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The Flying Fish

Good

Recommended age Unlock

Co-watching from age 3

Balanced

Exact score locked

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Netflix

BBC

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The Flying Fish

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This program is well-balanced. It remains mostly easy to follow and process. It is a good fit for the recommended age. The pacing is fast. Images follow each other quickly, leaving little time to pause and take in what is happening. The sound is soft and supportive. The visuals are calm and well-organized.

One central goal anchors the episode: recover the professor's lost book. A secondary thread, helping the injured flying fish, feeds directly back into solving the main problem because the fish teaches the crew how to fly. Events follow a clear sequence of book lost, fish hurt, fish healed, vehicle modified, fish caught up with. The small caveat is that two or three new ideas can land in a single scene, such as when Tweak adds pectoral and tail fins while Peso runs his checkup in parallel.

Interactions are warm and respectful throughout. Captain Barnacles takes the injured fish seriously, Peso treats him gently and explains what he is doing, and Professor Inkling responds to the lost book with disappointment rather than blame. The brief moment where the fish cries 'I'm doomed, please don't eat me' is resolved within seconds by the crew's reassurance that they only want to help. Emotional transitions are mostly gradual, with the chase excitement being the main spike before the team settles back into problem-solving mode.

The crew works through a real, multi-step problem: they identify what they need (a way to fly), gather information from the flying fish about pectoral fins and tail fins, hand that knowledge to Tweak, modify the Gup-B, and only then attempt the rescue. The initiative is consistently theirs rather than driven by accident. Cause and effect is visible at every step: the fish glides because of his fins, so the vehicle needs fins, so the engineer builds them. Solutions are full and earned rather than handed over.

Dialogue is clear, well-paced for the age, and carries real content about flying fish anatomy, with words like 'pectoral fins', 'tail fin', 'leap', and 'glide' introduced in context and then used again when the Gup-B is modified. Sentences are mostly complete and informational, with only occasional pirate flourishes ('mi hearty', 'Davey Jones's Locker') that land more as flavour than vocabulary the child needs to follow. The speech rate runs on the brisk side, which is the main reason this pillar is strong rather than top-tier. Expressive exclamations like 'yow' and 'yippee' stay in proportion to the information-carrying lines.

The pillar lands in the middle because the factual content about real flying fish, their fins, their leaping and gliding, is accurate and stays consistent across the episode. What holds the score down is the heavy fantasy frame around that content: a talking octopus professor, a cat in pirate gear, an undersea base shaped like an octopus, and a submarine that grows fins and flies. A child of four can take the biology lesson home, but the surrounding world is not something they can copy in their own play or daily life. Recognisable social patterns of helping a hurt creature and asking an expert for advice do carry over.

More information

The cast is made up of anthropomorphic animals, with Captain Barnacles, Kwazii, Peso, Professor Inkling, Shellington and the flying fish all read as male, while Tweak the engineer is the main female presence in this episode. Because there are no human characters, traditional markers of cultural, family or body diversity do not appear. Roles are mostly traditional with a male captain and male adventurers, but the show counters some clichés by giving the caring medic role to Peso (male) and the engineering role to Tweak (female). Teamwork is steady and the crew cooperates as equals to help an injured flying fish.

The world of the Octopod rests on talking animal crew members and a submarine base, which puts the show firmly in fantasy territory, while the marine biology around flying fish is presented accurately. There is no villain in this episode; the conflict comes from a lost book and an injured fish that needs help. The internal rules of this fantasy world stay consistent throughout, and the mix of imagined crew with real ocean science fits well for a child in this age range.

Octonauts works reasonably well as background viewing for a parent in the room. The framing story about a great-grandfather's mysterious book gives the episode a real plot beyond pure repetition, the production craft is solid, and the voice cast stays pleasant in the ear. The main limit on parental enjoyment is that humor and references are aimed squarely at children, with little dual-layer wit for adults.

Themes

Marine life

Central

The flying fish explains how pectoral fins are used to glide and tail fins to push out of the water.

Ocean

Recurring

The Octonauts operate from an undersea base and travel in the Gup-B to investigate the waters where Professor Inkling's great-grandfather once sailed.

Animal rescue

Recurring

An injured flying fish with a hurt tail fin is brought back to the Octopod and treated by Peso.

Adventure

The crew chases a school of flying fish across the ocean to recover the stolen book.

Mystery

Recurring

Professor Inkling shares an unsolved mystery from his great-grandfather's book about 'something remarkable' that leapt out of the water.

Engineering

Recurring

Tweak modifies the Gup-B with adjustable pectoral fins and a tail fin so it can leap and glide like a flying fish.

Activities

Operating vehicles

The crew launches and pilots the Gup-B through the ocean.

First aid

Peso wraps a bandage around the flying fish's hurt tail fin and gives him a checkup.

Studying animals

Tweak observes how the fish uses his pectoral and tail fins to design the modified Gup-B.

Reading

Professor Inkling reads aloud from his great-grandfather's travel journal at the start and end of the episode.

Building

Tweak says 'I've added pectoral fins and a tail fin fully adjustable' after upgrading the vehicle.

Emotions

Curiosity

Kwazii says 'I love a mystery' when the professor mentions the missing page in the book.

Fear

The injured flying fish cries 'I'm doomed' and 'oh please don't eat me' when first found.

Empathy

Captain Barnacles tells the fish 'don't worry, we don't want to eat you'.

Determination

Kwazii says 'we almost have them matey, they can't get away from us' during the first chase.

Joy

The healed fish shouts 'yippee' as he flies alongside his school again.

Wonder

Kwazii says 'incredible, look at them go, amazing flying fish' as he watches the school glide.

Behaviour

Helping

The crew interrupts their mission to help the injured fish, with Captain Barnacles saying 'first our new friend needs help'.

Asking for help

Tweak asks the flying fish how he stays in the air before redesigning the Gup-B.

Keeping promises

After losing the book, Captain Barnacles tells Professor Inkling 'we'll get it back for you on my honor as an Octonaut'.

Admitting mistakes

Kwazii and Shellington admit to the professor that they lost the book rather than hiding it.

Caution

Shellington puts the rare book in 'my special waterproof satchel just to be extra safe'.

Social lessons

Teamwork

Each crew member contributes a specific skill: Peso heals, Tweak engineers, Kwazii pilots, Barnacles coordinates.

Kindness to animals

The crew brings the hurt fish back to the Octopod for treatment rather than continuing the chase.

Mentorship

The team treats the flying fish as an expert and applies his knowledge to their engineering problem.

Honesty

The crew tells Professor Inkling directly that they lost the book instead of making excuses.

Danger

The injured fish briefly fears being eaten, and the chase sequence has rapid action moments with raised voices.

Professor Inkling shares an unsolved mystery from his great-grandfather's travel book with the Octonauts crew, who set off in the Gup-B to investigate. A school of flying fish accidentally snatches the book, and one of them is left behind with an injured tail fin. The team brings him back to the Octopod, Peso treats him, and Tweak uses what he teaches them about pectoral fins and tail fins to modify the Gup-B so it can leap and glide. The crew finds the school again, recovers the book, and Professor Inkling adds the ending to his great-grandfather's story.

Season 1

5 episodes

Octonauts

Octonauts

The Undersea Storm

recommended age co-watching from 3

Tweak finishes upgrading the GUP-B with a new turbo button just as Dashi spots a big storm on the tracker. Kwazii takes the vehicle out for a test drive and stays in the reef to check on the lobster family while the rest of the crew shuts the Octopod down for the storm. With the countdown nearly at zero, Captain Barnacles launches the GUP-C, attaches a tow line, and uses the little lobster's strong grip to help pull both submarines back through the octo hatch. The episode closes with everyone safe inside, the lobster family included, sharing hot chocolate.

Octonauts

Octonauts

The Giant Squid

recommended age co-watching from 3

While Professor Inkling bakes fish biscuits on the Octopod, the Gup-A is grabbed by an unseen creature near a set of underwater caves and escapes coated in slimy ink and ringed sucker marks. Inkling recognises the marks as belonging to his distant cousin Irving the giant squid and joins Captain Barnacles, Kwazii and Peso on a search mission. The crew explores the dark caves, mistaking a manta ray and an eel for the squid, until Irving follows the smell of the biscuits and reunites with his cousin. Irving explains he was simply hungry, eats several baskets of biscuits, and the episode ends with a posed family photo at the Octopod.

Octonauts

Octonauts

The Great Algae Escape

recommended age co-watching from 3

Captain Barnacles and the Octonaut crew investigate an underwater area choked with algae where the crabs and lobsters are too sick to move. While they explore, a group of crabs hijacks the Octopod to escape the polluted water. The crew chases down their ship in a gup vehicle, hears the crabs out, and traces the algae back to a leaky pipe. They fix the pipe, clean the excess algae, and the creatures return to health.

Octonauts

Octonauts

The Walrus Chief

recommended age co-watching from 3

Peso, the Octonauts' penguin medic, loses his medical bag in Arctic waters when a walrus mistakes it for a clam. Captain Barnacles and Kwazii put on a two-person walrus costume to sneak into the walrus colony, learning their customs along the way. They eventually meet the chief, who has the bag and is also nursing a twisted flipper that has kept him from hunting. Peso treats the injury, the chief returns the bag, and the colony makes the Octonauts honorary walruses.

Octonauts

Octonauts

The Flying Fish

recommended age co-watching from 3

Professor Inkling shares an unsolved mystery from his great-grandfather's travel book with the Octonauts crew, who set off in the Gup-B to investigate. A school of flying fish accidentally snatches the book, and one of them is left behind with an injured tail fin. The team brings him back to the Octopod, Peso treats him, and Tweak uses what he teaches them about pectoral fins and tail fins to modify the Gup-B so it can leap and glide. The crew finds the school again, recovers the book, and Professor Inkling adds the ending to his great-grandfather's story.

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