I got my main inspiration for this idea from an animated film called Help! I'm a Fish (or A Fish Tale), which was about a group of children who drink a potion that turns them into fish. Even though this was something I watched often when I was younger, I had a hard time coming up with something inspired by this film back when I only had my Pokémon characters, but I was able to think of something after seeing some other films featuring aquatic characters, specifically Pixar's Luca and DreamWorks' Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken, and I just substituted the Pokémon with my humanoids instead.

For the record, I did make a major liberty with this piece regarding Mabel's kraken form. According to Ruby Gillman's logic, only male krakens remain as humanoids while in the ocean, and Mabel, being a female kraken, should be a tentacled giant instead. If I did that, one of Mabel's eyes would be about the same size as Otto's entire body, so I ignored that for the sake of this commission. I will explore that idea someday, however.