Fresh Fish (1939) User Reviews

Very much the sort of thing Tex Avery made for Looney Tunes before switching to MGM

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 8 January 2022]

In the late 1930s and into the early 40s, Tex Avery directed a lot of cartoon shorts from Looney Tunes which followed the same general style. In this pseudo-documentary style cartoon, a narrator explores a subject and you then see tons of jokes that make you groan. While they are not terrible, they are extremely poor compared the masterpieces Avery later made when he moved to MGM.

In "Fresh Fish", a professor is going to explore the sea bottom and the narrator shows many different fish which are supposed to be corny jokes...such as the sardines all swimming in a bunch as if they are in a tin and the like. For me, most of these gags fell very flat and it's a cartoon that certainly isn't for all tastes.

Under the sea with Tex Avery

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 24 November 2017]

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best ever made by anybody. 'Fresh Fish' is decent, it's amusing and well-made, but Avery has definitely done far better. It is always interesting to see an Avery cartoon before his prime period (all the cartoons he made before his 1942-1950s period at MGM are worth watching though few masterpieces), if more primarily for interest to see how Avery fared early on when he was still evolving and his distinctive style was not as strong or yet to be found.

This cartoon, as said, is a decent interesting watch, but Avery has done far better than decent interesting cartoons. He has done funnier and more imaginative cartoons, and 'Fresh Fish' was also made during a time where his cartoons by Avery standards were pretty tame. Oh and the story is best forgotten.

Not much risk-taking or boundary-breaking here, let alone his typical wacky wildness, and for me that was a huge part of his appeal as well as his visual and humour uniqueness.

However, it is no surprise that, as with a vast majority of Avery's cartoons regardless of the period, the animation is excellent. Beautifully drawn, very detailed and the colours are vibrant.

Carl Stalling's music score is typically lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms, it's also beautifully synchronised with the action and gestures/expressions and even enhances the impact.

While not hilarious, 'Fresh Fish' is still very amusing and well-timed. It also benefits from cute and lively underwater characters and the voice acting from the ever versatile Mel Blanc, Avery himself and Robert C. Bruce, who does entertaining and educational narrations better than anyone, is reliably great.

In short, decent but not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox

It's beyond me how anyone alive Today can look at "Prof. Mackerel Fishsticks" in this cartoon . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 11 May 2017]

. . . and not see immediately that Warner Bros.' Early Warning Looney Tuners have one person and one guy only in mind: the late USA FBI Director James Comey. While Prof. Fishsticks' 2017 Real Life counterpart, Comey, still may be kicking in a literal sense as I type, his career as a Free Man Earning an Honest Living is deader than a door nail, just as Prof. F.'s final posture in FRESH FISH is as an undigested bulge in the tummy of a "Whim Wham Whistling Shark." My personal contacts in the FBI say that Comey was canned immediately when he showed a colleague in the American Intelligence Business a photo of Russian Spy Don Juan Trump being personally awarded that Red Commie nation's "Trotsky Cross" for the second of three known times by his life-long KGB "handler," Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin. Many would argue that White House Spokesman Sean Spicerack should acknowledge Trump's Russian decorations and move on. Better yet, Spicerack can ramp up support for his boss among the Red State Putin Base by emphasizing that NO American has won a trio of Trotsky Crosses before, and this is the ultimate prize for KGB Fifth Columnists World-Wide. Mr. Spicerack needs to watch FRESH FISH for himself, so that he can emulate a Whim Wham Whistling Putin smirk as he sings Trump's praises.

Early Tex Avery finger exercise

[llltdesq · 8/10 · 9 November 2002]

I admit I'm biased in Tex Avery's favor and never saw an Avery cartoon I didn't like. In this one, Avery was still finding his style. There are a few more coughs and sputters here than is typical of Avery, but even with that said, his average work is as good as or better than some directors' best work. Even Rembrandt had his off days. So did Shakespeare, I like this cartoon myself, but others may not. Worth watching. Recommended for Avery fans, certainly.