Sickening Eternal Stardom Seeking Sharks

Rating: 6/10 (27 November 2004)

What's happening to the world of animation? I remember the days when animation was all about telling/visualizing a story in animation form to provide good and wholesome holiday entertainment for the whole family. The names of the voice-over actors could be found, discreetly mentioned, in the credit rolls at the END of the movie. Gradually we saw more and more big names lending their voices to animated works usually "in order to do something for their children". Noble cause huh? OK, I must admit it was amusing for me as an adult to recognize a well-known movie personality acting out his or her typical roles in an animation. I was much less amused with the happenings in "Sharktale". We were first of all bombarded with the all the names of the big stars lending their voices to the movie. Mind you 1 whole frame for 1 big name. (Robert DeNiro, Will Smith, Jack Black, Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Martin Scorsese etc). Then to my utter astonishment I had to observe that their fishy counterparts were exact lookalikes. It was so dominant that it seemed to me that the whole movie was about THEM. Must be great not only to hear your mummy or daddy in a cartoon but see them "animated" as well. But I wonder seriously if this going to be a fashionable trend in Hollywood. Is it going to be a sign of true stardom to :a) have your name, feet/hands/boobs imprinted on a tile on the Walk of Fame and b) have yourself eternalized as an animated character? From a business point of view it is of course a clever gimmick to have these famous movie personalities in animated movies. Cartoons were for kids and families with kids mainly. A movie like Sharktale shall undoubtly attract a whole lot of teenagers and young adults. I feel mostly sorry for the kids though. Unknowingly children are now being "familiarized" with the big movie stars of today whose movies are as yet unsuitable for them. Perhaps this is a big Hollywood psychological plot to guarantee that the next generation of moviegoers will be guaranteed fans of the stars of today? In my opinion it is a sick trend!!!