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#439 - Shark Tale
Rob Letterman/Vicky Jenson/Bibo Bergeron, 2004
In a world where fish and sharks share an uneasy co-existence, one fish who dreams of rising above his station gets the opportunity when he takes the credit for the death of a shark.
Shark Tale is probably the best indicator of DreamWorks Animation at its worst. It's a computer-animated film about talking fish that just so happened to come out in the wake of Pixar's own computer-animated talking-fish movie Finding Nemo, but it also happens to expose the main differences between the two studios at the time. In DreamWorks' case, this was not for the better. While a lot of family-oriented films try to provide something for the whole family, whether it's cartoon slapstick for the young ones and clever gags for the older members, here Shark Tale takes it to the extreme in its building a story off a rather cracked-up Mafia parody where the general fish population of an underwater city (which already beggars belief even without the fact that it apparently has a sushi shop) live in constant fear of the gangster-like sharks that live in the wreck of the Titanic (yes, really). Enter Will Smith as a cocky lower-class fish who wants to make it to the upper class and, thanks to a series of bizarre circumstances involving the two sons of the local shark boss (Robert de Niro), becomes renowned for becoming the first fish to ever kill a shark and thus becomes a rich and famous hero, but of course all sorts of circumstances threaten to bring it all down...
While it's become common practice for American animated films to star a lot of recognisable Hollywood actors, Shark Tale once again takes things to an extreme by modelling its aquatic characters on the vocal talent to uncanny effect. That way you get weird moments like a great white shark with de Niro's distinctive facial mole or a femme fatale fish that you can tell is being played by Angelina Jolie even before she says a word. If anything, most of the appreciation for your typical DreamWorks film from the 2000s seems to come from picking apart the nonsensical nature of its world-building and humour (just look at Bee Movie, which might be the only DreamWorks movie that's more ridiculous than this one), and Shark Tale becomes way too dependent on surreal human-based behaviour or simple pop culture parodies for much of its humour. Though it does have the occasional genuine chuckle (I laughed way too hard at this scene, for instance), most of the time the obvious nature of the references and jokes is enough to induce cringing. The story and message are also kind of simple and also a bit muddled by the universe that's been established, while charismatic actors do their best with the sub-standard material. The animation also looks pretty decent and colourful for the most part, apart from the aforementioned detours into the Uncanny Valley. Shark Tale may have earned a place on my Worst 100 a few years back, but it's grown on me just enough to not make it back on there. It may be an extremely cringe-worthy example of everything wrong with family films in the 21st century, but that doesn't automatically make it the worst movie ever. At the very least, it's too bizarre to not be at least a little entertaining.
Rob Letterman/Vicky Jenson/Bibo Bergeron, 2004
In a world where fish and sharks share an uneasy co-existence, one fish who dreams of rising above his station gets the opportunity when he takes the credit for the death of a shark.
Shark Tale is probably the best indicator of DreamWorks Animation at its worst. It's a computer-animated film about talking fish that just so happened to come out in the wake of Pixar's own computer-animated talking-fish movie Finding Nemo, but it also happens to expose the main differences between the two studios at the time. In DreamWorks' case, this was not for the better. While a lot of family-oriented films try to provide something for the whole family, whether it's cartoon slapstick for the young ones and clever gags for the older members, here Shark Tale takes it to the extreme in its building a story off a rather cracked-up Mafia parody where the general fish population of an underwater city (which already beggars belief even without the fact that it apparently has a sushi shop) live in constant fear of the gangster-like sharks that live in the wreck of the Titanic (yes, really). Enter Will Smith as a cocky lower-class fish who wants to make it to the upper class and, thanks to a series of bizarre circumstances involving the two sons of the local shark boss (Robert de Niro), becomes renowned for becoming the first fish to ever kill a shark and thus becomes a rich and famous hero, but of course all sorts of circumstances threaten to bring it all down...
While it's become common practice for American animated films to star a lot of recognisable Hollywood actors, Shark Tale once again takes things to an extreme by modelling its aquatic characters on the vocal talent to uncanny effect. That way you get weird moments like a great white shark with de Niro's distinctive facial mole or a femme fatale fish that you can tell is being played by Angelina Jolie even before she says a word. If anything, most of the appreciation for your typical DreamWorks film from the 2000s seems to come from picking apart the nonsensical nature of its world-building and humour (just look at Bee Movie, which might be the only DreamWorks movie that's more ridiculous than this one), and Shark Tale becomes way too dependent on surreal human-based behaviour or simple pop culture parodies for much of its humour. Though it does have the occasional genuine chuckle (I laughed way too hard at this scene, for instance), most of the time the obvious nature of the references and jokes is enough to induce cringing. The story and message are also kind of simple and also a bit muddled by the universe that's been established, while charismatic actors do their best with the sub-standard material. The animation also looks pretty decent and colourful for the most part, apart from the aforementioned detours into the Uncanny Valley. Shark Tale may have earned a place on my Worst 100 a few years back, but it's grown on me just enough to not make it back on there. It may be an extremely cringe-worthy example of everything wrong with family films in the 21st century, but that doesn't automatically make it the worst movie ever. At the very least, it's too bizarre to not be at least a little entertaining.