User reviews

I will admit that this film lacks the qualities that make Disney, Pixar, Studio Ghibli and Dreamworks so memorable. I am nearly 17, and I think it is a very entertaining but flawed film, that is much better than people give credit for. Adults won't find much to go on, but children will love at least one aspect of the movie.

The animation is in general very good,considering it's a danish studio, very bright in the underwater sequences. However, some of the character animation was not as good as it could have been, and it was a little flat, especially in the first ten minutes or so.

The songs were adequate, but I personally think both children and adults won't remember any of them, except "Help I'm a little yellow fish", perhaps not always in a good way. I liked that song, and I liked "Intelligence", but the other songs are forgettable. The incidental music wasn't bad either, though some of it sounded very like the Lion King.

The story is a very nice idea indeed, about three children accidentally coming across a potion that turns them into fish, and encountering a villainous fish named Joe (admittedly an odd name for a villain), who is desperate for power. I personally thought the story was a nice idea, but there were some scenes where it dragged, and others where it felt rushed. I did think the script was nicely-written, again it may depend on the audience, as there is a lot of very confusing maths and science.

The voice talents were actually not that bad at all. Alan Rickman lent his gritty baritone to a cool and suave villain, and I must say he didn't do too bad a job. As a matter of fact, I was impressed with him more than anybody else. Had he had some better material,(not as bad as it could have been) his villain could have been more memorable than they made him. Terry Jones was an inspired choice for McKrill. His character is quite mad, and there were times when Jones was very funny, but other times when he quite badly overdid the character, most notably in his song. Fly, Stella and Chuck were well done, but the only voice actor I wasn't hugely keen on was the voice actor of the shark; he was very loud and got a bit annoying.

The special features on the DVD could have been of a bigger variety. There was an interesting featurette with interviews with Rickman and Jones, and some equally interesting filmographies. If anything, there could have had a bit more variety for kids, like games and trailers for other films.

All in all, I liked this film. Is it the best animation in the world? No it isn't, but it isn't too bad an attempt. 7/10 Bethany Cox

A harmless little flick, that shows Disney is not the only one who can pump out "love it or hate it" cutesy animated features. It is done in the standard formula for kids movies, but drew me in.

I was sucked in by the ads I heard on French TV. The euro pop beat is a little cliché but still catchy. The title song is so nihilistic yet upbeat, I couldn't help but like it. The karaoke bonus on the DVD is even more fun for the kids. And a good way to help the kids learn French.

Unfortunately, it has not been released for Region 1, so I can't get a copy to my family in the US.

This movie which almost immediately appeared on DVD at an ultra budget price should be snapped up quickly by anybody with young kids. This movie has been played more times than any of the Disney titles since its been purchased and given the name "Help I'm a Bish" by one happy little girl... It may not have the Disney credentials but its certainly beautiful to look at and with some not bad songs thrown in to the mix will put a smile on any youngsters face (or just keep them quite for a while, which will put a smile on your face).

So don't overlook this little gem if you have a youngster of pre school age, they will love Help I'm a Bish :-)

While I thought many aspects of the movie were OK, I was a little disturbed by the large amount of blood and death portrayed throughout the movie. It's fairly unusual as far as I can remember to see a main character suffer so graphically in a G rated film. I won't warn people away from it, but I wouldn't recommend it for younger children or those who are sensitive or scare easily. The songs are generally good, but if you're used to the Pixar trend of no singing, you may find it a little jarring. Alan Rickman does a lovely voice-over, but it was so soft at times I had a bit of a hard time hearing it. Other voices ranged from decent to non-offensive -- there were no other real standouts, although the little girl doing Stella was awfully cute. Overall I only give this a six because compared to many other fine children's animated tales, it really has very little to put it above any of the others.

Delightful animated feature about a bunch of kids turning into fish by accident when visiting a weird scientist. Excellent animation and music with some truly mesmerizing sequences, but some scenes may be a little too creepy for very young children. Only complaint: Why is the English languaged version (with Alan Rickman and Terry Jones) missing on the DVD? ***

"Help! I'm A Fish" is a Danish-Norwegian-German-Irish co-production with additional animation done in Spain, England and Bangkok, plus voice work (in the English-language version) done in the UK, Canada and the US. So it's a good advertisement for international cooperation, but as a movie it's less effective.

The actual story isn't bad (three stereotyped kids - a sporty lad, his cute little sister and their fat brainy cousin - go fishing, stumble into the lair of an eccentric scientist and, thanks to his special potion, turn into fishes (a flyfish, a starfish and a jellyfish respectively); and unless they can get the antidote within 48 hours they'll stay fishes forever), but the handling doesn't have the extra touch that could lift it into something great. As is often the case in live-action films, Alan Rickman livens things up no end as the voice [again, in the English-language version] of the movie's villain, a fish who drinks some of the antidote and wants to use his intelligence to take over the undersea world, or something... it's never really clear thanks to the script.

The animation's often quite good (but the opening titles of fish swimming clash with the first scenes with the human characters - the quality is a bit jarring), some scenes are genuinely effective such as the final faceoff between heroes and villains, and it's inoffensive - unless you consider montages set to Europop songs and the presence of American voices offensive (incidentally, why are the children voiced by Americans and their parents voiced by Canadians?) - but it's not really too memorable, either. "Help! I'm A Fish" is preferable to some Disney films and is certainly closer to a proper movie than other European animated features (at least I managed to get through this, which is more than can be said for "Millionaire Dogs"), but while it's not fair to expect "The Little Mermaid," ultimately it's not nearly as cute and endearing as... well, that Little Trees song you hear over the credits.

"I'm a little yellow fish in the deep blue sea... won't somebody save me?"

A 5.6 IMDb rating for a kids film like this is usually not a good sign; after all, its the same rating as Transformers 2 and Quest For Camelot. Frankly, the DVD art looks absolutely horrendous and the plot sounds like an episode from Johnny Test, but however, this movie is the ultimate example of "Dont judge a book by its over" because not only did it far exceed my expectations, but it was a near great movie in almost every aspect.

The film involves three kids who get turned into fish after drinking a potion created by a nutty scientist. The kids have 48 hours to find an antidote or else they will be stuck as fish forever. Plus, the antidote has leaked into the sea and has started to turn regular dumb fish into talking genius fish, and the villain fish (voiced by the perfectly cast Alan Rickman) has become a super genius and is bent on taking over the world. A cliché plot, yes, but this is probably the weakest of the films flaws.

The animation is stellar. The 2D looks gorgeous and flows fluidly. The 3D animation...yah, it looks pretty choppy and mediocre, but fortunately it is not used too often. The characters are well written and their interactions with each other and their surroundings are believable and fun. The songs (this is a musical, kinda sorta) aren't bad either, and I actually was humming Alan Rickman's villain song. The film is also devoid of clichés, for the most part at least. There were at least five or six moments were the film did something totally unexpected and completely original. Bravo for a kids film I say, Bravo!

One thing I must touch on is the abundance of violence. On the surface (no pun intended), this film seems extremely harmless. Wrong! This film is full of senseless death, including a shark that eats innocent fish and some of the main characters in the movie. One scene that sticks out is when the main character, Fly, gets stabbed in the face by a crab and blood, yes, BLOOD, floats around in the water. But most of all, this film has possibly THE ballsiest villain death of all time. I wont spoil it, but it is an original and fantastic way to finish the villain. Also, there is a fake-out death that occurs involving Fly that actually made my jaw drop.

Overall, this is a very well made animated movie, and the 5.6 rating is extremely harsh. I've tried to find out why this movie isn't well liked by audiences, but I cant find a decisive answer. The only negative things I can find about this film through my eyes are the brief moments of CGI animation, the main pop song is annoying, and maybe some were offended by the violence, but that still does not answer the hate this film gets. The IMDb reviews that rated this a 1/10 are completely delusional, with one person saying the only good thing was the 3D animation (which was surprisingly the worst thing), one review seeming to imply that it was made solely to cash off Finding Nemo (despite the fact that this was made four years earlier), and one reviewer did not even seem to have watched the movie, claiming that it was full of clichés, it was full of bathroom humor (which it had none) and the animation was abysmal. I am willing to bet this last reviewer simply saw the DVD cover at his local rental store and went home pretending he had saw it. Shame, he missed out on a great movie.

This is a total recommendation by every means of the word. Hopefully, you'll be just as surprised as I was, and just as satisfied too. If this movie had better marketing, it would be much more known and loved. I guarantee it.

Undoubtedly the worst movie in Alan Rickman's career, "Help! I'm a Fish" utilises overused stereotypes and shoddy animation to tell a story that favours cutesy gimmicks over plot. For a story so basic, there are still many plot-holes that even the corny songs don't manage to help you forget them. The only redeeming features are that the songs are few and far between, and that the film is remotely short - and yet the ending still couldn't come quickly enough. I found myself hoping for a nihilistic, apocalyptic ending in which all of the main characters found themselves in a watery grave.

Even as a child, I detested this movie.

I bought this movie for my 5-year old son who loves sea creatures. I bought the movie on a Friday and over the weekend, he watched it at least 10 times. It's his favourite movie and I must say I like it very much as well. The animation is very well-done and the angles are unique and interesting. My son still watches it twice a day, every day.

Does anyone know of any other sea-related cartoons, other than Finding Nemo?

I think this is an excellent movie for children. It's educational (teaches about sea creatures) and the story line is one of the most original I've come across.

This is a fun kids movie with beautiful animation! Some of the Disney movies could learn a thing or two from the Norwegians. Alan Rickman and Terry Jones do brilliant voice work on this. The songs get a little tiresome, but overall the movie is unbearably cute.

The animation itself wasn't bad. The story was, indeed. The lines were silly and full of cliche. What was more annoying was the soundtrack, not only the pop songs (europe dance style) here and there or the tune sung by the characters but the orchestral score was terrible. Why couldn't they just do an animated film instead of a bad copy of an american animated feature? I don't think they accomplished well mixing cell animation and CG, it can be done better but it's okay. I repeat. The story is terrible, the lines are silly, music is really irritating but the animation job is pretty good. Beside, it is not Danish! There are lots of professional from all over Europe working with this film. Also, the featurette is terrible I would have preferred the danish people to speak danish although I don't understand it but I rather read the subtitle than listen to their comment in english... There are very many animated features out there so don't buy this DVD, you are going to get bored as soon as the characters speak. If you really want to see it, rent it, save your money for something better.

This is a German-danish-irish animation movie : those countries are not very famous in the animation scene (1st: Japan, 2nd: USA, 3rd: France), it is some kind of a first tryout, and it is not bad. The design reminds a lot "iron giant" (Warner Bros Masterpiece), not as skilly but you can get the picture, the story reminds... that the writers should have work a little bit much. The computer animations are sometimes very elegant, sometimes poor. The sound is good. Well that's not a masterpiece but it is definitly not as bad as some Disney stuff like "little mermaid" or "beauty and the beast" and it is much better than any Disney sequel (Pocahontas II, Lion King II, and, argh... Little Mermaid II - they dared do it). Anyways : I didn't enjoy this movie very much, but my kids did, they still prefere Chihiro, princess Mononoke, Monsters Inc., Kirikou or the brilliant Lilo & Stich, but they enjoyed "Hjælp, jeg er en fisk" ("oups, je suis un poisson", in french).

Crisply paced and not too preachy kiddie adventure with adequate animation and some nice visual and narrative ideas among the clichéd standards.

On the other hand, the frequently upcoming songs are instantly forgettable, the character work is rather flat and there's nothing particularly memorable about this little diversion, though it's nice to look at as long as it lasts.

In short, it's okay Sunday morning fodder for the small ones.

"Finding Nemo" it ain't!

5 out of 10 fishy situations

I loved this as a kid and I bought it recently to see if it still holds up to this day. And it did in almost every way!

If you look away from some forgettable songs, the rest of the movie is both funny, original and at times surprisingly dark. It has elements which adults can relate to. The feelings of desperation when your children disappear is every parent's worst nightmare. This is what makes this a good family movie.

The main characters develop nicely throughout the movie and end up learning lessons worth a fortune. It is very well done. Joe is also a pretty good villain. Wanting to have power and control is not original, but the setting of it here is indeed!

The climax of the movie is great! Both intense and actually pretty violent and scary.

Recommendable for you and your family.

Love when movies have a theme song that's named after the movie, especially when the movie has a title like "Help! I'm a Fish". Alan Rickman is in this as Alan Fishman and they're great, almost overqualified if they didn't sell it so well. They even get a "Be Prepared"-style villain song. Aaron Paul is also in this weirdly, in a very early role, and it's a pretty bad voice acting performance tbh, but you can tell it's them if you listen closely. But this was pretty solid for a kids movie from the 2000s that nobody in this country has seen unless they were really into Shark Tale when that movie came out and their parents picked this up because it was rereleased as "A Fish Tale" to trick people into renting it. Weirdly, it would also work as a prequel that sets up the events of the movie Shark Tale. I wish there was something like this for Cars, that'd be horrifying. Reminds me a lot of We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. I'd say it's probably better than that even, but honestly I don't remember that movie very much and I will probably end up forgetting this one too. (6.5/10)

Not sure I would go so far as to say this film is 'fishtastic'. The only highlight for me was Terry Jones providing the voice for Professor MacKrill, and the interview with him in the DVD extras.

The rest of the film, I thought, was unremarkable - of course, there are 'cute' moments as there are in any children's films (usually in the shape of Sasha the seahorse and Stella the Starfish), and also occasionally funny moments. However, the 'baddies' were unconvincing (they just weren't mean enough - the guard crab was about as menacing as a sea slug.) and the colours were washed out.

It just seemed to me that this film was cheap (and poor) attempt at a Disney imitation.

I would have to say that the only part of this film that is worth watching more than once is the song 'Fishtastic, but true' as it is incredibly catchy - I found myself humming it for the rest of the day. The rest of the film really isn't up to much.

I think this was a great movie! It was funny and full of cliché! I especially liked Stella, the little girl, she was so innocent and curious. It reminded me of my baby cousin. Fly was the bad boy in the group. He didn't do it on purpose, just somehow whenever he did something it always became a catastrophe. For example- If Fly hadn't wanted to go fishing in the first place it never would have happened. But if he hadn't, there would be no story. Charles is the nerd in the group. Which is great actually, he's funny, witty and always saying long words! It makes you wonder what he's saying. If there was no Charles there would have been no chance for Fly and Stella to get back to being human! Joe was another great character. Obviously hes the real bad guy, the one who makes a problem of what the good guys are trying to do and they have to kill him! It was a great movie and i recommended it to all my friends and now i'm recommending it to you!!!!

It is not the best animated film in Denmark; however, it is still good entertainment for children.

Really? Did the producers have to make this? Were the animators held at gunpoint? Am I the reincarnation of Theodore Roosevelt? All of these questions could be answered with a 'yes' but it would do nothing to make anybody feel better.

Anyway, its a corny kid story about some kids and an adult getting turned into oceanic creatures. Yes, I know it sounds exciting but hold on for a moment. There is this bad guy and he is after something. All turns out good in the end and they return to their previous states of humanity and all are happy.

Really? Is there a point to this movie? The animation was bad and the script was bad even for a kids movie. I want this part of my life back. "F"

This horrible movie can't be recommended, it SUCKS big time, it has a lousy plot, and not even children like it! It doesn't entertain, but boore, because the pictures are very bad, and because the music is bad, no songs that you like, and defenetly not a soundtrack I would buy.