Shark Tale
| Shark Tale | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Rob Letterman Vicky Jenson Bibo Bergeron |
| Produced by | Jeffrey Katzenberg |
| Written by | Rob Letterman |
| Starring | Will Smith Robert De Niro Renee Zellweger Jack Black Angelina Jolie Martin Scorsese |
| Music by | Hans Zimmer |
| Distributed by | DreamWorks Animation |
| Release date(s) | October 1, 2004 |
| Running time | 90 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $75 million |
| Gross revenue | $367,275,019 |
Shark Tale is a 2004 CGI comedy produced by DreamWorks Animation. In the story, a young fish (played by the voice of Will Smith) falsely claims to have killed the son of a shark mob boss to win favor with the mob boss' enemies and advance his own community standing. The movie additionally features the voices of Jack Black, Renée Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Martin Scorsese, and Robert De Niro. Its original title was Sharkslayer, but the producers thought that this might provoke a degree of misunderstanding among the target audience of the film, children and families. Shark Tale is also one of the first three feature-length films to be made into a Game Boy Advance Video. It was released into theaters on October 1, 2004.
Contents |
Cast of characters
- Will Smith as Oscar, the Bluestreak cleaner wrasse. The film's protagonist, Oscar is an underachieving worker in the Whalewash of Reef City. He has a knack for creating schemes to make himself rich, but must ask for advances on his salary to finance them. Each plan ultimately fails, but leaves him in debt to his boss, Sykes. Sykes insists that Oscar repay him in full, a total of 5,000 clams. It is then that Oscar hatches his biggest plan, to become famous as a "shark slayer" when he makes everyone in the reef believe that he killed Frankie, the oldest son of Lino. His best friend Angie thinks that he has lied in order to become famous, and Oscar hasn't been the same since their apparent breakup.
- Robert De Niro as Don Lino. Father of Frankie and Lenny, and the leader of a mob of criminally-inclined sharks, Lino is the main antagonist of the film who only wants Lenny to be a killer shark. His home is a sunken luxury ship. When he thinks Oscar has killed Frankie, he becomes depressed as he knows everyone living in the cruise ship loved Frankie for who he was. When Lenny runs away, he sends squads to find him. When Oscar pretends to defeat Lenny, he knows that things have to be done and he decides to make Oscar as the "Catch-Of-The-Day". He is a parody of Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather.
- Renee Zellweger as Angie. An marine angelfish and Oscar's best friend and coworker, Angie harbors a secret love for him and in order win a race for Sykes, she gives him her grandmother's pearl to be out of debt to win the race. Soon, when Oscar owns the title "Sharkslayer", Angie learns that Oscar lied in order to receive his fame.
- Jack Black as Lenny. A great white shark, Lenny isn't normally a meat-eater---he's a vegetarian. When it comes to his fellow sea creatures, he has locked jaws. Lenny becomes depressed when his brother, Frankie, is killed and ran off from home where he practically befriends Oscar. He is also the young son of Lino.
- Angelina Jolie as Lola. A seductive gold-digger lion fish whom Oscar develops a love interest for, although it is later found that Lola is up to no good and is only using him for his fame and fortune.
- Martin Scorsese as Sykes. Oscar's employer, Sykes is a porcupinefish who wants Oscar to get five thousand clams in order to pay off Don Lino. Oscar bets the money and when the race is lost, he orders Ernie and Bernie to send Oscar to the Wastelands. When Oscar owns the title of "Sharkslayer", he is delighted to become his manager and he didn't have an idea that Oscar hadn't killed Frankie, the oldest son of Lino.
- Ziggy Marley and Doug E. Doug as Ernie and Bernie. Two jellyfish and Oscar's part-time friends, Ernie and Bernie are the two Jamaican bodyguards and henchmen of Sykes. Ernie and Bernie are normally different from each other and the two were possibly great friends who work at the Whalewash. They are obsessed at playing video games and enjoy jabbing Oscar with their vicious stingers. Ernie and Bernie have problems with answering the calls during the time at the Whalewash when Angie had been captured, as they kept messing up the business' motto.
- Michael Imperioli as Frankie. The oldest, more savage son of Lino, Frankie is Lenny's brother who normally is a killer shark and always works at his father's cruise ship yet he was always getting around to eat. When Lenny makes up a mistake, Frankie is hired to train Lenny to become a beastly killer and they stumble upon Oscar in the Wastelands. Frankie tells Lenny to attack him but when Lenny fakes the attack, Frankie becomes angry with him and after a brief chase, he prepares to eat Oscar but he ultimately has his fate when an anchor falls and hits him, killing him. Everyone thinks that Oscar brutalized him but it wasn't truly real.
- Vincent Pastore as Luca. Lino's "left-hand, right-hand man" thug, Luca is an octopus who typically is an idiotic kind of person.
- Peter Falk as Don Feinberg. An elderly leopard shark who is a friend to Don Lino.
- David P. Smith as Crazy Joe. A deranged hermit crab who is Oscar's other friend and having a "crazy attitude", he normally lives in a dumpster near the Whalewash.
- Katie Couric as Katie Current, the local reporter. At the time, Couric hosted the Today Show in America. In the Australian release, then local Today Show co-host Grimshaw dubbed the lines, as did Phillips of the UK's GM-TV for the UK release of the film. Cristina Parodi of Italy's Verissimo provided the Italian version of the character.
Reception
Nominations
- 2004 Oscar nominated for Best Animated Feature
Critical
Critical reception to Shark Tale since its release has been mixed to negative. On Rotten Tomatoes, it was reported that 33% of the critics gave the film positive reviews based on 166 reviews due to similarities to another fish-themed film, Finding Nemo, calling it "derivative and full of pop culture in-jokes". Critical reception from Metacritic to Shark Tale were also mixed. It received a 48% rating based on 36 reviews. Users of Metacritic gave the film a 5.2 rating based on 39 votes.
Box office
Despite the negative reviews, Shark Tale grossed $47,604,606 on its opening weekend placing itself #1. For the next two weeks, it stayed as #1 movie grossing $31,330,299 on its second week and on its third week, the film grossed $22,005,952. Overall, Shark Tale made $160 million nationwide and $206 million overseas with $367 million worldwide.
Criticisms and analysis
Many Italian-American organizations protested Shark Tale for perpetuating negative stereotypes of Italian-Americans. Many groups feel that such a movie would promote negative ideas about Italian-Americans among the younger viewers that the movie appealed to. Though much protesting was done, only a few aspects of the film had stereotypical features removed upon release.
Gay groups noted Lenny's "vegetarian" shark as a possible metaphor for coming out of the closet, and even speculate that the character Lenny could be a representative of a gay man. Noteworthy in this discussion is the fact that refusing to "eat meat" could be construed as a rejection of masculinity. A brief passing of Walter, a sperm whale voiced by Anthony Anderson, triggers a few suggestive comments regarding "sperm whales", although it isn't said outright. Lenny also expresses his fear of telling his father of being "vegetarian" and how his orientation would not be accepted. This is metaphorical of the stereotypical factor of a relationship between a conservative father and a homosexual son. The American Family Association has raised concerns about the movie, suggesting that it was designed to promote the acceptance of gay rights by children.[1][2]
Roger Ebert has said that the film doesn't make sense as a children's movie, "Since the target audience for Shark Tale is presumably kids and younger teenagers, how many of them have seen the R-rated "Godfather" and will get all the inside jokes? Not a few, I suppose, and some of its characters and dialogue have passed into common knowledge. But it's strange that a kid-oriented film would be based on parody of a 1972 gangster movie for adults."[3] He also observes that younger viewers would have trouble enjoying a movie about adult characters with adult problems (elaborate love triangles and a main character wanting to clear his debt with loan sharks) and compares it to more successful fish-focused animated features The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which features a simpler plot that anybody can identify with, and draws humor from the lifestyle of the fish instead of transferring ethnic stereotypes into fish as does Shark Tale.
According to the Internet Movie Database there were plans for a Shark Tale 2, however the listing has disappeared.
Soundtrack track listing
- Three Little Birds - Sean Paul feat. Ziggy Marley
- Car Wash (Shark Tale Mix) - Christina Aguilera feat. Missy Elliott
- Good Foot - Timbaland feat. Justin Timberlake
- Secret Love - Joanna "JoJo" Levesque
- Lies & Rumors - D12
- Got to Be Real - Mary J. Blige feat. Will Smith
- A Little Less Conversation - Elvis featuring Junkie XL
- Can't Wait - Avant
- Gold Digger - Ludacris feat. Bobby V. and Lil Fate
- Get It Together - India.Arie
- We Went as Far as We Felt Like Going - The Pussycat Dolls
- Digits - fan 3
- Sweet Kind of Life - Cheryl Lynn
- Some of My Best Friends Are Sharks - Hans Zimmer
See also
References
- ^ Vitagliano, Ed (2004-11-17). "Something's Swishy About Shark Tale", Agape Press (Now AFA Journal). Retrieved on 24 June 2007.
- ^ Still Cranky After All These Years." Media Transparency. 2007-04-19. Retrieved on 2007-06-15
- ^ :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews :: Shark Tale (xhtml)
External links
- Official site
- Shark Tale at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- Shark Tale at the Internet Movie Database
- Shark Tale at Allmovie
- Shark Tale at Box Office Mojo
- Shark Tale at Rotten Tomatoes
| Preceded by The Forgotten |
Box office number-one films of 2004 (USA) October 3, 2004 – October 17, 2004 |
Succeeded by The Grudge |
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