1 of 3 | Nick Offerman’s “The Pout-Pout Fish” is now playing in theaters. Photo courtesy of Viva Pictures
NEW YORK, March 20 (UPI) — Parks & Recreation and The Last of Us icon Nick Offerman says he wasn’t familiar with The Pout-Pout Fish phenomenon before he signed on to voice the beloved character from Deborah Diesen’s children’s books in an animated movie.
“I was not aware, but as soon as I looked it up and then began mentioning it to people, they bowled me over, held me to the ground by my lapels and said: ‘This is the greatest series of books. You’ve got to do this!’ which makes it really fun to do, makes it a no-brainer to jump on board with,” the 55-year-old Emmy winner told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
“TV cartoons are super-fun in their own way, but when you work on a feature, it takes a really long time and so much more detail is put into the animation,” he said. “So, when you finally sit in a theater and see it, it makes me feel like I’m five years old again and I’m seeing the Disney cartoons of my childhood that are so filled with wonder.”
In addition to being beautiful to look at, the film also has loads of visual jokes for both the kids and the grown-ups watching with them.
“That’s a big deal because you’ve got to keep Mom and Dad happy as they sit through repeat viewings of this,” Offerman said.
In theaters Friday, the film features a voice cast that includes Nina Oyama, Miranda Otto, Remy Hii, Jordin Sparks and Amy Sedaris. It was directed by Ricard Cussó and Rio Harrington, and was written by Elise Allen, Elie Choufany and Dominic Morris.
Offerman’s character Mr. Fish lives alone because his resting frowny face makes the other sea creatures sad.
Recording his lines of dialogue in a Budapest studio with producers Nadine Bates and Kristen Souvlis, but no other actors, somehow seemed appropriate, Offerman said.
“We were supposed to record the movie and there was a power outage in the whole part of the city and they were only there for one day and it was this whole emergency thing,” he recalled.
“We had to go to a new location and, so, it all had this incredibly dire element of, ‘Are we going to achieve the movie?’ And, so, then putting me in this isolated situation really made me feel lonely and emotional in delivering the role of Mr. Pout-Pout Fish, which I hope was really effective,” he added.
“I was so grateful. They were so plucky and fun and I’m so far away from home and everything was hinging on getting me recorded. It was really heroic that they pulled it off.”
The story follows Mr. Fish as his world is turned upside-down by peppy Pip (Nina Oyama), a young sea dragon, who needs his help finding magical Shimmer (Sparks) whom she hopes will fix their homes after they are accidentally destroyed.
The comical underwater adventure explores universal themes such as teamwork and self-acceptance.
“He is very easily down on himself and doesn’t have a great sense of self-worth at the beginning of the film,” Offerman said of his aquatic alter-ego.
“It’s important to be reminded that whatever strengths we do have, even though they’re not the most sparkly, perhaps, or maybe we’re not the most beautiful fish in the school, we’re still just as valuable as every other member of the community,” he added.
“I used to do a comedy bit where I say, ‘I never look in the mirror and I just am nice to people and they’re nice back to me.’ And that makes me feel a lot more like Shimmer than I feel like Mr. Pout-Pout Fish.”
He said he also liked the film’s reminder to look outside our own homes and appreciate the diversity of our neighborhoods.
“We have to listen to everybody’s needs and work together as a community, so that we can have a happy place to live, so that our coral reef can be healthy, not just for one person’s ideas, but for the ideas of the whole neighborhood,” he added.
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