Shark Tale

Shark Tale is a 2004 American animated comedy film[1] produced by DreamWorks Animation. The film was directed by Vicky Jenson, Bibo Bergeron, and Rob Letterman, from a screenplay written by Letterman and Michael J. Wilson. The film features an ensemble cast that includes the voices of Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Renée Zellweger, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, and Martin Scorsese. It tells the story of an underachieving fish named Oscar (Smith) who falsely claims to have killed the son of a shark mob boss Don Lino (De Niro) in an attempt to advance his community standing. Oscar teams up with the mobster's younger son Lenny (Black) to keep up the facade.
Shark Tale premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 10, 2004, and was theatrically released in the United States by DreamWorks Pictures on October 1. It made $374.6 million worldwide against its $75 million budget, finishing its theatrical run as the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2004. The film received generally negative reviews from film critics. Advocacy groups criticized the film for its use of Italian-American stereotypes. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 77th Academy Awards.
== Plot[edit] ==
In the Southside Reef, a lonely bluestreak cleaner wrasse named Oscar, who, in his childhood, dreamed to be a tongue-scrubber at the Whale Wash, like his late father Earl until his classmates cruelly made fun of him for it, fantasizes about being rich and famous, but owes money to his boss and the Whale Wash's owner, a pufferfish named Sykes. His best friend, an angelfish named Angie, offers him a pearl that was a gift from her grandmother to pawn and pay his debt. Meanwhile, Don Lino, the boss of a mob gang of sharks, orcas, sailfish, and octopuses, which Sykes works for, dislikes that his son Lenny is a vegetarian, and orders his eldest son, Frankie, to mentor Lenny.
Oscar brings the money from the pearl to a seahorse race to meet Sykes the next day, but hears that the race is rigged and bets it all on a seahorse named "Lucky Day". Lola, a gold-digging lion fish, sees this and flagrantly seduces Oscar. Sykes is annoyed that Oscar bet the money, but he hopes that Oscar might win. Lucky Day, which revealed that the race was rigged against him, eventually takes the lead, only to trip and lose short of the finish line. Sykes loses his temper and orders his two Jamaican henchmen jellyfish, Ernie and Bernie, to deal with Oscar. While the two taunt the helpless Oscar, Frankie sees them and urges Lenny to eat Oscar, but Lenny instead frees Oscar and tells him to escape. Furious and fed up with his brother's tenderness, Frankie charges at Oscar, but suddenly an anchor from above the surface falls on his neck, killing him. Devastated and blaming himself for his brother's demise, Lenny leaves.
With no other witnesses, Oscar takes credit for killing Frankie and quickly rises in fame as the "Sharkslayer" and moves to the "top of the reef" to live in luxury, while Sykes becomes his manager and forgives his debt. At the same time, Lino has everyone search for Lenny and the "Sharkslayer". Oscar encounters Lenny who, aware of Oscar's lie, begs Oscar to let him stay at his place to avoid returning to his father. Angie soon finds out about Oscar's lie and threatens to tell everyone, but he and Lenny convince her to be quiet. The next day, Oscar and Lenny stage a battle involving Oscar "fighting" off Lenny, thus cementing Oscar's popularity and making the sharks believe that Lenny has been killed too, infuriating Lino. Lola kisses Oscar on camera, making Angie jealous. That night, as Lenny disguises himself for his new life as a dolphin, Oscar and Angie get into a heated argument, where she reveals that she had romantic feelings for Oscar even before he became the "Sharkslayer". A remorseful Oscar sadly reflects on his selfishness and dumps Lola, who beats him up in anger.
Oscar visits the Whale Wash laden with gifts for Angie, only to discover that Lino has kidnapped her to stage a meeting, which Lola is also attending in revenge for being dumped. Lino threatens to eat Angie if Oscar does not surrender, but Lenny "eats" Angie to save her. He soon regurgitates her, and Lino realizes the "dolphin" is Lenny. Enraged, Lino chases Oscar through the reef. Oscar flees to the Whale Wash, accidentally trapping Lenny in the machinery before also trapping Lino. Everyone cheers for Oscar, but he finally confesses the truth behind Frankie's death while urging Lino to respect Lenny's lifestyle. Lino reconciles with Lenny and accepts him, and states that he and his gang bear the city no ill will. Oscar forsakes all the wealth he has acquired, becomes co-owner of the Whale Wash (which is now frequented by the gang members), and reconciles, begins a romantic relationship and lives happily with Angie in the reef.
In a mid-credit scene, Lola arrives at the penthouse to apologize to Oscar, only to encounter his deranged hermit crab friend, Crazy Joe, instead.
== Voice cast[edit] ==
* Will Smith as Oscar, an insecure yet streetwise and comical Bluestreak cleaner wrasse who works for the Whale Wash of Southside Reef and often concocts schemes to become rich and famous in order to become respected by others. He is Angie's best friend and co-worker and works for Sykes.
* Robert De Niro as Don Lino, a great white shark and leader of a mob consisting of criminally-inclined great white sharks, who wants his two sons Lenny and Frankie to take over his business and run it together.
* Renée Zellweger as Angie, an angelfish who is Oscar's best friend and co-worker at the Whale Wash, and harbors a secret crush on him.
* Jack Black as Lenny, Don Lino's youngest son, a vegetarian, and the younger brother of Frankie, who becomes good friends with Oscar and Angie.
* Angelina Jolie as Lola, a femme fatale and gold digger lion fish, who is only interested in those who are rich and famous, in whom Oscar develops a romantic interest in her.
* Martin Scorsese as Sykes, a loan shark pufferfish who owns the Whale Wash and to whom Oscar owes five thousand clams for Don Lino who he used to work for until he got fired.
* 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 son, who is embarrassed by Lenny's vegetarian views.
* Vincent Pastore as Luca, a teal octopus and Don Lino's "assistant", with a tendency to state the obvious. Originally Luca was going to be played by Kevin Pollak as shown in an early promotional card for the film.[4] Pastore was also going to play an orca character called Willie,[5] though the character seems to not appear in the film.
* Peter Falk as Don Feinberg, an elderly leopard shark and leader of a mob of criminally-inclined leopard sharks.
* Katie Couric as Katie Current, a female sea bass who is the local reporter of the Southside Reef in the US release, the character is based on and modeled after Couric. At the time, Katie Couric co-hosted Today in America.[6] In the Australian release, then-local Today co-host Tracy Grimshaw dubbed her lines, while[6] Fiona Phillips of the UK's GMTV provided the voice for the British release of the film[7] and Cristina Parodi of Italy's Verissimo provided the Italian version of the character.[8]
* David P. Smith as Crazy Joe, a deranged hermit crab who becomes Oscar's "financial advisor".
* Bobb'e J. Thompson, Kamali Minter, Emily Lyon Segan as the Shorties, three delinquent young fish and friends of Oscar who love to spray graffiti. Two of them are cowfishes and one is a Pennant coralfish.
* Shelley Morrison as Mrs. Sanchez, an old grumpy weeverfish.
* David Soren as an unnamed shrimp who fears being eaten by a shark and is an enemy to Don Lino.
* Sean Bishop as an unnamed green sperm whale who attends the Whale Wash.
* Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott portray fish versions of themselves at the end of the film, singing "Car Wash".
== Production[edit] ==
The film was officially announced and began production in April 2002, under the title of Sharkslayer,[9][10] with Vicky Jenson (Shrek) and Bibo Bergeron (The Road to El Dorado) directing from a screenplay by Michael J. Wilson (Ice Age), as well as Mark Swift and Damian Shannon. By September 2003, the film had been retitled Shark Tale, to make it sound less violent and more family friendly.[11][12] Bill Damaschke, the producer of the film, explained the title change: "In the beginning, we set out to make a movie a little more noir, perhaps a little darker than where we've landed."[13] Shark Tale is the first all computer-animated film produced at DreamWorks Animation's Glendale facility, which previously animated the studio's hand-drawn animated movies, as well as the first computer-animated film by DreamWorks Animation to not be produced by Pacific Data Images.[10]
James Gandolfini was initially set to voice the kingpin shark, named Don Lino, but he dropped out, with Robert De Niro taking over the role.[10][14]
The film was produced concurrently with Finding Nemo, another animated film set underwater, which was released a year and a half earlier. DreamWorks Animation's CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg, defended the film, saying that "any similarities are mere coincidence. We've been open with the Pixar people, so we don't step on each other's toes."[14]
== Marketing[edit] ==
The film had promotional support from Burger King, Kellogg's, General Mills, Coca-Cola and Hewlett-Packard.[citation needed]
== Release[edit] ==
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Estreno_de_la_pelicula_%22Shark_Tale%22_en_la_Plaza_de_San_Marcos.JPG|thumb|The Piazza San Marco in Venice a day before the film's world premiere, where it was projected on the world's largest inflatable movie screen.
Shark Tale was initially scheduled for release on November 5, 2004, but was later moved up to October 1. This shift was reportedly made to avoid competition with Pixar's The Incredibles, which was released on the same weekend.[15] The film had its worldwide premiere on September 10, 2004, in Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy.[16] Screening as part of the Venice Film Festival, it marked the first time that Piazza San Marco was closed for a premiere of a major feature film.[16] The film was projected on the largest inflatable screen in the world, measuring more than six stories tall and over 3,900 square feet (360 m2). It required 20,000 cubic feet (570 m3) of air to inflate and more than 50 tons of water for stabilization.[16] The premiere was attended by 6,000 visitors,[17] including Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, and Michael Imperioli.[16] Jeffrey Katzenberg, the executive producer of the film, explained that they "wanted to find a unique way to introduce this movie to the world. We needed a big idea. ... More than anything, we are in showbusiness. This is the show part."[17]
=== Home media[edit] ===
Shark Tale was released on VHS
Category:VHS Tape