Shark Tale does have moments of fun and a couple of the goofier gags work, but it comes off as Shrek leftovers and sloppy seconds to Finding Nemo.
Shark Tale (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:169
Fresh:58
Rotten:111
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: Derivative and full of pop culture in-jokes.
Runtime: 90 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
US Box Office: $160,762,022
Synopsis: Oscar (Will Smith) is a fast-talking little fish who dreams big. But his big dreams land him in hot water when a great white lie turns him into an unlikely hero. At first, his fellow fish swallow... Oscar (Will Smith) is a fast-talking little fish who dreams big. But his big dreams land him in hot water when a great white lie turns him into an unlikely hero. At first, his fellow fish swallow Oscar’s story hook, line and sinker and he is showered with fame and fortune. It’s all going along swimmingly, until it starts to become clear that Oscar’s tale about being the defender of the Reef is all wet. Oscar is finding out that being a hero comes at a Market Price when his lie threatens to make him the Catch of the Day. Now he has to tread water until he can get the scales to tip back in his favor again. "Shark Tale" stars the voices of Will Smith as Oscar, a hustler, who has always been able to fin-agle his way out of trouble, until now; two-time Academy Award® winner Robert De Niro ("Raging Bull," "The Godfather, Part II") as Don Lino, a great white shark at the top of the Reef’s food chain; two-time Oscar® nominee Renée Zellweger ("Chicago," "Bridget Jones’s Diary") as Angie, a beautiful angel fish who harbors a secret crush on Oscar; Academy Award® winner Angelina Jolie ("Girl, Interrupted") as Lola, the femme fatale, a dragon fish who uses her feminine wiles to get what she wants; Jack Black ("School of Rock") as Don Lino’s son Lenny, a great white shark who is a closet vegetarian; and multiple Oscar®-nominated director Martin Scorsese ("Gangs of New York," "Goodfellas") as Sykes, a puffer fish who is full of hot air and never misses an opportunity to make a few extra clams. Rounding out the main cast are: veteran actor Peter Falk ("Columbo") as Don Brizzi, a shark who is long in the tooth, but still has plenty of bite left; Michael Imperioli ("The Sopranos") as Don Lino’s oldest son Frankie, a chip off the old shark; Vincent Pastore ("The Sopranos") as Luca, an oily octopus, which makes him the perfect right-hand man; and Doug E. Doug and Ziggy Marley as Bernie and Ernie, two Rastafarian jelly fish with a stinging sense of humor. "Shark Tale" is directed by Eric "Bibo" Bergeron and Vicky Jenson, with Rob Letterman serving as co-director. Bill Damaschke, Janet Healy and Allison Segan are producing. [More]
Starring: Will Smith, Renée Zellweger, Jack Black, Martin Scorsese
Starring: Will Smith, Renée Zellweger, Jack Black, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie, Ziggy Marley, Peter Falk, Vincent Pastore, Michael Imperioli
Director: Vicky Jenson, Bibo Bergeron
Director: Vicky Jenson, Bibo Bergeron
Screenwriter: Mark Swift, Damian Shannon
Producer: Allison Lyon Segan, Bill Damaschke
Composer: Hans Zimmer
Studio: DreamWorks Distribution LLC
Reviews for Shark Tale
This film is a marketing vehicle that reeks of focus groups and the involvement of the 'suits'.
This effort barely qualifies as bait to catch the attention of its rivals, since many of them are far higher up the food chain to notice.
... has a few clever ideas and some impressive artwork but relies mostly on weary, recycled humor: it'll likely be a big hit.
The whole experience just makes you feel dirty, patronized and exhausted.
These are jokes lame enough to make the writers of Yes, Dear groan like they’ve been mortally wounded (and, yes, they deserve to be mortally wounded).
Shark Tale feels borrowed, sampled and dittoed from the collective funniness of the past 10 years in studio-made animation.
Swimming in the lucrative wake of Finding Nemo, DreamWorks's foray into computer-generated underwater animation is a rambunctious, reasonably amusing pop confection.
Although it is essentially entertaining ... it is also a derivative, formulaic and creatively tentative plaything.
It does not have as much invigorating freshness as audiences have come to expect in computer animation.
This one has the slickness of the Shrek movies, but there's not a whole lot beneath the surface.
The screenplay isn't remotely as funny as it tries to be, and the visual style is equally unexciting.
Finding Nemo and Shrek 2 really raised the bar for computer-animated films, and that makes the flaws here seem more glaring.
Is the fish fresh?...Shark Tale believes it can foist off high-speed energy in the place of wit.
The best animated films feel timeless and original, but Shark Tale is stapled together from dozens of hip-hop and movie references.
Likely to be more consistently entertaining to adults than the softer-hearted Nemo.
Whatever we found with Nemo and his determined dad seems to have been lost or forgotten in this fishy tale.
This star-laden animated fable feeds off Finding Nemo and Shrek, but it's stale, like something you wrap in yesterday's newspaper.
Adults will see Shark Tale on a different level than their offspring, but both will enjoy it.
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