irishboy141 This is a generic ganster movie disguised as a kids film. It has product placement out the wazoo. And the only reason it's animated was to leech off the sucess of Finding Nemo; I'm dead serious, the story itself would not change if you made it live action and set it in New York. Aside from that; the "characters" are shot like humans are shot in live action (because this movie was made by hacks), the voice acting is terrible, the "characters" are boring stereotypes, the plot is generic, the color pallet is ugly, the characters are ugly, the environment is ugly, and since I'm reviewing this movie in 2018, I can say this feels so dated and disgusting.Skip this trash and watch Finding Nemo.

ElMaruecan82 Whatever the differences between Disney's Pixar and DreamWorks Studios are in terms of animation and types of stories, I don't think they have been more opposite as when they were fully expressed by the two rival studios when they coincidentally decided to handle the aquatic world, in a one-year interval: "Finding Nemo" in 2003 and "Shark Tale" in 2004. If it is a coincidence or a case of some 'leaks' (no pun intended) doesn't really matter as the two films don't navigate in the same seas. Starting with Disney, "Finding Nemo" was a charming and heart-warming tale about a father fish looking for his missing (and titular) son, while the son was trying to escape from a fish tank. The story featured some of the most dazzling images ever created by Disney Studios, with the same hypnotic beauty as "The Little Mermaid" and a story that emotionally resonated like Disney's old-school movies, such as "Dumbo' or "Bambi". For a film made In 2003, to be listed in the American Film Institute's Top 10 Animated movies proved the impression the movie left among the professionals.On the other hand, DreamWorks has always been about very flawed and loose characters engaged into story lines that worked more as vehicles for countless pop- culture references, remember the "Shrek vs. Robin Hood" fight with the whole River Dance and the "Matrix" parody, or the fairy tale creatures featured in very modern situation? Well, the counterpart of "Finding Nemo", titled "Shark Tale" isn't much a story set in the Ocean than all the narrative fragments of other classics reassembled to form a seemingly story. It doesn't strike for its originality ("Shrek" made the AFI's Top 10, not this one) but the creators seem to have built the fun on our recognition of the many movies or pop-cultures elements they refer to.Indeed, there is no situation that is not archetypal, no character-type you haven't seen before. In fact, even the characters look exactly like the actors voicing them. So, if you don't have Scorsese's voice in mind, (which would be surprising) you might recognize his fishy alter-ego from his huge bushy eyebrows… just like De Niro's shark has a mole, and Jolie's fish huge sensual lips. That's it, it's déjà vu from beginning to end, even the title is a take on De Niro's father-and-son movie "A Bronx Tale". But guess what? the story works nonetheless and this is why I'm surprised by Roger Ebert's review, or personal take on the film.The late critic, who could be wrong but not very often, deplored that "Shark Tale" with all its references to classics like "The Godfather", "Goodfellas", "Scarface" and of course "Jaws" (the inevitable one, even parodied in "Nemo" and that grabbed the earlier laughs in that one), there's nothing left for the usual universal and simpler material that can appeal to children. And he's right. I'm pretty sure that if I was 10 when I saw "Shark Tale", I wouldn't have gotten most of the references, and I would have probably enjoyed like I enjoyed 'Fish Police'. However, I was 22 when the film was released, so I guess I was in the right demographic target.Indeed, my cinematic education, if not complete, was mature enough to get most of the jokes, to instantly recognize De Niro behind Don Lino's mimics and having "The Godfather" as my all-time favorite increased the enjoyment. Gee, I was even a fan of "Car Wash" at that time so I didn't miss any reference. And how could I? "Shark Tale" is one pop-culture reference after another, it almost becomes a gimmick. And I understand that for some viewers, it might get tiresome, once you have played the spot-the-star game and managed to guess Jack Black or Renee Zelwegger; you want the story to grab you a little, and it does, sort of.There are basically two plots: Oscar, a whale washer, is a nobody trying to be somebody with a sort of end-justifying-the-means way, ignoring the cute assistant in love with him, and there is Lenny, the vegetarian shark who disappoints his Godfather- like father, Don Lino. The two plots get intertwined with a share of unevenly predictable twists, but let's not kid ourselves, the whole story is rather predictable, countless mafia parodies have been made, including "Analyze This" a few years before, but the script overcomes the predictable stuff by providing some nice one- liners and funny moments, and such lousy puns they miraculously work.The whole thing leads to the kind of conclusion that comforts that this was not a film to take seriously in the first place, it's meant to be fun. Now, to get back to Ebert's comment, yes, he's right that the film doesn't find the right touch to appeal children, and on that level, it would be an average film. But once you get the idea that this is not a film for kids, but for adults young adults or adults adults, its quality suddenly improves. It's all a matter of angle.And at least, it didn't try to emulate "Finding Nemo", and had instead a sleazier "Finding Money" story line (and I'm sorry for the lousiness of this pun).

Daniel Ross This lame comedy feels like it was written by studio executives, capitalizing on the latest trends. The pop culture references are stale and weak, I mean who was making MC Hammer jokes in 2004? Like Pixar's Cars, the whole idea makes no sense. How are there complicated electronics like video games and TVs working underwater? How do lava lamps work underwater? The endless fish puns are insufferable too (Mussel Crowe? Ha. Ha.) Most of the anthropomorphic character designs of the fish are weird and off putting. And Will Smith's fish protagonist is too thoughtless and uncaring to be sympathetic. Another problem is the tired "Go to the big city story". How many times have we seen this played out trope which has a bumbling but likable hero who has big plans and dreams of going to the big city, or moving up in the world. Flick from Pixar's A Bug's Life wanted to go to bug city and be somebody, Rodney from 2005's Robots wanted to go to Robot City and be an inventor. And here we have Will Smith fish, who wants to be a somebody. The actual dialogue is "I'm a small fish in a big ocean". How lazy can you get?The positives? Some of the music is cool, the animation is OK, and I liked Martin Scorsese as a puffer fish, he actually makes this tolerable to sit through. Apart from that, this stinks like decomposing cod.

ofpsmith Shark Tale is one of those movies that you can tell is just a thinly veiled excuse to make money. The problems with the film are pretty obvious. The film has all these big names that you know they only got to draw in big audiences, and there are a bunch of really bad puns. I'm not even kidding about that. The puns in this movie make A Bee Movie look funny. Oscar (Will Smith) is a cool hip hop fish in the underwater city, works at a "whale wash", and he's being admired by his coworker Angie (Renee Zellweger). But not all is well for Oscar as he owes money to his boss Sykes (Martin Scorsese) and he can't pay it off. Well Oscar inadvertently meets a vegetarian shark named Lenny (Jack Black) after it looks like Oscar killed Lenny's brother Frankie (Michael Imperioli). This is bad news because Lenny's father is the shark mafia boss Don Lino (Robert De Niro). Oscar and Lenny then make it look like Oscar killed Lenny making him the shark slayer so Lenny can run away and start a new life. Spoiler alert! We have to go through the liar revealed story again. I understand why they put that in kid's films but it get's old and predictable. But the real problem with Shark Tale is the idea. The story isn't done very well and you know right from the get go that this was an excuse to make money and throw in some pop culture references. Think about it. When you see the characters, you don't see the characters you just see the actors playing them. You now they choose them because of the names and nothing else. Smith's character is also annoying and to be honest a bit of a jerk. There are some moments when the film is enjoyable, particularly with De Niro and Scorsese, but even here you can't shed the light that you are watching De Niro and Scorsese. Honestly I really don't recommend it.