The battle is over and won...

Rating: Null/10 (18 October 2004)

And I'm sorry to say it, but Pixar's Finding Nemo is way better than Shark Tale.
Don't get me wrong: Shark Tale is a great film. Its colourful, funny and a delight to see in the cinema. The best choices for voice-overs are in this: Will Smith is perfect; Renee Zellweger plays her sweet charm; Robert De Niro is doing what he does best. There are even some surprises: never ever thought that Jack Black, last seen in School of Rock, would voice Lenny, the vegetarian, unhappy shark.
But Finding Nemo succeeds because it was original. FN was beautiful. ST is unfortunately nothing more than a parody of as much as it can get away with. And most of the time, it's in bad taste. Jaws has been used way too many times. We've had enough of the Godfather. They even used the blowfish (or whatever it is. You know what I'm talking about) from FN and over-used it. Even the plot is too familiar. And why, oh why does every character look like the voice star? And are they fish, or eels?
The best thing going for it is Lenny. The "I'm a vegetarian" scene: I found it touching. Not funny. Was that the effect it was meant to have, or did they just do it wrong? Also, the nice thing about FN was that the fish hug, which shows even more affection than a weird snog. It is just as bizarre watching fishes kiss as it is watching plasticine chickens snog in Chicken Run (and you don't even see that kiss, cos Rocky's in the way THANK GOD). In ST it's not "Awahhhhhhh-ARGH!" - it's "ew".
Pity really. Shark Tale's brilliant and worth your money and time, but it doesn't stand a chance.