Shark Tale

Shark Tale is a 2004 American computer-animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. It was directed by Vicky Jenson, Bibo Bergeron, and Rob Letterman (in Letterman's feature directorial debut). The film stars the voices of Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Renée Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, and Martin Scorsese. It tells the story of a fish named Oscar (Smith) who falsely claims to have killed Frankie (Imperioli), the son of a shark mob boss named Don Lino (De Niro), to advance his own community standing and teams up with the mobster's other son Lenny (Black) to keep up the other facade.
Shark Tale premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 10, 2004, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 1. It opened at #1, earning $47.6 million, the second-highest opening for a DreamWorks Animation film at the time, behind Shrek 2 ($108 million). Shark Tale remained as the #1 film in the U.S. and Canada for its second and third weekends, and made $367 million worldwide against its $75 million budget. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, losing to Pixar's The Incredibles.
== Plot ==
In the Southside Reef, a lowly bluestreak cleaner wrasse named Oscar fantasizes about being rich and famous. Soon after arriving for work at the Whale Wash, he is called to the office of his boss, a pufferfish named Sykes, to discuss the fact that he owes a large sum of money and must pay it back by the next day. He remembers being humiliated as a child because his father was a tongue scrubber, so his angelfish friend, Angie, offers him a shiny pink pearl that was a gift from her grandmother to pawn and pay his debt. Oscar brings the money to the race track to meet Sykes, but hears that the race is rigged and bets it all on a seahorse named "Lucky Day". Sykes is annoyed that Oscar bet the money but agrees to see how the race turns out. Moments before Lucky Day crosses the finish line, he trips and loses.
Meanwhile, a family of criminally-inclined sharks which has associates such as killer whales, swordfish, and octopuses has a problem with one of their sons, Lenny, who is a vegetarian and refuses to act the part of a killer. His crime lord father, Don Edward Lino, orders his violent eldest son, Frankie, to mentor his brother in the family business. Frankie sees Oscar left for dead in the middle of the ocean by Sykes' two jellyfish henchmen, Ernie and Bernie, and urges Lenny to eat Oscar, but Lenny instead frees Oscar and tells him to escape. Furious, Frankie charges at Oscar, but suddenly an anchor falls on his head, killing him. Devastated and frightened over his brother's demise, Lenny flees. As there were no other witnesses and Oscar was seen near the body, everyone in the reef comes to believe that he killed Frankie, an opportunity that Oscar decides to exploit for fame.
Oscar returns to the reef with a new title of "Sharkslayer". Sykes becomes his manager and Oscar moves to the "top of the reef" to live in luxury. At the same time, Don Lino has everyone search for Lenny. When several sharks approach Oscar's neighborhood, his neighbors expect him to drive them away so he goes and encounters Lenny. Since he does not wish to return home, Lenny begs Oscar to let him stay at Oscar's house. Soon, Angie finds out about Oscar's lie and threatens to tell everyone. Oscar and Lenny stage an event in which Lenny pretends to terrorize the town and Oscar defeats him. Though this further cements Oscar's reputation and causes the beautiful but vindictive lionfish Lola to become his girlfriend, it infuriates Don Lino. Afterwards, Oscar and an angered Angie get into an argument, where she reveals that she had feelings for Oscar even before he became the "Sharkslayer", causing Oscar to dump Lola and reflect on the consequences of his selfishness.
Soon, Oscar buys some gifts for Angie, only to discover that Don Lino has kidnapped her to stage a meeting. Lenny attends disguised as a dolphin named Sebastian. Don Lino threatens to eat Angie if Oscar does not comply. Lenny grabs Angie into his mouth, but then regurgitates her and unintentionally reveals himself in front of everyone. Enraged, Don Lino chases Oscar through the reef. Oscar heads for the Whale Wash and ends up trapping Don Lino and accidentally trapping Lenny in the machinery. Oscar is given an ovation by everyone, but he finally confesses the truth behind Frankie's death. He then tells Don Lino that everyone likes Lenny for who he is and urges him to respect everyone's individual choices. Inspired by Oscar's confession, Don Lino reconciles with his son accepting him for who he is and states that he and his gang bear the city no ill will. Oscar forsakes all the wealth he has acquired, makes peace with the sharks, becomes co-manager of the Whale Wash, now frequented by sharks, killer whales, and swordfish, and lives happily ever after with Angie.
In the mid-credits, Lola shows up at Oscar's apartment to apologize only to encounter Crazy Joe, Oscar's eccentric hermit crab neighbor.
== Cast ==
* Will Smith as Oscar, a comical street wise bluestreak cleaner wrasse who works in the Whale Wash of Reef City who wants to be rich, but his schemes always fail and he ends up in-debt to his boss with five thousand clams.
* Robert De Niro as Don Lino, a shark and leader of a mob consisting of criminally-inclined great white sharks, who wants his two sons to take over his business and run it together, but becomes enraged when Oscar inadvertently gets in the way following one of his sons' death. James Gandolfini was originally set to voice the character, but had to drop out.
* Renée Zellweger as Angie, Oscar's angelfish best friend and colleague. Angie eventually becomes Oscar's girlfriend.
* Jack Black as Lenny, Don Lino's youngest son, who is a vegetarian, younger brother of Frankie and becomes good friends with Oscar.
* Angelina Jolie as Lola, a seductive female lionfish whom Oscar develops a romantic interest in for his money.
* Martin Scorsese as Sykes, the pufferfish owner of the Whale Wash and a loan shark to whom Oscar owes five thousand clams. He once worked with Don Lino, but was fired and called in his debts to pay off the gangster.
* Ziggy Marley and Doug E. Doug as Ernie and Bernie, two Jamaican jellyfish and Sykes' enforcers, who enjoy torturing Oscar with their painful stingers when he is in trouble with their boss.
* Michael Imperioli as Frankie, Lenny's older brother and Don Lino's eldest and more vicious son, who is embarrassed of Lenny's vegetarian views. Frankie is killed after an anchor accidentally hits him.
* Vincent Pastore as Luca, Don Lino's green octopus "left-hand, right-hand man", with a tendency to state the obvious much to Lino's frustration.
* Peter Falk as Don Feinberg, an elderly leopard shark and leader of a mob of criminally-inclined leopard sharks, who is a friend of Don Lino. Don Ira has a farting problem.
* Katie Couric as Katie Current, the local reporter of Southside Reef in the U.S. release. At the time, Katie Couric co-hosted Today in America. In the Australian release, then local Today co-host Tracy Grimshaw dubbed the lines. Fiona Phillips of the UK's GMTV performed the voice for the British release of the film. Cristina Parodi of Italy's Verissimo provided the Italian version of the character.
* David P. Smith as Crazy Joe, a deranged hermit crab who is Oscar's friend. He lives in a dumpster near the Whale Wash.
* David Soren as Shrimp, a shrimp who fears being eaten by a shark and is an enemy to Don Lino.
* Bobb'e J. Thompson as Shortie #1
* Phil LaMarr as Prawn Shop Owner
* Jenifer Lewis as Motown Turtle
Category:Cartoon Network Movies