Seefood

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Recently, I watched an animated movie called Seefood. Being an adult doesn't mean I cannot enjoy kids movies, right? And anyway, most animated films are made to suit all range of viewers age (and some are even specifically for adults, you know..), and I have written quite a number of reviews of animated films in this blog. Part of the reasons that made me interested to watch this movie is due to the fact that it is the first Malaysian-made animated film in English language and that the movie has been shown in ..er...90 countries, if I'm not mistaken before it finally came back to its home country last March. After some reading, I found out that Silver Ant, the company that created this movie has started this movie project since 10 years ago but only able to finish it and release it after Doha-based network company, Al-Jazeera, provided financial support for its Children's Channel.

In a glance, Seefood is about environmental awareness and friendship. After watching, I, as a viewer, could see that this movie is obviously trying to send messages about shark's fins hunting, marine life protection and environmental pollution. Basically, the story is about Pup, a bamboo shark, who determined to save his brothers and sisters (bamboo shark eggs) from the ruthless shark's fins fishermen. Concerned about his safety, Pup's best pal, Julius, a kind-hearted white-tip shark, along with Mertle, an old turtle, and Octo, an octopus who is a genius inventor, all together helping him during the trip on Man's land for the mission. Along the way, Pup and his friends also meet other friends and foes.  

What I can say about the main story is that it is a very good one. The animation? Superb. The colours are beautiful, the voice over and the animated movements match perfectly. The characters itself are beautifully created, and Pup is sooo cute and adorable. However, it's quite boring. The story moves in a slow pace, quite draggy I'd say. And there are some parts, or subplots, that I don't quite understand, or maybe, a bit under-developed. First, why do the deep sea creatures want to go out from their abyss, which is definitely their natural surrounding, into the upper part of the ocean? Second, why does Spin the ray fish meet the deep sea creatures? And third, why is there a factory by the sea? After thinking a bit hard, I could come up to some assumptions which might explain the questions. However, I think the story itself should not be so complex and giving hard time to viewers. The story-telling lacks understandable, explainable dialogues and scenes. Some part of the dialogues also lacks the element of fun, and some parts also lacks dialogues or sounds that you'd normally hear in real situation. In other words, it is not quite 'lively'. However, I think the roosters are quite interesting, as well as the interactions between Julius and his three 'servants', and the coconut crazy crabs. 

Whatever it is, at least I've learned from this movie, that a bamboo shark can breath on land up to 12 hours, isn't it cool? All in all, apart from the boring factors I mentioned above, this is actually a good movie. But it would be a better movie, a movie that we can't forget and wanna watch over and over again if with smooth plot and spot on dialogues to match that excellent animation.