Shark Tale (2004)

Shark Tale

It's a big ocean out there - and obviously Dreamworks felt that there was

room for two big fishes in a sea of riches when they decided to do a Finding

Nemo of their own. Oscar (Will Smith) is a small and unimportant fish in a

big ocean; that is until he inadvertently crosses paths with Don Lino

(Robert DeNiro), Godfather of the Shark mob. Lino is looking for revenge

when his favorite son is killed, and Oscar - seeing an opportunity to get

out of the slums - takes credit for the kill and becomes a public hero.

After getting tied up with Lino's self-conflicted son named Lenny (Jack

Black), Oscar finds that fame isn't all that its cracked up to be - and that

importance can't be judged and weighed with the almighty dollar sign.

Of course, this premise is interestingly ironic, considering all of the

product placements that we endure throughout this movie. Where Finding Nemo

featured subtle parodies of human society underwater, Dreamworks fashions

Shark Tale by giving celebrities gills, animating its characters to the

persona they're being voiced by. One has to wonder whether Dreamworks

pitched a film like Finding Nemo to the big corporations, asking for money

and then sold ad space by the dollar. There's a subtle art to placing

products in a film, and while it can sometimes be a minor nuisance in some

films, Shark Tale shoots a barrage of these products in our faces - and it

doesn't sit well with me.

This also made it harder to swallow the moral pill that money and status

doesn't solve all of life's problems, as the film pays due to all who

invested heavily in this project (and we see everything from Coke to Krispy

Kreme Donuts being). Certainly the deterring factor between good film and

great film was the abundance of corporate influence on the script and the

surroundings featured in the film. This is no Finding Nemo, as I have to ask

where we draw the line between satire and brainwashing. And considering that

Shark Tale was meant for kids, what the hell is the message here? Drink Coke

and listen to shitty Christina Aguilera remakes of classic funk tunes?

Absolutely not.

But here I am, delineating the film as a total piece of shit - when there

are some good things thrown into the mix as well. Visually the film is

pretty stunning - and Dreamworks definitely reaffirms its own sense of style

of computer generated affairs; I suppose it's easier to sell these kinds of

movies when they feature a familiar famous face (as I said, Dreamworks

animated these characters well), and everything from the character design to

the underwater world is done with detailed precision. I did like the message

the story had to tell, despite the irony mentioned above - and there are

some really good jokes when the film isn't busy parodying a product that we

can buy.

If there's anything certain to be said about Shark Tale, it is that kids

will eat this film up. At a packed theater I witnessed many youngsters

filling the cinema with cries of laughter and awe - and it's certainly nice

to see that Dreamworks Animation did something that is a lot of fun. Isn't

it odd how times have changed, and how is it since the days of the

exceptionally clever film Antz they've become a marketing powerhouse? These

may be the inane ramblings of some hippie bastard who has nothing better to

do than bitch about money (or the lack thereof), but frankly I don't feel

comfortable telling you to bring your kids without warning you that they'll

be getting a delicious spoonful dose of advertisement heroin. Either way,

many people will get a kick out of seeing the likes of Martin Scorsese,

Robert DeNiro, Jack Black, Will Smith, Renee Zellweger and Angelina Jolie

personified as sea creatures, and Shark Tale certainly will do what it set

out to do in the first place - bank some serious coin.

(C) Chris McGeachy September 26 2004

http://www.dvdork.com/ 

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