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50 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Shark Tale, October 6, 2004
Oscar (Smith) the fish leads a normal life. He is just an average guy working at the Whale Wash. One day, he wanders into shark territory and is chased by Frankie. Unfortunately for Frankie, the chase ends in his death, not at Oscar's hands, but by pure accident. Oscar sees as an opportunity to "be someone", and quickly takes the credit. The fish world begins to call him the "Shark Slayer", two female fish begin to show their interest, and the shark godfather (DeNiro) makes it his business to find the murderer of Frankie...his son.
"Shark Tale" is yet another animated movie that will appeal to both children and adults. The difference is, this time it almost seems made for adults first and kids second. The most obvious references are to "The Godfather" and "Goodfellas", two movies that no kids should have seen. Also, advertising placement has run amok in this movie. Every way you turn in the city, there are obvious "fake ads" for real products that is very distracting. Most everything in this movie is overkill, in fact.
The voice talents are credible and the animation is good, although I found Oscar to look kind of creepy with his near human-looking face. "Shark Tale" also is nothing like "Finding Nemo", which is both good and bad. Good, because it is not retreading material that is not too old yet. Bad, because "Finding Nemo" was so much better. "Shark Tale" is a decent movie that will be enjoyed by most, and I did laugh a number of times while viewing it, but my advice is to wait for DVD.
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34 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unfortunately the lowest rating option available is 1 star, March 13, 2005
I can't even rationalize giving it 1 star because that implies it got 1/5 of "something" while I can't see that it did anything right, except set up a lucrative platform to launch millions of "fanfare" junk to market to kids i.e. numerous video games, coloring books, clothing, pc software, and soundtracks all appear when typing in Shark Tale on amazon's search.
After watching it with my significant other, we pondered off and on for about 24 hours trying desperately to think of a worse movie that we have seen. Still none have come to mind.
This movie plays off of every stereotype I can think of. The "cool" black guy who raps and dances, the white guy that can't dance or doesn't know any cool hand shakes, the jamaicans that are dumb, the italians that are mobsters, the white chick that is meek....and finally the unintended, me, the viewer that wants to puke. If my kids were subjected to this I would have a lot of explaining to do to dispell all the stereotypes that are maximized in this movie, ok that trivializes what my role of a parent would be if they were subjected to this...if I had taken any kid to see this movie I would have left early, which isn't an easy task with kids.
This movie shamelessly plugged so many consumer products I felt like I was sitting through one big commercial, Gup instead of Gap, Guppy Kremes instead of Kristpy Kremes, Coral Cola instead of Coka Cola to name a few mock products which are obvious advertisements for the real product due to the likeness in trademarks. Way to target that young market, corporate whores!
Also the moral of ths story seemed to be if you screw up about a hundred times, some chick will help you out, then you can screw over that chick about a hundred times, lie to the entire community, and in the end everyone will like you any way and the chick will come back to you if you buy her balloons. EXCELLENT MESSAGE FOR ALL!!
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17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly Boring!, February 13, 2005
The most amazing thing to me about this movie is how a film this popular could be so BORING! Ugh!
I had heard people talk about how funny it was. Now I wonder what they were drinking when they saw it. I've seen funnier fish films floating on top of the pond. Some of the reviews here say the jokes are geared too much toward adults. That's a pretty sad thing to say about American adults. Or maybe it's because adults are the only ones who could get their hands on enough wacky weed to be able to laugh at this unimaginative, banal misuse of film.
My wife fell asleep while we were watching the DVD. She was the lucky one. Even the cat got off my lap and left the room. I stayed awake waiting for something humorous to happen. I think I smiled one time. The rest of the time I kept cringing at the inane attempts at humor and groaning that I actually spent money on this waste of time.
It looks like they were hoping to come up with a cross between "Shrek" and "Finding Nemo". They failed miserably. Both of those films had a heart, and a brain. This script was trite, the characters clichéd, the jokes stale. The animation and pretty colors were not enough to carry this sea turkey anywhere.
And yes, I got "the joke" about "The Godfather" and "Goodfellas" such as it was. The problem is that "joke" has been used to death.
Another reviewer complained about the product placements. Unfortunately, those were the cleverest moments.
PROS: Nice animation; pretty colors
CONS: Tiresome, one-dimensional characters; tedious plot; lack of imagination.
This definitely ain't Shrek!
Hey Dreamworks! If you are reading this, next time wait until you have a decent script before you start production. Sheesh!
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