Educated Fish is another enjoyable Fleischer cartoon. Not one of the best, it does get a bit too cutesy(not unusual for Fleischer though) and the story is predictable. I also wasn't crazy about the title song this time round, rather shrilly sung and other Fleischer cartoons have much more memorable title songs(not melodically, this is in terms of lyrics, those for Dancing on Moon, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Christmas Comes But Once a Year are immediately catchy, here not so much).
As with all Fleischer cartoons, Educated Fish is beautifully animated with lush colours, imaginative and detailed backgrounds and non-stiff character designs. There are no technical innovations here(like the rotograph and animated characters on live backgrounds techniques), not like in Christmas Comes But Once a Year, Somewhere in Dreamland, Dancing on the Moon, The Cobweb Hotel and Little Dutch Mill but that's hardly a bad thing at all, not every Fleischer cartoon has to be technically ahead of their time to be good. The title song aside, the music is charmingly orchestrated and lively and the gags, especially the swordfish sawing the desk and the teacher getting caught on the string of the board, are amusing. The last two minutes or so did have a fair bit of suspense too. The characters are cute and engaging, the main character and the teacher being the most memorable(love the sexy worm as well) as long as you don't expect them to be fully developed as the cartoon is only 7 1/2 minutes.
Overall, not a classic and Fleischer has done better than this, but Educated Fish is still enjoyable. 7/10 Bethany Cox