The opening shot shows a wonderful world with vivid colors beautifully rendered. The landscape the characters get to work in is rich with many diverse settings. The voice acting is adequate to the characters. The story on the other hand is all over the map. Two main characters are clearly best of friends and have been for a long time, but nothing they say or do explain how or why they came to be friends. The shark at random times is off trying to eat one or of the other fish in the neighborhood, with no luck. Going back to the shark's home, a well furnished shipwreck, he is waited on by three other fish. In being hospitable to his guest he offers four other live fish to Pup. This is just about as bad an idea I can think about placing in this story. Cut to a shot some sort of evil factory spilling filth into the ocean period,no explanation no people no nothing. Next is the introduction of an evil Eel living at the bottom of a crevasse with an army of crabs, what his place in this story is about as nebulous as many other things that go on. Watch this film if you want it has some nice scenes, but do not expect a cohesive or logical plot.

This film is a bizarre experience before it's even begun - it doesn't even know what it's own title is!! It's 'Seafood' on the box, 'Seefood' on the disk, a combination of both during the title sequence and the picture on this page has it as 'Sea Level'!!! It's so shoddy and unprofessional it's almost laughable. I do really like the environmental theme in some scenes - it is pertinent to teach young generations about not eating shark fins and not polluting the water, however the scenes relating to these themes in the film didn't explain themselves very well and children definitely need extra clarification from adults in order to make sense of that message. It's not consistent either as there are some very confusing and possibly disturbing scenes relating to the characters eating other characters - while this is natural and children should be aware of it, it needs to be presented in a way they can make sense of and this film just doesn't do it. The children in the film are also physically hit by the adult at one point, and it was presented as a normal thing. The film had promise on some levels but the general overall experience is very poor. It really feels like it's been botched together without enough thought. On the plus side my daughter loves it, but she loves anything to do with sea creatures and she doesn't know any better. She can't make sense of it but likes it simply because it's got sharks and fish in it. In my view the dialogue was the worst part - the characters don't act or speak in a way that makes sense or feel natural. The events in the film need more explanation for children so a lot more dialogue should be included to do this. I appreciate that it isn't Disney or Pixar but it is not in any way on a comparative level as an alternative. Very poor effort. I do feel supportive of the environmental messages but wish it had been done much better.

As said in my review for 2016's 'Quackerz', love animation (films like 'Beauty and the Beast', 'Pinocchio', 'The Lion King', 'Bambi', 'Sleeping Beauty', 'Snow White', 'Aladdin', 'The Little Mermaid, the 'Toy Story' trilogy, 'Inside Out' 'The Secret of NIMH' 'Watership Down', 'The Prince of Egypt', 'The Iron Giant' and many of Studio Ghibli films are among my favourites),always have, always will.

'SeeFood' is a long way from being down there as among the worst animated films ever but it is a mess of a film, that has some pleasing (if not perfect) visuals and sporadic appeal and amusement but is let down massively by major tonal and target audience issues and a dreadfully executed story that doesn't work on any level. What an unfortunate waste of a great setting.

There are good things with 'SeeFood'. A good deal of the animation is beautiful, full of vivid and bright colours and backgrounds and landscapes that are inventively and vibrantly done and makes one really immersed and warmly invited. The opening is a good example.

The heroes are appealing enough and there are a few amusing moments particularly with the chickens (delightful characters and steal the show).

However, the stiff character designs are far less convincing as are some abruptly ending transitions. The music has an unintentional eerie creepiness that really does not fit, even the images are darker. The voice actors at least fit their characters but there's not much energy or soul here, nobody sounds like they're living their roles and are merely reading them.

Dialogue often sounds awkward and the pace is erratic, mostly it's pretty pedestrian but the abrupt nature of the scene endings makes some of the pace jumpy too.

Where 'SeeFood' really falls down heavily on is the story, the execution of which is a complete disaster and one of the messiest of any animated film personally seen. It never knows what tone it wants to be, having some comic and light-hearted, frothy moments (where things are much more successful and actually has heart) and then switches quickly to a darker tone that constantly jars and done in a way that are unpleasant and disturbing. The abusive father and the sea creatures leave a bad taste in the mouth and feels completely at odds, especially the former.

Objected too to how bullying is treated as humour, for those bullied and emotionally scarred by it that's offensive and the wrong message to give out at how wrong it is and what it does to people. Even though familiar, the basic story on paper was a decent one and if done right could have really resonated emotionally and thrilled. Sadly this was wasted by a continually disconnected structure, a complete lack of logic and coherence, bizarre tonal shifts and being constantly interrupted by thinly sketched character that vary in relevance and increasingly irrelevant situations left incomplete in some cases. The well intended environmental message is also lost amidst the increasing murkiness and feels almost random.

In summation, a few good things (like the animation and the sporadic amusing moment) are not enough to save a disastrously executed story that swaps a light-touch, humour and emotional resonance for a disturbingly dark tone in abrupt shifts, choppy erratic pacing and cohesion-lacking murkiness. 3/10 Bethany Cox