Oscar, a downtrodden fish who works at a whale wash, starts off as a nobody.
But when a great white shark with ties to the mafia turns up dead and Oscar (Will Smith) is standing over the body, he becomes an instant celebrity. Now Oscar the "Sharkslayer" is doing interviews with the reef's biggest news reporter, Katie Current (voiced, naturally, by Katie Couric).
In addition to Oscar, "Shark Tale" features a cast of colorful sub-aqua characters.
There's Angie (Renée Zellweger), the good-hearted secretary who's in love with the hero; Sykes (Martin Scorsese), a blowfish and Oscar's boss; Don Lino (Robert De Niro), a great white shark who's the head of the shark mob; and Lenny (Jack Black), Don Lino's youngest son who's disowned for not being a good carnivore like his brothers.
The voices of "Shark Tale" are some of the biggest in the business, but with the exception of De Niro and Scorsese, they're mostly uninspired.
Smith, Zellweger, Jolie and Black seem all too aware they're in a kids' movie. Black is especially bad. In his character's early scenes, he sounds like he has a clothespin clipped to his nose. About 50 minutes in, the affectation dissolves and Black's real voice emerges. Maybe he had a cold on the first day of recording?
De Niro and Scorsese, on the other hand, play their parts intelligently and straight. There's never a moment where you doubt these guys honestly believe they're in a real mob film. An early exchange between the menacing shark and his frightened toady sounds straight out of "The Godfather."
"Shark Tale" is the latest computer-animated flick from DreamWorks, the makers of "Shrek" and "Shrek 2."
Like Lenny, the disowned vegetarian shark, this film has trouble living up to the standards set by its older siblings.
First, we expect our computer-animated films to present astonishing visuals. Most of the backgrounds in "Shark Tale" go unappreciated thanks to the choppy direction that makes the setting an indistinguishable blur.
It doesn't seem the animators thought out their fish characters, either. Oscar, Angie and the others swim erect as if they were human. They look like fish who've had their necks broken.
Second, we expect these films to have a level of humor superior to the average children's cartoon.
"Shark Tale" offers its share of parody from ads for "The Gup" clothing store, "Coral-Cola," and a mention of music stars "Jessica Shrimpson" and "Cod Stewart."
Now compare those references to a scene in "Shrek 2" where frightened patrons of a "Farbucks" coffee shop flee the cafè and run into the other "Farbucks" coffee shop situated directly across the street.
That's a clever play on product that also offers social commentary.
It's really too bad the "Shark Tale" writers left their script to drown in shallow waters. The lovable green ogre set a standard that "Shark Tale" just doesn't have the chops to handle.
