My Review of Shark Tale · 5:59pm Jul 12th, 2022
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, everyone! This is Mr. J back with another movie review for today! This afternoon, I will be reviewing DreamWorks' Shark Tale from 2004! This is, of course, one of the most infamous animated films of the early 2000's that received a lot of hate, negativity, and mixed reviews. But here is the thing, everyone......I actually like this movie. I frankly have no idea why this film received a lot of hate over the years, but I do agree that it has moments that were less than impressive and cringe-worthy "humorous" scenes. Nonetheless, this is honestly one of my favorite guilty pleasure films of all time. I distinctively remember watching this film for the first time with my dad back when I was a kid, and it was something that always stood out to me for some reason. Even to this day, I still love the premise, most of the characters, and the hilarious voice acting.
This movie is about a young fish who dreams of being a somebody--someone who is at the top of the world. One day, Frankie the shark dies from an anchor which gives Oscar the opportunity to tell the great white lie. He is now seen as the hero of the ocean and the fearless shark slayer, but he doesn't realize he loses the value of his uniqueness and someone who truly loved him.
Folks, I am not afraid to say that I enjoyed almost every character therein since they all had some great, bizarre, yet interesting personalities. My favorite one is Lenny because he was voiced by Jack Black, is somewhat relatable, and had good chemistry with Oscar. It makes me happy knowing he became so confident in himself that he could be whoever he wanted to be and decided to reincarnate into a kung fu-fighting panda in another universe. Now that's character development! As far as Oscar is concerned, he is...a mixed bag for me. On one hand, I did like how he learned that trying to be someone who he is not was wrong and had to embrace who he is; on the other hand, I hated the fact that he never apologized for certain things he did earlier in the film. For instance, the biggest no-no he committed was betting Angie's precious pearl (which her grandmother gave to her) AND Sykes' 5 grand on Lucky Day who eventually lost the race--losing the bet. And he never told her he wasted her pearl for nothing!! It was never brought up again like it was no big deal. He might have progressed as a character, but he never once apologized for other things he did before he uttered the lie. To me, it was a slap on the face of good writing.
But again, Will Smith did a great job voicing Oscar. Also, Robert De Niro, David P. Smith, Angelina Jolie, and Martin Scorsese were likewise exceptional stand-outs among the voice cast; they gave their respective characters a strong tone, characterization, and mindset that made them pretty cool in my opinion.
As I said, it does have flaws. I am okay with nearly every score and music they put into it except for some others that felt a little too annoying to sit through. The one thing I wish the writers would have done better was Frankie's character; he was so unlikable, obnoxious, and overall self-centered which actually made me happy he was killed off half-way through the film. His death scene came off as emotionally manipulative and wanted us to feel sad over him...yet the last thing he did was slap his brother and call him a moron. Seriously, dude? Those are your final words? And...shouldn't Lenny be upset with Oscar for basically profiting from his brother's death with a lie? I really don't think he should have been so chill with the fact that Oscar is pretending to be his brother's killer, considering the fact that he was so obviously traumatized and distraught from seeing his brother die in front of him. That was just weak writing in my opinion.
So yeah, despite my own issues with the movie, I still enjoy it for what it is and for what it offered. It still slaps. I will give this a solid 6/10!
Peace!
I agree with you on this.
This movie’s a guilty pleasure of mine as well, because regardless of its detractors I enjoyed it regardless.
5671988
Really? Wow, I never knew you liked it too.
Since I watched this movie as a kid, I never had objections against this movie. And I still don´t. Sure, not the best Dreamworks movie, but still enjoyable.
5671989
Funny. I didn’t know you like it either, but…when it comes to “Shark Tale”, this review is a nice change of pace.
Well, Shark Tale is not my favorite Dreamwork movies or movies in general, and I agree what you said in the review, but I say I enjoy watching this movie since it's one of those movies that give me a laugh every time I watch it
I do love this scene from the movie though:
Especially the way how Will Smith was able to deliver that line so well. XD