| Help! I'm a Fish | |
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United Kingdom cover art |
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| Directed by | Stefan Fjeldmark Michael Hegner Greg Manwaring |
| Produced by | Anders Mastrup |
| Written by | Stefan Fjeldmark Karsten Kiilerich John Stefan Olsen Tracy J. Brown |
| Starring | Jeff Pace Michelle Westerson Aaron Paul Terry Jones Alan Rickman David Bateson |
| Music by | Søren Hyldgaard |
| Editing by | Per Risager |
| Studio | A. Film A/S |
| Distributed by | Nordisk Film |
| Release date(s) | 6 October 2000 (Denmark) |
| Running time | 76 minutes |
| Country | Denmark |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1,754,640 (Denmark) £81,908 (United Kingdom) |
Help! I'm a Fish (Danish: Hjælp, jeg er en fisk) (a.k.a. A Fish Tale) is a 2001 Danish animated film directed by Stefan Fjeldmark and Michael Hegner.
Unlike some European animation, this film was recorded and animated in the English language to increase international distribution. It features the voices of Alan Rickman (Joe the Fish), Terry Jones (the Professor), and Teryl Rothery (the Mother).
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.
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The movie follows the adventures of three children– a skateboarding mischief-maker named Fly; his sweet younger sister, Stella; and their cousin, a cautious, overweight genetics prodigy named Chuck. When their babysitter, Aunt Anna, falls asleep, the three children sneak off to go fishing only to stumble across the boathouse home of Professor MacKrill, an amnesic and eccentric marine biologist. Reasoning that climate change will melt the polar icecaps within the next century, MacKrill has developed a potion that turns people into fish so they can survive the rising sea level; and also an antidote to reverse the process. Unbeknownst to all, Stella drinks the potion, is transformed into a starfish and gets tossed out of the window into the sea. Since Stella's transformation was caught on camera, the tragedy is immediately discovered, so Fly, Chuck and Professor MacKrill head out onto the ocean in a desperate search. When a storm blows in, Fly recognizes the futility of their search, drinks the potion and jumps overboard, becoming a "Californian Flyfish". The boat capsizes and because Chuck cannot swim, he's forced to drink the potion to survive, becoming a jellyfish. The Professor, the boat and all of its contents sinks beneath the waves.
A great white shark and a pilot fish come across the leaking bottle of antidote and gain the human characteristics of speech and intelligence by inhaling the liquid. Using his newfound gifts, the pilot fish, who now calls himself Joe, sets about creating an underwater civilization of intelligent fish. They take residence in a sunken oil tanker and begin to transform it into a monument.
Fly, Chuck and Stella are reunited, along with a seahorse named Sasha, but are horrified to discover that the antidote has been lost. If they don't find it before tomorrow's sunset, they will stay fish forever. Some traveling fish tell them about Joe and his "magical potion". Thinking it must be the antidote they are looking for, the children travel to Joe's oil tanker empire.
At the tanker, Fly attempts to steal and drink the bottle of antidote, but is warned by Chuck that if they turn back into humans this far beneath the ocean, they'll die. Intrigued by this, Joe has the children arrested and demands they manufacture more of the antidote or he'll have them eaten by the Shark.
Meanwhile, Fly and Stella's parents, Lisa and Bill, arrive home to find Aunt Anna frantic with worry. They find that Fly's fishing equipment is gone, so they head to the beach to search. There they meet Professor MacKrill who, having survived the storm, explains that their children have been turned into fish. He and Bill head out to search for the children in a cobbled-together ship fitted with a large water pump.
The next morning, the children manage to escape with the help of Sasha. With no chance of going back to retrieve the bottle of antidote, they decide that their best hope is to find the ingredients (the light from an abissal fish,a codfish whisker,octopus ink,pieces of anemona and fish eggs) to recreate the antidote themselves. Just as they complete the formula, they are discovered by Joe, the Shark and their army of crabs. During the standoff, Joe and the Shark get into a heated argument. Taking this opportunity to escape, the children are stopped by the leader of the crabs who seriously injures Fly and drinks the antidote himself. Just as the new "King Crab" and his army is about to capture the children yet again, a tremendous underwater twister, generated by the Professor's water pump ship, sucks all the villains to the surface. During this scene, the Shark angrily eats the King Crab but then gets his head sucked into the water pump.
Now alone, Fly injured, and with only twelve minutes until sundown, Chuck realizes their last hope is to make it back to the Professor's lab where a whole jug of antidote is stored. Showing unexpected courage and determination, Chuck carries both Fly and Stella through the dangerous seawater intake pipes back to the lab. However, they are pursued by Joe who overpowers them and steals the antidote. While Chuck fights off the Professor's escaped piranhas, Fly manages to catch up to the fleeing Joe and tricks him into drinking enough antidote to become mostly human. Since Joe can no longer breathe underwater, he drowns.
Fly drags the jug of antidote back to the lab and collapses. Chuck uncorks the jug just as Lisa and Aunt Anna open the door to the laboratory, causing everyone to get swept away. As the water drains away, Chuck and Stella have become human once more and are reunited with their parents. After a few tense moments in which a stuffed fish is mistaken for the limp body of Fly, the human Fly emerges from one of the lab's pipes. Later on, while playing by the beach, Stella is reunited with Sasha, who is turned into an actual horse by the Professor.
| Character | Original English | Danish Adaptation | Japanese Adaptation | German Adaptation |
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| Fly | Jeff Pace | Sebastian Jessen as Svip | Mayumi Tanaka as Toby | Roman Wolko |
| Stella | Michelle Westerson | Pil Neja | Tamao Satō | Chiara Reuße |
| Chuck | Aaron Paul | Morten Kernn Nielsen as Plum | Megumi Hayashibara as Jelly | Clemens Ostermann |
| Professor MacKrill | Terry Jones | Søren Sætter-Lassen | Kōichi Yamadera | Dieter Landuris |
| Joe | Alan Rickman | Nis Bank-Mikkelsen | Haruhiko Jō | Thomas Fritsch |
| Shark | David Bateson | Dick Kaysø | Daisuke Gōri | Rainer Basedow |
| Sasha | Louise Fribo | |||
| Crab | David Bateson | Ulf Pilgaard | Takao Ishii | Rainer Basedow |
| Bill (The Father) | John Payne | Peter Gantzler | Hiroshi Ōtaki | |
| Lisa (The Mother) | Teryl Rothery | Paprika Steen | Atsuko Kohata | |
| Aunt Anna | Pauline Newstone | Ghita Nørby | Keiko Tomoe | |
| Bus Driver | Richard Newman | Zlatko Burić | Takashi Inoue | |
| Sea Bass | Scott McNeil | Martin Brygmann | Kenichi Ogata |
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