|
Advertisement |
Overall Rating
  Awesome: 11.63%
Worth A Look: 10.47%
Average: 39.53%
Pretty Bad: 24.42%
Total Crap: 13.95%
7 reviews, 44 user ratings
|
|
| Shark Tale |
by Jason Whyte
"Looks great...but haven't I seen this all before?"
|
"Shark Tale" is what happens when "Shrek" is mixed in with a bit of "Finding Nemo.” This film smacks of riding on the heels of Disney's smash-hit "Nemo" last summer, telling a very enjoyable story of a father fish looking for his lost son. "Shark Tale" has many of the same elements of that film, and the timing of this film furthers my point. Not only that, “Shark Tale” has laughs and a great visual design, but it doesn’t have enough originality to make it worthwhile.Which is not to say that "Shark Tale" is a bad film. But what worries me is this film might be the start of a series of animated features involving animals with broad-based jokes, the ones that adults will enjoy as much as their children counterparts. It’s all turning into a “formula.” Here, the human-jokes-in-an-underwater-world schtick is used heavily, and since the story is set in an underwater New York, it is expected that we are going to see the city from their perspective.
Oscar (voice of Will Smith) is a small fish living in the underwater Big Apple who works at a whale wash, secretly adored by his co-worker Angie (Renee’ Zellweger) and dreams of making it big. When Oscar witnesses a shark death that comes from a shark mafia family, he suddenly becomes known as a shark slayer, and Oscar gets his “in” into popularity. He strikes up a friendship with friendly shark Lenny (Jack Black) who is a vegetarian, who has yet to “come out” to his father Don Lino (Robert De Niro). Oscar is living a famous lie, and sooner or later, things will come back and bite him in the fin.
Will Smith annoyed me to no end in "I, Robot" earlier this year for his incessant nagging to everyone on screen. Here, his Oscar character won't stop mimicking old rap songs, yelling all over the action and to every last character. Less is more. The most inspired casting choice here is Martin Scorcese as a puffing fish named Sykes, which has a striking similarity to the director. Some of the other vocal talents, like Renee’ Zellweger, Robert DeNiro and Angelina Jolie are serviceable, and don’t really stand out. We probably wouldn’t even recognize them without their names plastered over the opening credits.
The animation is, of course, stunning, but every computer animated film is these days. We’ve certainly come a long way from the polygon-shapes of John Lassiter’s groundbreaking “Toy Story,” and my hats off to the animators, but we’ve reached the point where all of the stunning colors and depth of detail need no longer be mentioned. How can it get any better looking than this?“Shark Tale” has a good share of humor to go along with the splendid look and feel, but it is just too familiar, too alike to the other films from Disney and Dreamworks to really stand on its own. From the references to the voice casting, there needs to be a bigger break into originality rather than just being a little clever with the visual puns. And although it isn't perfect, whether you like this film or not, stay for the credits.
 del.icio.us 
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=10360&reviewer=350
originally posted: 10/01/04 02:08:48
![[printer]](/images/icon/printer.gif) printer-friendly format
|
OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2004 Toronto Film Festival. For more in the 2004 Toronto Film Festival series, click here.
|
 |
USA
01-Oct-2004 (PG)
DVD: 08-Feb-2005
UK
N/A
Australia
23-Sep-2004
|
|
Articles 
subscribe to this feed
![[AllPosters.com]](/images/icon/ap.gif){kind=icon}
