Shark Tale is a 2004 CGI comedy produced by DreamWorks Animation. In the story, a young fish named Oscar (voiced by Will Smith) falsely claims to have killed the son of a shark mob boss to win favor with the mob boss' enemies and advance his own community standing. The movie additionally features the voices of Jack Black as Lenny, Renée Zellweger as Angie, Angelina Jolie as Lola, Martin Scorsese as Sykes, and Robert De Niro as Don Lino. Its original title was Sharkslayer, but the producers thought that this might provoke a degree of misunderstanding among the target audience of the film, children and families. Shark Tale is also one of the first three feature-length films to be made into a Game Boy Advance Video. It was released into theaters on October 1, 2004. Although the film was a critical flop, (especially when compared to the critically acclaimed Finding Nemo, a film with a similar theme) it was a commercial success, grossing $367,275,019. The name is itself a parody of A Bronx Tale.
Plot
The story begins with an underachieving fish named Oscar (Will Smith), who is fantasizing about being rich and famous... while making his way to work as a tongue scrubber at the local Whale Wash. Soon after arriving he is called to the office of his boss, Sykes (Martin Scorsese), to discuss the fact that he owes "five thousand clams" and has to pay it back by the next day. After explaining this to his best friend Angie (Renée Zellweger), she offers him a chance to pay back the money by pawning an heirloom pink pearl. Oscar brings the money to the race track to meet Sykes, but becomes distracted by his wishes of grandeur and places it all on a long-shot bet. Such a large bet is noticed nearby by a beautiful lion fish named Lola (Angelina Jolie), who flagrantly flirts with Oscar until quickly discovering the truth. Sykes is furious that Oscar bet the money but nonetheless agrees to see how the race turns out. Moments before their "horse" crosses the finish line he trips and falls. The race is lost and Oscar is set to be punished in a secluded area for his impulsiveness.
Meanwhile, on another side of the ocean, a family of criminally-inclined sharks has a problem with one of their sons, Lenny (Jack Black). Lenny refuses to act the part of a killer and wishes to not have to live up to those expectations. Finally his father, Don Lino (Robert De Niro), loses patience and orders Lenny's more savage brother, Frankie (Michael Imperioli) to show Lenny the ropes. As the two sharks set out to go in accordance with their father's wishes, Frankie spots the scene where Oscar is being electrocuted by Ernie and Bernie (Doug E. Doug & Ziggy Marley), Sykes' two Jamaican jellyfish thugs, and sends Lenny off to attack. The jellyfish spot Lenny and swim off, leaving Oscar alone with him. Lenny frees Oscar but fails to trick Frankie, who becomes annoyed and charges at Oscar until an unknown anchor falls and kills him. Lenny flees, overcome with grief and guilt. As no one saw the deed done and Oscar was seen near the body, everyone thinks he did it, and Oscar sees this as the chance to both redeem himself and receive his fame.
Oscar comes back to the city with a new title of the Sharkslayer. Sykes becomes his manager, Lola becomes his girlfriend, and Oscar moves to the "top of the reef" to live in luxury. At the same time Don Lino has everyone out looking for Lenny, and when several get close to Oscar's town the other fish expect him to drive them away. On the way he meets Lenny once more who forces Oscar to let him stay with him because he does not want to go home. Soon Angie finds out about the lie and threatens to tell everyone but Oscar and Lenny convince her to keep quiet. Although Oscar desires to please everyone, he soon discovers that he pleases no one; his paramour Angie is heartbroken by the fact that Oscar is no longer honest, while her hedonistic rival Lola repeatedly reminds Oscar that he has her only as long as he is famous. With Don Lino planning revenge, Oscar and Lenny stage an event where Lenny pretends to terrorize the town and Oscar must defeat him, throwing him into the depths of the ocean. Though this further cements Oscar as the Sharkslayer, it greatly angers Don Lino. Oscar dumps Lola for Angie, which infuriates her and she vows revenge and battles Oscar.
Oscar buys some Valentine's Day gifts for Angie, but before he can present them to her, he finds that Don Lino has abducted Angie in order to force a meeting. Lenny comes along, now disguised as a dolphin named Sebastian. They arrive at the meeting to find Lola next to Don Lino, while Angie is bound and gagged and presented to Don Lino on a plate, who prepares to eat her if Oscar doesn't comply. Oscar just laughs and Lenny as "Sebastian" lunges forward to scoop Angie into his mouth,freeing her from Don Lino and giving Oscar dominance over the sharks. However, he spends too much time threatening the sharks and doesn't realize how much pain Lenny is in, and Angie is regurgitated onto the table. Don Lino suddenly realizes it's Lenny and proceeds to chase Oscar through the reef, but Oscar heads for the whale wash and ends up trapping both sharks. Given an ovation by the other fish, Oscar confesses that he is not a "Sharkslayer" and that it was an anchor that had killed Frankie. He then strongly urges Don Lino not to prejudge people before he knows them properly and to not make the mistake he made in prejudging his wealth, so Don Lino and Lenny reconcile. Oscar forsakes all the wealth he has acquired, makes peace with the sharks, becomes manager of the Whale Wash (now frequented by sharks), and starts dating Angie.
Cast of characters
- Will Smith as Oscar, the Bluestreak cleaner wrasse. The film's protagonist, Oscar is an underachieving worker in the Whalewash of Reef City. He wants to be rich, but his schemes always fail and he owes five thousand clams to Sykes. When he can't pay that off, he is taken to the Wastelands, and is present when Frankie gets killed by an anchor. He then takes the credit for killing the shark and gets the title of "SharkSlayer". At first he is unaware that Frankie is the son of Don Lino.
- Jack Black as Lenny. A Great white shark, also the film's protagonist of the film, Lenny isn't a meat-eater - he's a vegetarian, but he's scared of admitting this to his father, Don Lino. Lenny becomes frightened and depressed when his brother Frankie is killed by an accident, partly blaming himself for the accident. He runs away from home, and gets Oscar to hide him. Later on he disguises himself as a dolphin, befriends Oscar and Angie, and starts working at the Whale Wash. Lenny is the young (18 or 19 year old teenage) son of Lino.
- Robert De Niro as Don Lino. Father of Frankie and Lenny, and the leader of a mob of criminally-inclined sharks, Lino is the main antagonist of the film. He wants Lenny and Frankie to take over the 'business' and run it together. When Frankie is killed and Lenny runs away he sends squads out to find Lenny. His home is the sunken ship ,the RMS Titanic . When Oscar pretends to defeat Lenny, he decides to make Oscar the "Catch-Of-The-Day". When he finds out Lenny is a vegetarian and dresses as a dolphin, he is furious and blames Oscar. He is a parody of Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather - who was also once portrayed by Robert De Niro.
- Renée Zellweger as Angie. A marine angelfish and Oscar's best friend and coworker, Angie harbors a secret love interest for him and in order to pay off his debt to Sykes, she gives him her grandmother's Pink Pearl. Soon, when Oscar owns the title "Sharkslayer", Angie learns that Oscar lied in order to receive his fame.
- Angelina Jolie as Lola. A seductive female gold-digger lion fish whom Oscar develops a love interest for, although it is soon obvious that Lola is only interested in Oscar for his fame and fortune. When he dumps her for Angie, she betrays them to the mob and after Oscar dumps her, she becomes angry and confronts him. At the end, she returns to Oscar, only to find Crazy Joe.
- Martin Scorsese as Sykes. Sykes is a porcupinefish, and also a loan shark whom Oscar owes five thousand clams to. He once worked for Don Lino but was thrown out and called in his debts to pay off the gangster. When Oscar loses the money in a bet, he orders Ernie and Bernie to send Oscar to the Wastelands. When Oscar owns the title of "Sharkslayer", he becomes his agent, with no idea that the whole thing was an accident.
- Doug E. Doug and Ziggy Marley as Ernie and Bernie. Two jellyfish and Oscar's co-workers, Ernie and Bernie are the two Jamaican bodyguards and henchmen of Sykes. Ernie and Bernie are obsessed at playing video games and enjoy jabbing Oscar with their vicious stingers. Ernie and Bernie have problems with answering the calls during the time at the Whalewash when Angie had been captured, as they kept messing up the business' motto. Once Oscar becomes famous, they learn to respect him and become his loyal friends. Even after he comes clean, they remain pals.
- Michael Imperioli as Frankie. The 21 year old savage son of Lino, Frankie is Lenny's brother and a normal killer shark. Frankie was supposed to turn Lenny into a killer, and they stumble upon Oscar in the Wastelands. Frankie tells Lenny to attack him but when Lenny fakes the attack, Frankie becomes angry with him and after a brief chase, he prepares to eat Oscar, but is killed when an anchor falls on him. Oscar takes the credit for this accident. He is somewhat of a parody of Santino Corleone in The Godfather.
- Vincent Pastore as Luca. Lino's "left-hand, right-hand man" thug, Luca is an octopus with a tendency to state the obvious. He is named after the character in The Godfather, Luca Brasi.
- Peter Falk as Don Feinberg. An elderly leopard shark who is a friend to Don Lino.
- David P. Smith as Crazy Joe. A deranged hermit crab who is Oscar's other friend and who has a "crazy attitude". He normally lives in a dumpster near the Whalewash.
- Katie Couric as Katie Current, the local reporter, was voiced in different regions by different real-life news presenters. At the time, Katie Couric hosted the Today Show in America, and her name was parodied in the film to which she lent her voice. In the Australian release, then local Today Show co-host Tracy Grimshaw dubbed the lines, as did Fiona Phillips of the UK's GMTV for the UK release of the film. Cristina Parodi of Italy's Verissimo provided the Italian version of the character.
- Unkown actors who voiced Headphone Guy, a Sperm Whale, Johnson, a Moorish Idol and 2 fish along with the Moorish idol.
Reception
Nominations
- 2004 Oscar nominated for Best Animated Feature
Critical
Critical reception to Shark Tale since its release has been mixed to negative. The review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reported that critics gave the film a 38% "rotten" approval rating (based on 169 reviews), due to similarities to another fish-themed film, Finding Nemo, and called it "derivative and full of pop culture in-jokes". Critical reception from Metacritic to Shark Tale was also mixed. It received an overall 48/100 approval rating (based on 36 reviews) and Metacritic users gave the film a 5.2/10 rating (based on 40 votes).
Box office
Despite the negative reviews, Shark Tale grossed $47,604,606 on its opening weekend placing itself #1. For the next two weeks, it stayed as #1 movie grossing $31,330,299 on its second week and on its third week, the film grossed $22,005,952. Overall, Shark Tale made $160 million nationwide and $206 million overseas with $367 million worldwide.
Criticisms and analysis
Many Italian-American organizations protested Shark Tale for perpetuating negative stereotypes of Italian-Americans. Many groups feel that such a movie would promote negative ideas about Italian-Americans among the younger viewers that the movie appealed to. Though much protesting was done, only a few aspects of the film had stereotypical features removed upon release.
Gay groups noted Lenny's "vegetarian" shark as a possible metaphor for coming out of the closet, and even speculate that the character Lenny could be a representative of a gay man. Noteworthy in this discussion is the fact that refusing to "eat meat" could be construed as a rejection of masculinity. A brief passing of Walter, a sperm whale voiced by Anthony Anderson, triggers a few suggestive comments regarding "sperm whales", although it isn't said outright. Lenny also expresses his fear of telling his father of being "vegetarian" and how his orientation would not be accepted. This is metaphorical of the stereotypical factor of a relationship between a conservative father and a homosexual son. The American Family Association has raised concerns about the movie, suggesting that it was designed to promote the acceptance of gay rights by children.[1][2]
Roger Ebert has said that the film doesn't make sense as a children's movie, "Since the target audience for Shark Tale is presumably kids and younger teenagers, how many of them have seen the R-rated "Godfather" and will get all the inside jokes? Not a few, I suppose, and some of its characters and dialogue have passed into common knowledge. But it's strange that a kid-oriented film would be based on parody of a 1972 gangster movie for adults."[3] He also observes that younger viewers would have trouble enjoying a movie about adult characters with adult problems (elaborate love triangles and a main character wanting to clear his debt with loan sharks) and compares it to more successful fish-focused animated features The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which features a simpler plot that anybody can identify with, and draws humor from the lifestyle of the fish instead of transferring ethnic stereotypes into fish as does Shark Tale.
Soundtrack track listing
- Three Little Birds - Sean Paul feat. Ziggy Marley
- Car Wash (Shark Tale Mix) - Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott
- Good Foot - Timbaland feat. Justin Timberlake
- Secret Love - Joanna "JoJo" Levesque
- Lies & Rumors - D12
- Got to Be Real - Mary J. Blige feat. Will Smith
- Can't Wait - Avant
- Gold Digger - Ludacris feat. Bobby V. and Lil Fate
- Get It Together - India.Arie
- We Went as Far as We Felt Like Going - The Pussycat Dolls
- Digits - fan 3
- Sweet Kind of Life - Cheryl Lynn
- Some of My Best Friends Are Sharks - Hans Zimmer
See also
References
External links
