Shark Tale
(2004)
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Will Smith brings hip-hop zest to the voice of Oscar, a fast-talking everyfish who rejects his life at the whale wash and longs for fortune and fame in this animated film from Dreamworks. A combination of FINDING NEMO and GOODFELLAS set in New York, here sharks are old-school gangsters who prey on the local citizenry and hang out in the wreck of the Titanic. Martin Scorsese does the voice of Mr. Sykes, Oscar's blowfish boss, who owes head Shark Don Lino (Robert De Niro) a lot of clams. Don Lino wants to turn over his reign to his two sons, but youngest Lenny (Jack Black) is a closet vegetarian. The plot thickens when Oscar takes credit for the accidental death of Lenny's brother, and suddenly finds the fame and fortune he's been seeking, only it's based on the lie that he's 'the shark slayer'. It's tough not to like this spunky fish story, especially with Scorsese and De Niro verbally one-upping each other in some hilarious bits. Also noteworthy: a pair of hilariously mellow Rastafarian jellyfish (Ziggy Marley and Doug E. Doug) and Peter Falk as an old Tiger Shark who hangs around the Titanic crooning My Heart Will Go On. Renee Zellweger and Angelina Jolie are the females--one pure of heart, one a 'fish fatale' - battling over Oscar's affection. In addition to all that, there should be enough goofy humour, action, and goofing to keep the kids riveted. |
Screenshots
Thanks to the enormous success of Pixar movies such as Toy Story and Monsters Inc), a computer-animated feature needs to be extra special to really make a mark. It's not good enough to be merely average, which is why this family comedy from DreamWorks — the company behind the Shrek phenomenon — disappoints a little. A thinly disguised morality lesson, it tells the tale of a celebrity-obsessed fish (voiced by Will Smith) who masquerades as a shark-killing hero with the aid of a vegetarian great white (Jack Black). Overall, the film's entirely serviceable, kept buoyant by irreverent humour and some adult-friendly movie skits. However, unlike its closest companion, Finding Nemo, it gives the underwater world a humanised slant, ignoring its natural magic. Instead, the sea life looks rather charmless, but there is a certain “wow” factor in the cleverness of the “car wash” scenes. Luckily, the voice casting shows more imagination, with Robert De Niro's Mafioso shark and Martin Scorsese's crooked puffer fish both delightfully memorable.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Brash animated film that stays in the shallows with its dull parody of Mafia movies and its belief that references to other movies (including, inevitably Jaws) are automatically hilarious.