Ice Fishing Story Idea

Treatment/Overview

A “coming of age” scenario where a boy is asked by his father to catch fish for dinner. The boy catches a fish, but can’t bring himself to let his family cook and eat it.


Breakdown of Plot Points

-boy is goofing around, having a snowball fight with his friends.

-father walks up and drags his son away. Hands him a fishing pole and a bucket and “tells” him (I don’t think there’s going to be dialogue, so we can have him motion) to go catch dinner.

-boy walks off grumpily to the fishing hole.

-boy sets up camp and, before too long, catches a fish

-boy inspects the fish, but after looking into it’s sad looking eyes/face, he decides he cannot let his family cook and eat it

-boy goes to drop the fish back in the fishing hole, but when he turns around there is a big gaping mouth of a whale waiting eagerly for the fish to be dropped in.

-jumping back in surprise and horror, the boy turns around to walk the other way (to put the fish back in some other fishing hole) and finds hungry penguins staring him down and eyeing the fish

-after a moment’s hesitation, the boy makes a break for the ocean.

-the penguins give chase. The flop down on their bellies and start sliding after him.

-the boy runs as fast as he can, but the penguins are catching up

-the boy’s friends notice him running away, and rally to his aid by barraging the penguins with snowballs.

-the boys are able to take out all the penguins except for one. The boy is almost at the water’s edge to deliver the fish to safety.

-the boy makes a diving effort to try and reach the water but the remaining penguin catches him by the pants/coat.

-as the boy screeches to a halt (after getting grabbed by the penguin) the fish slips out of his hands, sails through the air, and lands in the water.

-the boy breathes a sigh of relief.

-later that night, the boy is in his house/igloo/place of residence. His father looks down on the meal platter sourly to see that his son has formed a the shape of a fish out of lettuce leaves

-trying to look innocent, the boy places a cherry tomato on the “salad fish” to represent the eye.

-end and roll credits


I'll be bringing up this story idea at the next meeting, but please let me know what you guys think before then if you have the time.

I generally like that idea, there are a few other ideas to throw on top.
Firstly, the part where he's going to throw the fish back and there's a whale waiting, maybe there's a sucker fish (or maybe some other, unidentified monster fish) that is actually clinging to the underside of the fishing hole, with it's eye's staring up at the kid.

Here's an awesomely rendered drawing I did in MS Paint to illustrate:



As for the penguins, I think they should shoot out of the second hole as he arrives, instead of just standing there, and the last one should be a big one - not a freak, but really big, maybe expanding the hole when it arrives. Then that big one would be the one that survives the most snowballs and catches him? Also I don't think penguins would be good at 'catching' with their fins, maybe sliding into his feet would work better.

Also, I think it would be a good idea if the kid is making the lettuce fish on his dad's plate and his dad is really pissed off, and then the olive eye bit makes him realize how absurd it is and he laughs heartily, forgiving him at that moment - The End. I think that would be good for closure.

I like the idea, in general, but i think they should eat penguin for dinner ;D

I like David's input about the penguins grabbing him, alternatively they could use their beaks to grab.

So, playing on Nyssa's idea, what if when the boy finally delivers the fish to the water's edge, as it flies toward the water it is snatched by a penguin waiting beneath the surface? He smiles smugly, and the next thing we see is a pair of hands grab the penguin by the throat. Cut to penguin for dinner!

I am totally down with penguins, but let's be careful to avoid making them like the penguins in other movies like Madagascar or Happy Feet.

we might have to avoid penguins all together it might be over used but that doesn't make it a bad idea. I figured the fish would go free and the big peguin would try and eat the boy and end up getting eaten himself

Thanks for the feedback guys! Couple notes and responses to some questions/issues:

So at the part where the boy turns around to put the fish back in the fishing hole, and the whale/larger fish/whatever is there, I had this image in my mind of something like this:



Like you just see this big gaping mouth sticking out of the water. I wanted it to be obvious to the boy, and the audience, that there was something there about to eat the fish. And the way I saw it you'd see the mouth coming out of the water in the background of the preceding shot, and the audience would have a brief moment of realization and the thought "uh-oh, I hope he doesn't put the fish back in the fishing hole". But when the boy turns around he realizes this immediately.

Oh, and I pictured it that the penguins, when chasing after the boy, would be sliding down a slope on their bellies (like penguins do), so the last penguin would catch the boy's coat in its beak.

Honestly, penguins were the first thing that came to mind only because they are arctic creatures and seemed to fit in the setting. I didn't want to make them seem to have personalities, other than being a menace, and thus I hoped to avoid the comparison to other penguin movies. Also, the way we design the penguins and the art style we choose could help differentiate.

As for the "salad fish" ending, I figured it would be a wry, humorous ending with the boy ultimately displeasing his father. I think the story still feels like a win, since the boy set the fish free, but it could also show the boy's playful side by having him try to fake the fish by using lettuce leaves. I was also thinking of showing a shot where the father looks utterly unamused. Maybe he rolls his eyes, or heaves a deep sigh or something.


I have some other thoughts in my head of how I pictured the story progressing visually, so I'll try and make up some quick thumbs/boards that show some of those points. Nothing crazy, just something to give you guys an idea.

Keep the ideas rolling though! I love it!