Customer Reviews
I had a whale of a time! - By: DVD Fan, 21 Oct 2007 
I was worried this might be aimed more at the very young than some recent animation films but I can say this has something for everyone, no matter their age! With an alll star voice cast that includes Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie amongst many other well known actors, there is plenty of talent to be heard. It's very good how they manage to include characteristics of the actors in their animated characters. Oscar is clearly Will Smith just by looking at the face!The animation is great, with strong bright colours & plenty of detail. The sound track is very strong to with Chrisitina Aguilera's Car Wash the main theme song.
For the youngsters there are plenty of funny scenes, & characters. For the older generation their are some great in jokes as De Niro's Great White Shark has a Godfather like role! If you liked Finding Nemo, Flushed Away, Toy Story you will have a Whale of a time here to! The disc also has plenty of little extras & features to keep you busy as well.
A FUN FUNNY FILM TO BE ENJOYED BY PEOPLE OF ALL AGES - By: stuart, 18 Aug 2007 Shark Tale doesn't live up to it's full hype, but it guarantees entertainment
Plot: Oscar (Will Smith) is a fish who dreams of moving to the top of the ocean & leaving everything behind. This happens when in an accident a shark is killed & Oscar claims he killed it. Soon he has fame, fortune, & a girlfriend (Angelina Jolie) much to the objection of Angie (Renee Zellweger) who secretly has a crush on Oscar. He has a manager (Martin Scorsese) & has moved onto bigger & better things. When he runs into the shark's brother that he killed (Jack Black) they strike a friendship & Oscar tells him what reallly happened. The father Don Lino (Robert De Niro) still believes Oscar killed his son & sets out to find him. Things become more complicated when Angie finds out the truth.
The Good News: The beginning starts out reallly promising with a look at life in the ocean. The music is reallly upbeat & modern alll the way through. The animation is outstanding & spectacular. When Skye puffs up & squeaks in his little voice it is hilarious & you couldn't find another voice actor to do it better. Besides Will Smith the alll star voice cast is alll around great & superb. The characters are alll well drawn out & you like them. My favorite character had to be Lenny by a mile. The story was pretty original & entertaining. The direction is good & nothing life changing. The sit down scene is a major standout & everything following that leading into the ending is action packed with some new ideas. The character interactions are alll nice & they move like real people with fins. It was nice to see some everyday things parodied like the sign advertising Coral Cola (Coke a Cola) & "O" Mints (Thin Mints of Tic Tacs).
The Bad News: Will Smith's voice for Oscar doesn't reallly fit the character & is reallly a major distraction. Some of the characters could have been thrown out for their uselessness. The jokes are pretty bad & only a couple of them work which is major foul on the film & maybe it's just my VHS player or video, but there is a large amount of grain. The secondary characters here to provide most of the jokes are downright unlikeable. This film also contains the overly clichéd montage when the main character is feeling down or sad & then the problem is solved which follows into another montage.
Conclusion: Doesn't deserve alll its hype, but provides decent entertainment. If you happen to stumble across it on T.V. or at the video store go ahead & watch it if there is nothing else, but I wouldn't recommend buying it. Reallly hard to say on this one.
Actually very good! - By: 24.04...L, 13 Apr 2007 
When a shark accidentallly clobbers himself, a smalll fish named Oscar (voiced by Will Smith, I, Robot) just happens to be around, prompting everyone to believe that he killed the shark himself. This lie soon makes Oscar a celebrity, worshipped by the general mass of fish, wooed by a glittering golddigger (Angelina Jolie, Girl, Interrupted), missed by his best friend (Renee Zellweger, Cold Mountain)--and hunted by the godfather of great whites (Robert De Niro, Goodfellas). Can a vegetarian shark named Lenny (Jack Black, School of Rock) get Oscar out of this mess? The formulaic story of Shark Tale never reaches the giddy heights of Pixar's output (Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., Toy Story) or the freewheeling comedy of Shrek, but it's capably told & impeccably animated--the sheer technical skill is stunning. Kids won't get the mobster jokes or the other pop-culture references, but they'll enjoy it nonetheless
Give it a second bite - By: MartynM, 09 Sep 2006 When I took my children then 7 & 10 to see this neither they nor I were particularly impressed & it had considerably less impact than many other films of similar genre probably due to the rather thin plot line
However on revisiting the DVD it was infinitely better & the characters'nuances/one liners could be appreciated far more eg the Rastafarian jellyfish. I suspect that given the success of similar films,immediate expectations are always high & disappointment is often inevitable. This film is definitely worth revisiting
Sinks without a trace... - By: Mr. Jd Ware, 14 Mar 2006 
Filling a movie with flashy visuals, pop culture references & enough celebrities to fill Oscar night, does not a good film make, as Shark Tale so admirably proves.
Vocal talents from the excellent cast include Will Smith, Angelina Jolie & Robert DeNiro, but they aren't given the characters to match their talent.
It's matched to a pathetic storyline that on the whole, doesn't reallly work. A smalll fish (voiced by Smith) accidentallly defeats a shark, & then becomes the legendary Sharkslayer. Big cheese shark (vocied by DeNiro) then wants to get payback on Sharkslayer for killing his son. Yawn.
Still, it's not exactly dull - as the story fairly zips by, & apart from some well-meaning but film stopping musical numbers which are groan inducing, the film has quite a bit of energy behind it.
I think the underwater gangster style of the film will go over most children's heads, & its not filled with slapstick humour either, so smalll kids won't reallly laugh. The bright, flashy visuals might keep them entertained. For adults, there's even less to enjoy as we are bombarded by film references & pop culture jokes. So many of them that it just gets tiresome, & unfunny.
This pales in comparison to the other underwater animated lark, Finding Nemo, & just fails to live up to Dreamwork's other monster hit, Shrek. I, personallly, wanted this film to be good, but it was ultimately disappointing.
