Shark Tale

Review by Richard Lee

Dreamworks Home Entertainment / 2004 / 90 Minutes / Rated PG
Street Date: February 8, 2005

Specifications:
-DVD-Video
-DVD-9
-Region 1

Aspect Ratio:
-1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen

Audio:
-English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
-English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
-French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
-Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
-Filmmakers' Commentary

Subtitle Options:
-English
-French
-Spanish
-None

Main Menu:
-Play Movie
-Club Oscar
-Scenes
-Dreamworks Kids
-Audio
-Subtitles
-Special Features
-New From Dreamworks Animation

Special Features:
-Rough Waters
-Star Fish
-The Music of Shark Tale
-A Fishified World
-Gigi the Whale
-A Tour You Can't Reef-Use!!
-Filmmakers' Commentary
-Previews
-Cast
-Filmmakers

A few years ago, Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks were at animation odds in the insect world with "A Bug's Life" and "Ants", respectively. Taking their on-going competitive battle to the depths of the ocean, they now have presented us with "Finding Nemo" and "Shark Tale", proving once again that Hollywood studios love to jump on the band wagon when a premise with promise goes into production. "Shark Tale" is the latest animation feature from Dreamworks Animation. Bringing together a top-notch group of actors that would have made one helluva live-action movie, we are instead given the opportunity to experience their talents as voice actors.

Will Smith voices Oscar, a hustler fish who's stuck working at a whale wash while constantly thinking of ways to make it to the big time. His best friend, an angelfish named Angie, voiced by Rene Zellweger, harbors a secret crush on him. Oscar's boss at the whale wash is a pufferfish named Sykes, voiced by director Martin Scorsese, complete with the bushy eyebrows. Oscar's get-rich schemes have him owing Sykes big time and Sykes himself is connected to the mob, represented here by a bunch of great white sharks headed by Don Lino, voiced by Robert DeNiro, complete with the mole on the cheek. Don Lino is grooming his two shark sons to take over family business but one of them, Lenny, voiced by Jack Black, has a slight problem; he's a vegetarian and can't bring himself to devour any other fish. Don Lino, therefore sends his other son, Frankie, out with Lenny to teach him the ways of sharkdom. But through a series of unfortunate events, Oscar becomes the bait in Frankie's lesson and Frankie himself is killed by a collision with an anchor. This leads the fish community to believe that Oscar is the one responsible for the shark's death and he milks it for all it's worth by billing himself as "The Shark Slayer". Now with fame bringing him all he desired, Oscar is pursued by everyone from a gold-digging dragonfish, Lola, voiced by Angelina Jolie, and Don Lino, who wants revenge for the death of his son.

As a family movie, "Shark Tale" provides colorful characters and visuals for the kiddies, but a lot of the humor is more grown-up in nature and will probably go right over their heads. From the start, we get a parody of "Jaws"; understandable since Spielberg is one of the head honchos at Dreamworks. The whole shark scene as mobsters brings "The Godfather" to mind. As mildly entertaining as "Shark Tale" is, it runs a distant second to "Finding Nemo"; just as "Ants" falls behind "A Bug's Life". Only "Shrek" has proven to be Dreamworks' big success story so far, a character and fairy tale that they've made on their own. Seems there's a lesson here - if you go head to head with a similar premise against Pixar, you can count on being second fiddle time and time again.

Picture Quality:

Hands down, the picture looks awesome. Experiencing the presentation on a big screen, one wonders if an HD transfer would really be an improvement. As expected with a digital transfer of a totally CG movie, there was not a hint of graininess and resolution was crisp and sharp. The details of the underwater environment and the textures of the different variety of sea-life literally jump off the screen almost in 3-D fashion. The wide array of colors makes this dvd a perfect demo to show off a big screen home theater. 

Audio Quality:

The English Dolby Digital 5.1 track is impressive. From start to finish, the entire sound field is engaged. Dialogue is crystal clear and music is evident throughout each scene and always adds to the moment without over-powering it. One complaint - where's the DTS track? Dreamworks DVD's almost always offer a DTS option. Apparently, in order to make this a single DVD package with all the special features packed in, a DTS track would surely have compromised the video compression. Too bad, even though Dreamworks will make a little more with each DVD sold, a DTS track would have made this movie that much more enjoyable. Scenes for demonstration purposes: 53:39 - Oscar and Lenny stage a battle. 72:00 - Don Lino chases Oscar.

Special Features:

As soon as the dvd is started up, we are treated to a couple of projects coming from Dreamworks. Both animated, the first is a penguin mis-adventure called "Madagasgar" and the second is a long overdue Wallace and Gromit movie. In the Special Features section - "Rough Waters" is a series of incomplete animation tests that act as bloopers. Again, taking a cue from Pixar that started this with "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life". "Star Fish" is a 12 minute featurette that offers quick interviews with the cast on their various characters. "The Music of Shark Tale" is a 5 minute promotional featurette for the soundtrack of the movie. Various music artists are interviewed including Christina Aguilera who shows off her breasts. "A Fishified World" is a 6 minute featurette on the making of the movie with interviews with the creative staff. "Gigi the Whale" is a humorous short clip where they apparently took a conversation with "The Sopranos" Vincent Pastore while he was doing his voice-over work and animated it. "A Tour You Can't Reef-Use!!" is a series of collected artists' renderings pertaining to the creative process of each character as well as various set pieces throughout the movie. "Filmmakers' Commentary" offers an optional audio track with producers Vicky Jenson, Bibo Bergeron, and Rob Letterman. "Previews", "Cast", and "Filmmakers" finish off the Special Features section. 

As if the Special Features section wasn't enough, there is a whole other section called "Dreamworks Kids". "Club Oscar", which can also be accessed from the Main Menu, is a 4 minute bonus footage where the characters from the movie dance a la "Saturday Night Fever". Actually, this scene is also tacked on the very end of the movie after the credits. There is also the option of learning each of the dance steps featured in the scene! "Fin-Filled Scenes" takes you directly to those parts of the movie the filmmakers deem funny for the kiddies. "Rock the Reef" takes you directly to a featured song in the movie. "Must Sea Games" offers 3 inter-active/educational games. DVD-ROM features finishes off this section.

But wait! We're still not finished! There are at least 2 Easter Eggs on this DVD. The first can be found on the Main Menu. Highlight "Scenes" and then push the left arrow. This should highlight the "No Left Turn" sign. This will give you the option of seeing the color script of the movie which includes color storyboards used by the filmmakers. For the second, go to "Dreamworks Kids", pick "Rock the Reef", pick "Sykes' Jukebox", go down to "More", hit the left arrow. This should highlight a whale icon on Sykes' belly. This will take you to a "Meet the Cast" option where all the main characters of the movie are profiled. Whew!!