Shark Bait (film)

Shark Bait (AKA: The Reef: Shark Bait)
South Korean film poster
Directed by	Howard E. Baker John Fox
Written by	Scott Clevenger Chris Denk Anurag Mehta Timothy Wayne Peternel
Starring	Freddie Prinze, Jr. Evan Rachel Wood Donal Logue Andy Dick Fran Drescher John Rhys-Davies Rob Schneider
Edited by	Tom Sanders
Music by	Christopher Lennertz
Production companies	WonderWorld Studios IDT Entertainment
Distributed by	CJ Entertainment (South Korea) The Weinstein Company (United States) Warner Bros. (United Kingdom)
Release dates	July 7, 2006 (2006-07-07) (South Korea) February 9, 2007 (2007-02-09) (United Kingdom) October 9, 2007 (2007-10-09) (United States)
Running time	77 minutes
Countries	United States Canadian South Korea
Language	English
Budget	$10 million
Box office	$13.7 million

Shark Bait (The Reef: Shark Bait in the UK, Australia and North America, Pi's Story in South Korea) is a 2006 South Korean-Canadian-American computer animated film. The plot revolves around Pi and his attempt to win the heart of Cordelia while dealing with a tiger shark that is terrorizing him and the reef's inhabitants. The film was a critical and commercial failure. It was largely criticised for borrowing heavily from other films such as Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo, DreamWorks' Shark Tale, and Walt Disney's The Little Mermaid (and at one point, a reference to Star Wars and The Karate Kid), and despite the talented actors and comedians involved in the voiceover work, was a box-office bomb. Despite being an American-South Korean co-production, the movie did not receive a theatrical release in the United States, where it was released direct to DVD in 2007.

A direct-to-DVD sequel, The Reef 2: High Tide was released in 2012.

Plot

Pisces, or Pi (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), is a 5-year-old orange fish that lives happily with his parents Pike and Piper in the polluted harbor of Boston, Massachusetts, until a fishing boat scoops them from the sea. Pi's parents manage to help him escape, but cannot escape themselves. Before they are taken away, Piper tells Pi to promise her he would go live with his aunt. Pi's porpoise friends Percy (Trent Ford) and Percy's mother Meg (Megahn Perry) agree to take him, but Pi refuses to leave in case his parents return, Meg sadly tells him that once anyone is taken by a net they can never come back; Pi is heartbroken that his parents are gone forever.

Meg and Percy take Pi to live with his aunt Pearl on an exotic reef. When Pi reaches the reef, he is 18 years old and has stayed with the porpoises for most of his life. The first residents Pi comes across are three elderly marlin named Moe, Jack, and Manny, which direct him towards Pearl's home. On his way there, Pi immediately falls in love with Cordelia (Evan Rachel Wood), a celebrity fish that has appeared on the front cover of National Geographic. He also meets his cousin Dylan (Andy Dick), that quickly becomes Pi's best friend.

However, Pi soon encounters Troy (Donal Logue), the meanest, toughest tiger shark in the ocean, who is not only terrorizing everyone in the reef community, but also has his eye set on Cordelia to become his mate. Pi confronts Troy, only to be physically assaulted by him. Cordelia tells Pi that the only dangerous place on the reef is between Troy and whatever he wants claiming that Troy is her problem, and if Pi wishes to help, he won’t interfere. Pi and Dylan find their way home, where Pearl (Fran Drescher) is excited to see that Pi has arrived. She is a fortune teller along with her assistant Madge, a sea star and uses a pink pearl that Dylan's deceased father gave to her as a crystal ball. Pearl reads Pi's future and is surprised, saying that he is destined for great things and that the reef is the best place he will be able to find it. Pearl then tells Pi that he can go anywhere on the reef excluding an old pirate wreck and a forbidden place called "flat bottom". Pearl leaves Dylan in charge of showing Pi around, Pi meets Buddy a decorator crab and Lou a sawfish. Afterwards, Pi is told by Dylan about Nerissa (Rob Schneider), a wise old hermit loggerhead turtle that lives in the old shipwreck and practices martial arts, leading to rumors that he is a wizard. Eventually they stumble upon flat bottom, the open sea which is outside of the wildlife sanctuary free for humans to come with their fishing nets.

Dylan leaves after a close encounter and Pi sees Cordelia, but per her instructions does not interact. Until he hears her scream after getting a lure stuck in her fin and swears to help her. Pi brings Cordelia to Buddy and Lou who successfully remove it, she invites him to go to a concert with her. Beforehand, Pi meets Dylan once again and they observe Nerissa defend his blue pearl using the sea from a gang of squid nappers.

At the amphitheatre that night with Cordelia, Pi learns about the performer Thornton (John Rhys Davies) a harbor seal that tangled with a large creature. Afterwards, Pi and Cordelia look at the stars and she falls in love with him. Suddenly, Troy arrives and chases them before eventually catching up to them both. Pi refuses to leave Cordelia, but Troy starts abusing him worse than ever, until Cordelia makes a deal with him: if he leaves Pi alone, she will marry Troy (which, in this case, is done when someone "accepts someone else's pearl"), Pi is knocked unconscious by Troy and is carried to Nerissa's shipwreck by a current.

When Nerissa tells Pi the following day, he decides he has had enough of Troy's abuse towards him, and asks Nerissa to teach him the ways of the ocean to combat Troy. Nerissa initially refuses, Pi asks other residents to help him, but the marlins think because of their age, they won't be useful. Pi asks Thornton, he states Pi must be crazy, Pi only reminds Thornton of his tale of his encounter with a sea monster. However, he states that he did not actually fight a monster, but due to his "poetic license" it didn’t count as lying.

Meanwhile, Troy's henchmen Bart and Eddie try to steal Nerissa's pearl, but are frightened away by Pi and Dylan. Nerissa arrives and is impressed with Pi's skills, agreeing to train him the next morning.

On Pi's first day of training, Pearl is worried, telling Pi that she could not live with herself if he were killed. Pi reminds his aunt how she told him he would find his destiny on the reef, and he did when he met Cordelia. Stating now he’s losing her as how he lost his parents. Pi reminds Pearl how he couldn't do anything to save them, but he can still save Cordelia. Nerissa starts by telling Pi that Troy picks on anyone smaller than him, and he has never learned about things bigger than him, Nerissa says the ocean itself is bigger than Troy and if Pi can use the ocean against him, his own size would not matter. Nerissa leads Pi down a valley with obstacles, including razor-sharp elkhorn coral, burning fire coral, a long, narrow tunnel known as Bottleneck Alley, and finally a current known as the West Indies current, full of Portuguese man o' war that could kill someone Pi's size.

Meanwhile, Cordelia is informed by Buddy and Lou about Pi's upcoming battle with Troy. Nerissa reveals the story of his blue pearl to Pi and he gave it to his wife, but she got hooked in the open sea. Nerissa desperately tried to call for help, but no one was brave enough to help. Pi understands, but is unsure how to stop Troy for good; Nerissa tells him to offer Troy something he wants and then give him something he doesn't want. Cordelia finds Pi and tries to convince him to reconsider, willing to sacrifice herself for his life. That night Pearl's pearl has been stolen by Troy's henchmen. She is heartbroken, being as Dylan's father gave her the pearl. Pi realizes that he cannot back down now no matter how much everyone else doubts him.

After mastering the ways of the ocean, Cordelia, Dylan, Thornton, Buddy, Lou and the marlins (who reveal they were once friends of Nerissa's), band together to stop Troy's crew in a final showdown.

Pi initiates a chase with Troy. As Pi swims away from Troy through the valley Nerissa instructed him to take, Troy is hit by all of the obstacles until they get to the open sea. Nerissa tries to help by throwing an old boot at Troy's henchmen Bart and Eddie, and Dylan shoves them down a lobster hole, retrieving his mother's pearl in the process. Pi is then swatted by Troy's tail into a cliff, burying him in rocks. Nerissa attempts to help him, but is hit by Troy; just as all seems lost the marlins arrive to fight Troy and apologize to Nerissa for not helping him when he needed them.

Percy and Meg return and free Pi. Troy then sets Percy as a target. Pi sees a net and plans to trick Troy into it. Pi distracts Troy who believes Pi is doomed since they are now in open water. Troy chases him up to the surface, where he manages to lead Troy into a fishing net and narrowly escapes the shark's jaws as he leaps through the top of the net. Troy, trapped in the net, is lifted from the sea.

Pi is proclaimed a hero by the population of the reef who all mock Troy believing that he will be made into seafood. Nerissa admits he sees Pi as his son and gives him his pearl. Pi is honored and does not know what to say. Nerissa states that Pi knows exactly what to say, but he is just not the one to whom he needs to be saying it. Pi presents Cordelia with the pearl and she accepts it, they share a kiss as the reef celebrates, including a redeemed Bart and Eddie, which rejoice that they are all free from Troy.

In a mid-credits scene, Thornton tells Pi's story to everyone on the reef, proud now that he can tell a true story about himself ending with "Pi was determined, he refused to despair, I know it's all true, for you see, I was there..."

UK/US cast

• Freddie Prinze, Jr. as Pi (Pisces), a male orange Sea goldie fish, orphaned when his parents were caught in a fishing net.
  • Jimmy Bennett plays Young Pi.
• Evan Rachel Wood as Cordelia, a female carnation pink angelfish model for National Geographic and Pi's love interest.
• Rob Schneider as Nerissa, an old widowed hermit green loggerhead sea turtle and Pi's mentor.
  • Schneider also voices Bart and Eddie, Troy's henchmen, Bart is a smart, sophisticated barracuda, while Eddie is a dim-witted wolf eel. Schneider also voices other characters like a Conch Shell, an Indian Crab, a Lobster, Lou, Madge the Starfish, and a Pelican.
• Donal Logue as Troy, a tiger shark that terrorizes the entire population of the reef and Pi's chief nemesis.
• Andy Dick as Dylan, a teal fish and Pi's cousin.
• Fran Drescher as Pearl, a purple fish that is Dylan's mother and Pi's maternal aunt and adoptive mother, she is a fortune teller. She has a sea star assistant named Madge.
• John Rhys Davies as Thornton, an elderly harbor seal that is very poetic.
• R. Lee Ermey as Jack an overweight marlin.
• Richard Epcar as Moe, an elderly marlin.
• Mel Rodriguez as Manny, a Spanish marlin.
• David Fickas as Max, a flamboyant crab that is Cordelia's boss.
• Trent Ford as Percy, a Harbor porpoise that is Pi's adoptive brother for 13 years.
  • Dylan Cash plays Young Percy.
• Megahn Perry as Meg, Percy's mother and Pi's surrogate mother.
• Lena Gleen as Buddy, a flamboyant decorator crab and Lou's boss.
• Joel Michaely as Lou, a sawfish and Buddy's assistant.
• Bruno Alexander as Pike, Pi's deceased father.
• Reedy Gibbs as Piper, Pi's deceased mother:

South Korean cast

• Kim Hyung-jun as Pisces ("Pi")
• Im Chae-moo
• Park Myeong-su
• Kim Kyu-jong as a clam and a crab
• Kim Hyun-joong as a crab
• Park Jung-min as a dolphin

Reception

The reviews of this film were largely negative, and it currently holds an audience score of 26% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 2,663 reviews. It has been berated as a ripoff of DreamWorks' Shark Tale and Pixar's Finding Nemo as it heavily borrows from both films, as well as borrowing from other films such as The Karate Kid. It was also criticized for its poor animation and its visuals which were considered outdated.

eFilmCritic.com's David Cornelius described it as "undoubtedly one of the cheapest, ugliest cartoon features ever produced", criticizing its CGI, graphics, and animation. He also criticized its plot, saying, "the script also rehashes every conceivable cliche the kid flick book".

Vince Leo from Qwipster's Movie Reviews gave the movie 2 out of 5 stars, saying, "Shark Bait (aka The Reef in some markets) certainly is testing the limits. It's easily the worst CG-animated adventure to date (up to 2007), burdened with lame puns...". He criticized the animation, calling the character designs "lackluster" and the background "overly simplistic".

Crew

• Richard Epcar – voice director

External links

• Shark Bait at IMDb
• Shark Bait at Rotten Tomatoes
• Shark Bait at HanCinema
• Time Out film review