Dreamworks #9: Shark Tale

Shark Tale - 6.7/10

If anyone was wondering why I stopped doing these for so long, the reason was 100% because I had no real desire to watch this movie again, and didn’t want to cheat by skipping it. I finally made myself sit through it, and though it wasn’t nearly as bad as I remember, I’d still say it’s probably the Studio’s weakest effort.

Let’s begin. This movie has all the hallmarks of a film designed by committee. “Hip hop slang! Pop culture references! Shallow racial stereotypes! Kids like that shit, right? Throw it in!” And they were trying so hard with the jokes. In stark contrast to the Shrek films, which were so casual and effortless with their humor, a solid half of the comedy in this movie is painfully forced. Perfect example: the inevitable never-ending stream of fish puns (see what I did there?). Had they been sprinkled throughout the movie here and there, it would have been a fun running gag. Instead, we are bombarded with them one after another for the first five minutes of the film. Katie Current. Starfish Tours. Mussel Crowe. Jessica Shrimpson. Cod Steward. Shell phones. The prawn shop. HA HA HA! I GET IT! THEY’RE FISH!

As far as casting goes, the committee’s fingerprints are once again evident. Will Smith stars as “Will Smith” playing “Will Smith the fish” as a fish. And no, there isn’t some clever movie-within-a-movie-within-a-movie framing device, it’s just layer upon layer upon layer of hack writing, phoned-in performances and general, all-around not giving a crap. It’s sad, because I know he’s perfectly capable of a sincere performance, but that clearly isn’t what was asked of him here.

Surprisingly, most of the supporting cast does very well – those not pigeonholed into the aforementioned stereotypes, anyway. Jack Black and Angelina Jolie particularly impressed me by giving actual vocal performances rather than just “lending their voices” as is so common these days. Were it not for the credits, you might not have known it was them. 

There were other bright spots too. As I said, only about half the jokes were forced; the other half actually played very well and I was laughing a lot more than I’d thought I would. The premise itself was interesting, however the lead character ruined it for me. Will Smith’s “performance” aside, the character is horribly written. Strictly speaking, he’s a jerk. Why should I be rooting for him? Moreover, we are given no reason why Renée Zelleger Fish likes him to begin with, much less why she still does at the end. His “I’ve learned something today” speech in no way makes up for the way he treated her throughout the movie, and she comes off as a pushover by forgiving him just because he says she was “right in front of [him] the whole time.” Blech. There are some unfortunate implications there that I don’t really want to go into. Suffice to say that were this a romantic comedy, his would have been the asshole character she was hung up on in the beginning before falling for the actual hero of the story (who is sadly absent from this film altogether).

All things considered, not as terrible as I remembered by any means, and probably not worth a 9 month hiatus to avoid it, but definitely not their best, and probably not one I’ll be watching again any time soon.