As Thin as a Shark's Fin: Dreamwork's Animation has Become the Pop Culture Pixar

Rating: 4/10 (26 September 2004)

Dreamworks' animation seems to continue to rip off of Pixar (currently owned by Disney), left and right. In 1994, Jeffery Katzenberg left Disney to form Dreamworks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. It is rumored that he took the idea of Pixar's A Bug's Life with him, and made Antz. In my opinion, Antz is a much deeper film where the ant colony represents a communistic society that the hero must overcome. A Bug's Life had a bit more flimsy plot, with the hero ant trying to save his colony from grasshoppers.
Since Antz, Dreamworks' animation has gone downhill, from Shrek and it's sequel, to their new film, Shark Tale, coming out after the success of Pixar's Finding Nemo . Full of pop culture references that don't fit in, bright glitzy eye candy for the kids, and an easy to follow, albeit flimsy plot, Shark Tale may entertain the children for 90 minutes, but it shows how much of a shoddy trend Dreamworks is setting, trying to keep up with the creativity of Pixar.
***Spoilers***
Set in an underwater New York City, Times Square and all, Shark Tale follows Oscar, a lowly fish who works at a Whale wash. He always seems to be down on his luck and broke. The city of fish is terrorized by sharks, who are made out to be like the mafia.
Luckily, Oscar winds up in the right place at the right time, as an anchor falls on a shark who's chasing him, son of Don Lino the infamous head of the sharks, and kills him. Some other fish happen to see Oscar there, and he takes credit for killing the shark, and now becomes the infamous 'sharkslayer.'
I will give Shark Tale its props for being one of the most politically correct animation films in recent memory. It attempts to display many different ethnicities through it's fish, from the Will Smith voiced Oscar representing black culture, along with his father having an afro, to the sharks representing the mafia culture-not the Italian culture, as not all Italians are in the mafia; I too wish to be politically correct, to the gay culture. Yes folks that's right, there is a gay shark in Shark Tale. Lenny the shark, voiced by Jack Black, is gay, and I beg anyone to argue.
Sure, the writers don't actually come out and say it, but Lenny is a vegetarian, i.e. different from all the other sharks. When he sits in certain scenes, he crosses his fins, like a girl. And he eventually paints himself blue, to resemble a dolphin, and dresses up like one of the Village People. His main desire is to have his father, Don Lino, accept him for who he is. Again, put all that together, and you have a gay shark.
What really irks me about this film is the out of place pop culture references. At one point when Oscar is on TV after he defeats Lenny, a set up, he blurts out, 'You can't handle the truth.' And right afterwards, 'You had me at hello.' Two famous movie quotes that had absolutely nothing to do within the context of the scene. They were just there to get laughs, I guess, but it surely didn't work.
Besides the plot wearing thin after awhile, a lot of the writing is just so lazy. For instance, the script tries to have all these creative references, but they don't work. One is to The Godfather, with the octopus being named Luca, ala Luca Brasi. Yet the octopus is only an assistant to Don Lino, while Brasi was a cold blooded killer. They also could have made the octopus bigger, to fit the look more of Brasi. They could have done more with that reference, it's just like the lines of dialogue above that don't really fit in. Why make a reference like Luca and not go anywhere with it.
The kids are sure to love the bright colors and unoriginal music, like the cover of 'Car Wash.' And the product placement in Shark Tale is disgusting, from Coke to Krispy Kreme donuts-another attempt to get kids hooked on these brands early. They were even giving out free Krispy Kreme donuts after the screening; great idea for America's overweight children today.
I will admit the eyebrows on Sykes, voiced by Martin Scorsese, is pretty funny, and his character is probably one of the better aspects of Shark Tale. Overall, this feels like a dumbed-down Shrek 2, which I thought was pushing the limit between creativity and spouting off pop culture. After seeing Shark Tale, all I can say is, I can't wait for The Incredibles, the new Pixar film. I guess nothing will measure up though to the most creative animation film in the last 10 years, The Triplets of Belleville.