Shark Tale

Rating: 5/10 (13 December 2009)

From Dreamworks Studios, who had huge success with Shrek, I was really looking forward to this computer animated film for the cast more than anything else, but I was up for a giggle too. Basically, beneath the deep salty sea live Oscar (Will Smith), the young whale washing and tongue cleaning fish who aspires to be famous, with best friend Angie (Renée Zellweger) having a crush on him. Oscar chances on an incident that brings him instant fame, an anchor drops onto a shark killing him, and everyone thinks that it was Oscar that defeated the shark, so he has become known as the "Shark Slayer". Don Lino (Robert De Niro) and his mob gang are in fear, unaware that Don's secret right hand Sykes (Martin Scorsese) is behind the merchandising of Oscar, getting attention from Lola (Angelina Jolie), making Angie very jealous. Then Oscar meets the shark he met before after seeing his brother die, vegetarian shark Lenny (Jack Black) who has nowhere else to go, and wants to help him retain his fame faking a death. In the end though, after some chases and squabbles, Oscar comes clean about his fake status, and knows he does love Angie like she does him, and he goes back to his washing job. Also starring Peter Falk as Don Feinberg, Michael Imperioli as Frankie, Vincent Pastore as Luca, Ziggy Marley as Ernie and Doug E. Doug as Bernie. The animation is pretty good, the voice casting is very good, and the jokes along the way do have some good irony and satire. It might be a slightly predictable plot, and be an obvious morality lesson, but with sequences like the "Car Wash" song by Christina Aguilera and Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott, it is a pretty good family comedy adventure. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, and it was nominated the BAFTA Children's Award for Best Feature Film. Worth watching!