The Monk and the Fish (Le Moine et le poisson) is a 1994 animated short film directed by Michael Dudok de Wit.
The simple story involves, well, a monk and a fish. A monk in an abbey is obsessed with catching a fish that swims around in the abbey's water reservoir. The monk first tries to catch the fish with a simple rod. When that doesn't work the monk gets a net. When that doesn't work he tries a bow and arrow...and then he tries to enlist his fellow monks...and then he just dives in, as he grows increasingly frantic in his efforts to catch the fish.
Tropes:
- Animal Nemesis: The monk is desperate to catch that fish. Eventually he finds himself unable to read or sleep.
- Gainax Ending: The last minute or so of the cartoon grows increasingly strange. The monk follows the fish into more and more absurd places—he tries to catch the fish as the fish leaps between earthen jars of water, then he chases the fish through what appears to be the Suez Canal, with the Pyramids in the background. Then the monk and the fish start floating away together more peacefully, then they start to fly, eventually flying off away into the clouds together as the cartoon ends.
- Mickey Mousing: The action is usually synchronized with the music. When the fish leaps up out of the pool a single clarinet note sounds; when the monk goes capering down the walkway a series of clarinet notes pipe.
- Mime and Music-Only Cartoon: No dialogue in the cartoon, only action and music.
- Name and Name: The Monk and the Fish
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The monk and the fish, floating away into the sky together.
- Running Gag: The monk keeps falling into the reservoir as he grows increasingly desperate to catch the fish.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At one point the monk, increasingly desperate, calls all the other monks out to help catch the fish. They all get to the reservoir, the monk points to the water, the other monks take one look, then they turn around and leave.
