Rating:
Score: 7.6/10
Grade: B+
Grade: B+
Family Friendliness Rating: Level 4 (Great)
Kids ages 6+
So what would you give to become a somebody? Maybe a little white lie...
Shark Tale tells the story of Oscar (Will Smith), a self-proclaimed "nobody" who wishes to live at the top of the reef. He works at a Whale Wash, owes five-thousand dollars to his boss Sykes (Martin Scorsese) because of get-rich quick schemes, and doesn't know that his best friend Angie (Renee Zellweger) has a crush on him. So when he bets all of the money on a race sea-horse that passes out on the race track, he finds himself on the run. Only to get into more trouble, obviously, an anchor kills a shark named Freddie, and Oscar tells all that he killed the shark, labeling himself as the "Sharkslayer", and becoming a "somebody". Meanwhile, a shark named Lenny (Jack Black) runs away from home due to the fact that he doesn't find it in his heart to eat fish. So when he seeks refuge with Oscar, things might not turn out right after all.
Positive Notes
Shark Tale boasts strong positive examples on telling the truth, friendship, acceptance, and being yourself. Oscar learns that honesty is the best policy as his little white lie grows into a massive turn-out he didn't expect. Lenny's dad, Don Lino (Robert De Niro) learns to appreciate his son the way he is, even though he's different from the others. We also learn that greed and fame isn't necessarily the best way to go in life.
The animation is colorful and fun. The voice cast delivers, with Smith, Black, De Niro, Angelina Jolie, Zellweger, Katie Couric, Doug E Doug, Ziggy Marley and Scorsese all doing great jobs with their parts. Christina Aguliera and Missy Elliot perform a stand-out rendition of the classic song "Car Wash", with animated look-alikes. Hans Zimmer delivers a light and fun music score.
There are some hilarious moments with some of the cameo and supporting characters.
Negative Notes
A couple of toilet humor jokes. Some unnecessary references to Titanic (we see Sykes being pushed into a slightly-more covered up remake of the Rose sketch). We hear a brief snip-it of the inappropriate song "Baby's Got Back" by Bruno Mars (its' screeched to a halt by Luca the Octopus). Mild language includes one h-word, two misuses of God's name, and sporadic uses of "pimp", "jeez", the incomplete "what the...?" and "big butts". Oscar is seen kissing with a shapely fish, and she does try to get romantic attention from him a few times (though all she's really in for is the money).
Conclusion
Conclusion
So, what does Shark Tale remind you of? If you guessed Finding Nemo, then you'd be correct. But unfortunately, the two are very different from each other.
Finding Nemo is a classic, it had heartwarming values, it was clean, fun, and it had a huge amount of emotion. Something we don't see much in this Shark Tale. But it would be unfair to compare Pixar to DreamWorks, so maybe I'm going too far on this subject.
However, we do see some solid examples on acceptance and friendship, and the animation is well-done. So while it pales in comparison to Nemo, Shark Tale is still a fun movie that parents and kids won't mind diving into.
