Photosensitivity Warning: The final act of the film includes a sequence in which characters change colors to glow with a pulsating white light that may provide triggering for sensitive viewers. After it happens the first time, it’s easy to predict when it and how it will occur again.
“I’m a pout-pout fish
With a pout-pout face,
So I spread the dreary-wearies
All over the place.”– The mantra of Mr. Fish in The Pout-Pout Fish book.
First published in 2008, children’s book The Pout-Pout Fish has propagated from a singular story about a glum fish from author Deborah Diesen and illustrator Dan Hanna into a whole school of adventures. Like other children’s stories popularized for generations (The BFG; Matilda) and those relatively new by comparison (The Bad Guys series), Diesen and Hanna’s tail is about to make the transition from hardback to silver screen with the Ricard Cussó-directed (Scarygirl) and Rio Harrington-co-directed The Pout-Pout Fish. Borrowing pieces from various edutainment adventures in which Mr. Fish goes from learning that “pout-pout” is a state of mind to facing one’s fears, the theatrical The Pout-Pout Fish seeks to inspire young audiences to giggle, gasp, and not gawk at the possibilities around us.
Mr. Fish voiced by Nick Offerman in THE POUT-POUT FISH. Photo courtesy of Viva Kids Pictures.
Every day, Mr. Fish (voiced by Nick Offerman) goes out of his home to run an errand and, every day, is greeted either with stares at his pout-pout face or told to cheer up in one variant phrase or another. Coming home from his daily errand, Mr. Fish discovers that all of his curtains are being stolen by a tiny, effervescent fish named Pip (Nina Oyama), who mistook his home for a junkyard. Unfortunately, as they are working out their differences, calamity strikes leading to the loss of both of their homes. Panicked at first, the duo decides that the best course of action is to track down the mysterious Shimmer (voiced by Jordin Sparks), a mythical fish believed to grant anyone who asks a single wish before Shimmer must rest and recover. The two set out to track down Shimmer and plead for her help, completely unaware that there’s another equally desperate fish on the hunt for Shimmer and whose needs rival their own.
Pip voiced by Nina Oyama in THE POUT-POUT FISH. Photo courtesy of Viva Kids Pictures.
Adapted by Elie Choufany (Norm of the North: Keys to the Kingdom), Elise Allen (Barbie: Princess Charm School), and Dominic Morris (Combat Wombat: Back 2 Back), The Pout-Pout Fish is a safe family animated feature that blends the original book and concepts and characters from the series into an adventure exploring community, confidence, and unintentional cruelty. Unlike recent family films The Bad Guys 2 (2025) and Zootopia 2 (2025) which balance entertaining audiences of all ages, often through subtext or humor that younger viewers won’t get, The Pout-Pout Fish is decidedly aimed at the original book audience. This translates to a narrative that’s incredibly predictable for older viewers (causing a bit of narrative fatigue as we wait for the film to get to its inevitable conclusion), loads of maritime-meets-human world puns (ex., “Seaphora”), fourth-wall breaking, and mugging. To compensate, adults are treated to Offerman’s (The LEGO Movie series) dulcet tones as the titular fish, Amy Sedaris (Strangers with Candy) voicing a trio of pink dolphins dropping a generational-specific reference, and a number of ridiculous jokes and references that are meant to make the adults chuckle while the kids are dazzled by the bright colors of the animation.
Benji voiced by Remy Hii in THE POUT-POUT FISH. Photo courtesy of Viva Kids Pictures.
The animation is where the film truly shines and sparkles. The marine life is more akin to the Trolls or Zootopia universe of stories in which creatures are given human attributes amid their art design than to Hanna’s designs. Mr. Fish maintains his blue and purple coloring, personifying melancholy, with the script inferring that this is connected more to his upbringing than his natural countenance. By contrast, Pip, a leafy seadragon, is bright yellow with splatters of color on different parts of her form, signifying her perpetual positive and bright personality. The close-ups of these and the rest of the cast enable the audience to see tiny details — shiny scales, micro-expressions, gradients of color — that make each character feel realized. Though the art design doesn’t utilize Hanna’s, it does incorporate other styles, specifically anime influences, such as the presentation of Pip’s cutesy face or action sequences with striking movement lines surrounded by singular colors that transform depending on who’s committing the movement. The best character design is also the one that older audiences might mistake for a tiny sea-faring Oogie Boogie, the starfishes voiced by Andrew Buchanan (Love and Monsters; Iron Sky), which are given a cloth-bag-like form with echinoderms protruding from various points and little mollusk shells for sunglasses. Especially when featured in close-up, the 3D animation holds up, making even the silliest creature something we want to explore visually.
Red Starfish voiced by Andrew Buchanan in THE POUT-POUT FISH. Photo courtesy of Viva Kids Pictures.
Even with a collection of voice actors who bring something unique to each of their characters and animation that conveys the film’s general safety regardless of narrative danger, the film is, itself, pretty harmless which is entirely it’s intent. It seeks to convey to its target audience, the same as the one for the books, while containing a clearer message than the initial book about how we define who we are and that helping our neighbors matters. The book has Mr. Fish stop pouting with a kiss from Shimmer after being approached by various marine life who keep telling him to just smile or be cheery, but the film goes a little deeper. It creates a whole new backstory for Mr. Fish and, in so doing, dabbles a bit in the old How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966; 2000; 2018) formula; though it does it by demonstrating that both Mr. Fish and the creatures in his community are wrong and need to change their perception. Acceptance isn’t about someone conforming to your version of something palatable, it’s literally saying “they are who they are and we love them.” Using Mr. Fish as an audience proxy, the script tries to convey this message, even going so far as to utilize a community’s belief of the greatest beauty to showcase how beauty is a matter of perception and shouldn’t be determined by extrinsic means. If the film wasn’t so overt, adults would likely have more fun, but, it’s structured in such a way that those who need more obvious lessons will be open to receive them.
The Pink Dolphins voiced by Amy Sedaris in THE POUT-POUT FISH. Photo courtesy of Viva Kids Pictures.
Look, not every family film has to push boundaries in terms of animation style or narrative execution. Sometimes it can just seek to entertain with pretty colors, silly figures, and countless jokes while going on an adventure. The Pout-Pout Fish does all of this while harboring a thematic core of love and acceptance. In this vein, The Pout-Pout Fish succeeds, offering engaging fun and an adventurous rollercoaster ride of silliness the whole family can enjoy. When there’s a dearth of family-safe fare at the cinema, not only is this welcoming, it’ll be satisfying to boot.
In theaters March 20th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Viva Kids Films The Pout-Pout Fish webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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