Shark Tale (Bibo Bergeron, Vicky Jenson Rob and Letterman, 2004) Review

Ok, who was in charge of character design? I want names. You did a bang-up job of making the most hideous looking CG characters ever. I think the Goblin King from The Hobbit was as gross to look at! Just...look at it! It's like it was trying to splice the DNA of fish and people and the result was this poor looking monstrosity. Ok, ok, let's not be judgemental here until we actually take a look. So let's dive into Shark Tale.

Oscar (Will Smith) is a fish who works down at the whale wash (I'll give them credit for that one) but wants to live the high life. Instead of paying back money he owes to his boss, Sykes (Martin Scorsese), he uses that money to bet on a sea horse race (again, nice one). Naturally, he loses and Sykes has him 'whacked'. Instead of beign killed, however, Oscar accidentally kills  shark. He takes the credit for it and is hailed as a hero. When the sharks father, Don Lino (Robert DeNiro), wants revenge, Oscar has to team up with Don Lino's other son, Lenny (Jack Black), so that he won't get killed.

I was right to be judgemental. This is a perfect example of a film made for no other reason than just to make money. There is nothing in it! It's a bunch of stars playing themselves (with the exception of Jack Black) with no real depth to it. The only characters that I felt were the least bit enjoyable were Sykes and Don Lino but that's just being generous. Everyone else is terrible. Dreamworks really sold out just to make pop culture reference. Already this film is dated.

Is there anything good then? Yeah, it''s a funny film when it wants to be. There are so many moments that fall flat but it hits the occasional funny bit mostly at the expense of anything that resembles development. We've seen this plot before, we've seen this character before and it just comes out as a dull, uninspired and makes me wonder what the hell Dreamworks were thinking.

Shark Tale is an attempt to try and tell a good story to kids but is filled to the brim with pop culture references and absolutely no attempts at trying to differ the characters from the actors. You may remember this film as a childhood favourite but go back and watch this and you'll find a shallow (heh) film with absolutely nothing in it. I also refuse to live in a world where this is an Oscar nominated film and The Dark Knight Rises is not. Get your act together, Academy!

Verdict:
4/10
A film that has nothing in it. It's just pop culture references (that are already dated  and actors just playing themselves.


I liked the shrimp though...I'll give the movie that.