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Disney Dreamworks came up with a pretty entertaining diversion in 2004 called Shark Tale, a colorful and funny animated tale that, despite a fantastic all-star voice cast that makes the movie seem better than it is, does suffer from a severe lack of originality.
Just about everything that happens in this movie was borrowed from classic live action movies like The Godfather, Goodfellas, Scarfaceand West Side Story but it is mounted on a somewhat original canvas...an underwater canvas to be specific. An entire Metropolis and syndicated organization has been created in the underwater world revealed as well as a class division between the fish and the sharks and what happens when the two classes collide, which is actually an animated film staple: two creatures who by nature should be enemies but become friends.
This is the story of a big dreaming hustling fish named Oscar (voiced by Will Smith) who is mistakenly believed to be the responsible for the death of a shark (voiced by Michael Imperioli), who is the son of a shark mob boss (voiced by Robert De Niro) and has a nerdy brother named Lenny (voiced by Jack Black) who doesn't want to be part of the shark mob and doesn't want to eat fish. We then watch Oscar and Lenny both try to take advantage of the shark's death as the media celebrates Oscar as a shark killer and Lenny learns how to be a better shark through his new buddy the fish.
As mentioned, Michael J.Wilson and Rob Letterman's screenplays borrows from a lot of other movies but a contemporary veneer is applied so that the non-discriminating filmgoer won't really notice how unoriginal it really is.
The voice cast is spectacular though, with standout work from Smith, De Niro, and towering above everybody is Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese, who pretty much steals the film voicing Sykes, a loud-mouthed blowfish whose loyalties keep changing throughout the film.
Nothing terribly original here, but it will keep the kids amused for 90 minutes.
Disney Dreamworks came up with a pretty entertaining diversion in 2004 called Shark Tale, a colorful and funny animated tale that, despite a fantastic all-star voice cast that makes the movie seem better than it is, does suffer from a severe lack of originality.
Just about everything that happens in this movie was borrowed from classic live action movies like The Godfather, Goodfellas, Scarfaceand West Side Story but it is mounted on a somewhat original canvas...an underwater canvas to be specific. An entire Metropolis and syndicated organization has been created in the underwater world revealed as well as a class division between the fish and the sharks and what happens when the two classes collide, which is actually an animated film staple: two creatures who by nature should be enemies but become friends.
This is the story of a big dreaming hustling fish named Oscar (voiced by Will Smith) who is mistakenly believed to be the responsible for the death of a shark (voiced by Michael Imperioli), who is the son of a shark mob boss (voiced by Robert De Niro) and has a nerdy brother named Lenny (voiced by Jack Black) who doesn't want to be part of the shark mob and doesn't want to eat fish. We then watch Oscar and Lenny both try to take advantage of the shark's death as the media celebrates Oscar as a shark killer and Lenny learns how to be a better shark through his new buddy the fish.
As mentioned, Michael J.Wilson and Rob Letterman's screenplays borrows from a lot of other movies but a contemporary veneer is applied so that the non-discriminating filmgoer won't really notice how unoriginal it really is.
The voice cast is spectacular though, with standout work from Smith, De Niro, and towering above everybody is Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese, who pretty much steals the film voicing Sykes, a loud-mouthed blowfish whose loyalties keep changing throughout the film.
Nothing terribly original here, but it will keep the kids amused for 90 minutes.