The Unseen Movie Review

Shark Tale

Boasting an impressive voice cast, including Will Smith, Renée Zellweger, Jack Black and Angelina Jolie, this animated underwater gangster comedy has looked to be pretty promising ever since it was first announced. When armed with the additional knowledge that it would see the young Vito Corleone Robert DeNiro himself voice a Godfather shark and hero director Martin Scorsese, he of classic gangster movies Goodfellas and Casino fame, turn up as well, and that it would be co-directed by one of the people responsible for Shrek, the entire project started sounding very impressive indeed.

Smith voices Oscar, a small fish in a big ocean who happens to be in the right place at the right time, just as an anchor plummets from above to kill a hulking great shark. Taking advantage of the situation, Oscar decides to pretend that he killed the predator and so gain the respect of his fishy peers. Unfortunately the ex-shark in question just happens to be the son and heir of the local sharky crimelord, DeNiro’s Don Lino. After teaming up with the Don’s vegetarian wannabe-dolphin other son Lenny (Jack Black) to cement his shark-killer reputation, Oscar is unsurprisingly not the sharks’ favourite fish.

As seems to be almost obligatory in animated comedies these days, and as is no doubt obvious by the presence of DeNiro and Scorsese and one of the Shrek team, film references abound in a valiant attempt to keep the adult members of the audience interested. It pretty much works – largely due to the obvious fun DeNiro and Scorsese are having and the fact that Will Smith, even in fish form, is always entertaining.

The dialogue may not always be as snappy as the underwater predators of the title, but this is a good, fun family movie with enough to keep grown-ups and kids alike absorbed in this nicely detailed watery world. It is yet another example of the sort of movie Disney should look to be making – witty and silly, and without so much of the sentimental guff that seems to crop up in practically everything the behemoth of feature-length cartoons is churning out these days.

Though unlikely to become a classic, this is better than average slice of family fun which will no doubt continue to keep the children amused for several years to come, and will certainly make a nice weekend treat as the nights begin to draw in.

posted by Nosemonkey @ 12:00 AM