Shark Tale
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The easiest way for me to sum up A Shark Tale, since it will invariably be compared to Finding Nemo, is to recall when the movies A Bug’s Life and Antz came out. They came out within a year of each other, both seemed to cover the same territory, yet they were completely different movies. A Shark Tale is the Antz. The movies pales in comparison to Finding Nemo mostly because it replaces heart, or anything approaching real emotion, with rapid fire jokes. This makes for a fine and entertaining, though ultimately forgettable, movie. There were plenty of times when the adults were laughing, but the kids stared wide-eyed at the screen since whatever everyone was laughing at was at least animated. The movie clearly suffers from a case of being too hip for its audience. The jokes and allusions come at a fast and furious pace, and either you are in on the jokes, or you are bored by the self-referential "wit" of it. References don’t entertain kids. Nor can, or should, they relate to a plot that revolves around a mafia spoof. Oscar (voiced by Will Smith) and Lenny (Jack Black) are essentially two sides of the same coin. Neither of them are living the life they were created or expected to live. Oscar is filled with get rich quick schemes and dreams of being somebody. Lenny is set to inherit the family business but dreams of being a "nobody". He is also a vegetarian, thus risking alienation from his family, especially his father Don Lino (Robert DeNiro) should he decide to come out of the closet with it.
I kept waiting for the movie to be "about" something. At one point, Oscar is bought with a pearl of great price, as the woman who pines for him offers a family heirloom to help him pay off a loan shark. She offers the wisdom, in reference to the large pearl, that "dreams can begin small, too." At another point, Lenny’s brother, Frankie, dies. This also again points to how the movie veers from heart for the joke. Unlike animated movies such as Bambi, The Lion King, or Finding Nemo, this death in the family is played for laughs. One might expect that this element of tragedy would be the transforming event in our two protagonists lives. And it is, if you count embracing a lie as the life-changing event. Oscar is transformed into his new life as a shark killer. Ultimately, this movie is about a call to authenticity or, as the cover to Cheryl Lynn’s song proclaims, they’ve "Got to be Real". Both Oscar and Lenny are called from their old lives into their new ones. Once they’ve shed the lies, they embrace the call of who they are and who they were meant to be in the fuller sense. However, in eschewing sentiment for the sake of humor, I felt cheated by the movie, much in the same way as a person who keeps you from getting close to them by throwing jokes at you. So I left wondering how great it might have been if only the movie could have been real with the audience.
—Review
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections
The easiest way for me to sum up A Shark Tale, since it will invariably be compared to Finding Nemo, is to recall when the movies A Bug’s Life and Antz came out. They came out within a year of each other, both seemed to cover the same territory, yet they were completely different movies. A Shark Tale is the Antz. The movies pales in comparison to Finding Nemo mostly because it replaces heart, or anything approaching real emotion, with rapid fire jokes. This makes for a fine and entertaining, though ultimately forgettable, movie. There were plenty of times when the adults were laughing, but the kids stared wide-eyed at the screen since whatever everyone was laughing at was at least animated. The movie clearly suffers from a case of being too hip for its audience. The jokes and allusions come at a fast and furious pace, and either you are in on the jokes, or you are bored by the self-referential "wit" of it. References don’t entertain kids. Nor can, or should, they relate to a plot that revolves around a mafia spoof. Oscar (voiced by Will Smith) and Lenny (Jack Black) are essentially two sides of the same coin. Neither of them are living the life they were created or expected to live. Oscar is filled with get rich quick schemes and dreams of being somebody. Lenny is set to inherit the family business but dreams of being a "nobody". He is also a vegetarian, thus risking alienation from his family, especially his father Don Lino (Robert DeNiro) should he decide to come out of the closet with it.
I kept waiting for the movie to be "about" something. At one point, Oscar is bought with a pearl of great price, as the woman who pines for him offers a family heirloom to help him pay off a loan shark. She offers the wisdom, in reference to the large pearl, that "dreams can begin small, too." At another point, Lenny’s brother, Frankie, dies. This also again points to how the movie veers from heart for the joke. Unlike animated movies such as Bambi, The Lion King, or Finding Nemo, this death in the family is played for laughs. One might expect that this element of tragedy would be the transforming event in our two protagonists lives. And it is, if you count embracing a lie as the life-changing event. Oscar is transformed into his new life as a shark killer. Ultimately, this movie is about a call to authenticity or, as the cover to Cheryl Lynn’s song proclaims, they’ve "Got to be Real". Both Oscar and Lenny are called from their old lives into their new ones. Once they’ve shed the lies, they embrace the call of who they are and who they were meant to be in the fuller sense. However, in eschewing sentiment for the sake of humor, I felt cheated by the movie, much in the same way as a person who keeps you from getting close to them by throwing jokes at you. So I left wondering how great it might have been if only the movie could have been real with the audience.
8 Comments:
The movie SUCKED! I wish I could get my two hours back. Nuff said.
I liked the movie. Guess you need a sense of humor to be able to understand.
i think this movie is best enjoyed if you turn off your brain and enjoy it for what it is: a fun romp meant to entertain for an hour and a half and be forgotten.
I didn't think this movie "sucked"! I bought it on DVD; I buy most CGI cartoons on DVD these days, as I am fascinated by the medium...
But I agree with Maurice that it is definitely not as good as "Finding Nemo"! It had neither the "heart", nor that tremendous sense of "oceanic feeling", as both I and Sigmund Freud care to call it (no pun intended - he thought it was the foundation of religious experience - it's basically a sense of universal interconnectedness - not a bad expression, since on this planet all life came from the oceans.)
Nor does it have the comfort of that wonderful optimism on the part of Ellen DeGeneres as Dory! I loved her part.
"Nemo" was of course visually stunning; "Shark Tale" is less so, although much busier.
You can't appreciate the wit or the story at all, Maurice, if you "turn off your brain". Anyway, re the mafia spoof element and its appropriateness - does anyone think that these movies are written mainly for kids, these days? I don't. They've too much money spent on them! They're crossover, and as such, designed to work on many levels.
I think that like many modern CGI movies, "Shark Tale" is in fact a plea for tolerance. As Shrek I and II were. Like "Shrek II", I feel that "Shark Tale" could very well be viewed as containing a sly element of pro-gay-rights, as well as a general plea for people to be allowed to "be themselves".
The wimpiness of the character Lenny, and his obvious comfort in posing as "a dolphin" - and his vegetarianism, could also be viewed as a sort of transposition of homosexuality - not because all veggies are gay, but because for sharks, being "macho" would obviously be the enforced norm of their society, and heterosexuality is in ours.
(I know how to read this stuff, folks! My eye does not fail to see!)
I agree that making Lenny's brother, Frankie's death, into a joke didn't have much sensitivity, but I really don't think the movie would have worked without it.
As for making "embracing a lie", into a "life-changing event", well, it often is, in fairy tales, Maurice, everybody! These folk tales that were handed down from days pre over-heightened moral sensibilities!
"Shark Tale" is probably modelled quite closely on some folk tale. I have a feeling there is an ethnic one that fits it. An animal one from Africa, perhaps?
But I don't know what it is, myself. The closest equivalent I can think of to this theme of the liar prospering as "hard man", is Grimm's "Brave Little Tailor", who boasted to have killed "seven with one blow", and married some king's daughter on the strength of it, when really he had done no such thing. Well he did, but the seven were flies (!!!!)
Who told you the German mind had no sense of humour??
You know folklore, Maurice - so why didn't you pick this one up!
Ah! There's nothing quite like a childhood misspent on fairy tales.
no, this movie didn't suck. it was quite subversive in its sensibilities, most of which was lost on the under eight crowd to which it was marketed.
it kind of reminded me of bugs bunny cartoons. how they worked on one level for kids and another level for adults.
what i was objecting to was the automatic equating of anything remotely smelling of the "homosexual agenda" with being anti-family or dangerous. the "subversive" message of the film was be yourself and accept others for who they are. um, that doesn't sound like a threat to society.
Were you objecting, Maurice? I thought it was the other chap who thought it sucked!
No, it didn't seem like a threat to society. But I don't think anyone thought it was, as to date, I haven't read anyone picking up on the "homosexual agenda" besides me, and possibly you! They've complained about Shrek II; they've moaned about SpongeBob SquarePants and Buster the bunny... Actually I don't think large sections of America approve any more, of movies with ANY message of tolerance in them; and if it might be a "homosexual agenda" or crossdressing, even... That gets them! (Though I didn't hear a soul complaining about Mrs Doubtfire - that was pre the reign of Bush, though!)
WHO was equating "the homosexual agenda" with being anti-family or dangerous, in this movie? Do you mean because the sharks were Mafia parodies?
Maurice, you're as clear as the walls of the aquarium in Finding Nemo, sometimes!
nope liz, wasn't objecting to you. i was objecting here to the numerous e-mails i received condemning "a shark's tale" as part of the homosexual conspiracy to brainwash kids.
they saw lenny as effeminate and him pretending to be a dolphin as cross-dressing. add that to the "be yourself"/"accept me as i am" message, and apparently you get an anti-family movie.
liz, believe it or not, we're on the same page.
Oh, I'm sure we ARE sometimes "on the same page", Maurice!
It's just that you're not as clear as me!
Hmm, so the right-wingers read this movie correctly (again!!!) (Ha ha ha ha, ha ha!) They're not so DUMB, when it comes to sniffing out "pro-tolerance" messages, in ALL spheres, ARE they?? They can spot REALLY pretty subtle messages, if you got LOADS of e-mails regarding it! (Was the first "Anonymous" on here one of those?)
I think the right wing train them these days: as Nazis trained people to pick up physical traits of Semitism, and also pro-Jewish messages in plays.
Yeah, I thought they were right! Lenny the dolphinesque veggie shark was an effeminate, gay cross-dresser!!! (Just as Miller was right, all right, about my friend the Joker: he IS a louche, sensualist, sexually adventurous, bi-sexual. Though not as useless and nasty and pointless a chap as Miller makes out! Bisexual criminals have feelings too!)
These right-wingers, they can sometimes call it to a T! It must take one, on their part, to know one.
So, you got lots of e-mails condemning "Shark Tale", did you? All from Christians, no doubt.
Ah, the religious right! (Did you get a lot about Shrek II? Did you review that? Must be on here somewhere... Actually this site isn't the easiest to navigate!)
I LOVE cartoons with "be yourself"/"accept me as I am" messages! In fact, that's what many of such productions revolve around these days... It MUST be a socially popular message, at least a generally acceptable one, if so many CGI movies make hundreds of millions...
That's more than Miller makes!
Yeah. So, in majority terms, the Christian right has to be well in the minority on this issue.
(And don't they hate the fact!)
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