Shark Tale

Release Date: October 1, 2004
Studio: DreamWorks Pictures
Director: Eric "Bibo" Bergeron, Vicky Jenson
Screenwriter: Michael J. Wilson
Starring: Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, Martin Scorsese, Peter Falk, Michael Imperioli, Vincent Pastore, Doug E. Doug, Ziggy Marley
Genre: Animation, Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG (for some mild language and crude humor)
Official Website: SharkTale.com

Plot Summary: Oscar (Smith) is a fast-talking little fish who dreams big. But his big dreams land him in hot water when a great white lie turns him into an unlikely hero. At first, his fellow fish swallow Oscar’s story hook, line and sinker and he is showered with fame and fortune. It's all going along swimmingly, until it starts to become clear that Oscar's tale about being the defender of the Reef is all wet. Oscar is finding out that being a hero comes at a Market Price when his lie threatens to make him the Catch of the Day. Now he has to tread water until he can get the scales to tip back in his favor again. "Shark Tale" stars the voices of Will Smith as Oscar, a hustler, who has always been able to fin-agle his way out of trouble, until now; Robert De Niro as Don Lino, a great white shark at the top of the Reef’s food chain; Renée Zellweger as Angie, a beautiful angel fish who harbors a secret crush on Oscar; Angelina Jolie as Lola, the femme fatale, a dragon fish who uses her feminine wiles to get what she wants; Jack Black as Don Lino’s son Lenny, a great white shark who is a closet vegetarian; and Martin Scorsese as Sykes, a puffer fish who is full of hot air and never misses an opportunity to make a few extra clams. Rounding out the main cast are: veteran actor Peter Falk as Don Brizzi, a shark who is long in the tooth, but still has plenty of bite left; Michael Imperioli as Don Lino's oldest son Frankie, a chip off the old shark; Vincent Pastore as Luca, an oily octopus, which makes him the perfect right-hand man; and Doug E. Doug and Ziggy Marley as Bernie and Ernie, two Rastafarian jelly fish with a stinging sense of humor.

 This features an eclectic and complimentary range of voices from A-list stars and director Martin Scorcese; most perform splendidly. Shark Tale takes the most popular dialogue, plot lines, and scenes from The Godfather and mixes it with a mafia-style family ties scenario whose main characters live under water. This is where smaller fish, not humans, are threatened by the Jaws-sounding theme song parading itself ominously in the opening scene, an ode to Steven Spielberg’s action classic of 1975.

 Shark Tale is about a fish named Oscar (Will Smith) who works in a “whale wash” and becomes an overnight sensation. He asserts, in order to become rich and famous, that he slayed a shark, quite a remarkable feat for a fish near the bottom of the food chain. Shark Don Lino (Robert De Niro) seeks revenge on the slaying of his son while Lenny, Don’s other son, is keeping a secret.

 Gangster and criminal plot motifs are usually executed darkly in movies about crime. When Shark Tale parodies the genre it makes serious subject matter in say The Godfather look fun. The Goodfellas cum Godfather parodies is another in the DreamWorks’ arsenal of fresh comic timing – one anticipates though what will come next, their kind of parody in danger of becoming too formulaic.

 The 1970s is given a good deconstructing: from the movie Carwash and Boogie Nights disco, and the way too adult for kids Benny Hill. Adults may be able to reminisce over the allusions to older movies and gain pleasure from doing so. Children will appreciate the spectacle, story, and assorted characters. With the success of Shrek 2 the humour will probably please a cross section of audience indicating the demographic is more sophisticated even if the draw card seemed to be a big green ogre.

 When De Niro as the voice of shark mob boss Don Lino is agonising over his vegetarian son Lenny’s reticence to kill other fish and so break him into the family tradition, Don Lino’s hurt family pride is winsomely carried by De Niro and the animation technique. Jack Black sounds very unlike his High Fidelity cum School of Rock loud mouth persona. He sensitively uses his voice to capture a quality of softness to Lenny that endears you to his whimsy and his daringness to be different.

 The cast includes big name stars but the female voices get to make barely a pip squeak among the stronger male presences like De Niro and Will Smith. Ellen DeGeneres had a batter time of it in last year’s Finding Nemo as the voice and persona of fish Dory. Even the usually assertive Angelina Jolie as a seductive cosmopolitan fish does not appear convincing among her male peers; neither does Renee Zellweger who retreats into her Jerry Maguire day’s persona as Oscar’s secret admirer.

 A recurrent motif in the Shrek movies and this is that in the process of standing apart you shouldn’t feel ostracised. This underscores that we’ve moved on ideologically from the 1970s into a more tolerant age. It would seem that Hollywood might feel an outsider when this movie parodies the emptiness of fame, a figment of the Hollywood fantasy, so comes up with an intriguing proposition: film stars are just like you and me, with the same needs and desires who happen to gravitate around the awe-inspired plains of the San Fernado Valley. But hey, you could have fooled me.