Shark Tale
| Shark Tale | |
|---|---|
 Shark Tale film poster | |
| Directed by | Bibo Bergeron Vicky Jenson Rob Letterman |
| Written by | Michael J. Wilson Rob Letterman (screenplay) |
| Produced by | Bill Damaschke Janet Healy Allison Lyon Segan |
| Starring | Will Smith Jack Black Renée Zellweger Angelina Jolie Martin Scorsese Robert De Niro Peter Falk Vincent Pastore Ziggy Marley Doug E. Doug Michael Imperioli Katie Couric as Katie Current |
| Cinematography | None |
| Edited by | Nick Fletcher (supervisor) Peter Lonsdale John Vernon |
| Music by | Hans Zimmer |
| Distributed by | USA: DreamWorks SKG Non-USA Theatrical: United International Pictures DVD/Video: Universal Pictures (through DreamWorks label, until 2006) Paramount Pictures (2006- ) |
Release dates | October 1, 2004 |
Running time | 1 hr. 30 minutes |
Shark Tale is an Academy Award-nominated computer-animated film produced by DreamWorks Animation, and released in 2004. It features the voices of Will Smith, Jack Black, Renée Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. 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 get the Game Boy Advance Video treatment.
Plot
The story begins with an underachieving fish named Oscar (Will Smith) going to work and slipping up with a mistake again. With that, he is called to his boss', Mr. Sykes (Martin Scorsese), office to discuss the fact that he owes money and has to pay it back by the next day. As he explains to his best friend, Angie (Renée Zellweger) (who harbors a secret love for him), he is offered the chance to pay back the money by pawning off a pink pearl given to him by her, which he plans to use, but is distracted by his wishes of grandeur and places it all on a bet at the race tracks. The race is lost and Oscar is set to be surreptitiously killed.
Meanwhile, on another side of the ocean, a family of criminally-inclined sharks has a trouble 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. With this, his father, Don Lino (Robert De Niro), decides that he must learn to kill, by being taught by Lenny's more savage brother, Frankie (Michael Imperioli).
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), his boss' two jellyfish thugs and sends Lenny off to attack. The jellyfish spot Lenny and swim off, leaving Oscar alone with him. Lenny tries to calm Oscar down by telling him that he will not eat him, but Oscar will not listen, and insists on screaming, until Frankie becomes annoyed and tries to attack, but an anchor kills him. As no one saw the deed done and Oscar was seen near the body, everyone thinks he did it, and Oscar saw the chance to both redeem himself and receive his fame.
Oscar comes back to the city with a new title of the Sharkslayer. 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 keeps her satisfied. Meanwhile while it obvious that Angie loves Oscar, Oscar has fallen in love with gold digger Lola (Angelina Jolie).
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 is disgusted by what she considers low taste. Don Lino plans revenge, and Oscar must rise to the occasion. When the trick planned by Oscar and Lenny succeeds only in angering Don Lino, Oscar lures both sharks into a trap. Given an ovation by the other fish, Oscar confesses that he is not a real "Sharkslayer". He forsakes all the wealth he has acquired, makes peace with the sharks, and marries Angie. However, he becomes manager of the Whalewash. Lola also ends up with a crazy crab. Moreover he helps Don Lino make peace with Lenny.
Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott make a cameo appearance in the end of the movie.
Reception
Nominations
- 2004 Oscar nominated for Best Animated Feature
Box office
Despite only having 35% critical approval on rottentomatoes, it still managed to make $363.5 million worldwide.
Voice cast
Criticisms and analysis
 | This article possibly contains original research. (September 2007) |
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 an obvious metaphor for coming out of the closet, and even speculate that the character Lenny could possibly 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.
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."[1] 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 (though Shark Tale was released before the latter), 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.
According to Internet Movie Database there were plans for a "Shark Tale 2", however the listing has disappeared.
Characters Featured
- Oscar: The film's protagonist, Oscar is a underachieving worker in the Whalewash of Reef City. He tries to get out of trouble to receive his fame but when his boss, Sykes, orders him to get five thousand clams for Sykes to pay off Don Lino. Oscar then has the title "Sharkslayer" when everyone believes he killed Frankie, the oldest son of Lino. His best friend Angie thinks that he has lied in order to get his fame and Oscar hasn't been the same since their apparent breakup.
- Angie: Oscar's best friend and coworker, Angie harbors a secret love for Oscar and in order win a race for Sykes, she gives him her grandmother's pearl to be out of debt to win the race. Soon, when Oscar owns the title "Sharkslayer", Angie learns that Oscar lied in order to receive his fame.
- Lola: A seductive gold-digger fish whom Oscar develops a love interest for, although it is later found that Lola is up to no good and is only using him for his fame and fortune. She is technically the true villain of the movie.
- Ernie and Bernie: Two jellyfish and Oscar's part-time friends, Ernie and Bernie are the two Jamaican bodyguards and henchmen of Sykes. Ernie and Bernie are normally different from each other and the two were possibly great friends who work at the Whalewash. They are obsessed at playing video games and enjoy japping 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.
- Mister Sykes: Oscar's boss, Sykes is a porcupinefish who wants Oscar to get five thousand clams in order to pay off Don Lino. Oscar bets the money and when the race is lost, he orders Ernie and Bernie to send Oscar to the Wastelands. When Oscar owns the title of "Sharkslayer", he is delighted to become his manager and he didn't have an idea that Oscar hadn't killed Frankie, the oldest son of Lino.
- Crazy Joe: A deranged hermit crab who is Oscar's other friend and having a "crazy attitude", he normally lives in a dumpster near the Whalewash.
- Luca: Lino's "left-hand, right-hand man" thug, Luca is an octopus who typically is an idiotic kind of person.
- Lenny: A great white shark, Lenny isn't normally a meat-eater---he's a vegetarian. When it comes to his fellow sea creatures, he has locked jaws. Lenny becomes depressed when his brother, Frankie, is killed and ran off from home where he practically befriends Oscar. He is also the young son of Lino.
- Frankie: The oldest, more savage son of Lino, Frankie is Lenny's brother who normally is a killer and always works at his father's cruise ship and always gets around to eat. When Lenny makes up a mistake, Frankie is hired to train Lenny to become a beastly 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 his and after a brief chase, he prepares to eat Oscar but he ultimately has his fate when an anchor falls and hits him, killing him. Everyone thinks that Oscar killed him but it wasn't truly real.
- Don Lino: Father of Frankie and Lenny and the leader of a mob of criminally-inclined sharks, Don Lino is the main antagonist of the film who only wants Lenny to be a killer shark but when he thinks Oscar killed Frankie, he becomes depressed as he knows everyone who are at the cruise ship loved Frankie for who he is and when Lenny ran away, he sends squads to find him. When Oscar pretends to defeat Lenny, he knows that things have to be done and he decides to make Oscar as the "Catch-Of-The-Day". He is a parody of Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather.
- Don Feinberg: 79-year-old leopard shark. He is a friend to Don Lino.
Soundtrack track listing
- Three Little Birds - Sean Paul featuring Ziggy Marley (Bob Marley's son)
- Car Wash (Shark Tale Mix) - Christina Aguilera featuring Missy Elliott (Norman Whitfield; Missy Elliot)
- Good Foot - Timbaland featuring Justin Timberlake (Justin Timberlake; Timothy Z. Mosley)
- Secret Love - JoJo (Philip "Whitey" White; Jared Gosselin; Samantha "Jade" Gibbs)
- Lies & Rumors - D12 (D. Holton; J. Rotem; D. Porter; O. Moore; V. Carlisle; R. Johnson; M. Chavarria)
- Got to Be Real - Mary J. Blige featuring Will Smith (David Foster; David Paich; Cheryl Lynn)
- A Little Less Conversation - Elvis featuring Junkie XL.
- Can't Wait - Avant (Damon E. Thomas; Antonio Dixon; Harvey W. Mason; Eric Dawkins; Steven Russell)
- Gold Digger - Ludacris featuring Bobby V. and Lil Fate (Alonzo Lee; Shamar Daugherty; Christopher Bridges; Bobby Wilson; Arbie Wilson)
- Get It Together - India.Arie (Drew Ramsey; Shannon Sanders; India Aire Simpson; Dana Johnson; Mel Johnson)
- We Went as Far as We Felt Like Going - The Pussycat Dolls (Bob Crewe; Kenny Nolan)
- Digits - fan 3 (Allison Lurie; Paul Robb; David Clayton-Thomas; Fred Lipsius)
- Sweet Kind of Life - Cheryl Lynn (James Harris; III & Terry Lewis; Cheryl Lynn; Bobby Ross Avila; Issiah J. Avila; Tony Tolbert; James Q. Wright)
- Some of My Best Friends Are Sharks - Hans Zimmer (Hans Zimmer)
See also
References
External links
- Official movie and DVD site
- Shark Tale at IMDb
- Shark Tale at Rotten Tomatoes
- National Italian American Foundation unanimously denounces Shark Tale
- American Family Association Something's Swishy About Shark Tale
- Shark Tale, by Gail Herman.
Template:Box Office Leaders USA
