|
|
| 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. |
(2004) Film Review |
| This
page was created on September 30, 2004
This page was last updated on
December 10, 2004
—Review
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections
—Blog
Maurice here
Dial up modems will take a few moments |
| CREDITS |
| Directed
by Bibo Bergeron, Rob
Letterman and
Vicky Jenson
Writing
credits Rob Letterman, Damian Shannon, Mark Swift and Michael
J. Wilson
Cast
(in credits order)
Will Smith .... Oscar (voice)
Robert De Niro .... Don Lino (voice)
Renée Zellweger .... Angie (voice)
Jack Black .... Lenny (voice)
Angelina Jolie .... Lola (voice)
Martin Scorsese .... Sykes (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically
Katie Couric .... Katie Current (voice)
Doug E. Doug .... Bernie (voice)
Peter Falk .... Don Brizzi (voice)
Tracey Grimshaw .... Katie Current (Australian Version) (voice)
Michael Imperioli .... Frankie (voice)
James Madio .... Vinny (voice)
Ziggy Marley .... Ernie (voice)
Vincent Pastore .... Luca (voice)
Joseph Siravo
Produced
by
Bill Damaschke .... producer
Janet Healy .... producer
Jeffrey Katzenberg .... executive producer
Allison Lyon Segan .... producer
Original Music by Hans Zimmer
Additional music by Trevor Morris, Geoff Zanelli
Christina Aguilera (song "Car Wash")
Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott (song "Car Wash")
Film Editing by Nick Fletcher , Peter Lonsdale
and John Venzon
MPAA: Rated PG for some mild
language and crude humor.
Runtime: 90 min
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM,
and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG
|
| TRAILERS
AND CLIPS |
| —Trailers,
Photos |
| CD |
Shark
Tale
Various Artists - Soundtracks - 2004
|
| BOOK |
Shark
Tale Movie Storybook
by Inc. Scholastic
|
| POSTER |
|
| AVAILABILITY
ON VIDEO AND DVD |
CHECK
AVAILABILITY AND PRICING OF THIS MOVIE ON VIDEO OR DVD.
Just type in movie title and click go.
Also,
check out 100
Hot Videos
and the
100 Hot DVDs
|
|
| SYNOPSIS
|
| Oscar
(Will Smith) is a fast-talking little fish who dreams big. But his
big dreams land him in hot water when a great white lie turns him
into an unlikely hero. At first, his fellow fish swallow Oscar’s
story hook, line and sinker and he is showered with fame and fortune.
It’s all going along swimmingly, until it starts to become clear
that Oscar’s tale about being the defender of the Reef is all
wet. Oscar is finding out that being a hero comes at a Market Price
when his lie threatens to make him the Catch of the Day. Now he has
to tread water until he can get the scales to tip back in his favor
again.
"Shark
Tale" stars the voices of Will Smith as Oscar, a hustler, who
has always been able to fin-agle his way out of trouble, until now;
two-time Academy Award® winner Robert De Niro ("Raging
Bull," "The Godfather, Part II") as Don Lino, a great
white shark at the top of the Reef’s food chain; two-time
Oscar® nominee Renée Zellweger ("Chicago,"
"Bridget Jones’s Diary") as Angie, a beautiful angel
fish who harbors a secret crush on Oscar; Academy Award® winner
Angelina Jolie ("Girl, Interrupted") as Lola, the femme
fatale, a dragon fish who uses her feminine wiles to get what she
wants; Jack Black ("School of Rock") as Don Lino’s
son Lenny, a great white shark who is a closet vegetarian; and multiple
Oscar®-nominated director Martin Scorsese ("Gangs of New
York," "Goodfellas") as Sykes, a puffer fish who
is full of hot air and never misses an opportunity to make a few
extra clams.
Rounding
out the main cast are: veteran actor Peter Falk ("Columbo")
as Don Brizzi, a shark who is long in the tooth, but still has plenty
of bite left; Michael Imperioli ("The Sopranos") as Don
Lino’s oldest son Frankie, a chip off the old shark; Vincent
Pastore ("The Sopranos") as Luca, an oily octopus, which
makes him the perfect right-hand man; and Doug E. Doug and Ziggy
Marley as Bernie and Ernie, two Rastafarian jelly fish with a stinging
sense of humor.
"Shark
Tale" is directed by Eric "Bibo" Bergeron and Vicky
Jenson, with Rob Letterman serving as co-director. Bill Damaschke,
Janet Healy and Allison Segan are producing.
|
|
|
 Review
by MAURICE BROADDUS
Website:
www.MauriceBroaddus.com
Email: maurice@mauricebroaddus.com
Holds a Bachelor's of Science degree in Biology (with an undeclared
major in English) from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.
He works as an environmental toxicologist by day and is a horror
writer by night. Obviously his areas of interests includes religious
studies, folklore, and myths. He is a notorious egotist who, in
anticipation of a successful writing career, is practicing speaking
of himself in the third person. Oh yeah, he's married to the lovely
Sally Jo and has two boys: Maurice Gerald Broaddus II (thus, retroactively
declaring himself "Maurice the Great") and Malcolm Xavier Broaddus.
|
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.
—Blog
Maurice here
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