Finding a more urban ‘Nemo’

Shark Tale (2004)
DreamWorks SKG presents a film directed by Bibo Bergeron, Vicky Jenson and Rob Letterman and featuring the voices of Will Smith and Robert De Niro. Written by Letterman, Damian Shannon, Mark Swift and Michael J. Wilson. 100m. PG for some mild language and crude humor.

2 stars

I know a woman who swears that every Jeffrey Katzenberg idea is just a rip-off from a Disney think-tank. After witnessing “Shark Tale,” I’m inclined - now more than ever - to believe her.

Katzenberg is the ‘K’ in the Dreamworks SKG partnership, which brought “Shark Tale” to theaters this past weekend. Although I haven’t read what other critics have written about this kiddy fare, I’d imagine they were tempted to make comparisons to another animated, big-budget, child-centric underwater fish film that hit screens just last year.

Yes, “Shark Tale” is kind of like seeing your favorite television show move to UPN: You can recognize the most general details, but now the cast talks a little bit more urban. They’ve got a little more “street cred” and their ideologies run a little more toward the “get rich quick” schemes instead of the “honest day’s pay” routine. In essence, “Shark Tale” is the diluted product of “Finding Nemo”; the runoff of a lukewarm idea now served terribly cold.

In its quest to be family inclusive, “Shark Tale” contains more than two dozens references a fan of mob movies could only enjoy. The first is its “as voiced by” cast, which sounds like the latest crop for a “Godfather meets the Goodfellas and the Sopranos” feature. Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Michael Imperioli and Vincent Pastore all make appearances.

De Niro has long parlayed his roles in “The Godfather Part II,” “Goodfellas,” “Casino” and “The Untouchables” into others where he was only asked to parody the characters he played in those seminal films. “Shark Tale” is no different, relying on the viewer’s keen sense of classic moments from these films for its humor. If you haven’t seen the scene where Al Capone walks around his capos at a dinner party with a baseball bat in “The Untouchables,” you’re going to miss a funny in-joke during this movie. Ditto to Joe Pesci’s memorable dialogue during “Goodfellas” about the way in which he’s funny.

“Shark Tale” plays out in an entire environment of self-awareness, it seems, down to the sharks knowing that the “Theme from Jaws” is their hunting overture. The animators also do a spectacular job of matching the fish’s countenances with distinct features from their voice actors. Oscar the Sharkslayer has Will Smith’s eyes. Don Lino has Robert De Niro’s grimace. Angie has Renée Zellweger’s puffy cheeks and pursed lips. Sykes has Martin Scorsese’s terribly overgrown eyebrows and Lola has Angelina Jolie’s oversized lips and sultry voice.

The plot involves Oscar taking credit for the death of Frankie (Imperioli), the shark brother of Lenny (Jack Black) and son to Don Lino. Oscar’s dreams of success are sealed when word spreads around the reef of his shark-slaying abilities. On the way to the top, he discards his best friend, Angie, for the golddigger Lola.

In order to keep the fallacy afloat, Oscar conspires with Lenny to stage the shark’s death in a mutual beneficial way. Lenny is overcome by Don Lino’s ability to love him even though he’s a vegetarian (read: different) and Oscar knows his life as a luftmensch hasn’t guaranteed him any penthouse luxuries.

The child-friendly message is given by Angie, who tells Oscar that he doesn’t have to live at the top of the reef to be somebody. But the moral is lost throughout the film, which ultimately heaps more glory onto Oscar as a reward for his laziness, dishonesty and generally untrustworthy behavior.

Gone is what should have been the real coda: Get a job, and work your way to the top like everyone else. There are no shortcuts to success.

But Lenny’s story may teach children a valuable lesson about tolerance and I’d be amiss if I didn’t mention that Lenny’s sometimes effeminate behavior was, I believe, a coding for homosexuality. Perhaps that was the subtext of “Shark Tale” that we’re supposed to remember, instead of Oscar’s resolution.

I wasn’t the biggest supporter of “Finding Nemo” because I thought there were too many scary scenes for the littlest tikes. But I’d recommend that film over Dreamworks’ rehash, mostly because the animation in “Nemo” is lot more interesting and the characters enjoy a dynamic element lost in this film. “Shark Tale” is breezy fun and harmless, but don’t expect your child to stare in rapture at the big screen or television set for too long.