Shark Tale DVD Review:

Oscar (Smith) is a fish with big dreams of making it to the top of the reef. In reality he worked at the local Whale Wash and was just a small fry in a very big ocean. When his get rich schemes get him in 5000 clams worth of debt with his boss Sykes (Scorsese), Oscar is taken out into the ocean to be fed to the sharks. Lenny (Black) is a shark that lacks the killer instinct, much to the regret of his father Don Lino (De Niro), the leader of the local Shark Mafia. But when he sends Lenny out to the ocean to make his first kill with his brother, Frankie is accidentally killed while trying to eat his victim, who just happens to be Oscar. Sykes’s two henchmen witness the event on their way back to the reef and instantly hail Oscar as a hero and a shark slayer. Seeing instant fame and fortune, Oscar doesn’t disagree with them and starts living the life, that is until Don Lino finds out who killed his son.

After the huge success of Shrek and its sequel, DreamWorks hope to start another franchise with Shark Tale but does this latest animated spectacular have the bite to cause another big splash at the box office?

The simple answer is no. Shark Tale just doesn’t have the magical quality that you associate with the big Green Ogre and his friends, making it stinks of a wasted opportunity. The main problem is the characters. None of them are realised to their full potential and are merely fish caricatures of the movie stars that are providing their voices. Only Jack Black, as reluctant shark Lenny, gives a vocal performance that doesn’t actually sound like his own, everyday voice. This rest are just themselves, in fish form, acting as you’d expect them to act.

Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese parody some of their greatest collaborations but the jokes will fly over the head of the target audience (the kids) and the adults will just groan at two greats of cinema making a mockery of some of their best work. Will Smith is basically the Fresh Prince of the Reef but twice as annoying as his small screen creation ever was. Renée Zellweger equates herself better as Angie, as does Angelina Jolie as the gold-digger Lola. The stars of the show are Doug E. Doug and Ziggy Marley as Rastafarian jellyfish Bernie and Ernie. They provide much of the comic relief and are probably the most realised characters in the movie.

The story isn’t the most complex either. This is a Mafia movie that never shows Don Lino and his hoods doing anything to show why they have their reputation. You couldn’t really show the Sharks eating any of the main characters, but the threat should have been there. Also the screenwriters missed the opportunity of parodying the usual gangster activities of racketeering, collecting protection money and even putting a contract on someone.

While the characters may not be the best creations, the animated undersea world they inhabit is superb. This may not have the realism of Finding Nemo but the reef is a stylised version of New York, with its skyscrapers and recreation of Times Square. The attention to detail is first rate and Shark Tale showcases the advancing technological level of the computer graphics used to produce these animated features.

With a very slight story and characters that don’t really stick in the memory, Shark Tale isn’t the best of the big budget animated features to hit the silver screen. While there is still much to enjoy here, you can’t help but think this is a wasted opportunity. Shark Tale just doesn’t have the bite to become an animated classic.

Star Rating = * * * (For Kids) * * (For everyone else)

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the transfer is very good, as you’d expect from a computer-animated movie. The advantage of a direct transfer to DVD means that the picture quality is actually better on your home DVD player than it was at the cinema. Oscar’s undersea world has never looked so vivid and colourful. The sound quality is also extremely good, as the hip-hop/R&B soundtrack fills the speakers.

BONUS FEATURES

Filmmaker’s Commentary
Directors Bibo Bergeron, Vicky Jenson and Rob Letterman provide a chatty and informative commentary on how a big computer animated movie comes to the big screen. The trio talk about cast the right people to bring the characters to life and how, for the first time in DreamWorks animation history stars Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese and Will Smith and Jack Black, recorded their dialogue together. The talk about creating the character and match them to the star providing the voices. They also reveal facts about the more technical aspects of this type of animation and how the script developed. This is a good commentary that offers an insight into the CG animated film business.

Rough Waters (1.42 mins)

What happens when computer go wrong? Watch as your favourite characters don’t look or do as they are supposed to.

Starfish (11.26 mins)

Directors Bibo Bergeron, Vicky Jenson and Rob Letterman, producers Bill Damaschke and Allison Lyon Segar, executive producer Jeffery Katzenberg and vocal stars Will Smith, Jack Black, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Angelina Jolie and Renée Zellweger talk about the characters of ‘Shark Tale’. With behind the scenes footage from the vocal recordings, we see the star cast creating the vocal performance for all your favourite characters.

The Music of Shark Tale (4.24 mins)

Music stars Missy Elliot, Christina Aguilera, Ziggy Marley, Sean Paul, Justin Timberlake, Mary J. Blige and Ludacris talk about creating the tracks ‘Carwash’, ‘Three Little Birds’, ‘Good Foot’, ‘Got to be Real’ and ‘Gold digger’ for the ‘Shark Tale’ soundtrack.

A Fishified World (5.48 mins)

Co-Directors Bibo Bergeron and Vicky Jenson, executive producer Jeffery Katzenberg, producer Janet Healy, CG supervisor Kevin Rafferty, art directors Sam Michlap and Seth Engstrom and stars Jack Black and Angelina Jolie talk about creating the Oscar’s undersea world and how the real world influenced much of what you see.

Gigi the Whale (1.18 mins)

Wille the Whale talks about creating his performance and how he based his character on a real life gangster.

A Tour you can’t reef-use!!!
Take a tour of the Whale Wash, Race Track, Wasteland, Shipwreck, Uptown and Downtown and see how Oscar, Don Lino, Angie, Frankie, Lola, Luca, Lenny, Wille, Sykes and Ernie and Bernie were designed.

Club Oscar

Play Club Oscar (3.38 mins)

Watch your favourite characters dance to 70s groves and tunes as the Whale Wash closes and transforms into ‘Club Oscar’.

Get your Groove On (17.20 mins)

Learn how to dance like your favourite characters at ‘Club Oscar’. Learn ‘Oscar’s Disco’, ‘Angie and Oscar Dance’, ‘The Hustle’, ‘Shrimp Moves’ and ‘Oscar Time’.

Club Oscar Printables
Place the DVD in your PC and print out your favourite characters

DreamWorks Kids

Finfilled Scenes
Automatically jump to ‘Laugh out Loud’, ‘Gross out’, ‘Dance scenes’, ‘Lenny and Oscar’ and ‘Ernie and Bernie’

Rock the Reef
Jump to the songs ‘Carwash’, ‘Far as we felt like goin’, ‘Three Little Birds’, ‘Gold Digger’, ‘Secret Love’, ‘Gold foot’, ‘Can’t Wait’, ‘Get it together’, ‘Sweet Kind of Life’ and ‘Lies and Rumours’ as they appear in the movie.

Music Video ‘Carwash’ (4.02 mins)

Watch Missy Elliot and Christina Aguilera perform the theme from the movie.

Must Sea Games
Play the interactive games ‘Disguise Lenny’ and ‘Place your bets’

Shark Take Colorscript
View the original artwork that guides the animators by displaying the overall mood of each scene and help set the tempo of the scene.

Trailers
Previews of Madagascar, Wallace and Gromit and Shrek 2

OVERALL

DreamWorks have tailored this release towards the younger viewer but there is still much for adults to enjoy. The featurettes are a little short but the commentary track is good and the games and fun items will keep the target audience amused for a while. Fans of the movie will be pleased with this DVD.

DVD Star Rating = * * *

Jamie Kelwick

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