In addition to casting the voices of the fish, all of the filmmakers, including the animators and character designers, spent a great deal of time researching varieties of fish to find what types best suited the characters in “Shark Tale.” Bergeron says, “We watched a lot of documentaries about sharks and all different species of fish, and looked through a lot of fish catalogues. We wanted to make sure our characters had origins in fish that actually exist. Obviously it’s a stretch—there is no city under the sea built by fish—so we started with something real and then shaped it into something we liked and that worked for our story.”
The filmmakers put together an immense library of images of fish and sea life and also took several field trips to the Long Beach Aquarium to see many kinds of fish firsthand.
Oscar ended up being a cleaner wrasse, which is a colorfully striped fish of blue, black and yellow. True to its name, a cleaner wrasse’s actual job is to clean other fish and its environment, which made working at the Whale Wash the perfect job for Oscar. Appropriately, Angie is an angelfish. Character technical director co-supervisor Kevin Ochs says, “We were looking for something elegant and the big, billowing fin, which we used as Angie’s hair, is characteristic to an angelfish—very flowing, very elegant.”
Lola, on the other hand, is predominantly a lion fish, with a little dragonfish mixed in for effect, making her as lethal as she is beautiful. “Lion fish are very beautiful,” Ochs relates, “but they are also very deadly. They have very powerful venom in their spines, so they basically lure their prey close only to deal a deadly end, so that was very fitting for Lola.”
Sykes is a puffer fish, with spines that make him look like he’s some sort of tough guy, but when he gets nervous, he puffs up and his voice gets high, which basically destroys the pretense. While traits of their respective species can be seen in the different fish characters, there are also none-too-subtle hints of the actors playing them evident in each one. Sykes’ Scorsese-esque “eyebrows” are among the most obvious features that reflect the actor behind the character, but they are only a fraction of what an observant moviegoer might catch.
“Half the fun of having a cast like this in the movie was capturing their faces in their characters,” Jenson remarks. “Animators have a way of bringing the actors’ mannerisms and personalities into a character, but it was really great that our designs helped support that, too. I think everyone was delighted when they saw their characters.”
Will Smith had no trouble catching the likeness. “He resembles me. They took the ears down a little bit, but I think people will still see a little bit of Will Smith in Oscar, and for me that’s just the best.” Lola’s lips are very reminiscent of her vocal alter ego and her dorsal fin was made to form her long flowing hair. Her tail was designed to look like a long slinky dress and sparkles add to her glamour, which Angelina Jolie says suited her just fine. “I don’t know how they did it, but they made her a very sexy fish and they did it beautifully. The way she looked went beyond my expectations. She’s a little wicked and all sparkly in red…and I got lucky because I got to be her.”
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