Tex Avery's fever dream aquarium where fish make better puns than your dad.
A tour of the waters near a South Sea island, introducing us to the various kinds of marine life, including the pickled herring, the hermit crab, the starfish, a seahorse race, and many other puns. Among the running gags, a two-headed fish who keeps asking for directions to Mr. Ripley and a professor in a diving sphere looking for a rare wim-wam whistling shark.
Direction
Avery's breakneck pacing before it was legal.
Writing
Pun density that would kill a lesser cartoonist.
Director
Tex Avery
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Tex Avery directed this during his explosive 1935-1942 run at Warner Bros, where he essentially invented the rules of cartoon physics that would define the medium.
The 'Mr. Ripley' gag references 'Ripley's Believe It or Not!', the 1930s cultural phenomenon—Avery's parody instincts were already razor-sharp on current events.
US
