Shark Tale (2004)

Academy Awards, USA 2005

Nominee Oscar

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year Bill Damaschke

DreamWorks Pictures
Directed by Vicky Jenson, Bibo Bergeron, Rob Letterman
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, DreamWorks)

Will Smith is the voice of a lowly fish working as a "whale washer" in a lively underwater city. He gets in deep debt to a pufferfish (voiced appropriately by Martin Scorsese) who is connected to a mob of great white sharks headed by none other than Robert De Niro. Smith claims to have killed one of the sharks who terrorizes the city and becomes a hero. The lie spirals out of control and Smith is forced to stop the sharks who come looking for him. He manages to befriend them by appealing to their love of family. Fast paced supposed kid movie is really a satire of The Godfather and too many other 70s pop culture reference to count. Despite Smith's usual antics, I was entranced by the whole thing, with a vivid underwater world, a vibrant soundtrack, and quirky characters. My favorite? Ziggy Marley and Doug E. Doug as a pair of Jamaican electric jellyfish. More fun than Finding Nemo (released the same year, with a similar concept) could ever hope to be.