Deep in the Sea – Deep (2017)

Directed by: Julio Soto Gurpide | 87 minutes | animation, adventure | Dutch voice cast: Bibi Breijman, Birgit Schuurman, Tommie Christiaan, Stijn van der Plas | Original voice cast: Justin Felbinger, Stephen Hughes, Lindsey Alena, Elisabeth Gray, Anna Vocino, Dwight Schultz, Joe Hernandez, William Salyers, Bob Bergen, Jess Harnell, Phil LaMarr, Lewis Macleod, Lucien Dodge, Taylor Lawrence, Beth Trollan, Terri Douglas , Joe Ochman, Dave Fennoy

‘Deep in de zee’ is a lousy rip-off of ‘Finding Nemo’ and ‘Dory’ with elements of ‘WALL-E’ mixed in. The makers can still be forgiven that it is a cheaply made animation. The questionable morals, however, and a long scene that is so disrespectful, make you, as your responsible parent, wonder what on earth possessed the makers.

In the American version, the most famous actor is Dwight Schultz, who previously played Murdock in ‘The A-Team’ TV series from the 80s. In the Dutch version we hear voices of Stijn van der Plas as Diep and also Birgit Schuurman and two Bibi’s who are known as “influencers” on YouTube.

In the year 2100, after all kinds of catastrophic environmental disasters, mankind left Earth and a large part of the land was swallowed by the sea. In a cave lives a colony of sea creatures, over which octopus Kraken rules. Deep in the Sea revolves around the enormously selfish and not very sympathetic Diep, the grandson of leader Kraken. Together with his friends, the crab Alice and the lantern fish Ivo, he has adventures outside the protected dome that Kraken has established. When Diep accidentally fires a missile, activating submarine lava flows and trapping all the fish, he and his two friends go in search of the whale Nathan. Nathan must be able to open the boulder that closes off the reef, is the thought.

The filmmakers have bad taste: they make one shit-and-pee joke after another – that would make even a four-year-old slightly desperate, while other jokes are more aimed at watching parents – rather than a charming Disney / Pixar manner, but quite “mature” and sexually oriented comments.

The basic story is simple (and copied from ‘Nemo’ and ‘Dory’): heroes have to travel to complete an assignment / quest. However, that fact is hidden in unnecessarily complicated and debatable subplots that contribute little coherence to the journey that Diep and his friends are on. The worst is in the first part of the film, when the trio arrive at the wreckage of the Titanic and encounter the vampire octopus Norma. Norma is a singer looking for an audience and with few scruples whether Diep, Alice and Ivo are willing to listen. Director Julio Soto Gurpide is also less troubled by scruples. He conceived the story and wrote the screenplay beforehand. And partly thanks to him, the skeletons of killed passengers of the Titanic are unabashedly used in a musical number. Even though it has been over a hundred years since the ship sank after hitting an iceberg; it still feels wrong to use a disaster with more than 1,500 victims here in an animated children’s movie for “jokes”.

After a few more encounters, the friends, meanwhile supplemented by the moraine Maura, arrive in flooded New York City. It’s the only truly inspired part of the film and the least bad in animation. The story then gets unnecessarily complicated with a launch of deep-frozen sea creatures on a spaceship called the Ark III (number 1 had humans, number 2 the land animals – the creators apparently hated birds) before finding Nathan the whale.

‘Deep in de zee’ is a messy and not very well made animation film that is far too scary for the little ones and far too boring for children over seven. So quite a mistake. Avoid this movie like the plague.