''Help! I'm A Fish'' ( da, Hjælp, jeg er en fisk; also known as ''A Fish Tale'') is a 2000 Danish-German-Irish traditionally animated

science fantasy Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy. In a conventional science fiction story, the world is presented as being scientif ...

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks ...

directed by Stefan Fjeldmark, Greg Manwaring and Michael Hegner, and written by Stefan Fjeldmark,

Karsten Kiilerich Karsten Kiilerich (21 January 1955, Slagelse) is a Danish film and television director, screenwriter and animator. He is a co-founder of the Danish animation studio A. Film Production, for which he still actively works. Kiilerich has been involve ...

, John Stefan Olsen and Tracy J. Brown. It stars the voices of

Alan Rickman Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (21 February 1946 – 14 January 2016) was an English actor and director. Known for his deep, languid voice, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a member of the Royal Shakespe ...

Terry Jones Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh comedian, director, historian, actor, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy team. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and ...

and a then-unknown

Aaron Paul Aaron Paul (born Aaron Paul Sturtevant; August 27, 1979) is an American actor best known for portraying Jesse Pinkman in the AMC series '' Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013), for which he won several awards, including the Critics' Choice Television ...

. It was released on 6 October 2000 in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

, 10 August 2001 in United Kingdom, and 5 September 2006 in the United States. Danish teen-pop girl-group

Little Trees Little Trees are disposable air fresheners shaped like a stylized evergreen tree, marketed for use in motor vehicles, and most commonly seen hanging from rear-view mirrors. They are made of a specially formulated absorbent material produced in a ...

performed the title track, "

Help! I'm a Fish (Little Yellow Fish) "Help! I'm a Fish (Little Yellow Fish)" is a song performed by Danish teen pop group Little Trees. The single released with the Danish movie ''Help! I'm a Fish''. In Denmark, it was released as a single by fellow Danish teen pop duo Creamy. It wa ...

", which was released as a single in the UK. Fellow Danish girl group

Creamy Creamy were a Faroese-Danish teen-pop duo, composed of Rebekka Mathew and Rannva Joensen. Their 1999 debut album, ''Creamy'', made when the pair were just thirteen years of age, was composed of euro-pop versions of children’s songs. In 2001 ...

also recorded a version of the song. The

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

girl group K3 also recorded a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

version of the song for the movie. Animation production was split between A. Film A/S in Denmark,

Munich Animation Munich Animation is a German animation studio based in Munich, Germany. It produces traditional animation, traditional and computer animated, CGI animation for feature films, short films, television, advertising and games. The studio's notable fea ...

in Germany and

Terraglyph Interactive Studios ''TerraGlyph Interactive Studios'' was a multi-platform game development studio located in Schaumburg, IL and was founded in 1994. The company was the game development division of the TerraGlyph group of companies, which also includes a feature an ...

in Dublin, Ireland.

Plot

Fly is an impulsive 12-year-old, living with his little sister Stella, and parents Lisa and Bill. With their parents going out for the night, Fly and Stella are babysat by their Aunt Anna and her son Chuck, a cautious, overweight genetics prodigy. 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 Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others th ...

. Reasoning that

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

will melt the polar icecaps to produce

marine transgression A marine transgression is a geologic event during which sea level rises relative to the land and the shoreline moves toward higher ground, which results in flooding. Transgressions can be caused by the land sinking or by the ocean basins filling ...

within the next century, MacKrill reveals he has developed a potion to transform humans into fish, along with an antidote to reverse the process. Mistaking it for

lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored beverage. There are varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In North America and South Asia, cloudy still lemonade is the most common variety. There it is traditionally a homemade drink using le ...

, Stella drinks the potion and turns into a

starfish Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars. Starfish ...

, which Fly unknowingly throws out the window into the sea. Chuck discovers the mistake after Stella's transformation was 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 The California flying fish, ''Cheilopogon pinnatibarbatus californicus'', is a subspecies of Bennett's flying fish. Prior to the 1970s, the California flying fish was known as a distinct species, with the scientific classification ''Cypselurus cal ...

and a

moon jellyfish ''Aurelia aurita'' (also called the common jellyfish, moon jellyfish, moon jelly or saucer jelly) is a species of the genus ''Aurelia (genus), Aurelia''. All species in the genus are very similar, and it is difficult to identify ''Aurelia'' medus ...

. 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 instead. 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 The lemon shark (''Negaprion brevirostris'') is a species of shark from the family Carcharhinidae and is classified as a Vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Lemon sharks can grow to in length. They are o ...

and a

pilot fish The pilot fish (''Naucrates ductor'') is a carnivorous fish of the trevally, or jackfish family, Carangidae. It is widely distributed and lives in warm or tropical open seas. Description The pilot fish congregates around sharks, rays, and sea ...

. They consume it, gaining intelligence and

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

appearances. Joe, the pilot fish, quickly uses the antidote to found a civilization of intelligent fish, intending to launch a revolution. The Shark becomes his dim-witted subordinate. Fly, Chuck, and Stella reunite, accompanied by Sasha, a

seahorse A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meaning "sea monster" or " ...

who Stella adopts. If they do not find the antidote within forty-eight hours, their transformations will be irreversible. The trio swim to Joe's domain, a sunken

oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crud ...

, where Fly tries to steal the antidote. They are caught and interrogated by Joe about their intent and origins. He demands they manufacture more of the antidote, or the Shark will eat them. The children are imprisoned, guarded by an aggressive, militaristic

king crab King crabs are a taxon of decapod crustaceans chiefly found in cold seas. Because of their large size and the taste of their meat, many species are widely caught and sold as food, the most common being the red king crab (''Paralithodes camtscha ...

. Sasha frees the children, who manage to escape. The children decide their best hope is to duplicate the antidote's formula themselves, gathering ingredients from around the ocean. Just as they complete the potion, Joe and his army appear. In a stand-off, Joe drinks the last of the original antidote, transforming his fins into hands. The children try to flee, but Fly is wounded by the Crab, who drinks the new antidote, declaring himself the King Crab. At the same time, MacKrill and Bill pass over in a makeshift boat powered by a

water pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they u ...

. The pump causes an underwater typhoon, sucking up all 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 antidote in his laboratory. Formulating a plan, Chuck plans to carry Fly and Stella through dangerous seawater intake pipes back to the lab. Stella has to leave Sasha behind. The children flood MacKrill's laboratory to reach the potion, but Joe follows, stealing it. Fly pursues Joe into the pipe, tricking him into repeatedly drinking from the potion by challenging his intellect. Joe evolves into a deformed humanoid and drowns. 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 the limp body of a Fly, the human Fly emerges from one of the lab's pipes with a broken leg. Some time afterward, the family and MacKrill play on the beach. Sasha appears, so Chuck and MacKrill transform her into an actual horse, who Stella rides around with joy.

Cast

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 Alessandro Juliani (born July 6) is a Canadian actor and singer. He is notable for playing the roles of Tactical Officer Lieutenant Felix Gaeta on the Sci-Fi Channel television program ''Battlestar Galactica'', Emil Hamilton in ''Smallville'', Ja ...

, Morten Kernn Nielsen,

Søren Sætter-Lassen Søren Sætter-Lassen (born 11 July 1955) is a Danish stage, film and television actor. Filmography Awards * 2000: Reumert award for best supporting actor, ''Don Carlos'' * 2010: Reumert award The Reumert Award (Danish: Årets Reumert) ...

, Nis Bank-Mikkelsen,

David Bateson David Bateson (born 9 February 1960) is a British actor and comedian. He is best known for providing the voice of Agent 47, the protagonist of IO Interactive's stealth video game series ''Hitman'', having played the role since the year 2000 in ...

Dick Kaysø Dick Kaysø, (born 13 February 1947) is a Danish actor. Filmography * '' Mafiaen, det er osse mig'' (1974) * ''Piger i trøjen'' (1975) * ''Strømer'' (1976) * ''Julefrokosten'' (1976) * ''Affæren i Mølleby'' (1976) * ' (1976) * ' (1976) * ...

Louise Fribo Louise Fribo (born 3 July 1970) is a Danish singer, actress and dancer. Fribo, who studied the violin from age 4 and was trained as a classical dancer from age 7, made her motion picture debut as Lisa in the 1986 Danish feature film ''Barndom ...

Ulf Pilgaard Ulf Pilgaard (born 15 November 1940) is a Danish actor. The son of a priest, he studied theology but changed his career to acting. He is married. He has been an important part of Cirkusrevyen for 28 years. He has appeared on several films e.g. ' ...

, John Payne,

Peter Gantzler Peter Gantzler (born 28 September 1958) is a Danish actor. He is perhaps best known for his parts in ''Taxa'' and ''Italian for Beginners''. Biography Peter Gantzler originally studied Danish at the University of Copenhagen, but changed to the D ...

Teryl Rothery Teryl Rothery is a Canadian actress of stage, television, and film. She is best known for portraying Janet Fraiser in the TV series ''Stargate SG-1''. She co-starred as Grace Sherman in ''Cedar Cove (TV series), Cedar Cove'', and has had major ...

Paprika Steen Kirstine "Paprika" Steen (born 3 November 1964) is a Danish actress and director best known for her performances in Dogme 95 films ''Festen'', ''The Idiots'', Mifune, and ''Open Hearts''. Steen was the first Danish actress since Karin Nellemose ...

Pauline Newstone Pauline Newstone is a Canadian voice actress best known as the voice of List of Beast Wars characters, Airazor in the computer animated series ''Beast Wars'' and as Frieza in the English Ocean and Westwood dubs of ''Dragon Ball Z''. Voice credits ...

Ghita Nørby Ghita Nørby (born 11 January 1935) is a Danish actress with 117 film credits to her name from 1956 to 2005, making her one of the most active Danish actresses ever. Early life Nørby was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the daughter of opera singer ...

, Richard Newman and

Zlatko Buric Zlatko ( sr-Cyrl, Златко, ) is a South Slavic masculine given name. The name is derived from the word ''zlato'' meaning gold with hypocoristic suffix ''-ko'' common in South Slavic languages. Zlatko is a given name. Notable people with the n ...

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, and the character names, voices and designs are noticeably different from how they would eventually appear in the finished film. Development and storyboarding of the film was completed in Denmark. Production then moved to Germany and Ireland for the final phases of animation, lighting, color and production in order to maximize tax credits offered to foreign film projects in Germany and Ireland. The film's soundtrack contains "

" performed by

, "Agloubablou" performed by Cartoons, "Ocean of Emotion" performed by Meja Beckman, "People Lovin Me" performed by

Lou Bega David Lubega Balemezi (born 13 April 1975), better known by his stage name Lou Bega, is a German singer. His 1999 song " Mambo No. 5", a remake of Pérez Prado's 1949 instrumental piece, reached number 1 in many European countries and was ...

, "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.

Release

The film was released theatrically on 6 October 2000 by

HanWay Films HanWay Films is an independent British international sales, distribution and marketing company specializing in theatrical feature films. History In 1999, Jeremy Thomas founded international sales company HanWay Films with his colleagues Peter Wats ...

and

Nordisk Film Nordisk Film A/S (lit. "Nordic Film") is a Danish entertainment company established in 1906 in Copenhagen by filmmaker Ole Olsen. It is the fourth-oldest film studio in the world behind the Gaumont Film Company, Pathé, and Titanus ...

and was released on DVD and VHS on 6 January 2003 by Movie Star. In North America, the English dub of the film was released in 2006 by

Genius Products Genius Products (also known as Genius Entertainment) was an entertainment company based in Santa Monica, California, United States. The ''Baby Genius'' line was one of a number of "smart toys" that came out in response to a study book about the ...

and in 2007 by

Alliance Atlantis Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. (commonly known as Alliance Atlantis and commonly shortened to simply Alliance or Atlantis and formerly traded as TSX:AAC) was a Canadian media company that operated primarily as a specialty service operato ...

Box office

The film grossed $5.6 million in Denmark against an approximate $18 million budget.
''

books.google.com Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

''. Retrieved 19 April 2020.

Awards

*In 2000, the movie won the

Chicago International Children's Film Festival In 1983, Facets Multi-Media founded the Chicago International Children's Film Festival (CICFF), the first competitive festival of films for children in the U.S. The impetus for the Festival came from a need to introduce new, culturally diverse fil ...

category Children's Jury Award.

Soundtrack

–

# Do You Believe in Magic? – Loona # Wooble Dee Bubble – Cartoons # People Lovin' Me –

# Funky Sharks – Shaka feat. Sko # Mother Nature – Little Trees # Interlude (Professor) – Terry Jones # Fishtastic – Terry Jones # Ocean Love – Eddi Reader # Close Your Eyes – Patricia Kaas # Interlude (Jelly Fish) – Jeff Pace & Alessandro Juliani # Suddenly – Solveig # Ocean Of Emotion – Meja # Intelligence – Alan Rickman # Interlude (Goodbye) – Michelle Westerson # Barracuda – Zindy featuring Pablo

Legacy

The film's stars

and

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.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0168856, title=Hjælp, jeg er en fisk 2000 films 2000 animated films Animated musical films 2000s children's fantasy films Danish animated films Danish independent films English-language Danish films English-language German films English-language Irish films HanWay Films films Films about shapeshifting Films set in Copenhagen Films set in Denmark Films set in the Atlantic Ocean Animated films about fish 2000s children's comedy films Children's drama films Animated drama films Animated comedy films 2000 comedy films 2000s children's animated films