Shark Tale (2004)

Directors:

Bibo Bergeron
Vicky Jenson
(more)

Writers:

Michael J. Wilson (screenplay) and
Rob Letterman (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

1 October 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Family

Tagline:

In fall, a new school will rule.

Plot:

When a son of a gangster shark boss is accidently killed while on the hunt, his would be prey and his vegetarian brother both decide to use the incident to their own advantage.

Plot Keywords:

Fish | Shark | Anchor | Mobster | Vegetarian

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

Will Smith	...	Oscar (voice)
Robert De Niro	...	Don Lino (voice)
Renée Zellweger	...	Angie (voice)
Jack Black	...	Lenny (voice)
Angelina Jolie	...	Lola (voice)
Martin Scorsese	...	Sykes (voice)
Ziggy Marley	...	Ernie (voice)
Doug E. Doug	...	Bernie (voice)
Michael Imperioli	...	Frankie (voice)
Vincent Pastore	...	Luca (voice)
Peter Falk	...	Don Feinberg (voice)
Katie Couric	...	Katie Current (voice)
David Soren	...	Shrimp / Worm / Starfish #1 / Killer Whale #2 (voice)
David P. Smith	...	Crazy Joe (voice)
Bobb'e J. Thompson	...	Shortie #1 (voice)
Kamali Minter	...	Shortie #2 (voice)
Emily Lyon Segan	...	Shortie #3 (voice)
Lenny Venito	...	Giuseppe / Great White #1 (voice)
Saverio Guerra	...	Pontrelli (voice)
Shelley Morrison	...	Mrs. Sanchez (voice)
Mark Swift	...	Announcer (voice)
James Madio	...	Great White #2 / Hammerhead (voice)
Frank Vincent	...	Great White #3 (voice)
Joseph Siravo	...	Great White #5 (voice)
Steve Alterman	...	Messenger Fish / Tip Fish #2 (voice)
Phil LaMarr	...	Prawn Shop Owner (voice)
Jenifer Lewis	...	Motown Turtle (voice)
Sean Bishop	...	Tip Fish #1 / Great White #4 / Whale / Killer Whale #1 (voice)
James Ryan	...	Cashier / Starfish #2 and 3 / Oyster / Clown Whale (voice)
Latifa Ouaou	...	Whale Wash Co-Worker (voice)
David Yanover	...	Taxi Fish (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Stephen Apostolina	...	(voice)
Robert Clotworthy	...	(voice)
Faiz-Kevin Mangat	...	Ernie
Christina Aguilera	...	Herself - Christina (voice) (uncredited)
Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott	...	Missy (voice) (uncredited)

Directed by
Bibo Bergeron
Vicky Jenson
Rob Letterman

Writing credits
Michael J. Wilson		(screenplay) and
Rob Letterman		(screenplay)
Scott Aukerman		additional dialogue
BJ Porter		additional dialogue

Produced by
Bill Damaschke	....	producer
Janet Healy	....	producer
Jeffrey Katzenberg	....	executive producer
Allison Lyon Segan	....	producer
Mark Swift	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Hans Zimmer

Film Editing by
Peter Lonsdale
John Venzon

Production Design by
Dan St. Pierre

Art Direction by
Seth Engstrom
Sam Michlap
Ron Lukas		(uncredited)

Production Management
Brian Behling	....	production supervisor
Andrew Birch	....	post-production supervisor
Onil Chibas	....	production supervisor
Fred De Bradeny	....	production supervisor
Christina DeSilva	....	production supervisor
Stacey Ernst	....	production supervisor
Kim Mackey	....	production supervisor
Dina McLaughlin	....	production supervisor
Caprice Ann Ridgeway	....	production supervisor
Kay Sasatomi	....	production supervisor
Cameron Stevning	....	production manager
Mark Tarbox	....	production supervisor

Art Department
Sunny Apinchapong	....	visual development
Dino Athanassiou	....	storyboard artist
Andrea Blasich	....	sculptor
Sylvain Deboissy	....	additional storyboard artist
Craig Elliott	....	visual development artist
Tang Kheng Heng	....	lead sequence designer
Nora Johnson	....	storyboard artist
Paul Lasaine	....	visual development artist
Christophe Lautrette	....	visual development
Jenny Lerew	....	storyboard artist
Ed Li	....	visual development artist
Mark Mulgrew	....	layout
John Puglisi	....	storyboard artist
Chris Reccardi	....	storyboard artist
Henrik Tamm	....	visual development
Christophe Vacher	....	concept artist
Zhaoping Wei	....	lead sequence designer
Simon Wells	....	additional storyboard artist
Shane Zalvin	....	sculptor
Melchior Zwyer	....	props
Steve Hickner	....	additional storyboard artist (uncredited)

Sound Department
Richard L. Anderson	....	supervising sound editor
James Ashwill	....	foley mixer
Anna Behlmer	....	sound re-recording mixer
Mark Binder	....	sound editor
Derek Casari	....	adr engineer
Craig Heath	....	sound recordist
Thomas Jones	....	supervising dialogue & adr editor
Roy Latham	....	dialogue mixer
Mark A. Mangini	....	sound effects editor
Robert Morrisey	....	first assistant sound editor
Andy Nelson	....	sound re-recording mixer
Dan O'Connell	....	foley artist
Ralph Osborn	....	dialog & adr editor
Troy Porter	....	adr mixer
Robert Renga	....	sound recordist
Erin Michael Rettig	....	sound engineer
Nick Shaffer	....	sound effects recordist
Adam Sharpe	....	adr mixer
Andy Sisul	....	assistant sound editor
Carlos Sotolongo	....	original dialogue mixer
Chris Varekamp	....	dialogue recordist
David Williams	....	dialogue editor
Wade Wilson	....	supervising sound designer
Larry Winer	....	original dialogue recordist
Shawn Ian Kerkhoff	....	assistant sound editor (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Brett Nystul	....	modeler/animator

Visual Effects by
Carol Ashley	....	lighter
Scott Ballard	....	character technical director
Michael Bauer	....	CG supervisor
James Bird	....	layout technical director
Brad Blackbourn	....	layout artist
Cathy E. Blanco	....	lighting artist
Matt Bouchard	....	digital artist
Julie Anne Brame	....	lighting artist (as Julie Anne Mayfield)
Julie Anne Brame	....	software technical director (as Julie Anne Mayfield)
Carlos Cabral	....	supervising character technical director
Stuart Campbell	....	layout technical director
Craig Caton	....	layout technical director
Scott Cegielski	....	lead effects developer
Bernard O. Ceguerra	....	lighter & compositor
Bernard O. Ceguerra	....	surfacing sequence lead
Laurent Charbonnel	....	lead shader technical director
Andy Chen	....	digital effects artist
Alan Cheney	....	layout technical director
Yan Chen	....	lead technical director
Benjamin Cheung	....	character technical director
Kate Choi	....	lead lighter
Shaun Collaco	....	lighting and compositing artist: Dreamworks Animation
Clint Colver	....	digital lighter
Doug Cooper	....	visual effects supervisor
Michael Corcoran	....	digital effects artist
Martin Costello	....	co-supervising character technical director
Bart Coughlin	....	character technical director
Robert Edward Crawford	....	rough layout artist/animatic
Damon Crowe	....	visual effects lighting
Jonathan R. Cummings	....	lighting technical director
Paolo deGuzman	....	digital artist
Eric Deuel	....	assistant animator
John Dowell	....	visual effects
Marc Ellis	....	lighting artist
Jeremy Engleman	....	look development lead
Kolja Erman	....	technical director
Aaron Estrada	....	lighting and compositing
Sean Fennell	....	assistant animation technical director
Louis Flores	....	lighter
T.J. Galda	....	character technical director
Matthieu Grospiron	....	digital effects artist
Michael P. Hamler	....	assistant lighting technical director (as Mike Hamler)
Mike Hamler	....	lighting techical director
Andy Harbeck	....	surfacing artist/lighting
Annick Harmel-Tourneur	....	character technical director
Geoffrey Harvey	....	senior lighter: DreamWorks Animation (as Geoff Harvey)
Marty Havran	....	modeler
Edward Helmers	....	lighter
Rory Hinnen	....	compositor
Aaron Holly	....	character technical director
Sandy Houston	....	digital paint artist
James Jacobs	....	character technical director: Dreamworks
Jeff Kasunic	....	lighter: DreamWorks
Soo Jin King	....	lighter
Alisa Loren Klein	....	character technical director: Dreamworks
Spencer Knapp	....	digital effects artist
Stephen Krauth	....	lead technical director
Rachel Lagdao	....	compositor
David C. Lawson	....	lead lighter/surfacer: Dreamworks
Ryan Leasher	....	lighting artist
Andre LeBlanc	....	visual effects
Li-Ming 'Lawrence' Lee	....	visual effects animator
Olivier Leeman	....	layout artist
Greg Lev	....	lead lighter
Dan Levitan	....	compositor
Dan Levitan	....	look development
Dan Levy	....	lighter
Didier Levy	....	lead lighter
Victor Lew	....	lighting technical director
Benjamin Lishka	....	lighter
Igor Lodeiro	....	lighting & compositing
Nathan Loofbourrow	....	character technical director supervisor
Robert Lurye	....	lighting & compositing
Jim Mainard	....	head of software
Michael Manza	....	lighter: DreamWorks Animation
Steve Mason	....	CGI character animator
Marcie Matsui	....	layout artist
Matthew McCrory	....	lighting technical director
M. Scott McKee	....	lead lighting artist
Dina McLaughlin	....	visual effects production supervisor: story, lighting
Daniel Miller	....	digital compositor
Justin Miller	....	animation technical director
Michael A. Miller	....	head of effects
Frank Mueller	....	lighting and compositing artist
Raj Naiksatam	....	supervisor
Robert Neuman	....	rough layout artist/animatic
Paul Newberry	....	CGI animator
Edwin Ng	....	character technical director
January Nordman	....	compositor
Kevin Ochs	....	co-supervising character technical director
Joe Oh	....	CGI character animator
Jeff Olm	....	digital artist: Dreamworks Feature Animation
Nick Panagos	....	visual effects lighting
Hongseo Park	....	character technical director
Matthew Paulson	....	modeling supervisor
Mary Payne	....	digital artist
Aaron Pfau	....	character technical director
James Polk	....	character technical director
Bert Poole	....	CG supervisor
Kevin Rafferty	....	lead CGI supervisor (as Kevin P. Rafferty)
Saty Raghavachary	....	visual effects
Patrick Roberts	....	effects developer
Eric Roth	....	compositor
Jake Rowell	....	lead look development artist
Frank Sabia Jr.	....	lighting artist
Ramprasad Sampath	....	visual effects
Sean Schur	....	lead lighting artist
Marc Scott	....	compositing supervisor
Paul Seidman	....	technical director
Scott C. Sells	....	lighter
Scott C. Sells	....	technical director
Aaron Smith	....	lead lighter
Evan Smyth	....	Production Software Supervisor
Young Song	....	visual effects
Christa Starr	....	lighter
Matt Steele	....	character technical director: Dreamworks
Curt Stewart	....	lighter
Olcun Tan	....	digital effects artist
Don Taylor	....	lighting artist
Richard S.G. Thompson	....	look development and effects
Dave Tidgwell	....	visual effects
Rachel Tiep-Daniels	....	lead sequence modeler
Marc Toscano	....	digital artist
Dawn Turner	....	visual effects production assistant
Carolyn Uy	....	lighter
Carolyn Uy	....	technical director
David Valdez	....	lighting artist
David Patrick Valera	....	layout artist
Dana Vanhove	....	recruiter
Dimos Vrysellas	....	character animator
Dan A. Walker	....	animation technical director: Dreamworks
Dave Walvoord	....	CG supervisor
Andy Wang	....	lead CGI artist: Dreamworks
Nathan Warner	....	rough layout artist, final layout artist, animatic
Gina Warr	....	lighting artist: Dreamworks
Mark Wendell	....	CGI supervisor
Craig Wentworth	....	lighter
Gabriel White	....	lighter
Greg Whittaker	....	CGI animator
Greg Whittaker	....	CGI character animator
Rhiannon Leffanta Wilhelmi	....	layout artist
Marc Wilhite	....	character technical director: Dreamworks
Ron Williams	....	character finaling artist
Chris Winters	....	lighting artist: Dreamworks Feature Animation
Jeff Wolverton	....	digital effects artist
Stephen Wood	....	visual effects animator
Joanna Wu	....	lighting technical director
Teddy T. Yang	....	CGI animation supervisor
Masahito Yoshioka	....	visual effects
Gil Zimmerman	....	head of layout

Camera and Electrical Department
Motohisa Adachi	....	lighting tool developer
Shauna M. Stevens	....	lighting technician

Animation Department
Manuel Almela	....	animator
Line Korsgaard Andersen	....	animator
Arnaud Berthier	....	animator
Rejean Bourdages	....	story artist
David Bowers	....	story artist
Darrin Butts	....	animator
Sue Campbell	....	animator
Alessandro Carloni	....	lead animator: "Crazy Joe"
Minhee Choe	....	animator
Scott Claus	....	animator
Michelle Cowart	....	animator
Emanuela Cozzi	....	animator
Steve Cunningham	....	animator
Sylvain Deboissy	....	animator
Mick De Falco	....	animatic artist
Bill Diaz	....	supervising animator
Ken Duncan	....	supervising animator
Luca Erbetta	....	rough inbetweener
Thomas Estrada	....	assistant animator
Mark R.R. Farquhar	....	animator
Bruce Ferriz	....	animator
Lionel Gallat	....	supervising animator
Frank Gladstone	....	artistic development
Carlos Grangel	....	supervising character designer
Willy Harber	....	animator
Rene Harnois Jr.	....	animation production supervisor
Stephen Heidelberg	....	animation consultant
John Hill	....	animator
Cameron Hood	....	animator
Martin Hopkins	....	animator
Gabe Hordos	....	animator
Steve Horrocks	....	animator
Kyle Jefferson	....	animator (as Kyle Arthur Jefferson)
Jakob Hjort Jensen	....	animator
Cathy Jones	....	animator
Fabrice Joubert	....	supervising animator
Yair Kantor	....	animator
Shawn Keller	....	animator
Darryl Kidder	....	story artist
Ken Kim	....	animator
Aaron Kirby	....	animator
Chris Kirshbaum	....	animator
Todd Kurosawa	....	story artist
Rachel Lagdao	....	layout artist
Philippe Le Brun	....	animator
Matt Lee	....	layout artist
Holger Leihe	....	animator
Fabio Lignini	....	supervising animator
Marci Mack	....	animation staff
Kevin MacLean	....	animator
Mary Ann Malcomb	....	animator
Lorenzo Martinez	....	rough layout artist (as Lorenzo E. Martinez)
Steve Mason	....	animator
Patrick Mate	....	character designer
Sean McLaughlin	....	animator
Hezekiah McMurray	....	lighting artist
Armen Melkonian	....	animatic artist
Gavin Moran	....	animator
David Morehead	....	rough layout artist
Claire Morrissey	....	animator
Ken Morrissey	....	animator
Paul Newberry	....	senior character animator
Anna Newman	....	animation research and development
Joe Oh	....	character animator
Simon Otto	....	animator
Gabriele Pennacchioli	....	senior animator
Jean-Francois Rey	....	animator
Ben Rush	....	character animator
Ben Rush	....	character technical director
Sandra Ryan-Moran	....	animator
William Salazar	....	supervising animator
Erik Chr. Schmidt	....	animator (as Erik C. Schmidt)
Kristof Serrand	....	animator
Sean Sexton	....	assistant animator
Andrea Simonti	....	animator
Keith Sintay	....	animator
Michael Surrey	....	animator
Yoshimichi Tamura	....	animator
Oliver Thomas	....	animator
Philippe Tilikete	....	character designer
Theodore Ty	....	animator
Oskar Urretabizkaia	....	animator
Jim Van der Keyl	....	animator
Dimos Vrysellas	....	animator
Robert Weaver	....	animator
Greg Whittaker	....	animator
Mark Williams	....	animator
Scott Wright	....	animator
Kathy Zielinski	....	animator

Casting Department
Celeste Leger	....	casting assistant
Christi Soper	....	casting associate

Editorial Department
James Beshears	....	post-production executive
Mary Blee	....	assistant editor
Terry Claborn	....	color timer
Gus Comegys	....	editor: high definition
Clare De Chenu	....	additional editor
Miles DeLong	....	post-production assistant
Nick Fletcher	....	supervising editor
Daniel Fort	....	assistant editor
Sheri Galloway	....	assistant editor
Wayne Hellinger	....	post-production coordinator
Mo Henry	....	negative cutter
Nelson Lee	....	post-production coordinator
Darrin Ly	....	apprentice editor
Paul Neal	....	editor: high definition
Jeff Olm	....	digital colorist
Elizabeth Rufenacht	....	assistant editor
Mark Solomon	....	additional editor
Marcus Taylor	....	additional editor
Joseph R. Thygesen	....	first assistant editor
Susan Fitzer	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Ryeland Allison	....	music programmer
Al Clay	....	score mixer
Clay Duncan	....	music score programmer
Olga FitzRoy	....	assistant music engineer
Geoff Foster	....	score recordist
Bruce Fowler	....	orchestrator
Walt Fowler	....	orchestrator
Rick Giovinazzo	....	orchestrator
Isobel Griffiths	....	orchestra contractor
Darren Higman	....	music supervisor
Dorothy Joo	....	music score production assistant
Junkie XL	....	composer: additional music
Thorsten Laewe	....	music programmer
Michael A. Levine	....	music programmer
Abhay Manusmare	....	music score engineer
Abhay Manusmare	....	technical score engineer
Trevor Morris	....	composer: additional music
Trevor Morris	....	score co-producer
Melissa Muik	....	music editor
Sunny Park	....	executive in charge of music
Julie Pearce	....	assistant music editor
Erin Michael Rettig	....	music editor: temp music
Laura Webb	....	music assistant
Nick Wollage	....	score recordist
Geoff Zanelli	....	composer: additional music
Laura Ziffren	....	music supervisor (as Laura Wasserman)
Paul Kegg	....	musician: cello (uncredited)

Other crew
Tommy Bacorn	....	purchaser
Richard M. Barnes	....	technology supporter
Will Bilton	....	software quality assurance
Cathy E. Blanco	....	technical director
Rob Blau	....	production engineer
Ted Burge	....	software engineer
Alessandro Carloni	....	additional story artist
Kimberly Centurion	....	assistant to producers
Scott Chapin	....	systems administrator
Nadine Colquhoun	....	choreographer
Michael Coronado	....	hardware engineer
Philip D'Amour	....	production assistant
Mike Davis	....	assistant to producer
Jorge del Valle	....	title designer: end titles
Ava DuVernay	....	publicity consultant
Kevin D. Engle	....	assistant to producers
Ray Felipe	....	script researcher
Eddie Guerra	....	production assistant
Ryan Harris	....	production coordinator
Bryce Hayashida	....	systems engineer
Michael J. Henderson	....	pipeline engineer
Mark Jackels	....	software engineer
Amanda Deering Jones	....	production coordinator
Gregory P. Jones	....	production support engineer
Hans Ku	....	software engineer
Ben H. Kwa	....	production software developer
Michael Lachance	....	creative executive
Andrea Lamm	....	assistant to directors
Christopher Leahy	....	production coordinator
Ed Leonard	....	head of technology
Jim Leuper	....	core software engineer
Ed Li	....	visual development artist
Carole Sue Lipman	....	assistant to producers
Nicholas Long	....	software engineer
Chuck Maldonado	....	assistant choreographer
Sarah Mihalec	....	production assistant
Corrin Milewski	....	research and development supervisor
Peter C. Miller	....	software quality assurance
Pia Miniati	....	research and development
Ray Hansel Morales	....	artistic development production assistant
David Morehead	....	title designer: end titles
Cynthia Park	....	assistant: Jeffrey Katzenberg
Paul Parmer	....	editorial systems engineer
Tracy Ann Pearson	....	assistant: Jeffrey Katzenberg
Harbor Peoples	....	office manager: technology
Kristina Reed	....	production executive
Michele Lyn Reed	....	assistant: Jeffrey Katzenberg
Craig Rittenbaum	....	production coordinator
Stephen E. Ross	....	systems administrator
Denise Rottina	....	software coordinator
Angel G. Salinas	....	production coordinator
Daisy Schwartz	....	assistant: Mr. De Niro
Jeremy Shipp	....	production coordinator
Umesh Shukla	....	consultant
David Soren	....	head of story
April Struebing	....	software coordinator
Stacy Stuart	....	production coordinator
Kate Swanborg	....	technology executive
Mark M. Tokunaga	....	system operations manager
Alexandre Torija-Paris	....	research and development
Greg Underwood	....	pipeline engineer
Larry Weisberg	....	senior paralegal
Alexander Wu	....	production assistant
Greg Wuller	....	production engineer
Andrew Zack	....	assistant: Hans Zimmer
Melissa Milo	....	assistant: Mr. De Niro (uncredited)
Juniko Moody	....	digital trainer (uncredited)
Denis O'Sullivan	....	assistant: Mr. De Niro (uncredited)

Thanks
Debbie L. O'Keeffe	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• DreamWorks Animation
• DreamWorks SKG
• Pacific Data Images (PDI)

Distributors

• DreamWorks Distribution (2004) (USA) (theatrical)
• Asmik Ace Entertainment (2005) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Buena Vista International Finland (2004) (Finland) (theatrical)
• East West (2004) (Russia) (theatrical)
• Solar Films (2004) (Philippines) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2004) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2004) (Brazil) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2004) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2004) (Germany) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2004) (France) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2004) (UK) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2005) (Italy) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2004) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2004) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (2007) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• SBS6 (2007) (Netherlands) (TV) (first airing)
• Sambio (2004) (Iceland) (all media)
• Universal Home Video (2005) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures (Spain) (2005) (Spain) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Benelux (2005) (Netherlands) (DVD) (VHS)

Other Companies

• 20th Century Fox Studios  post-production facilities (as Twentieth Century Fox Studios)
• Act One Script Clearance  script clearance
• Air Lyndhurst Studios  score recording
• DreamWorks Records  soundtrack published by
• Geffen Records  soundtrack published by
• Hewlett Packard  workstations, servers and rendering services
• L.A. Mad Dogs  adr voice casting (as L.A. MadDogs)
• One Step Up  foley recording
• Pivotal Post  Avid editing equipment provided by
• R!ot Looping  adr voice casting
• Remote Control Productions Inc.  music production services
• Technicolor Weddington  sound editing

Also Known As:

Sharkslayer (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for some mild language and crude humor.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:LH (video rating) | Indonesia:SU | Ireland:G | Malaysia:U | South Korea:All | New Zealand:PG | Portugal:M/6 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Brazil:Livre | Chile:TE | Czech Republic:U | Finland:S | Peru:PT | Philippines:G | Singapore:G | Spain:T | Switzerland:0 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:8 (canton of Zurich) | UK:U | USA:PG (certificate #41134) | Germany:o.Al.

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

DreamWorks Animation

Trivia:

As the voice of Ernie the Jellyfish, Ziggy Marley sings the song "Three Little Birds" - a song written by his father, Bob Marley. But Ziggy changes birds to fishes.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Oscar throws Lennie through a Jaws Poster when faking Lennie's death, next time you see the Jaws poster it is fixed, and the time after it is broken again.

Quotes:

Don Feinberg: Any requests? How about that Titanic song?
[the sharks moan and groan their dissent]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)

Soundtrack:

Wind beneath My Wings

Not too bad, but not too good either.

Round two of the Pixar/Dreamworks choose-a-theme competition scores once again for Pixar.

Remember when a few years ago there were two animated ant movies to choose from? I think they even came at the same time in the theaters in my country. One was AntZ, the other was A Bug's Life. The first one was rumoured to be more suited to adults, the other a kiddie movie. While that statement had some merit, at the end it turned out that A Bug's Life was a far better movie entertainment-wise, despite cuter characters and simpler story and all that kiddie-like appearance. AntZ were just plain dull.

Pixar seems to like choosing a simple story, one that a kid can understand, and than building upon it creating a wonderful movie for all ages. Dreamworks builds his scripts on pop-culture references and more adult themes, and while it works sometimes (Shrek was fantastic), at other times it just falls flat.

Some say it's unfair to compare Finding Nemo and Shark Tale, them being totally different movies with the only matching characteristic being antropomorphic fish, but it seems that the comparison is inevitable. It's the ants thing all over again. Finding Nemo was simply wonderful, great movie with a perfect sense of humour and memorable characters. Sure, they were cute and cuddly, but they had a soul.

Shark Tale, again, tries to appeal to the adults, but this time the results are even worse. The characters are not so important as the cast is, even so much that we are being sledgehammered on the head in who's playing who. A word to the wise - I don't care how big the names doing the voicework are, I want to immerse in the movie's story. When I saw Shrek, I didn't see Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy there, I saw Shrek and Donkey. Here I see De Niro, Smith, Scorsese and so on. At one point I even caught myself wondering why the other fish keep calling Will Smith "Oscar".

As for the story, it kind of drags along. I couldn't really sympathize with the lead character - he is at the same time stupid and so full of himself that I didn't care about his motivations or the messes he got himself into. Also, somehow the story didn't map so well in the underwater world. What is the Shark mafia exactly ? Are they supposed to be predators or criminals? Basically the mafia thing is here only to serve as a playground for mob-movie references, but it serves no purpose story-wise. Also, the entire world seems very unbelievable. Flahing electrical neon signs? Fire hydrants? It actually backfires, since instead of getting a kick out of fishes living like humans, mostly you feel like you're watching an alien movie, with the aliens resembling our world's fishes in some ways.

All in all, I did enjoy the movie, but only in the sense that I didn't feel cheated out of my money. A couple of the jokes worked, some pop-culture references were funny, the movie was not too boring. But when I remember that after Nemo or Incredibles I was smiling even a few hours after the movie, then I see that Shark Tale ain't what it possibly could be. It's just a popcorn movie, easily forgettable. And rightfully so.