For a movie that might as well have had \from the people who were just a little too late to bring you 'Finding Nemo'"" on its poster, ""Shark Tale"" manages to succeed in finding a voice outside of a certain other fish story. Instead, DreamWorks Animation has sent us on a different journey. It is less the undersea world of Disney and Pixar's ""Nemo,"" and more an under-water sister city to ""Shrek 2's"" Far Far Away, complete with Madison Avenue rip-offs like Coral-Cola and GUP.
Will Smith performs the voice of Oscar, a small fish who has big dreams of getting out of his job at the whale wash and making something of himself. He catches the attention of the shark mafia, led by don Lino (Robert De Niro), when he is mistakenly credited for ""rubbing out"" one of the don's sons. Lino's other son, Lenny (Jack Black) is the only other witness to the incident, and knows the truth about what really happened to his brother. In any movie where organized crime is involved, fraternal revenge is usually a given. However, Lenny will have none of that; he's a vegetarian, has long been the black sheep of ""the family,"" and he longs for nothing more than to vanish to a place far away from his father and the mob. As a team, Oscar and Lenny look to solidify Oscar's ""shark slayer"" reputation and to give Lenny a way out of his destiny in organized crime.
The actors and animators seem to be in total sync with each other; not only does every character look remarkably like the actor who is portraying him or her, but even some of the actor's mannerisms from other (live-action) movies appear almost out of habit in ""Tale."" Tiny things, from De Niro's trademark mole to the way Renee Zellweger curls her lip are all present in their animated alter-egos. DreamWorks animators should be proud of the work they've done. The visuals look great, the characters are stunning, and the backgrounds are amazingly realistic (including the Titanic set with a Kate Winslet drawing on the wall).
The movie itself, however, seems too self-conscious about its intended audience, young children and teens, to ever really let adults have all of the fun that they should at this movie. There are several laugh-out-loud moments in the film and a few interesting plot twists, but every once in a while there is a groaner joke or painfully obvious and unnecessary line that jars the grown-ups back into remembering that this is a PG flick. ""Shark Tale"" doesn't have the true warmth and character development that we experienced in ""Finding Nemo,"" but also lacks the ruthless barbs that we've seen in the ""Shrek"" series-imagine what would have become of ""Shrek"" had DreamWorks sent an advance copy to Disney for approval and you have the type of parody seen in ""Tale."" Either one would have been very welcomed, as most of the characters seem relatively one-dimensional. Instead of relying on the strength of the star-studded cast to drive it, the movie asks you to be totally engulfed by the plot, which may be too lofty a goal to set for a movie aimed at children.
While no one will ever accuse ""Shark Tale"" of being this generation's ""Lion King,"" or this year's ""Nemo,"" that's not what it set out to be. What it aims for is pure enjoyment, and in that respect the mission is accomplished. There is a fun adventure for younger children, and enough to keep adults from staring at their watches and wishing the second hand would move faster. ""Shark Tale"" is a feast for the eye, but may leave a grown-up's brain hungry for seconds.
