devil wash up.
It traumatised me
"Yeh well, can a fish breathe underwater!?" "Of course not!" *dies*
Was it really dead silent like that? It reminded me of Frank's death in 2001. Chilling as hell.
@@Suguri Oh, yeah, it's totally quite. Music drops out, main character stops talking, Joe dies and floats away.
Crabs blood is blue, so maybe the crab in the beginning was human turned crab and that’s how the professor knew about the 48hour window. Just a thought.
But that's a theory
A FILM THEORY
Wow that is a terrifying concept thank you
OH GOD OH MY GOD YEAH That is such a scary thought, I love that, thanks for sharing!
_Oh..._
I think you put more thought in than the animators
“Can a human breathe underwater?”
“OF COURSE NOT…”
I just loved the delivery of that villain death; so monstrously-silent
It is the only part of the movie I still remember after like 20 years.
Imagine if he drinks more of that that he becomes more than human
I get traumatized in the final battle
@@fatherpucci8170 Man turns into the Ultimate lifeform or something.
@@aperson4287 then eventually.... he stops thinking
I think drowning was a perfect death for the villain. A fight in the lab with the parents pitching in to help would be very new age, it sounds like a Disney plot and honestly doesn't require much thought or imagination. The actual ending here was an interesting, unpredictable plot point and there's something poetic about a fish drowning.
I also think it's playing on the "power corrupts, and ultimate power corrupts ultimately" saying. Basically in his pursuit of power he gets so corrupted that he can no longer survive. All in all this is a good ending, and one of the best movies I can remember watching as a kid
I also really like how it's the main character using his brain to beat him
THANK YOU🎉
True.
Pretty terrifying too, imagine the you suddenly can’t breathe the air you’ve breathed you’re whole life
I think rather than anticlimactic, it’s ironic, he wished to be human, he was fooled into doing it underwater and lead to his death, he became intelligent but not enough to not fall for that, it’s a good ending for a villain like him
How is that irony?
@@JimmyBoy9878 He got what he wanted and it's exactly what killed him. That's irony.
@@adreak9868 Wouldn't that be poetic justice. Literally drowning from his thirst for knowledge?
@@JimmyBoy9878 The Cambridge Dictionary defines "irony" as "a situation in which something which was intended to have a particular result has the opposite or a very different result". Drinking the potion he fought so hard to get was supposed to make him "powerful" and instead it killed him. That's irony.
@@adreak9868 No it would be if the drink was to give him life but instead killed him. He did still get more power as he know has a einstein level brain with a human body..However he was so smart he still couldn't figure out that humans can't breathe.
Bloody hell, that takes me back. I wrote a few gags, did the character designs and storyboards for this thing - and believe me, they dialed down the horror of Joe's transformation into a (near) human. The character designs were also "softened" - the shark was rather a lot more menacing in my original designs.
It's strange how the US and UK seems to shy away from fear in their products, having grown up on Astrid Lindgren we don't really avoid the topics of loneliness, evil, sorrow and death - everthing can be a formative experience, especially when presented safely through fiction.
Ikr?
I always appreciated this film as a Danish/German one as you could tell from the story and the messages it sent, if this was Disney or Dreamworks it would've been made ''different'' and ''easier'' in a way.
Also - I've LOVED this film since I saw it in theaters here in Norway around 20 years ago - and you worked on it?!!
FANTASTIC.
Yeah its true, its usually a lot more censored in places like the us, especially now days. Thats really cool that you worked on the movie and the designs! I always loved the artstyle of the characters, especially the main group and the shark:) Is there by any chance a place or a website where the earlier designs for the characters are available to see?
@@magnuss.m.k6111 Yea I would love to know more about BTS of this film!
@@magnuss.m.k6111 The work's lost in time, no digital backups and god knows where the originals are at this point, if they even still exist.
@@hermanjarlin Mulan the movie showed blood but not that much
As morbid as it is for a childrens film, the way Joe is defeated is pretty damn clever; using his ego against him. Didn't know about the pilot version of the movie though, at least it explains why and how some of the fish also started speaking with the kids parading the antidote around and spilling it
I liked morbid ends to really nasty villains sometimes. Clayton from Disney's Tarzan comes to mind.
I enjoyed this movie, but then again ”I’m just a Finn.” 😂😅
I remember watching this film as a kid at my grandparents' house, I'll be honest, Joe's death made my jaw drop because he dies technically on screen by drowning and I'm pretty sure drowning is one of the worst ways to die.
oh yeah, but it would be less painful for him to as he under water from the start.
but for humans it gets pretty grim, stomach acids and seawater in your lungs kinds of grim.
It's even more graphic than Syndrome being turned into sushi by a plane!
That and being burnt alive.
As someone who almost drowned as a young child, it was a horrible experience. I was 3 or 4 and I still vividly remember it in my 30s. I was just at that point where my sight was going black and my body was about to breath in the water because I was losing control and about to lose consciousness when my dad got to me. Even though it was terrifying and painful (pain isn't exactly the word for it?) I had so much faith that it would all be okay because my parents would save me, and that's exactly what happened. Still traumatized me a bit though. 10/10 would not recommend drowning as a way to go out.
seriously. the way the life just silently slipped away from his body was high key disturbing for 7 year old me.
The villian fish looks more a character Tim Curry would voice.
He does look a lot like Frank N'Furter! I wonder if Tim Curry was ever considered for the role.
@@causticwit imagine that
@@causticwit "I'm just a sweet transhuman from transspecies California!"
I originally thought it was Tim Curry until this video
I thought it was Tim Curry as well! I think it's the way the eyes and lips are designed. That's a recurring thing with his characters.
The only thing that always made me remember this movie from time to time was thinking about Joe's death. I remembered his gradually increasing grotesque form, resembling a zombie or something. And then I remembered the last question Fly asked him and he just... Drowned, and it is not epic, Fly has no overreaction, you hear no scream, everything cuts to silent and the body gets sent into the darkness of the pipe.
I really, really liked that scene because of how disturbing and unique it was. I would probably have forgotten about that movie later on if it wasn't for it.
Alan Rickman always brought his A-game to everything, even to a weird, obscure kids movie from Denmark as a intelligence-hungry dictator of fish. Never a dull performance and no role was beneath him. Rest In Peace Alan, you were a fantastic actor taken way too early from this world.
Yup. That's one of the reasons (among many) that I like him as an actor, along with making almost every villain (minus two) he plays be sympathetic in the understanding of what they do, even though they are doing really bad stuff. Now I wonder if there were any other animated movies he has been in or any movies where he's had to sing, cause I know most British actors also have done theater
@@stargirl2477 Sweeney Todd, it's a musical. But I'm under the assumption you've watched it being a fan of his and all.
I always thought his voice acting for Marvin the robot in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was excellent
Peace* not piece
@@shadow-squid4872 thank you for spotting that.
As you pointed out, that Joe's song was a discount "Be Prepared" from the Lion King... Should I tell you what... I just looked up the german voice actors that worked on "Help, I'm a Fish" and in the german versions of "The Lion King" and "Help I'm a Fish" Scar and Joe are even voiced by the same voice actor... "Thomas Fritsch" that is, who passed away recently... Rest in Peace
F
u
Eine meiner lieblingsrollen von Thomas Fritsch ❤️ "dem Denker, dem Lenker, dem Herrscher der See"
Wait, he died? Oh... :c
F
"The film was actually a Danish/German/Irish Collaboration."
What a cocktail
A cocktail of botched names
15:49 This scene shows that Fly became respectful to his cousin. There he asks if he can delete a file to make place for a game
*”Nothing unsuitable for children”*
I just love whenever that quote is said
Wow this comment blew up way more than I thought thanks
Watership down was a U 😂
People in this day and age are just little snowflakes trying to shelter their kids, as if that'd change anything.
I like to refer as a joke (for most cases). It's okay to expose some mature scenes for children in cartoons/films. It makes easier for them to prepared later in life when they see some real shit *(and not become too oversensitive like some people today)*
liked that film ? try the clone wars series - they say its a kids show
@@1God1Fury I agree, some old Disney movies had some blood, some scary things, and edge to them. Without that stuff, they'd be annoyingly too cute/silly/fluffy. Don Bluth's animated features were a nice mix of cuteness, and nightmare fuel, and I honestly feel those had more backbone then modern family films' idea that being "mature," means being an overly-self-aware sitcom, that rarely takes itself seriously.
this movie was a big part of my childhood and yet ive never seen anyone talk about it until now.
Same here, but I had totally forgotten about this. Even though I've watched it so many times!
Yeah, same.
Same. It traumatised and fascinated me at the same time.
Same here.
Lol, me too
Steve: get it..."Krill"?
Me (internally screaming): It's mackerel!
It's both lol
Same. Though I guess it can work like that for whoever that doesn't know that is the name of mackerel in danish
Or when he said "water tornado" instead of whirlpool
@@RoboLobster3000 ...Yeah, I'm now refusing to call them anything but "water tornadoes" now, because... Arguably, not exactly wrong lol
Plankton: ALRIGHT, I GET IT!
Honestly as a kid, I liked that there was visible blood when the characters got severely injured or died. Even if it made no sence from the realism and science point of things.
'cause in every other movie or a show, when a character got literally visibly stabbed or injured, with no blood at least on the weapon, or something, the injury just didn't feel like it mattered.
The lemonade is definitely a translation error, we have a common red berry-juice that's as common as lemonade.
cranberry juice would make more sense
In a Finnish translation, it was also translated into being juice.
And honestly... I don't know how would someone from the UK translate it into lemonade?
Like... How? In what universe do they serve that thicc looking lemonade? :D
As far as I can remember, polish version also contained juice.
It's not really juice, but rather squash / cordial. It's very popular in Denmark, but I don't really think it's too popular in the anglosphere. Translating it as lemonade was probably a matter of localization, like how lemonade is often changed to squash / cordial in Danish dubs. I'd say it would probably have made more sense to make it juice, though.
@A I I am :)
This was that one movie that felt like a dream and didn’t exist
EXACTLY I FORGOT ALL ABOUT THIS BUT RRMMEBER EVERYTHING
Definitively goes into that list yes! For a while I thought I made it all up in my mind
Omg it’s true tho
I KNOW RIGHT! Like I remember this being an actual movie now years later, but when I was young I always wondered where I got these memories and images from? Was it just a dream?
Same here dude, glad I saw this video so know I didn't make it up
I for one really like the more silent and dramatic scenes in this movie, like when the little girl finds the sea horse, and she wants to keep it but she's told to let it go so it can live, and its so hard for her but she does the right thing; and the ending. I did like that Fly gets really hurt, and they don't just brush it aside: he is in pain, he moves slow and he can't fight the bad guy, so he has to outsmart him. That scene is pretty dramatic too, even if it doesent have that much action
Ikr, those scenes were chilling when I watched it as a kid, and they're still chilling when I watch it as an adult.
Not all the loud music or explosions or fire that movies these days have, just chilling silence.
I also really like the scene where Fly gets hurt because it's in slow motion and with a color filter/darkened on the screen and black blood, and in silence. It just really shows the shock of the main character getting badly hurt, like a really long second, and then it turns back to normal speed when the shock passes and a dramatic sting is played to further to snap you out of the shock, as it then proceeds to play quieter music of tension.
I dunno if everything I just wrote is easy to understand, I was just really excited because I love this movie lol
The bad guy's death was downright chilling as I remember it... For a kids movie it was rather dark but the lesson is true and everlasting (if my experience in high school is anything to go by) : Pride will always be the downfall of bullies.
The slow motion blood-trickled shot of Fly getting smashed around the face with the "Nothing unsuitable for children" absolutely made me cry 😂😂😂
I'm not used to seeing gorgeously drawn animation like this these days.
Well...its not from these days. Its over 10 years old at the least, i watched it as a kid.
@@thesaviorofsouls5210 the year 2000 when this came out was 20 years ago
God guys I feel old AF...
@@clintparsons3989 same
@@thesaviorofsouls5210 Same.
"Fly is shown to be good at tricking people."
"But then he tells Joe the truth about the antidote so that makes him not-so-clever."
"But then Fly uses his wit to trick Joe into defeating himself? Nah that's anti-climatic."
what would be the alternative for that antidote scene?
3 people came from the above and one is a little girl starfish, so if joe think a bit he would then tell him to leave his sister behinde until he return in that 48 hourse time limit
Fly didn't tell Joel secret of that potion coz he knew that Joel would kill him after he stops being useful. Also he didn't want more Nazi fish.
I thought the same thing, so what exactly did Fly say to Joe about the antidote?
Exactly
The pilotfish got turned into a human because it works in reverse for fish.
The scene where he died by drawing was actually pretty impactful.
Atleast for me when I saw him drown on TV as a child
you are not alone on that, i feel the same
Idk, he was kiiiinda horribly deformed. Like, that tomoresque mass on his head.
Oh my gosh. I didn't know that "I'm a little fish in the deep blue sea" came from this movie! I didn't even know it came from a movie. That brought back some memories.
Also, as morbid as Joe's death was, I feel like a battle scene would be a bit cliche? Him drowning as a human because he was so focused on his goal that he didn't think about his situation or the consequences feels more interesting.
I think Fly was more polite and respectful towards his cousin in the end. He matured a little bit.
This movie was like a fever dream for me because I know the scenes from the movie very vividly but can't put my finger around the name of the film.
Dude same
The magic of cartoon network
SAME
I use to watch it when I was 4 so I know what u mean
Same
"Can a human breathe underwater?"
"OF CoUrSE NoT!!!!!!"
😯
Dies.
Awww just commented this, you beat me. 😔😔😔
In water humans, will drown.
It was more of a *”AF CORF NAUT”* followed by a very high pitch gasp for air
"Nothing unsuitable for children"
I find it funny that Chuck who is meant to be the kind of Nerdy character in the film just gets turned into an animal that literally has no brain or organs 😂
On "Blood red lemonade": In the original Danish version, they say "Saftevand" which is kind of like Koolaid - and it's usually red, lol.
Ohh that is cool to know
In finnish they just referred to it as juice, which fits quite well :D
I'm from Mexico (where this movie became a big hit btw) and in the latin American spanish dub, Stella mistakes for "agüita de sabor" (spanish for little flavoured water) which she could refer to the saftevand you were talking about or juice or any other kind of flavored drink.
I was traumatised when I thought the aunt stepped on fly killing him, only to find out he’s okay
I only remembered two details from this film, one was the bad guy turning human, the other was the fly got stepped on fake out. That crunch noise honestly haunted me for years
and Chucks reaction!!! Utterly horrifying
for some reason this scene traumatized me more than Joe's death as a kid; maybe cause Fly was the good guy, idk but it's the scene that I always remembered the most
the scene of the villain drowning HAUNTS me till this day
What a grim way to kill off your villain no screaming, no fighting just silence
nothing unsuitable for children
Joe’s death is actually far more impactful & original than some lame Disney climax battle
So glad this film actually exists and I didn’t imagine it
Apparently i saw this movie on a DVD player as a kid. And i had no idea what the story or the plot even was.
@@wolfenden9805 i saw the film in DVD
I saw it on tv and i loved it but never really fond it elsewhere 🤔 so i watched it every time I was on tv like the last unicorn that airs every Christmas day Germany is a strange place for tv...
Relieved to hear that I am not the only one here who had fractions of the movie left in my memory from when I was young, which led me wondering whether that movie even existed xD
I remember watching this years ago but couldnt find out the name
I remember watching this movie and getting horrified when that black and white fish started becoming human in the end....still scares me tbh
Yeah I thought is was scary as well. Nostalgic to hear the music and see the shots again though
SAME HERE!! And the silence..😨
Sometime silence make a scene more powerful than any music ever could.
It makes you hold your breath
@@MrCaffein3 Exactly! And I think this is the best example I've seen. That scene still terrifies me.
nothing unsuitable for children
That “are you feeling it now mr. crabs”really fucked me up
Same
13:44 well I think it's the other way around for Joe. If the kids stay fish for 48 hours they become fish forever. If Joe stayed human for 48 hours he would human forever.
Exactly, I found that so incredibly obnoxious and stu pid of him to say that. I laughed out loud.
Idk, I assumed it was "if you stay fish for 48 hours you'll never be truly human". Basically drinking the antidote turns you into that grotesque human mutant that Joe became. Feels a bit more fitting for a serum the doctor called out as experimental
always had a soft spot for this movie as i saw it countless times during my childhood, safe to say it was a pleasant surprise to see your review of it!
I, as well loved this movie as a (young) child. But nevertheless, this is a great movie.
i meanwhile was horrified of it yet have always loved the ocean, sharks etc and want to dive with them one day...weird...maybe this movie is to thank?
Same
:')
Hey Cool Profile Pic i too am a Predator fan
The reason Stella believes that is lemonade is because in the danish (and swedish, the version I grew up with) version she believes it is Raspberry juice. I have no idea why the english dub changed it to lemonad 🤔
I didn’t know raspberry juice was a thing people drink. 🤔 I mean, logically it’s a berry so I get that it can make juice. But Idk 🤷♀️
Here in Ireland we have red lemonade. I was kind of surprised to hear so many people confused about that line, I grew up drinking blood-red lemonade over here so that’s what I always assumed she thought it was as a kid.
d2wwnnx8tks4e8.cloudfront.net/images/app/large/5011026005226_3.JPG
@@TheSlipperyNUwUdle you boil berries and suggar, gives you a strong liquid that you let cool then mix it with water for desired flavor strength.
Raspberry juice must not be native to the English-speaking nations.
I grew up in the 2000's (in england) and honestly i dont ever remember there being raspberry juice at all, i knew of cranberry juice but to a child itd taste horrible so i understand why they changed it to lemonade however it did throw me off rewatching this film recently
"If they have fourty-eight hours until they turn back into a human, why can a fish who's been that way his whole life turn back?"
That's not how that works. Turning him into a human would be the opposite of turning the kids into fish. It affects them because they weren't turned into anything beforehand, they were always fish, thus the potion simply did the reverse of what the first did. [I guarantee you that if he survived, he'd probably have the same time limit to turn back into a fish.] So it's less like an actual antidote and more like a reverse of the first potion. They can change them because there's no first potion that could become permanent.
I agree, in fact i'm pretty sure the profesor said that the antidote had the exact opposite effect
I've never seen the film but yeah I was confused by Steve's confusion, it's seems rather black and white to me, joe originally being a fish shouldn't have anything to do with it
i agree. Steve has to show respect to the deep lore of the Film
Yeah i knew i wasent the only one
The wording of this is somehow confusing me.
Joe's death is surelly unsettling, but for me, the most screwd up thing about it is to think that he became a human, but at a small size that can fit inside a pipe... its kinda creepy to think about how a disfigured fish turned human would be in real life
I know this movie has flaws, but I think it's tragically underrated.
I find its flaws charming as i valued the inventiveness of it all, and i never had a problem with the music still giving me lots of nostalgica.
Nothing wrong with evil villain song, and the potion song was pretty inventiv.
There's a lot that could have been change for the better but the violens is not one, I truly felt it when he was hit by the grab and it gave great stakes. and the villain death was not anticlimactic, seeing him turn into a monster manfish and drown was enough to make me remember that screen and give a great climactic final to the film
@@MouseGoat Exactly. It's also one of relatively few films which I think has a great Finnish dub. Most of what I've seen are mediocre at best.
My opinion of it
I want to give it a 4 star rating… but I can’t. That’s all I’m gonna say
I loved it.
@@TheCart54321 Same. I really like it, but objectively, it's not worth 4 stars.
The fake-out at the end of the film where the main character get's stepped on always makes me feel sick but I still get a kick out of the fact it made it in to the film because it would of been a ridiculously dark ending let alone it being a fake-out.
This has a very “Don Bluth” animated feel to it.
OMG yes! I loved the Don Bluth films! American Tale, Land before time, All dogs go to heaven all come to mind.
I felt like same way
Kinda has his "cute meets nightmare fuel" style to it. I loved his movies too.
@@DKQuagmire What about Secret of NIMH?
Even the style feels like his.
The bad guys death had me laughing as a kid and i loved it because every film around the same time as this film had the "final fight" "Friendship beats all" and other overly used tropes while this film actually played on the villains personality.
Red Lomonade is actually a thing in Ireland I remember as a kid being surprised that I couldn't find it anywhere the first time I went to another country
T.K. Red Lemonade has my heart.
The closest thing we have in America is pink lemonade
in denmark we also have red lemonade
That’s weird, I lived in Ireland my whole life and have never seen it before lmao
In Sweden we had red lemonade too. Every time I attended a party as a kid we could usually choose from red or yellow lemonade.
Two things:
1: Alan Rickman fish is weird, I know the fish's name is Joe, but he's just Alan Rickman fish to me.
2: I love the soundtrack for this movie. That early to mid 2000s pop songs and animated movies are like chocolate and peanut butter, they just perfectly go together. I can't get enough of it.
Yea me to, the songs in this film makes me feel so cosy.
ikr??
IM A LITTLE YELEKW FISH IN THE DEEP BLUE SEAAAA WONT SOMEBODY HELP ME
Oh god I feel like I unlocked a memory
Also funfact: The title of this movie in Argentina is "Mom, I'm a fish!"
huh. that's interesting!
Ah, no wonder. At first when I saw the title of the video I was like “I don’t think that’s the right title”
I love the latin dub for this movie, it's has a lot of personality
@@frankthelad8370 Yeah!
Remind me to request him to review "Daddy I'm a Zombie" and "Mummy I'm a Zombie"
The only way to make Joe’s defeat more horrifying would have him be to turn into a human, come up to the surface, but then, instead of fulfilling his grand ambitions, he has to waste the rest of his life away in a 9-5 job paying the bills. Maybe at a seafood joint for added irony.
That will be a like deleted ending.
Ngl. I disagree with most of your critiques, I felt the CGI was very fitting, Fly did have a character ark and I think the musical element of the movie was spot on. But take my opinion with a grain of salt, I can't comment on the specifics of the English version as I watched it in Danish where I suspect that some of the dialogue was localized differently than the English.
I did like the CGI being used for the fully animal threats, like how the Shark and Joe was at the beginning
Lol I watched this in Spanish 1st and I still enjoy it
The CGI was probably very impressive back when it came out. But it was nothing like Toy Story
I've always felt the CGI looked incredible in this movie, the lighting effects are phenomenal for the time and they effortlessly match the artstyle of the painting backgrounds in a way that helps create a type of dreamlike underwater atmosphere that i feel is very unique.
You are totally correct Fly had the biggest arc out if any character and this silly bug ger pretends he doesn't
Steve is getting WAY better at editing-especially for his jokes.
It's nice to see that someone still remember that underrated masterpiece
"I'm a little yellow fish in the deep blue sea!" is a song that I still remember
"Fishtastic" was so catchy
"Intelligence" sang by Alan Rickman classic
But the best song for me it was, it is and will be "Ocean Love" it's an amazing song performed by Eddi Reader. It's so peaceful no matter in what language you're listening to that song
Compressed to the opening scene it's a masterpiece. Gives me some kind of memories and feelings that I can't explain
Nostalgic movie
this movie provoked so many emotions as me as a kid and an adult. slightly off topic to your comment but when you are talking about your feelings and nostalgia and stuff i just thought i'd share!
come on don't forget Suddenly lol
you know that random song that came up when fly found Stella? i actually really liked that song
@@templecatt I love the songs! All of them, they were my favourite thing about this film when I was a child
Just want to point out some things that either Steve missed from the movie, or that the English dub didn't mention - the reason behind there being a potion that turns humans into fish is because of the climate change and the polar icecaps melting within the next century. (So the movie actually deals with a topic that's valid more than ever today, and this movie came out 20 years ago.)
I also disagree that Fly (called 'Svip' in the original version) doesn't get much character development - his impulsivity is what made them end up at the laboratory in the first place, and AFAIR he becomes much more cautious and thoughtful, and even becomes less of a smartass - in the start of the movie, you see him making fun of Chuck (called 'Plum' in the original) spending so much time on science and other "nerdy" hobbies, whereas in the end him and Chuck actually becomes best friends, and Chuck begins teaching him some of his hobbies - hence he sits with a computer by the water slide at the end, making him a lot more humble, and his broken leg even forces him against his impetuousness.
I do agree that there definitely is some plot armor for the characters, and some pretty silly things in the movie, but I would argue that the designated audience (that being children) will never really pay attention to it, and perhaps even being a necessity to keep the audience interested. At least I never did notice those things mentioned, watching it as a child.
Like other people said with Joe's death, I also think it excels and really is one of my favorite points of the movie, being both thought-provoking and anti-climatic, as it actually is. Danish cartoons have never really shyed away from adult themes like death in movies (except today really), so while I can see people from other countries considering it unfit for children, I think most Danes can agree with me on that. (Especially considering movies like Bennys Badekar, Samson & Sally, Aberne og det Hemmelige Våben, Fuglekrigen i Kanøfleskoven, Drengen der ville gøre det umulige etc.)
Just my two cents, could of course just be the nostalgia talking!
The polar icecaps reasoning was still in the English version. I don't understand why the professor has an antidote though
"I'm a little yellow fish in the deep blue sea" has a similar vibe to "i'm your little butterfly"
Reminds me a bit of ponyo's theme.
AY AY AY
Your LITTLE BUTTERFLY
@@Nicooriia That song always used to play on those toy phones you could buy at Woolworths, I remember mine was meant to look like an IPhone
True
@@Oodelallyfor me, its a song everyone who's played dance dance revolution probably knows, and I used to play that game like nothing else existed.
"Can humans breathe underwater?"
"Of course not-" *Bad Guy turns into a human and drowns*
That shit haunted me for years and it's the only thing I remember from that movie.
I came in near the end when I first saw it, darn live TV and no Sky+ at that time, and I just saw Fry getting punched and there was blood and- I hadn't been introduced to anime and stuff yet (first exposure being coming onto Princess Mononoke right as a character gets clearly shot through) so blood in an animated kid's film was horrifying to my preteen self.
At least it wasn't graphic.
The animation looks very Don Bluth-esque in the finished film, but I've never heard any mention of it in relation to him or his teams. It also reminds me of some of Don Bluth's later films, where the quality of the animation was often jarringly superior to the quality of the scripts. It's a rather interesting glimpse into the state of the western animation industry during this late 90s-early 2000s period. Clearly talented hand-drawn animation teams seemed to be increasingly forced to make the most of stories that their technical skills felt like overkill for, while CG animation studios seemed to be almost poaching many of the better animation screenwriters of the time.
Yeah and I can actually answer a bit in regards to the Don bluth bit. A-film, the lead studio on Help I'm a fish actually worked on a lot of Don Bluth projects for outsourced animation, including Felidae, Ferngully, Balto, Pebble and the Penguin, All dogs go to Heaven 2, and A troll in Central park, amongst others. They also did outsourced animation for a few other American productions like Quest for Camelot and Eight Crazy Nights. Alongside that they worked on some more European 2D productions like Asterix and the Vikings and the Pettson and Findus animated movies. All while making their own movies as well starting with War of the Birds, and Jungle Jack/Jungledyret Hugo being their first major success that's still known to this day. But ever since around 2004 they've almost exclusively done 3D animation. Still as of today they're the largest animation studio in Denmark which right now is growing a notable animation scene with lots of smaller studios popping up and a major animation college.
@@drdewott9154 That's really interesting! Thank you!
@@222LoneWolf You're welcome. I'm actually now finding even more movies they worked on. Apparently they also worked on The Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones, An Extremely Goofy movie, The Lion King 2 Simbas pride, lots of other Disney sequels like Return to Neverland, Cinderella 3 a twist in time, and even the Goofy "How to set up your home theater" short, as well as the Curious George movie, and several TV productions like the Animated show "The Fairytaler" which I watched a lot of when I was a young kid.
This was a childhood favourite of mine, it use to air on Boomerang from time to time and when it did I would always watch it
The scene that stuck with me for years wasn't actually Joe's death (though its still one of my favourite villain deaths in film) but actually Fly getting badly hurt by the crab general. It was the first movie that I ever saw that showed the main protagonist getting badly injured, to the point they they weren't able to move or do anything. It didn't give them plot armor and to me that made it more compelling, I really respect the film makers not being afraid to allow its main character to go through that
I despised that crab so much that I take great satisfaction in seeing him get eaten by the shark, the crunching sound as he gets devoured makes it more cathartic to me
Two things:
One, this film is absolutely beautiful, even if it decides to be scary for kids. Reminds me a lot of "We're Back!" too.
Two, if people back then saw what films were like now, I'm fairly certain this film would've been given better reception. I mean, I feel bad. Because this film flopped, I've never heard a thing about it and thus missed out on its beautiful animation.
That dinosaur movie? I loved that as a kid.
@@redpanda6497 Precisely!
let me put it this way, If Help I'm a Fish was a Disney movie it would have been massive. One of the best animated movies I've ever seen and that's not me overrating it
Yeah when I saw it as a kid I thought it was (and still is) a really good and beautifully animated film, the style reminds me of films like the iron giant and treasure planet. I wish we still had films like these nowadays.
OML we're back was one of my favorites as a kid.
They made Joe's human form look so cool, and then just... threw him away.
Yeah, but at the same time, it showed how "Fly" (god that's a stupid name) finally got over himself and used his brain to fix the situation, instead of just assuming he could wing it, which is what consistently got them into trouble all throughout the entire film. And face it, tricking a fish into becoming human for the explicit purpose of drowning him, is pretty hardcore.
@@WobblesandBean Yeah, I see your point. I just wish we could have gotten to see a bit more.
@@WobblesandBean in the danish version. He is called "svip" 😅
Imagine he drinks more of that that's make him more than Human ?
Time stamp?
I thoroughly disagree with your assessment on the awkward jump ahead. We the audience know what happened to Stella, we were shown Fly throwing her out and we are shown Chuck finding out. There's absolutely no reason to show them having a chat about it then going to the boats. Honestly a lesser film would do that and in my opinion it would be a waste of time
Still an abrupt cut but I agree
Yeah I think a lot of his criticisms are just nitpicking and making fun of parts of the film for entertainment.
@@kobe4212 He's probably only nitpicking because it's such a great film otherwise.
After all, nothing is perfect, and if something may seem to be perfect, you gotta nitpick to find its flaws, but that doesn't make it a lesser film.
@@Rubywing4 you're right
On the contrary, it shows Fly reacting to his own mistakes, and that moment is the threshold into adventure. It didn’t need to be a long scene, even just a few seconds of reveal and expression on Fly’s face. By cutting away, it can, but not necessarily does, cut some of the emotional investment in Fly and his motivation. I haven’t seen this movie so I can’t actually say that that is the case, though. Obviously his motivation is clear, but that moment would draw us closer to Fly as a character, potentially.
I knew this existed and it wasn't just a childhood fever dream!
Thanks for dredging up all those old memories :)
"Water tornado appearing out of nowhere" That's actually not true, since the tornado was an Effect of the machine that Proffesor and parents used to get all the fish from the bottom and find the kids. Tbh I have no other clue how they could look for them quickly in any other way.
He even shows the scene of the parents' boat getting overloaded with fish
Exactly I don't think he was watching the film
10:09 Fun fact on that "Be Prepared" comparison: In the german version, the voice actor for Joe is actually the same as the voice actor for Scar. So that comparison is even more fitting now.
He's also dead.
They have blue blood That's because copper plays the role in the crabs' blood that iron does in ours. The iron-based, oxygen-carrying hemoglobin molecules in our blood give it that red color; the copper-based, oxygen-carrying hemocyanin molecules in theirs make it baby blue
👍
@@HenrikofEldenbright naah
@@HenrikofEldenbright turns out that is actually a wierd optical illusion caused by how your skins absorbs and reflects light.
even deprived of oxygen blood isnt blue, its a really dark color.
Your skin absorbs the red light easiest, then green, then blue.
So veins look green or blue because that is what is getting reflected back.
Light is wierd stuff. Particle wave physics and all.
Great Scottish Railway produtions First aid responder here, that’s a dumb myth. A myth that doesn’t even make sense. Human blood is never blue. 🤨 What makes it red is haemoglobin, which is literally needed in order to pick up and carry oxygen, so you can’t have not-red blood.
Great Scottish Railway produtions www.google.ie/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/blood-in-your-veins-is-not-blue-heres-why-its-always-red-97064
Man, that animation and coloring is actually pretty sweet. Designs too. Visually it's pretty solid.
The animation is so good! Really makes me miss 2D animated films.
Same. :(
Actually thought this was a Don Bluth film for a while....
“... are ya feelin’ it now, Mr Krabs?”
I actually almost choked on my skittles I laughed so hard 😂
Can we just talk about the design of Joe’s human form? It looks so devolved and sci-fi. I do find it both creepy and fantastic.
So side note that kid that got turned into a jellyfish, is now effectively immortal. Provided nothing eats or kills him as some forms of jelly fish can literally revert there age and grow up again forever repeating this process.
LOL! That "feeling it now Mr Krabs" line inclusion was a chef's-kiss moment.
Yep
This movie was my gateway for writing dark themes and people getting hurt. Seeing that the wounds the lil guy reflected in his human form as well fucked up my head.
I totally adored this film as a kid. I can’t remember why, I think there was some heart to it that resonated with me. It was also rare that I ever saw it, obscure as it was, and, well, scarcity can make something sweeter I feel.
6:51 I see no issue here. You can surmise from the dialogue and visuals that what you describe has transpired. You know when people don’t want films to assume we’re idiots? This is one of those times where the film is assuming we can connect the dots. Plus, I don’t know how long the run time is but I’ve no doubt that that sort of scene could’ve been cut for time.
11:20 says the guy who pronounces “escape” incorrectly…
13:43 the “antidote” is presumably a fish to human potion and being called an “antidote” colloquially. You know, like how they’re using the term fish instead “asteroidafucknowswhat”. Why it shouldn’t work on a person who’s been a fish for longer that two days is beyond me, but maybe the professor was just wrong…?
14:55 not to mention, why do the fish become people, but the seahorse becomes… a horse? What the fuck else is that doctor doing down there…?
17:52 I adore this song. They always played at the Cabaret centres of the caravan parks that my family went on holiday to.
19:26 oh good god, what an awful horror of a cover. This is some video brinquedo shit. I can’t believe they slapdashed a horrifying 3D cover to try and resell this film. Really sullies it.
I loved it too, the feeling I have about it is like, sweet
The animation looks lovely. Has some elements of Don Bluth, especially the colors and lighting.
I remember loving this movie as a kid and back then, I didn't realize how dark it was until I re-watched it as an adult.
I recommend you watch and review the Soviet adaptation of The Jungle Book, as well as Valhalla from 1986 and Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings.
Valhalla is a blast and I'd love to see him review it too
I watch it when i was young and it's pretty dark
Bakshi’s LOTR is a whole different type of high compared to like Cool World or Fritz. Like.... MY POOR MAN SAM!!!! That’s my biggest complaint of the film. The BOTCHED him. BOI it’s bad. But I will admit, his adaptation of Frodo is personally better and closer to the book’s Frodo Baggins. I won’t say more Bc the LOTR community will literally kill me for even saying I liked some aspects of bakshi’s adaptation.
@@EeveeHawkFan yes! I saw it a few months ago and I really enjoyed it.
@@ashwolftheva2891 well, the Bakshi adaptation is a bit more purist than Jackson's.
Also, if Steve reviews it, I'll go "Oh my! Oh hurray!" 🤣
That seahorse has gotta be one of the cutest darn things I have ever seen.
Starfish and Jellyfish aren't fish? How dare they lie to us with their names!
Which we gave them
Potion: "turns you into a fish... and other things with fish in the name"
Cuttlefish aren't either. They are cephalopods.
@@supaluigifan I guess that makes us the liars than.
Well...fish aren’t the only ones. Horseshoe crabs are ya crabs, in fact they’re related to spiders
I saw this movie as a small small girl and I was so convinced it was a fever dream, happy too see it’s real. I love the childhood nostalgia
A good fix for the movie title would be: Help! We're Sea Creatures.
or "Help! We're factually incorrect"
I've had that "I'm a little yellow fish" song stuck in my head for 20 years!
Dude same
i ve watched the movie in vhs millions of times when i was a kid
Spoiler alert, you’ll never get it out of your head
I completely disagree with your critique of Fly: the moral of his story was twofold : learn to respect his friend Chuck's computer and personal space but also to learn to be humble and attentive to other peoples needs. This is something you clearly glossed over in your critique and it's a pretty damn shame .
I actually agree with your assessment over Steve’s. In my humble opinion, based on observing
Fly as a character. I would say that he learned how to apply information to his advantage instead
of wise cracking remarks to get his way. An example of this would be towards the end of the film
when he is in the final confrontation with Joe. By quizzing Joe on scientific and philosophical queries,
he managed to use Joe’s ego against him which led to the main antagonist’s demise. I also think
the relationship between Fly and Chuck developed from that of pure dislike to one of understanding
where I would venture to say quite possibly a good friendship. So those would be my thoughts on
the character Fly and how I came to appreciate his own arc of development throughout the film.
Very well said both of you ☺️
Seems like it sets up two perfectly opposite characters to learn lessons from each other.
Right that is exactly what though
Mac krill is mackerel the fish not krill joke
Thank you. I did not understand.😦
I don’t know why, but this movie reminds me “The Incredible Mr. Limpet” movie. A guy wishes himself to be a fish, and helps the army by helping them destroying Nazi submarines. The movie also has live action and animation in it like “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” You should definitely check it out
yesss
They both have the weirdest plots lol.
Oh my god, I remember watching that movie at school I think around 7th grade.
Yes I remember that movie I see so many parallels with it!
@@yelloweyeball For real lol
So this movie wasn't just a bizarre fever dream I had when I was 8. It's actually real. Good to know I suppose? Now where did I put my medication?
I saw this film as a kid, and I felt like i was in a fever dream.
In the Danish version, Stella thinks the potion is cool aid which would make more sense. They probably changed it to lemonade because the Danish word for Cool Aid has 3 Syllables.
True or just Fruit Punch maybe but still
This actually was a big childhood favorite of mine that I forgot about (just like with Alfred J. Kwak, which I only recently remembered, along with X DuckX and Sitting Ducks...
Hmm, that's a lot of ducks, I wonder why I'm into them so much now, no idea...).
This movie is a very special memory of my childhood. I used to watch this movie like a hundred times when I was like 6 or 7 and didn't get traumatized. In fact, when the shark ate other fish i remember that was hysterical for me.
This is a movie I watched as a kid that I didn't even know the name of but only remembered tiny details, rad that I found it here
The fish saying "You're feeling it now, mr crabs" while the crab was being eaten made me chuckle and i dont know how to feel
I actually learnt about this film after Bobsheaux
I actually forgot that I ever watched this movie as a kid up until I watched Bobsheaux review it
I guess I just suppressed that childhood memory 🥴
Same here.
This movie takes me back when I was little
Here in the Nederland's it was very hard advertisement for the kids.
Reason, a pop group for little toddler/kids that songs it in our native language.
day and day out on tv to promote it.
Thank you for bringing those memories back.
Ngl blub ik ben een vis lives rent free in my head
Freaking K3, man.. yeah that movie got a lot of advertisement here because of that. Dunno if that affected the box office numbers for our region that much, though.
Hehe k3
K3 was de shit vroeger ^^
@@Dalehan think not much but least that it was not a failure in our land
I absolutly loved this movie as a kid even though it was absolutly terifying
I dunno about terrifying, but it definitely had a weirdly creepy and overall sligthtly scary edge to it
To each their own though