Shark Tale Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
In fall, a new school will rule.
The story of what happens when one little fish tells a great white lie...
Behind every little fish is a great white lie.
A new school's gonna rule...
The sea underworld is shaken up when the son of the shark mob boss is found dead and a young fish named Oscar is found at the scene. Being a bottom feeder, Oscar takes advantage of the situation and makes himself look like he killed the finned mobster. Oscar soon comes to realize that his claim may have serious consequences.
| Robert De Niro | Don Lino |
| Jack Black | Lenny |
| Renée Zellweger | Angie |
| Angelina Jolie | Lola |
| Will Smith | Oscar |
| Vincent Pastore | Luca |
| Peter Falk | Don Feinberg |
| Martin Scorsese | Sykes |
| Ziggy Marley | Ernie |
| Doug E. Doug | Bernie |
| Michael Imperioli | Frankie |
| Katie Couric | Katie Current |
| David Soren | Shrimp/Worm/Starfish #1/Killer Whale #2 |
| David P. Smith | Crazy Joe |
| Bobb'e J. Thompson | Shortie #1 |
| Vicky Jenson |
| Bibo Bergeron |
| Rob Letterman |
5.90 out of 10 (18021 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Enjoyable, but not satisfying
posted on 12 Aug 2009I didn't have expectations for "Shark Tale" and neither had "Finding Nemo" in mind when I went to the theater. This film is enjoyable and energetic. But still I'm not satisfied. To quote some reviewers: This movie isn't actually bad, but not great either.I think the main problem is that you don't believe in the characters, except Lenny, although he's at times more annoying than cosy. SPOILER: Will Smith's character Oscar is a character that you don't actually care for through the film because of his selfishness. I either didn't like Angelina Jolie's character Lola, who in my opinion had little to do with the story, even she was intended to be funny. SPOILERS OVER.The script is detailed, but still it miss the heart and the big, breathtaking moments. The story it self is recycled and the situations in this movie becomes too distraught. The dialog could at times been better.OK, enough complaining. This isn't the worst animated feature that I've seen and this film is funny and light. SPOILERS: What I liked most was the mafia parodies, the hip-hop influences and the relationship between Lenny and Oscar is well portrayed. SPOILERS OVER.If you'r not expecting a masterpiece, then you'll be entertained. I was, even I wasn't satisfied
The cinematic equivalent of fish food
posted on 08 Aug 2009Okay, so let's pretend for a minute that a wizard or something cast a spell on all of humanity and we were all turned into fish and had to live underwater, but had to cope with it in some way. This new world would look something like the one in Shark Tale. They're fish, but they seem a lot more like people anyway (and most of the characters resemble the actors who provide their voices). It's the same principle as The Flintstones, really, except with a nautical theme instead of a prehistoric one; instead of seeing Ed Sullistone on TV, we see Katie Current. You get it.The movie itself is generally pretty silly. It's not like Finding Nemo, a good family movie that all ages could enjoy, it's aimed more at the kids. It has silly jokes and cheap laughs, but the satire in the plot would most likely go over kids' heads. And even some of the smaller gags will not make any sense, as I really doubt any kids watching this have ever seen A Few Good Men, Jerry Maguire, or, well, actually, some may have seen Gladiator. The boys, at least. But never mind that all. Because it has enough silliness to distract the kids and annoy the adults.The cast is great, I'll admit that. It is definitely the highlight of the movie. Whoever thought of using director Martin Scorsese's voice? He is such a great director, but does have that unique voice, added to the fact that DeNiro, who starred in many of his most popular films, plays a role- I just think it was a great idea. But, that does bring me to a big nitpick of mine: If you had DeNiro and Scorsese together in an animated feature, such as this, wouldn't you want to have their characters interact more? They have only have two scenes together (3 if you count one with their characters talking on the phone- and since it's an animated film with only their voices anyway, why wouldn't you count it?) and they were just stupid. It was kind of like a pathetic, dumbed-down version of the "Who's on first" thing.I don't really think Shark Tale was a bad movie, but with CGI films increasing and increasing in releases, this will be one that probably won't be remembered as well as some others. It was really just a silly cartoon, and you can't really read too much into it. And it's not a movie you need to devote much attention to. It's sort of the cinematic equivalent of fish food. It keeps the fish alive and everything, but I don't think the fish really rave about the flavour. It works, it's fine, but it doesn't stand out.My rating: 6/10
Not too bad, but not too good either.
posted on 31 Jul 2009Round two of the Pixar/Dreamworks choose-a-theme competition scores once again for Pixar.Remember when a few years ago there were two animated ant movies to choose from? I think they even came at the same time in the theaters in my country. One was AntZ, the other was A Bug's Life. The first one was rumoured to be more suited to adults, the other a kiddie movie. While that statement had some merit, at the end it turned out that A Bug's Life was a far better movie entertainment-wise, despite cuter characters and simpler story and all that kiddie-like appearance. AntZ were just plain dull.Pixar seems to like choosing a simple story, one that a kid can understand, and than building upon it creating a wonderful movie for all ages. Dreamworks builds his scripts on pop-culture references and more adult themes, and while it works sometimes (Shrek was fantastic), at other times it just falls flat.Some say it's unfair to compare Finding Nemo and Shark Tale, them being totally different movies with the only matching characteristic being antropomorphic fish, but it seems that the comparison is inevitable. It's the ants thing all over again. Finding Nemo was simply wonderful, great movie with a perfect sense of humour and memorable characters. Sure, they were cute and cuddly, but they had a soul.Shark Tale, again, tries to appeal to the adults, but this time the results are even worse. The characters are not so important as the cast is, even so much that we are being sledgehammered on the head in who's playing who. A word to the wise - I don't care how big the names doing the voicework are, I want to immerse in the movie's story. When I saw Shrek, I didn't see Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy there, I saw Shrek and Donkey. Here I see De Niro, Smith, Scorsese and so on. At one point I even caught myself wondering why the other fish keep calling Will Smith "Oscar".As for the story, it kind of drags along. I couldn't really sympathize with the lead character - he is at the same time stupid and so full of himself that I didn't care about his motivations or the messes he got himself into. Also, somehow the story didn't map so well in the underwater world. What is the Shark mafia exactly ? Are they supposed to be predators or criminals? Basically the mafia thing is here only to serve as a playground for mob-movie references, but it serves no purpose story-wise. Also, the entire world seems very unbelievable. Flahing electrical neon signs? Fire hydrants? It actually backfires, since instead of getting a kick out of fishes living like humans, mostly you feel like you're watching an alien movie, with the aliens resembling our world's fishes in some ways.All in all, I did enjoy the movie, but only in the sense that I didn't feel cheated out of my money. A couple of the jokes worked, some pop-culture references were funny, the movie was not too boring. But when I remember that after Nemo or Incredibles I was smiling even a few hours after the movie, then I see that Shark Tale ain't what it possibly could be. It's just a popcorn movie, easily forgettable. And rightfully so.
Unfairly slated
posted on 27 Jul 2009I'm a big fan of the new wave of animated movies that have hit the screen's in the past decade, from the groundbreaking Toy Story up until Shrek, Monsters Inc and last year's, um, incredible. The Incredibles, yet this is one film I had avoided, purely due to the poor reviews it had received. A poor mans Finding Nemo was the criticism levelled at it mostly, so after just viewing it what a pleasant surprise it turned out to be!De Niro is superb as the mafioso Shark, as is Scourcese, who proves to be quite a good comic character actor. The animation is superb with an entire underwater New York-esquire city created with vehicles, taxi's, skyscrapers and shops beautifully recreated. There are plenty of gags with nods to such films as Jaws, The Godfather and Analyse This, and the film never loses pace throughout it's enjoyable 90 minutes.My only slight criticism would be that Will Smiths character is basically him as a fish, all wise ass, shades,sneakers etc but I supposed this could be levelled at De Niro, but really this really doesn't detract from an enjoyable movie.
The whole movie is pretty boring, except for the ending (no spoilers)
posted on 25 Jul 2009Here's how I rate movies, 1- terrible, 2- fine, 3- good, 4- really good. This movie is no Finding Nemo that's for sure. This movie's name is Sharkslayer. Through out the movie you get bored until the ending. I promise I won't give away the ending. This movie is about a fish named Oscar (Will Smith) who believes he's a nobody and his friend Angie (Renee Zellweger) is in love with him. In the ocean the crime bosses, sort of like mafia fish, are the sharks. The lead crime boss shark is Don Lino (Robert De Niro) whose son Lenny (Jack Black) doesn't like to eat fish. Don Lino's other son decides to make Lenny eat fish so he makes Lenny try to eat Oscar.Lenny won't do it, so Don Lino's other son goes after Oscar to eat him and gets killed when an anchor falls on his head. Oscar pretends that he slayed the shark and goes famous underwater, he also befriends Lenny who accepts that Oscar killed his brother. Soon Don Lino figures out that it's Oscar who killed his son and goes after him. And yada, yada, yada. This movie wasn't all that great so go see some other movie. I give Sharkslayer a "1 out of 4". Basically go see something else, like Ladder 49, which is about firemen, I hear that's good, so go see that instead. Bye
Better second time around.
posted on 09 Jul 2009Okay...call me easily amused but there is something hilarious about a shark cross-dressing as a dolphin. I mean just the idea of a Great White named "Lenny" using a scarf to cover up his gills and the fact that he has no blow hole, plus spray painting his dark gray color to a friendlier blue shade and then he's like, "Tadaaa!!! I'm Sebastian the whale washing dolphin". It kills me. Also the animators were so funny with the way they took footage of the various actors' studio recording sessions and made the fish characters take on the characteristics of the actors. There is a scene where Angie the Angelfish, as voiced by Rene Zellweger, vents her frustration at Will Smith's character saying, "Sometimes I just want to take your dumb...dummy head and Nyuhhhhh" and the animated fish mimics putting him in a headlock and punching him in the head repeatedly. With the accentuated facial expression when this is done combined with Zellwegers voice it is so adorable all while still being funny that I have watched the animation online several times and still laugh at it. Oh...did I mention you can see that scene and others at www.sharktale.com (duh)?Having viewed Shark Tale twice now I think I can see why some adults may find it a bit much to take. First and foremost there are themes that are touched upon that can be a little sensitive when thought about in the arena of the real world. And...just to be helpful and name a few *smile*: a. career and economic failure. b. being taken for granted by a loved one. c. the laws of sexual attraction. d. issues of self control in regards to gambling and money. e. organized crime f. passion and revenge g. using people (fish) for their money h. sadism i. cross-dressing (well...a shark posing as dolphin) j. "passing" as someone you are not in order to get ahead. k. Social acceptance for being..."different". (see item i.) j. youth vandalism (i.e. young graffiti spraying 'hood fish) k. Mental Illness (unstable hermit crab)...etc.Now all of this actually comes off funny if you don't focus on it. However if you actually have issues with any of the above and just aren't carried away with the rest of the show...it could all get you all grumpy. It seems a lot of the reviewers of the movie got hooked up on some of those subjects.What can I say...obviously I watched it and I could see these sometimes thorny issues poking out. It seems a ten year old I know liked it all very much and thought it was better than Saving Nemo. I think that the more you know about the effort the whole team put into it and with repeated viewings this movie can be easily appreciated in it own way. Also, it helps to keep an open mind and just go with the flow, Mon.
If You Liked Finding Nemo...
posted on 09 Jul 2009...you will think Shark Tale is OK.Don't get me wrong. This is a pretty good film. And there ARE funny moments in it. But if you were a big fan of Nemo, it's hard not to be a little disappointed by this one. The voices in the movie were AWESOME. I just love Jack Black!! And I was so surprised to see Katie Couric was a part of this! I could have sworn it was her voice when I was watching the film. Good work Katie!I think I would have rather waited to rent it rather than rushing out to the theatre.Music was good though. I want the soundtrack now!www.patrioticpenislighter.com
Don't believe the cynics, this one's great!
posted on 05 Jul 2009It's risky to rave about a movie you just saw, making all the expectations that other people may have a lot higher. But in the case of Shark Tale I don't mind. All the journalists who saw the movie with me were very excited about the new computer animated DreamWorks flick. This movie deserves to be a massive hit!Oscar (Will Smith) is a fast rapping streetwise kid who works in a whale-wash (a car wash where they clean whales) and dreams of one day becoming a somebody. When he takes credit of killing a shark (who actually got hit by an anchor) he becomes the Sharkslayer who has to protect the town. Unfortunately, the shark he claimed to have killed, happened to be the son of mobster Don Lino (Robert DeNiro). Soon Oscar finds every shark coming after him.Lenny (Jack Black), the other son of Don Lino, has other problems. He happens to be a vegetarian who doesn't approve of the Mafia way of life and therefore always disappoints his father. Oscar and Lenny become friends and come up with a plan so Lenny can disappear and that can make Oscar the feared Sharkslayer the city needs. Lucky for them the plan works. But they were not prepared for all the consequences...Everybody will compare Shark Tale to Finding Nemo and that would be a real pity: they're entirely different movies. For instance, Finding Nemo took place in the "country" while the scenery of Shark Tale is a stunning underwater version of New York, complete with a Times Square, yellow cabs and skyscrapers. Most of the characters in Finding Nemo were sweet and adorable, in Shark Tale they all have a dark side (with the exception of Jack Black and Renee Zellweger - she's the girl who is truly in love with Oscar). Not that it's a dark film, but everybody seems to be corrupted in a funny way.The humour of Shark Tale aims more at adults than in Finding Nemo. Of course a lot of jokes are (mob) movie-based. We see glimpses of Jaws, Goodfellas, Titanic, Scarface, Superman 2 and Analyze This. Usually the jokes work out fine but sometimes they're very cheap (how many times have we heard the phrase Say hello to my little friend?). But although children will not understand all these cinematic references, the movie will certainly appeal to them as well. The story is told so fast that you can't even afford to blink your eyes!In Cannes Shark Tale was heavily promoted on the fact that a lot of big Hollywood stars had a speaking part. This time that was really justified. Will Smith doesn't only do the voice of Oscar, the character also looks and moves like him! The same goes for Martin Scorcese (as Oscar's manager), Angelina Jolie (as the femme fatale) and Missy Elliot and Christina Aguilera (who have a small part singing a song).But in the end Shark Tale is really the big "Will Smith versus Robert DeNiro" show. Smith does what he does best: rapping, cracking jokes, clowning around and be the Fresh Prince. DeNiro gives Don Lino the Italian authority and the humour we saw in Analyze This. I also liked Angelina Jolie. She did a great job as the sexy femme fatale who wants revenge after she got dumped by Will Smith.A fast and entertaining story, great performances, stunning visual ideas (New York looks great! There are even floating billboards like in Blade Runner) and a fantastic soundtrack with songs from the seventies: Shark Tale is a highly entertaining feature that will appeal to both parents and kids. The only thing that bothered me was the moralising ending (but then you can't have it all).My prediction? A 55 million dollar opening week and Shark Tale 2 in 2006!
Big Thumbs Down
posted on 03 Jul 2009When I watched the trailers of this movie, I sensed that this movie would not turn out to be a winner. Against all my judgment, I went to watch this movie (partly because of my 4-year old girl who is in love with ocean creatures), hoping that I was wrong. Sadly, I was proved right. This movie was a disaster -- I've never been more bored in watching a computer-animated film. This movie has a number of problems including:(1) The story/plot (if there was any) was incredibly shallow and flat. It was the old, million-times-tried-and-failed story of "realizing true love is most precious thing." I am not saying this is a bad theme. That is a very important piece of philosophy that any human being should live by. But the story presented by this movie was so stereo-typed and monotonous that it was almost insulting. Anyone with an average movie-intelligence will figure out how the story will unfold within 3 minutes of the movie.(2) The character development was very poor. Sure, Dreamworks managed to cast all star voices, but we know that it is usually a source of problem. Good acting is not to be yourself in the movie, but to create a credible character. All the characters in the movie are the actors themselves. This movie quickly degrades itself into a big excuse of showing off multiple stars. I like most of the stars in this movie. An amazing thing is that this movie managed to bring out the worst of those stars. For example, DeNiro acted (or sounded) exactly like the character in "Analyze this." I am sure most of you will agree that it was not the best of DeNiro. Will Smith was incredibly annoying, and portrayed a very stereotyped character. He was ten times more annoying than the donkey in Shrek -- you know it is not an easy task to achieve. Jack Black, a very good actor, was wasted as well. What a shame.(3) The animation was good although you should not expect any Pixar quality here. It won't bother you. However, the character designs were far worse than what you saw in Nemo -- in fact, I feel almost unfair to compare this movie to Nemo because they are in a totally different league especially as the character design goes. The fish characters looked ridiculous (sharks were better) and even scary. They looked like goldfish that is genetically enhanced with human genes (fish with human face, that is), and were ugly say the least. My daughter slept with Nemo for months after she watched it, but I do not think she will ask me to buy her the Will Smith fish.(4) I liked Shrek for the smart jokes although Shrek 2 overdid it a little bit. Jokes should exist in a movie to make the story better. But this film exists to make jokes. Uninteresting and uninspired jokes at that too. I laughed about twice (one being the mole on DeNiro shark and the other I don't remember, maybe I laughed only once).All in all, the highest rating I can give this movie is 4/10. Skip this movie unless your child is bugging you to death. If you can persuade them, please do so. The chances are your child may not like it either.
Enjoyable, but definitely no Shrek
posted on 01 Jul 2009Shark Tale is no Shrek, but it's an enjoyable film from Dreamworks. The film has colorful animation and characters and some pretty clever film references. Even though it's a problem to the kids because they won't understand the Godfather references, which is an R rated movie. The casting is pretty well done. With Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie, Rennée Zellweger, Jack Black, and Martin Scorsese. There are some funny moments, but the plot is predictable and silly. And what's weird is that it was nominated for an Oscar for best animated film. I think it shouldn't have entered. But they had no choice because there weren't much animated films released in 2004. And Disney's Home on the Range was definitely not entering for an Oscar. But give this film a chance. It's fun and enjoyable, but don't expect the next Shrek film.Rating: 7/10 Grade: B
The second best movie ever!
posted on 01 Jul 2009This is so funny! It's about this fish named Oscar(will smith). He is......shall we say a lazy bum(lol) And he is a liar. He works at the whale wash and he owes his boss 5000 clams and just as he is going to give them to him........He bets it on a horse! Unfortanally the horse loses and he is in real trouble. Anyway the other central character is a shark named Lenny(jack black). He is a vegetarian and because of this he is an outcast....much to the dismay of his father don lino(Robert De Nero).He finally gets fed up with Lenny and trys to make him eat a cute little shrimp.Of course Lenny just cant and sets the shrimp free.This is the last straw for lino and he orders his other son Frankie(Michael imperioli)to take him out and "show him the ropes"............see the movie for the rest. Well anyway its a really good movie and i think you would enjoy it.
Am I the only one who liked this movie?
posted on 25 Jun 2009I just don't understand why you people hated this film. I mean, the plot was pretty good, and it teaches an important lesson: lying brings nothing but trouble. This is a kids' movie, they wouldn't just go out screaming 'homosexuality is good!". Are you trying to stereotype against vegetarians of something? Cause that's what it sounds like to me! I am putting this post up because I liked the movie and I don't like hearing all this hating! You just have to search for flaws, don't you? If a movie's good, it's good, and if it's bad, it's terrible, but you just have to find every single fault. I just don't get how you can hate a good movie like Shark Tale but love bad movies. Whatever, you're lost. X-(
Enjoyable, had its moments
posted on 21 Jun 2009I'm giving this movie a 5/10. There were too many embarssing moments, unfunny pop culture references and the artificial "star studding" of this movie made me a little repulsed as well. That, and it was trotted out as a merchandise seller early on.BUT, "Shark Tale" has some enjoyable moments, fairly funny jokes, and the character of Lenny the Shark steals the show (what there is to steal). From the whiny-ness, i couldn't even tell if it was really who i thought it was voicing him!I'd recommend it for the kids, or if you have nothing to do. Not great, but worth the money once.
Awesome Movie
posted on 17 Jun 2009I am so sick of everyone comparing SHARK TALE to FINDING NEMO. Finding Nemo was a good movie, but when did it suddenly set the standard for every other Dreamworks or Disney movie that came out after it? This was a great movie. I saw it when it came out, and my whole family liked it (and believe me, my parents are very picky when it comes to movies). I even dragged my friends to go see it and they loved it. It is funny and clever, with lots of great songs and humorous moments.The acting was well done...particularly Jack Black and Renee Zellewegger...and the animation was good too. The music was fun, the characters were great (especially the Jamaican Jellyfish, mon!) and overall THIS MOVIE WAS GREAT! DON'T LISTEN TO THE BAD COMMENTS! GIVE THIS MOVIE HAVE A CHANCE...AND YOU MAY BE SURPRISED!Until then..."Don't worry...about a thing...because every little thing...is gonna be all right..."
Maybe a movie for our black community
posted on 13 Jun 2009This whole movie is so bad that is not even good for kids.Animation was OK but everything else was superficial Hollywood junk filled with materialistic ideas of money, respect and fame; everything you can find in a standard ghetto environment. And we have seen those movies and heard that kind of music way too many times. Only people interested in rap life might find this movie soup appealing. Don't waste your time, I don't know why DeNiro, Jolie and the rest of the cast did. I don't appreciate them for this movie.The movie contains parts of some of the Hollywood blockbusters such as The Godfather. It is put together whimsically and was not funny at all. Finding Nemo had me laughing many times, and it was the healthy jokes that provoked the humor, not the sex, money and fame type of jokes that are not funny at all.thank you
Alright movie but no Finding Nemo
posted on 11 Jun 2009Shark Tale is about an accidental death of a gangster shark boss, that is blamed at a small fish named Oscar, who becomes famous while being hunted. The movie is okay and has a couple laughs here and there. The animation is very impressive and I've never had one problem with Dreamwork's animation. The characters were all cool especially the shark boss, voiced by Robert DeNiro. Most of the laughs came from his parts with the other gangster sharks. There were a couple things I didn't like about Shark Tale, was it's almost same identity to Finding Nemo. I don't know why they would of made this movie a year after Finding Nemo because I thought this movie was a little rip-off of it. Overall, not a bad movie that was actually pretty entertaining and didn't leave me bored but it was definitely no Finding Nemo.Hedeen's Outlook: 6.5/10 ** C
Arrrgh, she blows.
posted on 05 Jun 2009If you're looking for a cartoon version of who's who in Hollywood then this is the film for you. If you're looking for a well animated, well delivered film set underwater with some degree of character depth then perhaps 'Finding Nemo' or 'The Little Mermaid' will be more up your street. This film is slick and in some places quite amusing but it doesn't ever really engage the audience and I found myself really not bothered about any of the characters or the story. Admittedly this is for kids (and I'm 24) but I love a good cartoon/animation and to be perfectly frank this wasn't one.From the second the film was advertised I knew it was going to be a 'voice fest' - lots of famous people, playing caricatured versions of themselves for comedic effect. I sincerely hope that the good people at Dreamworks have learnt their lesson, in animated movies it's not the stars who sell, it's the story. Okay, there are probably Dreamworks fans who will jump to it's defence and draw parallels with Shrek, and yeah Shrek was loaded with stars but it also has a brilliant storyline and succeeds where this film fails.My advice for Dreamworks execs; with more plot and less stars they might have made a movie that didn't just sink into oblivion like a dead whale. Too late now. Give them a side order of chips and some Tartare sauce.I gave this movie a 5. Average all the way.
What can ya say its a kids flick
posted on 28 May 2009I've had to sit thru every animated feature since '97 - This one is at the near bottom just above SPIRIT. The kids loved it like always. I just wish they had thought of entertaining the parents a bit. Its REAALLY a slow one. The message with him lying the entire time made me uncomfy. Of course he ended up fine. Someone wants to keep up with PIXAR on all these dreamworks creation. GIVE IT UP PLEASE! Its never going to happen. I guess as long as you make a buck, the poor creation of characters throughout this hokey lil story is okay with you. Jack Black in my mind is never humorous in anything. Can he disappear to a hotel diner? Will Smith can come off with the comment "Its for my kids" the only reasoning in signing up for this project. Angelina Jolie was greatly advertised in the trailer,hardly in the film. Robert D. just irritated me with his part of the unaccepting dad.If he would stop the gangster role that would be a great service to humanity. Yeah I have to buy it-I don't have to like it.
Light-hearted viewing, but lacks the magic of other computer animated films, particular its obvious competition in 'Finding Nemo'!
posted on 22 May 2009The influx of computer-animated films in recent times is proving to make for some interesting competition. 'Shark Tale', following on the heels of the well-received 'Finding Nemo' displays the comparison. No doubt about it, 'Shark Tale' is as hip as you can get, or at least it tries to be hip. Lots of cultural and movie references (some clever, some lame), in-jokes, and emphasis given to the voice cast. However, there is no magic in this film and no real awe. It's entertaining enough, and gives us an underwater version of pop culture, much like 'Robots' gave us the robotic version of what society would be like! 'Shark Tale' did manage to make me laugh, and Will Smith as Oscar does okay. Still, even with Robert DeNiro as the Mafioso shark in Don Lino- there is no formidable bad guy in this film! However, 'Shark Tale' does get the point over that getting fame based on a lie is never a good thing, and being yourself is the way to go. Jack Black does okay as the out-of-place shark who disguises himself as a dolphin, and you can pretty much guess the hidden reference about acceptance there-, which again is okay. All in all, this is a kids film with some adult themes chucked in, and its pretty good for a rainy day, but it hardly reaches 'Finding Nemo's' status as the ultimate underwater adventure, probably because 'Shark Tale' is too gimmicky and reliant on pop culture, and not to mention the god-awful "Car Wash" song at the end with many a fish rapping. Some nice touches like Katie Current (a spoof of Katie Couric and was the recast voice to represent the news presenter of Today in country of release even though the underwater city was New York amalgamated with Hollywood and the rest of the voices), as well as Coral Cola, the Whale Wash, the Sea Horses races etc. Now, all I have to do is see the other underwater-animated flick in the 'Spongebob Squarepants Movie'! 'Shark Tale' is okay in my book, and besides the very last groan inducing song at the end, it's light-hearted viewing!*** out of *****!
Few High Points, Some Good Laughs
posted on 28 Aug 2009I do like Will Smith's character in the film, and the imagination used in designing this underwater world is evident. Unfortunately, the same amount of thought was not put into the script and the movie definitely fell flat. The plot was typical; hero at the bottom of the food chain, wants to be at the top. He makes it to the top through some trickery, goes for the goldigger. And he finally sees what is really important and returns to the down-to-earth sweetheart that loved him all the time. This is also a case of too many big names spoiling the movie. I spent half the film trying to decipher who lent their voice to what character. All simply because I knew there was a lot of well known talent present. Overall a good film for kids, but not well written enough for adults to enjoy. I give it a five out of 10 rating.