Parky At the Pictures (4/9/2026)

(Reviews of Lomu; Super Nature; and The Pout-Pout Fish)

LOMU.

In cinemas for a single day on 7 September, Vea Mafile'o and Gavin Fitzgerald's Lomu is a sincere, if saddening tribute to the All Black who became rugby's first global superstar in the 1990s. Using previously unseen home movies and with access to family members and those who played alongside Jonah Lomu, this is a cautionary tale at the start of a new season about the pressures placed on players both on and off the pitch.

According to Tongan lore, there is a place beneath the sea that sits between the living and the dead. It's called Pulotu and Tongans have to go there in order to learn lessons from their ancestors. In the documentary's first section, `You cannot wash the dust of your land from your face,' we learn that Jonah Lomu was born in the Auckland district of Pukekohe, but grew up in the tough neighbourhood of Māngere. Mother Hepi explains how she and husband Semisi came to New Zealand from Holopeka, a village on Lifuka in the Haʻapai islands. She was happy to live in a Tongan community and brother John recalls it being a good proving ground for life. Archive interviews with Jonah show him extolling the virtues of his backyard, although childhood friend Sinbad recalls how he was teased at school and never had it in him to hit back.

Wesley College teacher Amanaki Palavi spotted Jonah's rugby potential, as we see the teenager cantering through defences to score tries in old footage. Even at school, he was 6ft 5in and weighed 17 stone and we see him hoovering up sporting cups at prize day (to the amusement and pride of the headmaster). However, Semisi was a preacher and forbade his son to play on Sundays until Palavi invited him to the school to learn how Jonah could give glory by making use of his God-given talent on the Sabbath. With his father's blessing, Jonah ran rings in the 1991 cup final and was spotted doing so on television.

He was also noticed at a sevens tournament by All Blacks coach Laurie Mains, who converted him from a No.8 to becoming a winger so that he could use his speed and strength within being bound in by the opposition forwards. At just 19 years and 45 days, Jonah became the youngest All Black debutant and was soon the talk of a rugby-obsessed nation. However, rugby union was still an amateur sport at the time and the coaches were concerned that Lomu might be lured away by a professional rugby league outfit.

Captain Sean Fitzpatrick speaks about the onus placed on the All Blacks because the national mood turned on their fortunes and the pressure can be seen on the young Jonah, as he inspects the pitch in his blazer and tries to keep himself calm with the music in his headphones. Community leader Manase Lua recalls the significance of seeing a `brown boy' in an all-white XV and he claims that Jonah became a role model while still a kid himself.

He was a bit lost on the wing in a defeat against France and was hurt when Mains sent him into the sevens team to learn the role. Welsh mentor Phil Kingsley Jones helped pick him up and build back confidence in himself, as he was always beset by doubts. But Dr Siale Foliaki states that Tongans rarely thrive outside of their nurturing group and we learn that Jonah was sent to live in Holopeka with his Aunt Longo and Uncle Mosese, as John had just been born and Semisi and Hepi were short of money. Such fostering arrangements were common among Tongan families and Jonah revelled in the freedom of life in Holopeka. He spoke Tongan and believed Longo and Mosese were his real parents and admits that it came as a shock to return to South Auckland and have to reintegrate with his family and get to grips with a new cultural landscape. The footage of a 15 year-old Jonah crying with confusion is very poignant.

Vikki Kingsley Jones remembers her father asking her to treat Jonah like her `Tongan brother' and their bond was obviously close, as he helped him learn the sport, but also taught him how to speak to the media. He used to joke that he had to become a `palagi' (the Polynesian word for `white bloke') in order to hold his own, but Lua questions whether it was good for him to have his Tongan side smoothed out. Teammate Glen Osborne recalls how Mains brought Jonah back into the Test fold and drove him hard to get him fitter. By now, Kingsley Jones was his manager and he was always there to encourage him when he was struggling.

The proverb launching the second segment, `The mind knows, the heart feels, and the body follows,' sums up the transition that Jonah had to go through in order to fulfil his dream to go to the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa. As a fellow Polynesian, Osborne reflects on the effects that the 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand had on the population, as Apartheid was still in force and all other sporting links had been severed. However, by the time the All Blacks touched down in 1995, Nelson Mandela was president and the prospect of winning the first World Cup in which South Africa had participated was a huge motivational factor.

Jonah scored tries against Ireland and Scotland en route to the semi-final against England. But he blitzed through the defences four times in a remarkable performance that caught the imagination of the rugby world. In a post-match interview, England skipper Will Carling jokingly called him a freak and hoped he would disappear sooner rather than later. All hopes of a trophy disappeared, however, when the New Zealand squad was knobbled by food poisoning a couple of days before the final and the hosts closed Jonah down to win 15-12 with an drop goal in extra tine.

As journalist Dobbo Dobson recalls, no one blamed Jonah for the loss, as he was front page news back home. He was also the spearhead for rugby union going professional in New Zealand, as he turned down offers from the other code to sign a four-year deal with the All Blacks to go alongside the numerous endorsements that he was accruing. As coach John Hart and management team member Jane Dent reflect, the sudden switch from amateurism had to be handled carefully, as the star players were now public property. So, there was a field day when Jonah married South African Tanya Rutter without telling his family because he feared they would block the match.

News crews interviewed Hepi and she admitted she was hurt that her son had abandoned the Tongan way and Jonah was just as upset on a TV news show, as he had not wanted to let the family down. He also decided to go public about the tensions with his father and the fact that Semisi could become violent when drunk. This led to criticism from within the Tongan community, as domestic matters were usually kept in-house. Hepi insists her husband was a good man apart from when he drank, while John notes that the pressure on Tongan settlers in New Zealand was extreme, as they had to adjust to new ways of disciplining their families when they were being patronised in their daily lives.

We see footage from 1996, as Jonah addresses the family in Tongan at a make-up dinner. We also see Semisi quoting from the Bible that nobody is perfect and that they should be cut some slack for praying for forgiveness and the strength to do better in the future.

This sad episode leads into the section captioned, `We remain lost while the truth is hidden in the deep.' Jane Dent remarks that nobody really knew Jonah, as he tended to keep himself to himself and compartmentalised his life. Thus, he was able to hide for almost a year the fact that he had been diagnosed at the end of 1996 with nephrotic syndrome, a genetic kidney disorder that could bring about complete renal failure. He was treated by Dr John Mayhew, who used to collect prescriptions for him to keep anyone from finding out, including Coach Hart.

Once the news broke in 1997, Jonah spent nine months out of the game and devoted a lot of time to sick children. He fronted up to the media, but insisted he wanted to do things his own way and had felt no compunction to keep others in the loop. Osborne reveals that his teammates were dismayed to see him struggling in training, while Hart had to make tough decisions based on his physical condition and form in 1998. Being dropped coincided with Jonah's marriage breaking down and he had to bat away a barrage of questions from the media.

Putting himself through a punishing training regime, Jonah got fit enough to make the 1999 World Cup squad in England. Once again, he gave the hosts hell with a rhino charge try and New Zealand breezed into the semi-finals. Here they met France, where not even two piledriver tries (one of which saw him drag a third of the French XV to the line) were enough, as the tide turned in the last 20 minutes and the All Black dream was over.

Once again, Jonah returned home a hero and he was soon caught up in another media blitz. His penchant for fast cars was deemed unTongan, while a second marriage (to Fiona Taylor in 2003) made more headlines that disconcerted members of his community. He was still a young man and was determined to make his mark on his sport. Kingsley Jones is shown explaining how he was always looking for opportunities for Jonah to make an impact away from rugby, as sporting careers are always finite.

But his condition was worsening and he needed dialysis. At one point, he was being treated in Auckland in the morning, flying to Wellington for training, and flying back at night for the next morning's dialysis. He never gave up hope of playing at the 2003 World Cup and his courage was universally hailed. The dismay when the New Zealand union cast him adrift when his contract expired was equally unanimous, with Lua considering the token gratuity offered as disrespectful to someone who had transformed the game. When quizzed by TV presented John Campbell, Jonah fought tears as he described how much being an All Black meant to him and Osborne attests that losing the shirt is one of the hardest things any player has to face.

The closing chapter, `There are lines you cannot run from,' opens with Jonah undergoing a kidney transplant in July 2004. Radio personality Grant Kereama had donated the organ and Hepi recalls the vivid memory of her son disregarding her advice to stop playing rugby. His career resumed with the Cardiff Blues in 2005, but he had severed his other Welsh connection after Fiona became his new manager. Hepi reveals that she never met her and could never work out if she was protecting Jonah or protecting herself by keeping him away from the family. Either way, she didn't last long and, in May 2011, Jonah married Nadene Quirke, with whom he had two children.

Dent opines that Jonah tended to run away from relationships when things became tricky and she hints that in some ways he remained a 14 year-old boy. John agrees that he shirked confrontation and Dobson laments that his life was complicated because he didn't have to tools to process and resolve issue. Doc Mayhew (who died last year) regrets that Jonah didn't have the life he deserved and wonders whether he was ever actually happy, as he had lost his rugby family and was often too weak to walk unaided to the kitchen, let alone play with sons, Brayley and Dhyreille.

In one interview, Jonah confided that he misses his independence and the sight of this colossus reduced to a shadow is very sad, indeed. As is the fact that there were disputes over access to his body after his death at the age of 40 on 18 November 2015. Nadene asked John Hart to be her spokesperson and he admits that it was awkward tryin to please the two sides of Jonah's family. Footage from the funeral at Eden Park shows the clash between Tongan and Kiwi culture and John acknowledges that it was tough because his brother straddled both.

Dobson explains how details of Jonah's financial situation emerged following his death. He blames poor management and some bad decision making for his indebtedness and castigates the New Zealand Rugby Union for not hiring him as an ambassador, so that he didn't need to travel the world for sporadic paydays. But Dobson also accepts that Jonah's passion for luxury cars and his insistence on keeping up appearances caused as many problems as two divorces and expensive medical treatment.

A montage of Lomu in full flow from youth to prime follows, as some of the contributors make their summatory statements. John Hart wonders what kind of impact he might have made if he had ever been more than 70% fit. In a TV interview with John Campbell, Jonah - with his trademark `11' shaved into his eyebrows and the world at his feet - discussed his future. He mentions the fact that it's impossible to know what might happen next and his words proved tragically perceptive. In this moment, he comes across as both a gentle giant and a little boy lost. It's a touching way to end, but it will leave many feeling none the wiser about a sporting phenomenon who was all too human.

At one point, Jane Dent avers that no one really got to know Jonah Lomu and he proves equally evasive for Gavin Fitzgerald and Vea Mafile'o. Not that they appear to delve very deeply, as they flit between issues of familial, cultural, sporting, and personal identity. There is so much rich material here, but the decision not to be heard posing questions allows the film-makers to hide behind their talking-heads while offering no opinions of their own about any aspect of Lomu's life or career.

In rugby terms, the focus falls almost entirely on Lumu's time with the All Black years and largely ignores the toll that club rugby had on his body and his mindset. In fact, he only played in 129 non-international matches between 1994-2002, while he turned out for the Kiwis in 63 Tests during the same period. Such statistics only tell a fraction of the story, however, and Fitzgerald and Mafile'o leave quite a bit of it untold.

The topic of Lomu's Tongan heritage is fascinating and the recollections of his mother and brother are revealing. As are the insights of Siale Foliaki, Manase Lua, and, particularly, Glen Osborne, who trod a similar sporting path. But no attempt is made to understand how Lomu, as a Tongan, felt doing the Māori haka in a silver fern shirt. We also learn nothing about his post-youth engagement with his Tongan roots or his later embracing (if at all) of Indigenous culture. The significance of religion is also skirted, as he remained spiritual in spite of his brushes with his preacher father and became a Mormon after marrying Nadene.

Similarly, Mafile'o and Fitzgerald handled Lomu's medical travails with sensitivity, although they might have spared us so many close-ups of the transplant procedure. Yet they have little to say about how the rugby authorities responded to its Golden Boy being stricken, how the media treated Lomu at this difficult time, or how the fans reacted to this heartrending situation. It's interesting that Sean Fitzpatrick is omitted from this discussion, as it gives the misleading impression that Lomu was only important to his Kiwi teammates as a battering ram on the wing. Little sense is given of how he fitted into the squad, apart from Dent's reference to a team photo, in which Lomu stands alone on the back row with arms folded while everyone else engages with a neighbour. This picture was clearly posed to create the image of a man set apart because of his physique and talent and using it to suggest he was isolated because of his race feels disingenuous, especially as the film-makers opt not to explore what kind of teammate Lomu was and the nature of his relationship with others on tour or at tournaments. Did he socialise or sit alone in his room and, if the latter is the case, were any efforts made to integrate him into the All Black band of brothers. Given his devotion to the shirt, one can only presume that Lomu felt he belonged, but on what level?

The directors also broach the subject of Lomu's personal and business relationships with Kingsley Jones. But they stop short of saying whether they blame the Welshman for exploiting Lomu and detaching him from his community or whether they think he was a surrogate father who was harshly discarded when others sought to exert their influence over his affairs. Captions describe a few contributors as `friends', but how did the friendships play out? Nothing is said about Lomu's social life or whether he had an entourage. How did he spend his time away from rugby and did he embrace Western interests or did he retain a connection to Tongan culture? Such details might have filled in a few gaps and gone some way to helping viewers understand why Lomu maintained a distance from his family for extended periods, especially after he got married.

Clearly, Fitzgerald and Mafile'o had a tricky job in navigating between interested parties and it's noticeable that none of Lomu's wives appear in the documentary outside of the archival footage (indeed, Nadene tried to block the film). Perhaps this was part of the deal for gaining access to the compelling home movies of the young Jonah? But the absence of any clips from John Campbell's 10th anniversary interiew with Nadene and her sons confirms that this is very much a film bent on avoiding controversy and offence. In seeking to please everyone, however, the duo has wound up not saying enough about anything relating to Jonah Lomu's family, fame, and flaws. This is undeniably a well-meaning profile that has been expertly edited by Iseult Howlett. Yet it sells both its subject and the audience short.

SUPER NATURE.

Britain has a longtime connection to the filming of Nature. Between 1922-33, British Instructional Films produced 144 Secrets of Nature shorts, which were initially edited by F. Percy Smith before Mary Field took over in 1929. A further series, Secrets of Life, was produced under the auspices of Gaumont-British from 1934-47.

Subsequently, of course, the tradition has been upheld on television, where David Attenborough has held sway since the 1960s. But, under the watchful eye of executive producer Asif Kapadia, newcomer Ed Sayers offers a new approach to the form in Super Nature, a crowd-funded compilation that presents clips filmed on 8mm by 40 contributors from 25 countries.

In an introductory passage, Sayers marvels that we all live on an illuminated ball in the darkness of space. He wishes we would accept that we all have an equal share in the world around us and shows us Super 8 footage he took of some seals he found on a Norfolk beach. Sayers explains that he loves the format and embraces the limitating factors that cartridges only last around 150 seconds and cannot capture sound. As we gaze into the eyes of a sandy coloured pup, he claims the cameras allow the user to get closer to their subject and cites as an example the images of flamingos in Nature Hunter, Roger Batteault's 2019 submission to the Straight 8 competition that Sayers had founded in 1999.

This gave him the idea for this anthology, which collates 8mm Nature studies from people of all natural world interests and film-making abilities from across the planet. It's a delightful idea and it begins in Joshua Tree National Park, California, where Dice Rose came across some skittish desert quail who would rather hide than be photographed.

Going in search of whales, Lucía Valdemoros and Agustín Barrutia took several cameras to Rio Negro in Patagonia because conditions were not going to be easy (one fell over, another got waterlogged). But they got their footage on the last day of their stay, filming from their boat and from underwater (where a scurrying octopus also caught their eye).

In London, Adrian Cousins captures a silkworm clambering up a thread in his garden and he ponders that this is probably a major event in this small creature's life. He had been stricken with chronic fatigue and is now limited in his activities, but he could admire the tenacity of this worm and feel a kindred spirit to it. Across the capital, Pinny Grylls has lost her hearing and likes Super 8 because it's silent and she can feel cocooned while filming a frog in some water.

An iguana scurrying across a yard and up a tree entices Alicia and Cosmo Sully in Nayarit in Mexico, while Karan Suri Talwar goes on expedition in Assam to film water buffalo basking in a river. He had wanted an adventure, but wound up feeling like he had received a hug from Mother Nature. Tom Merilion and his 13 year-old son travel to Cambal in France to watch conservationist Christian Moullec guide some migrating barnacle geese in his microlight. The mid-air footage (accompanied by `Flying' by The Faces) is awe inspiring, as the birds hover on the wind with such elegance and power.

Short snippets follow (included shots of lounging lions and grooming apes), as Sayers opines that the images he received felt nostalgic and evoked feelings of love and loss. In Amsterdam, Maarten Van Rouveroy watches the safari footage captured by his grandfather and wonders how the populatios of zebras, giraffes, and rhinos are coping today. There are still ibex in Italy's Aosta Valley, as Carlotta Beck Peccoz discovers. Around these serene mammals, however, the mountains that have witnessed thousands of years of her ancestors are changing and she laments the melting of the glacier and the implications this has for the future.

On the Isle of Lewis, Richard Davies similarly regrets the depleting salmon numbers in Scottish rivers, as their determined journey upstream provides information on the state of Nature along their route. And Fraser Johnston similarly reads the signs off the coast of Hobart in Tasmania, as the reef that shelters the pink spotted sea dragons he has filmed over the last decade is being subjected to increasing amounts of sunlight.

Sayers picks up on the sadness of several of the submissions and takes us to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia, Kenya, where Zacharia Mutai is protecting the last two Northern White Rhinos in the wild. Poaching and drought have brought about a deplorable situation, although there is still hope, as the younger female is still producing eggs and there is a hope they can be fertilised using stored supplies of semen. But, as Zacharia points out, as species die out, the world gets darker.

French photographer Emmanuelle Negre contrasted footage of the coast around Le Var after it had been batterd by Storm Alex with images of scorched trees after they had been caught in a forest fire. She sighs that this is now the way of things, as extreme weather conditions become more normal across Europe. Sayers interjects to say that Super 8 was on the verge of extinction before lovers stepped in to save it (with the implication being that we can still avert a climate catastrophe). In the stilt-shack community of Sampela, Indonesia, divers Mang and Dika Rusman are finding it harder to catch fish, while Elle Márjá Eira trudges through the snow to keep an eye on the reindeer herds that are crucial to the Norwegian community of Sápmi. Just as bison were once a key source of food for the Native American tribes around what is now Yellowstone National Park. It's here that National Geographic's Ami Vitale films some of the surviving animals after the US government killed 1.3 million so that only 23 remained in the park in 1906, as part of an effort to starve the Indigenous peoples and drive them off their land. As Vitale says, it seems like it happened a long time ago, but the cast shadows are long and memories are short.

Holikiari, Dokotone, and Kawali belong to the Enawene Nawe tribe in Brazil's Mato Grosso and, as fish stocks dwindle in the rivers, we see the menfolk performing a ritual to appease the ancient spirits in an effort to avoid a great sadness. From thence to Bangkok, where wildlife photographer Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn sets out to film Bryde's whales and opine that people would respect Nature more if they saw more of it up close. Sayers concurs that the project has helped many contributors move from looking at Nature to really seeing it. He himself lay on the patio to photograph a snail in close up, with a bag over his head to keep off the rain.

In Delhi, Simran Ankolkar conquers her fear of monkeys by filming them, while Aussie Ollie Birt developed a greater understanding of kangaroos by observing them at Bawley Point. He describes them as weird, as they are a cross between a deer and a rabbit that's wearing a bum bag. A cut takes us to San José, Costa Rica, where Pedro Montero engages with a tree-hugging sloth.

Out in the Pacific, Valentina Marinelic films tonnes of plastics being hauled out of the ocean some 2000km from land to show how far the human fingerprint extends. The bid to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is extremely noble and disconcerting and deserves a documentary of its own (anyone?). Sayers applaudes the doers and dreamers who are trying to find new ways to reverse the damage and he lingers on the underwater statues made by Jason deCaires Taylor that serve as alternative coral reefs for creatures like the glidingly inquisitive eel seen here. Zoya Buckmire dives down to a display off St George's in Grenada to see the statue she posed for when she was nine. She laments that the positive effects of the park have been undermined by the hottest summer on record, which bleached much of the new coral growth and the despondancy in her voice is palpable. As is the case with Gideon Mendel, as he considers the destructive power of water while photographing submerged ruins in Pakistan's Sindh Province. Zamir Laghari also films here and reveals that his father had never seen such rain.

In the Donbas region of Ukraine, Laurel Chor surveys destruction of a man-made variety in a bombed-out village. She notices how quiet it is, beside the birds singing, and wonders where they go during the figthing and what they think of it. Submissions such as this one sapped Sayers's positivity, as the project developed. Having just lost his mother, he took himself to Cornwall to find some more seals. But none arrived and he was left to take solace in the sea.

Rough waters break off Nazaré in Portugal, where Brazilian surfer Maya Gabeira talks about water's power to hurt and heal. Visual artist Thorbjörg Jónsdóttir next takes us to Reykjanesskagi in her Icelandic homeland to experience the power of an erupting volcano before Jordanian photographer Farah Foudeh reveals the majesty of the desert valley of Wadi Rum, where the furious orange of the lava contrasts with the towering granite and sandstone peaks. She feels like she is learning from the Earth while in such a remote spot, but Jon Andreas Bergström keeps his counsel, as he treks across snow to photograph musk oxen beyond Sweden's Arctic Circle.

Caitlin Henderson credits photographing bats and insects at night in Australia's Northern Territories with recalibrating her brain after a difficult spell. Sayers was rewarded for his patience in Cornwall, when he decided to go scuba diving and a single seal came to play with him. He had no idea what it was trying to tell him, but he felt better. As did Maasai contributor Jimmy Lemara when he saw a family of lions feasting on two wildebeest in Kenya. Isabelle Povey's mood improves the moment she watches the puffins on Skomer Island off the Welsh coast. Sam Mansfield and Tom Mustill also have fun swimming with diving birds and Sayers confides that being in Nature release things from deep inside us. Seen finding ingenious ways to conceal himself in order to photograph beautifully plumaged birds in West Sussex, David Plummer ventures that being close to Nature has helped slow his Parkinson's Disease.

Danielle Wall spends her spare time rescuing rattlesnakes in the Mojave Desert. She claims a snale saved her life and `Fanta' Dwight Phillips describes how The Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary on Bequia island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines was founded by a shipwreck survivor who was carried to a buoy by a turtle. They keep the reptiles for seven years before releasing them back into the Caribbean and Zandi Ndhlovu outlines how South Africa's humpback whale population has started to recover since the country abandoned commercial whaling. She avers that Nature will always find a way to bounce back if we give it space and time and she urges us to take to heart the Zulu word, `ubuntu', which means `I am because you are'.

Following a summatory montage, Sayers returns to the seals on his Norfolk beach. He concludes that our future depends upon how we all look at our world and he hopes that this collection of home movies will help people change the way we see. He even includes a list of the various animals, birds, fish, reptiles, and insects that we have been watching over the previous 82 minutes with a mix of wonder, trepidation, and tightly cross-fingered hope that humanity can somehow pull out of the headlong plunge that is recklessly dragging down all other living things with it. We can't be that selfish and stupid, can we?

With its intriguing methodology, this is certainly a collection full of striking images, affecting moments, and noble sentiments. Yet it never quite holds together, partly because the structuring can sometimes seem haphazard, but also because some of vignettes feel more about the maker than the subject. Moreover, Sayers's voiceover observations can feel twee and even a little trite. This is a shame, as the motives are sincere and the concept is sound and will appeal to those of the vintage with fond memories of The Wonderful World of Animals, a 1970s sticker album from the people who brought you Soccer Stars. However, the rugged glory of the 8mm footage earns Sayers a good deal of leeway.

As Super 8 cameras have no sound facility, audio designer David McAuley works overtime to add Foley atmosphere. But it feels rather insensitive to dub croaking over the footage of a frog that has been submitted by a woman who stresses the significance of being deaf to her appreciation of Nature. Composer Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres also makes an effective contribution, although the musical highlight is the use of the first single by The Faces over the flying geese sequence, which is much more thrilling than anything achieved in Carroll Ballard's Fly Away Home (1996).

The aim of the piece is to encourage viewers to (re)connect with Nature and be more attentive to their everyday surroundings. It doesn't take much and, as Sayers says, `Since our very existence depends on it, maybe it's time we find another way of looking,' while there's still something worth looking at!

THE POUT-POUT FISH.

Spanish-Australian director Ricard Cussó has been steadily building a reputation for bright and breezy CGI animations. Starting with The Wishmas Tree (2019), he has introduced us to such marsupial mavericks as Daisy Quokka: World's Scariest Animal (2020) and Combat Wombat (2020), who went down so well that he got a sequel, Combat Wombat: Back 2 Back (2023). Despite being dismissed by sniffy broadsheet critics in this country, Cussó has become the cornerstone of the Like a Photon studio's `Tales From Sanctuary City' series, also directing Scarygirl (2023) and The Sloth Lane (2024), as well as producing Indigenous film-maker Chantelle Murray's The Lost Tiger (2025).

He now turns to The Pout-Pout Fish, which has been inspired by a bestselling series of children's books by Deborah Diesen, as such Disney/Pixar subterranean tales as Finding Nemo (2003), Shark Tale (2004), and Finding Dory (2016). Scripted by Elise Allen, Elie Choufany, and Dominic Morris, this US-Australian co-production isn't a work of dazzling visual innovation or literary elegance or originality. But it's lively and thoughtful and should make a back-to-school treat for younger viewers.

Ocean pout Mr Fish (Nick Overman) may not be the cheeriest member of the coral reef community where DJ Beautiful Mike (Grant Denyer) plays uplifting music and Hector the octopus shopkeeper (Mark Coles Smith) is one of many to tell Mr Fish to cheer up because of his downturned expression. But he is proud of his sunken boat home. Unfortunately, this gets accidentally destroyed and the debris crushes the adjoining premises, where a young sea dragon named Pip (Nina Oyama) is the last of her shoal to remain at home with their parents. As she needs to find accommodation for the hundreds of siblings she is expecting when her parents return home, Mr Fish reluctantly agrees to embark upon a journey to find a Siamese fighting fish named Shimmer, who is reputed to have the power to grant wishes.

According to legend, Shimmer can only grant a single wish every four years and Benji the cuttlefish (Remy Hii) is determined it will be his. He lives in the abyss below the reef with his pal Archie (Nazeem Hussain) and is worried that his pod will be forced to relocate because kelp is growing at such a rate that it's increasingly blocking out the sunlight. Benji's mother, Marin (Miranda Otto), realises that they have no option but to move on, but he hopes that Shimmer will be able to save the day.

On reaching Jellyfish Junction, Mr Fish and Pip find two box jellyfish with their tentacles trapped under a rock. As they contain stingers, Mr Fish is reluctant to help, especially as Shaz (Mel Butte) reveals that Benji is also searching for Shimmer. But Pip insists they release the pair because she lives by the motto `Always help friends stuck under a rock because it's friendly and, when you do, they'll be your friends and will help you some day when you're under a rock or some other big heavy thing.'

Finding it hard to resist such logic, Mr Fish pushes against the rock and the jellyfish free themselves. They promise to repay the favour, as their new friends swim away towards Dolphin Cove. At the Pink Lagoon, they meet dolphins Brigitta, Greta, and Karina (all Amy Sedaris), who quickly become obsessed with Mr Fish's pouting lips. They are dieting, but have become so hungry that they can't think straight. Reckoning it's easier to eat their visitors than go to Shark Shack, they chase Pip and Mr Fish before realising that they could eat kelp because it would fill them up without bloating them. They are so pleased with this solution that they vow to help their new friends if they are ever in need.

Swimming on, but still having no idea where to find Shimmer or how close Benji is getting, Mr Fish and Pip come across a mother whale (Anne Edmonds), who is worried because her pup (Lucas Haddrick) has got lost in a crevasse. Once again, Mr Fish bows to Pip's desire to be helpful and they dive into the dark depths to find the young whale cowering behind some weeds because he's lost. Finding a way out proves more difficult, however, and the trio is indebted to a bioluminescent eel (Lloyd Langford) who guides them out of the chasm and back to the relieved mother. She also offers her help if it's ever needed and points Pip and Mr Fish in the direction of the Crystal Caves.

They finally find Shimmer (Jordin Sparks) who remembers Mr Fish from when he was a youngster named Gil. Poppa Fish (Christopher James Baker) was so nervous about straying too far from home that a curious Gil had ventured out one day and got lost. Shimmer had helped him find his father (which convinced him that she could grant wishes). However, Poppa Fish had warned his son to keep away from unfamiliar fish and this had shaped his suspicious personality.

As Pip tries to explain why she needs Shimmers help, Benji arrives and kidnaps her. He speeds off back towards the reef with Mr Fish and Pip in pursuit. However, Shimmer reveals that she has now wish-giving powers and Marin is so ashamed of Benji that she disowns him. She orders the cuttlefish to leave their home and make their way towards the reef. However, she has decided to hypnotise the existing residents to drive them away so that her pod can take over their abodes. Realising that the coral reef will be destroyed, Mr Fish and Pip call on their new-found friends, who attack the kelp fields with gusto. The dolphins chomp away, while Shaz and the eel zap the roots to clear away the vegetation so that the cuttlefish can return. Marin is proud of Benji for his part in the clearance and she tells Archie to stop being such a suck-up.

Mr Fish and Pip return to their patch of reef, with the former being delighted to have his wrecked ship repaired. Pip also finds a sunken cruise ship in time for her new family's arrival. She shows Mr Fish that she has written a book about their adventures entitled `The Pout-Pout Fish' and he is inspired to ask Shimmer for a date. While he's summoning the nerve, however, the eel unintentionally causes his home to fall apart again.

Deborah Diesen's text is filled with life lessons and Ricard Cussó and co-director Rio Harrington have found room for most of them in this engaging saga. Uppermost are the notions of friendship and teamwork, as Mr Fish learns that reaching out to strangers can have beneficial effects. He also learns that helping those in need and seeing the best in others can have a ripple effect and increase your own sense of self-worth. Moreover, he comes to realise that it's okay to feel sad and that bad moods don't have to last forever or define you or how people relate to you.

That's a lot for young minds to take on board, but the film doesn't push the messages too hard, as they all emerge naturally from the story. The CGI animation is unremarkable, but the characterisation inspired by the source is strong and is reinforced by the voiceover work of Nick Overman and the excellent Nina Oyama. Guest turns by Miranda Otto and Amy Sedaris also stand out, with the latter bringing audio distinctiveness to the lookalike dolphin trio.

Such is the nature of the quest narrative that Mr Fish and Pip don't stay in one place for long. But Cussó might have lingered longer over establishing the ambience of their idyllic home and why the shipwreck means so much to Mr Fish. The cuttlefish quandary is also sketchily limned, while the sense of competition and jeopardy involved in the race against Benji never feels compelling or urgent. Even Shimmer's revelation seems a bit underwhelming, while Marin's horrible plan to clear the reef feels contrived because her ruthlessness comes from nowhere and screenwriters Elise Allen, Elie Choufany, and

Dominic Morris seem reluctant to discuss its sinister ramifications in any detail.

But this is a children's entertainment not a treatise on the woes of the modern world. Consequently, it should be commended for raising issues that will impact upon the everyday experience of many of the young viewers and doing so in an accessible and enjoyable manner. After all, who can resist a fish out of water story that's set at the bottom of the ocean?