Entertainment
A Grumpy Nick Offerman Keeps This Fish Tale Swimming Along
Animated fish films have been done. Finding Nemo. Shark Tale. Ponyo. So to hear about another doesn’t feel like anything new. However, The Pout-Pout Fish, starring Nick Offerman as a grumpy ocean pout named Mr. Fish, is a little different. It’s an adaptation of Deborah Diesen‘s series of children’s books, which have grown so popular over the past two decades that it has even turned into a musical. Co-directed by Ricard Cussó and Rio Harrington, from a script by Elise Allen and Elie Choufany, The Pout-Pout Fish is a cute, wholesome little movie aimed at kids. It’s straightforward to a fault, and could really use songs from the musical to liven it up. Adults might find themselves getting bored, but your kids will see it through more imaginative eyes. For little ones, it’s a sweet story with fun lessons to learn.
What Is ‘The Pout-Pout’ Fish About?
The Pout-Pout Fish is a joint production between the United States’ Viva Pictures and Australia’s Maslow Entertainment, which means a voice cast made of both Americans and Aussies. Nick Offerman is perfectly cast as the grumpy ocean pout simply known as Mr. Fish. He can’t help it that he looks this way. Ocean pouts have a naturally downturned mouth, which makes them look miserable. It’s not a fun life for Mr. Fish, a lonely guy who is constantly being told by the other fish in the reef to smile and cheer up.
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Everything changes for Mr. Fish when he meets a new neighbor in the form of Pip (Nina Oyama), a happy, high-energy leafy seadragon child. She’s the exact opposite of the moody Mr. Fish, but after he accidentally destroys her home, the two go on a road trip, so to speak, to locate the mysterious Shimmer (Jordin Sparks), a mythical fish that can supposedly grant wishes. If they can find her, Shimmer can put Pip’s home back together again before her parents get back with her 400 new siblings. It won’t be easy, though, as along the way, they encounter numerous obstacles in the form of other sea life. There’s also another fish who wants to reach Shimmer before them. Benji (Remy Hii), an orange cuttlefish, must save his own family’s home. Who will make it to Shimmer and get their wish granted first?
Nick Offerman and Nina Oyama Carry ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’
The Pout-Pout Fish succeeds and fails in its all too familiar trope of the grumpy lead character forced together with the happy, gregarious one. The audience knows this will lead to a change for the former, and by the end of the movie, Mr. Fish is not going to be so pouty. What matters is how the film gets there. Kids’ movies can go in one of two directions. There’s the best of Pixar, Disney, and DreamWorks, with lots of comedy and smart writing aimed at adults as well. Think of Inside Out, for example. That film and its sequel are thick with themes and learning about life aimed at children. It does that, while also providing well-crafted characters and plenty of laughs. Then there’s the more simplistic route. This is The Pout-Pout Fish. There is a little bit of backstory to Mr. Fish, pretty much nothing about Pip, and even less for most of the other sea life they meet along the way. The jokes are simple and flat (one fish has to stop because a school of fish is swimming over a crosswalk), and while your kids might chuckle at times, The Pout-Pout Fish is pretty laugh-free for anyone who can legally drive.
It’s a bare-bones film, yet it’s not a dud because of its voice cast. Offerman is made for voice work. He’s done that many times over the year for The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans, Sing 2, and Smurfs. Casting him as the lead pouty fish here is a great move. This is what makes it so frustrating that his talents aren’t used to their full potential. Mr. Fish is a little grumpy. That’s it. He’s never loud, over-the-top, or silly, and Offerman’s dry wit isn’t given any great lines. Anyone could have voiced him. Still, because it’s Offerman’s unique manner of speaking, we’re pulled in, and Mr. Fish immediately becomes more real.
Australian actress Nina Oyama is tasked with carrying much of the emotional weight of The Pout-Pout Fish. She’s in her 30s, but is convincing as a hyper kid. It’s disappointing that her excitement is the entirety of her character, but Oyama gives it her all. Paired with Offerman, the relationship between Mr. Fish and Pip is the selling point. The pair have great chemistry in a plot that’s overly cute and aims only for the basics.
The Themes of ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’ Are Too Spot On
The Pout-Pout Fish could have benefitted from a different style of animation. After watching animated films like The Wild Robot, the uninspired artwork here adds very little. What could have propped up a thin story is instead one more aspect that makes The Pout-Pout Fish come across as mediocre. Shots of the reef, the abundance of kelp that threatens them, and the shipwrecks a few live in are flat. The Pout-Pout Fish isn’t a book come to life. It’s nothing more than moving pages in a generic format.
There are plenty of other supporting characters to keep the action going. Benji is desperate to prove himself to his mother, Marin (Miranda Otto), the intimidating cuttlefish leader who needs to find a new home for her species so badly that she’s willing to wreck the reef the other fish live in. On Mr. Fish and Pip’s journey, they come across various other characters, such as Amy Sedaris as a group of, like, valley girl, like, pink dolphins. While some of these characters are only meant to be part of one scene, The Pout-Pout Fish spends too much time with Benji and his journey, when Mr. Fish and Pip are where the best part of the story is.
The Pout-Pout Fish is about Mr. Fish’s adventures, most of all, as he learns not to be so grumpy and let other fish in. The film gets there by having Mr. Fish spout those life lessons as he learns them, as if he’s reading inspiring quotes from the source material rather than coming across like an authentically growing character. It’s the books, now on the screen, delivering its cute message, but in a way that lays it on way too thick. The Pout-Pout Fish is not bad by any means, but don’t go in expecting a new animated classic. Little kids will probably enjoy it for the innocent, lesson-filled, mild fun it is, especially if they’ve been introduced to what inspired it first. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s what The Pout-Pout Fish aims for, and it achieves the goal.
The Pout-Pout Fish comes to theaters on March 13.
- Release Date
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March 20, 2026
- Runtime
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92 minutes
- Director
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Ricard Cussó
- Writers
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Elie Choufany, Deborah Diesen
- Producers
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Nadine Bates
- Nick Offerman is perfectly cast as Mr. Fish.
- Nina Oyama’s voice acting brings energy to the plot.
- The chemistry between Mr. Fish and Pip carries the story.
- Kids can learn from the wholesome message about friendship and confidence.
- The animation is flat and uninspired.
- The story is too thin to carry a feature film.
- It does too much telling with lines that explain too much.