SYNOPSIS

Oscar (Will Smith) is a fast-talking little fish who dreams big. But his big dreams land him in hot water when a great white lie turns him into an unlikely hero. At first, his fellow fish swallow Oscar’s story hook, line and sinker and he is showered with fame and fortune. It’s all going along swimmingly, until it starts to become clear that Oscar’s tale about being the defender of the Reef is all wet. Oscar is finding out that being a hero comes at a Market Price when his lie threatens to make him the Catch of the Day. Now he has to tread water until he can get the scales to tip back in his favor again.

"Shark Tale" stars the voices of Will Smith as Oscar, a hustler, who has always been able to fin-agle his way out of trouble, until now; two-time Academy Award® winner Robert De Niro ("Raging Bull," "The Godfather, Part II") as Don Lino, a great white shark at the top of the Reef’s food chain; two-time Oscar® nominee Renée Zellweger ("Chicago," "Bridget Jones’s Diary") as Angie, a beautiful angel fish who harbors a secret crush on Oscar; Academy Award® winner Angelina Jolie ("Girl, Interrupted") as Lola, the femme fatale, a dragon fish who uses her feminine wiles to get what she wants; Jack Black ("School of Rock") as Don Lino’s son Lenny, a great white shark who is a closet vegetarian; and multiple Oscar®-nominated director Martin Scorsese ("Gangs of New York," "Goodfellas") as Sykes, a puffer fish who is full of hot air and never misses an opportunity to make a few extra clams.

Rounding out the main cast are: veteran actor Peter Falk ("Columbo") as Don Brizzi, a shark who is long in the tooth, but still has plenty of bite left; Michael Imperioli ("The Sopranos") as Don Lino’s oldest son Frankie, a chip off the old shark; Vincent Pastore ("The Sopranos") as Luca, an oily octopus, which makes him the perfect right-hand man; and Doug E. Doug and Ziggy Marley as Bernie and Ernie, two Rastafarian jelly fish with a stinging sense of humor.

"Shark Tale" is directed by Eric "Bibo" Bergeron and Vicky Jenson, with Rob Letterman serving as co-director. Bill Damaschke, Janet Healy and Allison Segan are producing.


Review By MAURICE BROADDUS

The easiest way for me to sum up A Shark Tale, since it will invariably be compared to Finding Nemo, is to recall when the movies A Bug’s Life and Antz came out. They came out within a year of each other, both seemed to cover the same territory, yet they were completely different movies. A Shark Tale is the Antz. The movies pales in comparison to Finding Nemo mostly because it replaces heart, or anything approaching real emotion, with rapid fire jokes. This makes for a fine and entertaining, though ultimately forgettable, movie. There were plenty of times when the adults were laughing, but the kids stared wide-eyed at the screen since whatever everyone was laughing at was at least animated. The movie clearly suffers from a case of being too hip for its audience. The jokes and allusions come at a fast and furious pace, and either you are in on the jokes, or you are bored by the self-referential "wit" of it. References don’t entertain kids. Nor can, or should, they relate to a plot that revolves around a mafia spoof. Oscar (voiced by Will Smith) and Lenny (Jack Black) are essentially two sides of the same coin. Neither of them are living the life they were created or expected to live. Oscar is filled with get rich quick schemes and dreams of being somebody. Lenny is set to inherit the family business but dreams of being a "nobody". He is also a vegetarian, thus risking alienation from his family, especially his father Don Lino (Robert DeNiro) should he decide to come out of the closet with it.

I kept waiting for the movie to be "about" something. At one point, Oscar is bought with a pearl of great price, as the woman who pines for him offers a family heirloom to help him pay off a loan shark. She offers the wisdom, in reference to the large pearl, that "dreams can begin small, too." At another point, Lenny’s brother, Frankie, dies. This also again points to how the movie veers from heart for the joke. Unlike animated movies such as Bambi, The Lion King, or Finding Nemo, this death in the family is played for laughs. One might expect that this element of tragedy would be the transforming event in our two protagonists lives. And it is, if you count embracing a lie as the life-changing event. Oscar is transformed into his new life as a shark killer. Ultimately, this movie is about a call to authenticity or, as the cover to Cheryl Lynn’s song proclaims, they’ve "Got to be Real". Both Oscar and Lenny are called from their old lives into their new ones. Once they’ve shed the lies, they embrace the call of who they are and who they were meant to be in the fuller sense. However, in eschewing sentiment for the sake of humor, I felt cheated by the movie, much in the same way as a person who keeps you from getting close to them by throwing jokes at you. So I left wondering how great it might have been if only the movie could have been real with the audience.

SPIRITUAL CONNECTIONS

At one point, Oscar is bought with a pearl of great price, as the woman who pines for him offers a family heirloom to help him pay off a loan shark. She offers the wisdom, in reference to the large pearl, that "dreams can begin small, too."
--MAURICE BROADDUS

JESUS' STORY OF THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

Matthew 13:44-52 (Message Bible)

"God's kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidently found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field.

"Or, God's kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it.

"Or, God's kingdom is like a fishnet cast into the sea, catching all kinds of fish. When it is full, it is hauled onto the beach. The good fish are picked out and put in a tub; those unfit to eat are thrown away. That's how it will be when the curtain comes down on history. The angels will come and cull the bad fish and throw them in the garbage. There will be a lot of desperate complaining, but it won't do any good."

Jesus asked, "Are you starting to get a handle on all this?"

They answered, "Yes."

He said, "Then you see how every student well-trained in God's kingdom is like the owner of a general store who can put his hands on anything you need, old or new, exactly when you need it."

MAURICE BROADDUS holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Biology (with an undeclared major in English) from Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. He works as an environmental toxicologist by day and is a horror writer by night. Obviously his areas of interests includes religious studies, folklore, and myths. He is a notorious egotist who, in anticipation of a successful writing career, is practicing speaking of himself in the third person. Oh yeah, he’s married to the lovely Sally Jo and has two boys: Maurice Gerald Broaddus II (thus, retroactively declaring himself "Maurice the Great") and Malcolm Xavier Broaddus.

Follow links to www.hollywoodjesus.com