Shark Tale (2004)

Directors:

Bibo Bergeron
Vicky Jenson

Writers:

Michael J. Wilson (screenplay) and
Rob Letterman (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

1 October 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Family

Tagline:

In fall, a new school will rule.

Plot:

When a son of a gangster shark boss is accidently killed while on the hunt, his would be prey and his vegetarian brother both decide to use the incident to their own advantage.

Plot Keywords:

Fish | Shark | Anchor | Mobster | Vegetarian

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

Will Smith	...	Oscar (voice)
Robert De Niro	...	Don Lino (voice)
Renée Zellweger	...	Angie (voice)
Jack Black	...	Lenny (voice)
Angelina Jolie	...	Lola (voice)
Martin Scorsese	...	Sykes (voice)
Ziggy Marley	...	Ernie (voice)
Doug E. Doug	...	Bernie (voice)
Michael Imperioli	...	Frankie (voice)
Vincent Pastore	...	Luca (voice)
Peter Falk	...	Don Feinberg (voice)
Katie Couric	...	Katie Current (voice)
David Soren	...	Shrimp / Worm / Starfish #1 / Killer Whale #2 (voice)
David P. Smith	...	Crazy Joe (voice)
Bobb'e J. Thompson	...	Shortie #1 (voice)

Also Known As:

Sharkslayer (USA) (working title)
El espanta tiburones (Argentina) (Chile) (International: Spanish title) [es]
Gang de requins (Belgium: French title) (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Подводная братва (Russia) [ru]
El espantatiburones (Spain) [es]
Grosse Haie - Kleine Fische (Austria) [de]
Hákarlasaga (Iceland) (DVD box title) [is]
Haaiensnaaier (Netherlands) [nl]
Haikala lugu (Estonia) [et]
Hain tarina (Finland) [fi]
Hajar som hajar (Sweden) [sv]
Köpekbaligi hikayesi (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
L'espantataurons (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
O Espanta Tubarões (Brazil) [pt]
O Gang dos Tubarões (Portugal) (literal title) [pt]
Prica o ajkulama (Serbia) [sr]
Stor ståhaj (Denmark) [da]

MPAA:

Rated PG for some mild language and crude humor.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:LH (video rating) | Indonesia:SU | Ireland:G | Malaysia:U | South Korea:All | New Zealand:PG | Portugal:M/6 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Brazil:Livre | Chile:TE | Czech Republic:U | Finland:S | Peru:PT | Philippines:G | Singapore:G | Spain:T | Switzerland:0 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:8 (canton of Zurich) | UK:U | USA:PG (certificate #41134) | Germany:o.Al.

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

DreamWorks Animation

Trivia:

The magazine that Mrs. Sanchez is reading at the race track features an ad for a movie called "The Hook", which is a parody of The Ring (2002). The tagline is "Before You Die, You Eat. The Hook." The same ad appears on a magazine Angie is reading later in the film.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Angie and Sykes are watching Oscar on TV "killing" Lenny, a rendering error means that Angie's tail passes through the desk.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[a shark slowly approaches a worm, who frantically struggles to get free of his line... ]
Lenny: Hi, I'm Lenny.
[the worm faints]
Lenny: Ooh! Little buddy, did I scare you?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "HBO First Look: 'Shark Tale': Gettin' Fishy with It (#11.19)" (2004)

Soundtrack:

Three Little Birds

Not too bad, but not too good either.

Round 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.