Mostly known for Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, Warner Bros. really hasn’t had decent animated feature when compared to something that is unique from Disney. For the most part, Warner Bros. animated features are watchable to say the least. Case in point: the 1964 combination of live-action and animation “The Incredible Mr. Limpet”. The film is entertaining at best. But on the other hand, the movie is kind of corny and cheesy. “The Incredible Mr. Limpet” is a nice feature film, although it can get silly at certain moments.
The story involves a bookkeeper and a fanatic for fish named Henry Limpet (Don Knotts) who magically, and without any warning whatsoever, turns into a fish. Seeing the opportunity, Henry secretly works for the U.S. Navy in order to hunt down Nazi submarines during WWII.
“The Incredible Mr. Limpet” is an all right movie. Though it does keep ones interest while watching. The story is nice as it creates a good fantasy element by providing the audience something that had not happened on the screen. The acting isn’t too bad; we get some good performances, yet at times it can be a little over the top. Like for instance when the Navy meets Henry for the first time, it can get quite silly. Musically, the orchestration provided in the film is good and the songs provided are short and simple. The production design fits the setting of the time frame of the 1940s well as everything is designed accurately. However, the animated segments are best moments in the movie. The character designs are interesting and the combination of both live-action and animation work surprisingly well.
With that being said, the film does suffer from a few flaws. For one thing, there is a lot of recycled animation and stock footage that pads out the movie. The reason behind the recycled animation is because this was the last animated production that Warner Bros. was attached to for quite some time until the 1970s. Next, most of the movie is spent in the live-action portion and there are very little animated segments. Finally, the whole project is really hokey and cheesy; if you like that kind of thing, then this movie is for you.
In conclusion, “The Incredible Mr. Limpet” may be absurd in its execution, but it may be worth mentioning in terms of dealing with the history of Warner Bros. animation.