Did anyone not pick up on the fact that all
Shark Tale serves as is DreamWorks’ attempt to cash
in on Finding Nemo’s success, when they first saw
its trailer? I was fully aware of such when I walked
into Shark Tale, and I feared it. But, I had
hoped that with its star-studded lineup of voice talents
and cute plot, the animated feature would turn out to be
an entirely fun time. And it kind of was, but it never
captures the same timelessness that Finding Nemo
did. That film actually had thematic and emotional
resonance; this one is simply a lackadaisical parade of
underwater puns and “Wow! That’s insert actor’s
name here doing the voice of insert animated
character’s name here!” moments. There are times
when it functions as a pleasant creation for the
under-ten set. At others, I, frankly, felt a bit
seasick.
When mobster-shark Don Lino
(Robert DeNiro) is disappointed in his vegan son, Lenny
(Jack Black), he sends him out to learn the ropes of
being a member of their species with his older son.
While swimming around, Lenny’s brother is killed by a
ship-anchor, but the underwater-public and
fish-reporter, Katie Current (Katie Couric), are led to
believe that Oscar (Will Smith), a small fish who Lenny
was commanded to eat by his sibling, killed the shark.
Oscar, a whale-mouth-cleaner by occupation, is dubbed
“The Shark Slayer” in the news, and has Don Lino angry.
In addition, Lenny conspires with Oscar in order to
escape from his father’s carnivorous clutches, and hides
out in the fish’s storage garage (or is it the
fish-equivalent of a house?). Shark Tale does
evoke a few laughs and many grins, but never much more
than that.
The concept is all fine and
dandy and I did enjoy the movie, at times, don’t get me
wrong. But it’s just so unoriginal and dull that it is
almost impossible to recommend. Shark Tale works
on an average level, simply because it doesn’t aspire to
be anything more than simply entertaining. This is a
problem, but at least the movie doesn’t make promises
that it can’t keep. Even more ironic is that all of the
gifted actors, featured as voice talents, chose such a
tongue-in-cheek, mediocre project to participate in. I
suppose anything that results in a paycheck is good, in
Hollywood. In addition to the actors and actresses that
I have already mentioned, Renée Zellweger and Angelina
Jolie provide audio for two fish that are competing for
Oscar’s heart (one is a longtime friend of his and the
other a sassy beauty-queen who is in love with all of
the money that he is making) and Martin Scorsese plays a
likable blowfish called Sykes, who has mob affiliations
with Don Lino and takes the position of Oscar’s agent.
The one element of Shark
Tale that is most responsible for its partial
failure is its tone. The movie is so unserious, so airy,
viewers know that there is no point in watching the plot
play out. In good animated movies, the audience will
forget that what they are watching has been drawn, frame
by frame. The characters in them are human enough to
allow us to fall for their spells, which their imagery
casts upon us. In Shark Tale, on the other hand,
I always remembered that what I was watching was the
mere creation of a computer. It is not engaging or
immersive in its execution. Yes, the DreamWorks
animation team has birthed another terrific looking
picture with the film, but that’s one of the few things
that they can whole-heartedly boast. So what if had a
good time watching it? In a year, when I think of the
genre that Shark Tale belongs to, I strongly
doubt that it will come to mind. This, in and of itself,
speaks volumes about the picture’s quality.
-Danny, Bucket Reviews (10.10.2004)