SHARK TALE
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Dreamscape's latest animated film is set
in a sort of undersea urban environment and should
entertain the whole family. The story is familiar
but the jokes come in a rapid fire. Rating: low +2
(-4 to +4) or 7/10
Dreamworks continues their competition with Pixar for the audience
of animated films. They made ANTS when Pixar made A BUG'S LIFE.
Pixar did their fish film with FINDING NEMO and Dreamworks has
followed suit with their fish film, SHARK TALE. Pixar used very
naturalistic artwork capturing the beauty of Australia's Great
Barrier Reef in digital animation and has well-written characters.
Dreamworks's film uses a fantasy urban environment under the sea.
Their characters are intentionally cliched, being essentially film
references. The writing team has ratcheted up the pace of the
jokes to a machine gun staccato. For a story they used as a
framework a story Disney animated back in 1941, "The Reluctant
Dragon" (based on Kenneth "Wind in the Willows" Grahame's story).
The pacifist dragon becomes the vegetarian shark Lenny (voiced by
Jack Black). The timid dragon-slaying human is now a timid shark-
slaying fish Oscar (Will Smith). Other popular stars doing voices
include Robert DeNiro, Renee Zellweger, Anjolina Jolie, Martin
Scorsese, and Peter Falk. Somehow we have come to believe that
animated films need big stars to do the voices.
The film is made palatable for a wide audience not by telling one
story that can be appreciate on many levels, generally the Pixar
approach, but rather by planting a lot of jokes to be enjoyed only
by the adults or perhaps only by fans of classic films. The
distinction might be that Pixar makes family films, Dreamworks
makes children's films that adults can enjoy. Quotes from
familiar films abound. Product placements also are present in
profusion, though always for joke value.
Stay around through the closing credits. There are still more
jokes.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2004 Mark R. Leeper
========== X-RAMR-ID: 38715 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1323671 X-RT-TitleID: 1136999 X-RT-AuthorID: 1309 X-RT-RatingText: 7/10
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