Appealing, funny, but ultimately unrewarding

Rating: Null/10 (18 October 2004)

DreamWorks rolls out big-hitting voice overs - Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Renée Zellweger and more - for this CGI underwater romp about what happens when a shy shark crosses paths with an ambitious fish
Since Disney and DreamWorks raised the bar by putting CGI and knowing humour into their films in the 1990s (with hits such as Toy Story and Antz), animated movies have changed. Romance and songs are still important, but positive responses from grown-ups are also elicited. References are slotted into scripts that only adults will understand, nods given to other movies and celebrity voice overs heartily encouraged. These are the things that will get adults trooping into the multiplex - naturally, with their children in tow.
DreamWorks' Shark Tale works this style very well. Considered by some the company's comeback to Disney's Finding Nemo, its cast list is much more top-drawer, with each character's features matching the actor giving them their voice. De Niro's shark has a mole and a drooping mouth, Zellweger's angel fish the same quirky smile, Scorsese's puffa fish the director's wild eyebrows. And then come the references to other movies. The Great Whites are an underwater Mafia family, puffing on cigars and hosting elaborate funerals like The Godfather's Corleones (scripting in Joe Pesci's "Am I a clown to you?" speech from GoodFellas beefs up these credentials). The ocean is a capitalist haven - apart from one public spirited poster for Tuna History Month - full of chain stores like Gup and billboards for Coral-Cola. One shark sings the Jaws theme tune to make himself scarier - while another camply comes out of the closet as a vegetarian.
However funny these references are, Shark Tale prides style over substance. Its plot suffers as a result, swooping clumsily between its two major characters, Lenny (Black) and Oscar (Smith). Lenny is an effeminate shark whose father Don Lino (De Niro) wants to toughen him up (unlike the similarly single father in Finding Nemo, who is fiercely protective of his charge). Lino wants Lenny and his brother Frankie (Imperioli, from 'The Sopranos') to take over the family business; Oscar (Smith) is a fish who works in a whale wash and wants to be "at the top of the reef where the somebody's live".
Their paths cross when Frankie is training Lenny in the dark arts of machismo. Frankie tragically dies, and Oscar, from then on, is mistakenly thought to be a shark slayer. Leaving his best friend Angie (Zellweger) down at the ocean floor, still desperately in love with him, Oscar joins forces with Lenny and the corrupt Sykes (Scorsese) to nurture his fame. A money-digging lion fish Lola (Jolie) latches onto him, a Jessica Rabbit with fins. Despite the fame and the accolades, of course, things soon fall apart for our shark slaying friend, and our hero learns the error of his ways.
The morals here are basic enough - don't cheat your way to the top; don't go looking elsewhere for what you can find at home; be proud of who you are. Nevertheless, this morality is only engaging when applied to Lenny, a truly adorable character - voiced well by Black - who carries the film. Smith's Oscar, on the other hand, is intensely annoying, and you cringe at his energetic outbursts. He's especially embarrassing when bantering with the West Indian jellyfish, whose heads are turned into tams. Characters' attitudes also change completely as the film comes to a close; De Niro becomes sympathetic and Smith becomes lovelorn. The storyline is secondary to the bells and the whistles, which is Shark Tale's ultimate flaw.
Verdict The special effects may be appealing, and the script often funny, but this tale is clumsy and clunky, and ultimately unsatisfying.