Help! I'm a Fish

Help! I'm a Fish
United Kingdom DVD cover art
Danish	Hjælp, jeg er en fisk
Directed by	Stefan Fjeldmark Michael Hegner Greg Manwaring (uncredited)
Written by	Stefan Fjeldmark Karsten Kiilerich John Stefan Olsen Tracy J. Brown
Produced by	Anders Mastrup Russell Boland
Starring	Jeff Pace Michelle Westerson Aaron Paul Terry Jones Alan Rickman David Bateson
Edited by	Per Risager
Music by	Søren Hyldgaard
Production companies	A. Film APS Egmont Imagination Munich Animation GmbH Kinowelt Medien AG EIV Entertainment Filmproduktion TerraGlyph Rights Limited TV2 Denmark Eurimages
Distributed by	Nordisk Film (Denmark) Kinowelt (Germany) HanWay Films and PID (Internationally)
Release dates	6 October 2000 (2000-10-06) (Denmark) 12 April 2001 (2001-04-12) (Germany) 24 August 2001 (2001-08-24) (Ireland)
Running time	72 minutes
Countries	Denmark Germany Ireland
Languages	Danish English
Budget	101 million DKK ($18 million USD)[1]
Box office	$5.6 million[2]

Help! I'm a Fish (Danish: Hjælp, jeg er en fisk; also known as A Fish Tale) is a 2000 animated science fantasy musical film directed by Stefan Fjeldmark, Greg Manwaring, and Michael Hegner, and written by Fjeldmark, Karsten Kiilerich, John Stefan Olsen, and Tracy J. Brown. It stars the voices of Alan Rickman, Terry Jones, and a then-unknown Aaron Paul.

The film tells the story of three kids–Fly, his little sister Stella, and cousin Chuck—who turn into fish and must return to human form before 48 hours are up; otherwise, they will be stuck as fish forever.

It was released on 6 October 2000 in Denmark, 10 August 2001 in the United Kingdom, and 5 September 2006 in the United States. Animation production was split between A. Film Production in Denmark, Munich Animation in Germany and Terraglyph Interactive Studios in Dublin, Ireland.^[3] The film was a commercial failure and box-office bomb, grossing $5.6 million in Denmark against an approximate $18 million budget and receiving mixed-to-positive reviews from critics and audiences.

Plot

Fly is an impulsive 12-year-old boy living with his younger sister Stella and parents Lisa and Bill. When their parents go out for the night, Fly and Stella are babysat by their aunt Anna and her son Chuck, a cautious, overweight genetics prodigy, and Fly and Stella's cousin. When Anna falls asleep, the children sneak out to go fishing. Caught in a high tide, they stumble across the boathouse of Professor MacKrill, an eccentric but kindly marine biologist. Reasoning that climate change will melt the polar icecaps to produce marine transgression within the next century, MacKrill reveals he has developed a potion to transform humans into marine animals, along with an antidote to reverse the process.

Mistaking it for lemonade, Stella drinks the potion and turns into a starfish, which Fly unknowingly throws out the window into the sea. Chuck discovers the mistake after finding Stella's transformation caught on camera. The trio set out to find Stella, but their boat sinks in a storm. Fly and Chuck drink the potion, becoming a California flying fish and a moon jellyfish. Bill and Lisa return home to find Anna frantic with worry. Noticing that Fly's fishing equipment is gone, Bill, Lisa, and Anna head to the beach to search for them but find only Fly's rollerblades. The adults fear the worst until Professor MacKrill, having survived the storm, arrives and shows them the video of Stella's transformation.

Underwater, the leaking antidote attracts a lemon shark and a pilot fish. They consume it, gaining intelligence and anthropomorphic appearances. The pilot fish names himself Joe and uses the antidote to create a civilisation of intelligent fish, intending to launch a revolution against humanity, whilst The Shark becomes his dim-witted subordinate.

Fly, Chuck, and Stella reunite, accompanied by Sasha, a seahorse whom Stella adopts. They must find the antidote within forty-eight hours, or their transformations will be permanent. The trio swims to Joe's domain, a sunken oil tanker, where Fly tries to steal the antidote. They are caught and interrogated by Joe about their intent and origins. He demands that they manufacture more of the antidote, or the Shark will eat them. The children are imprisoned and guarded by an aggressive, militaristic king crab. Sasha frees the children, who manage to escape.

The children decide their only hope to become human again is to duplicate the antidote's formula, gathering ingredients from around the ocean. Just as they complete the potion, Joe and his army appear and corner them. In a stand-off, Joe drinks the last of the original antidote, transforming his fins into hands. The children try to escape, but Fly is wounded by the crab, who drinks the new antidote and declares himself King Crab. At the same time, MacKrill and Bill pass over in a makeshift boat powered by a water pump. The pump causes an underwater typhoon, sucking up the army. The Shark eats the King Crab but is incapacitated when he is sucked head-first into the pump.

Chuck remembers that MacKrill has another vial of the antidote in his laboratory. Formulating a plan, Chuck plans to carry Fly and Stella through dangerous seawater intake pipes back to the lab. However, Stella has to leave Sasha behind as the journey could kill her. The children flood MacKrill's laboratory to reach the potion, but Joe follows, stealing it. Fly pursues Joe into the pipes, tricking him into repeatedly drinking from the potion by challenging his intellect, causing Joe to eventually mutate into a deformed humanoid and drown.

Fly drags the antidote back into the lab, Chuck uncorking it just as Lisa and Anna open the door to the flooded lab. Chuck and Stella become human once more, reuniting with their parents and MacKrill. After a few tense moments in which a stuffed fish is mistaken for Fly's body, the human Fly emerges from one of the lab's pipes with a broken leg. Some time afterwards, the family and MacKrill spend some time together on the beach. Sasha appears, so Chuck and MacKrill transform her into an actual horse, who Stella rides around joyfully.

Cast

Character	Danish voice actor	English voice actor
Fly	Sebastian Jessen	Jeff Pace
Stella	Pil Neja	Michelle Westerson
Chuck	Morten Kernn Nielsen	Aaron Paul
Joe	Nis Bank-Mikkelsen	Alan Rickman
Professor H.O. MacKrill[4]	Søren Sætter-Lassen	Terry Jones
Shark	Dick Kaysø	David Bateson
Sasha	Louise Fribo	Frank Welker
General Crab	Ulf Pilgaard	David Bateson
Bill (The Father)	Peter Gantzler	John Payne
Lisa (The Mother)	Paprika Steen	Teryl Rothery
Aunt Anna	Ghita Nørby	Pauline Newstone
Bus driver	Zlatko Burić	Richard Newman
Seabass	Martin Brygmann	Scott McNeil

Production and music

On 4 October 1997, Stefan Fjeldmark (who is the film's writer), Michael Hegner and Greg Manwaring were hired and set to direct Help! I'm a Fish, also known as A Fish Tale. Karsten Kiilerich, John Stefan Olsen and Tracy J. Brown wrote the script for the film. Anders Mastrup and Russell Boland produced the film for release in 2000. On 9 March 1998, it was announced that Jeff Pace, Sebastian Jessen, Michelle Westerson, Pil Neja, Alessandro Juliani, Aaron Paul, Morten Kernn Nielsen, Terry Jones, Søren Sætter-Lassen, Alan Rickman, Nis Bank-Mikkelsen, David Bateson, Dick Kaysø, Louise Fribo, Ulf Pilgaard, John Payne, Peter Gantzler, Teryl Rothery, Paprika Steen, Pauline Newstone, Ghita Nørby, Richard Newman and Zlatko Buric joined the film. On April 12, 1999, it was announced that Søren Hyldgaard would compose the music for the film. In 1996, a pilot trailer was completed, which has resurfaced on the Internet. The environment and object designs, animation, plot, character names, voices and designs are noticeably different from how they would eventually appear in the finished film.^{[5][better source needed]}

Development and storyboarding of the film were completed in Denmark. Production then moved to Germany and Ireland for the final phases of animation, lighting, colour and production to maximise tax credits offered to foreign film projects in Germany and Ireland. The film's soundtrack contains "Help! I'm a Fish (Little Yellow Fish)" performed by Little Trees, "Agloubablou" performed by Cartoons, "Ocean of Emotion" performed by Meja, "People Lovin Me" performed by Lou Bega, "Ocean Love/Ton Amour Ocean" performed by Anggun, "Close Your Eyes" performed by Patricia Kaas, "Interlude" performed by Terry Jones, "Fishtastic" performed by Terry Jones, and "Intelligence" performed by Alan Rickman.

The production that took about around four years to make, with the production work being split and moved around frequently.^[6]

Release

The film was released theatrically on 6 October 2000 by Nordisk Film^[7] and was released on DVD and VHS on 6 January 2003 by Movie Star.

HanWay Films and PID (Producers International Distribution) handled international sales to the film.^[8][7]

The film had a theatrical release in the United Kingdom by Metrodome Distribution, released on 10 August 2001.^[9][10]

In North America, the English dub of the film was released in 2006 by Genius Products^[11] and in 2007 by Alliance Atlantis.

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $5.6 million in Denmark against an approximate $18 million budget and became a box-office bomb.^[2][1][6]

The film was deemed to have been more successful at the box office in Germany and France.^[10]

The UK release of the film opened to a mediocre £81,908 within 157 cinemas.^[9]

Critical response

Help! I'm a Fish received mixed-to-postive reviews.

Renee Schonfeld from Common Sense Media describes the movie as an "animated sea adventure with kid heroes, music, and mild scares." She gives it a 3 out of 5 rating.^[12] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian calling it a "sweet, charming and entertaining little cartoon."^[13] Lisa Nesselson of Variety Magazine reviewed that "classy, impressionistic animation of underwater inhabitants […] the drawing style switches to a more standard cartoon look." She also noted that they prefer the "bloated, charmless overkill of a live-action 'Grinch' to the beautifully rendered and emotionally spot-on 'The Iron Giant,' 'Fish' comes as salutary entertainment for all but the very youngest viewers," and the "script is genuinely down to the wire as the trio matches wits with evil Joe. Musical numbers are adequately catchy."^[14] Olly Richards of Empire gave the film two stars out of five, stating that "Despite a flourish or two in the design, this really doesn't bring a lot to the table, given the current level of competition in the animated film stakes."^[15] Time Out calls it "lacks that extra dimension which would engage and entertain the adults in the audience as well as the kids."^[16] Evening Standard calls it out "The animation is light years behind Disney or DreamWorks, but achieves a sort of nostalgic charm because of it […]."^[17]

Awards

Help! I'm a Fish won a Children's Jury Award for Feature Film or Video – Animation in the 2000 Chicago International Children's Film Festival.^[18][19]

Soundtrack

Help! I'm a Fish
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released	28 February 2003
Recorded	2000
Genre	Movie soundtrack
Label	Medley Records Trust Soundtracks EMI
Producer	Various Artists
Søren Hyldgaard film scores chronology
Edderkoppen (2000) Help! I'm a Fish (2003) Pixie Panic (2000)
Singles from Help! I'm a Fish
"Help! I'm a Fish (Little Yellow Fish)" Released: March 26, 2001

Danish teen-pop girl group Little Trees performed the title track, "Help! I'm a Fish (Little Yellow Fish)", which was released as a single in the UK. Fellow Danish girl group Creamy also recorded a version of the song. The Belgian girl group K3 also recorded a Dutch version of the song for the movie.

1. Help! I'm a Fish (Little Yellow Fish) – Little Trees
2. Do You Believe in Magic? – Loona
3. Wobble-Di-Bubble-Di-Doo – Cartoons
4. People Lovin' Me – Lou Bega
5. Funky Sharks – Shaka feat. Sko
6. Mother Nature – Little Trees
7. Interlude (Professor) – Terry Jones
8. Fishtastic – Terry Jones
9. Ocean Love – Eddi Reader
10. Close Your Eyes – Patricia Kaas
11. Interlude (Jelly Fish) – Jeff Pace & Alessandro Juliani
12. Suddenly – Solveig
13. Ocean Of Emotion – Meja
14. Intelligence – Alan Rickman
15. Interlude (Goodbye) – Michelle Westerson
16. Barracuda – Zindy featuring Pablo

Legacy

A television series adaption was announced by Egmont Imagination in May 2001, and would consist of twenty-six episodes. Nothing else was announced about it, and it's likely that the series never got past the planning stages.^[10]

The film's stars Aaron Paul and Alan Rickman would later co-star again in the 2015 film Eye in the Sky, released shortly after Rickman's death. Paul expressed his regret that despite working with Rickman on Help! I'm a Fish and Eye in the Sky, they never got the chance to meet.^[20]

References

1. Bendazzi, Giannalberto (6 November 2015). Animation: A World History: Volume III: Contemporary Times. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-317-51988-1.
2. "Help! I'm a Fish (2003) - Box Office Mojo". Archived from the original on 2015-10-17. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
3. "| The Irish Film & Television Network". Irish Film and Television Network. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015.
4. "Urban Cinefile Feature". www.urbancinefile.com. Archived from the original on 2005-07-24.
5. "A fish tale pilot trailer (1996)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 14 July 2018. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
6. Blackwell, Adam. "Help I'm A Fisher!: Mark Fisher's The Weird and The Eerie and Help! I'm a Fish". Revisit.blog. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
7. "Hjælp! Jeg er en fisk – Danish Film Institute". DFI. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
8. "Help! I'm a Fish".
9. Mitchell, Robert. "Parole Officer checks in at the UK box office". Screen Daily. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
10. "Egmont to adapt Help! I'm a Fish for TV". C21Media. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
11. "A Fish Tale DVD". Amazon.com. 5 September 2006. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
12. Schonfeld, Renee. "A Fish Tale (Help! I'm a Fish) Movie Review". Common Sense Media. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
13. Bradshaw, Peter (10 August 2001). "Help! I'm a fish". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
14. Nesselson, Lisa (6 May 2001). "Help! I'm a Fish". Variety Magazine. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
15. Richards, Olly (January 2000). "Help! I'm a Fish Review". Empire. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
16. JFu. "Help! I'm a Fish". Time Out. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
17. "Help! I'm A Fish". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
18. "CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S FILM FESTIVAL — WINNERS LIST 2000" (PDF). FACETS. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
19. "Styrk dansk animation!". Film magazine Ekko. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
20. "Aaron Paul: 'It's impossible not to throw our own emotions into the mix'". The Guardian. 10 April 2016. Archived from the original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2017.

External links

• Hjælp, jeg er en fisk at IMDb