Mamá, soy un pez

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 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.

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.

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.

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