Hidden somewhere in the busy clutter that is DreamWorks’ latest cartoon feature, “Shark Tale,” there’s a sweet story about a vegetarian shark who forms an alliance with a mouthy, much smaller fish who has been mistaken for a shark killer.
The opening scene, in which Lenny the shark rescues a worm from a hook, establishes the fact that he won’t eat meat. This is supposed to be a secret that no one outside his Mafia-style family knows, but when he finally comes out of the closet to Oscar the alleged shark killer, his confession has no surprise value.
Only Lenny’s dad, Don Lino (voice by Robert De Niro), seems oblivious to his son’s behavior. “You see something, you kill it, you eat it — that’s what sharks do,” he explains to Lenny. Don Lino’s unambiguously carnivorous other son, Frankie (Michael Imperioli), seems to get the idea.
The fact that Oscar’s voice is supplied by Will Smith, and Lenny is voiced by Jack Black, helps to make their curious friendship believable. Smith’s rap talent is exploited to considerable effect, while Black makes the lonely, potentially tedious Lenny seem both sympathetic and smart.
But they face a lot of competition for short-attention spans, including a boring angel fish who secretly loves Oscar (Renee Zellweger), a dragon fish who turns into a vengeful femme fatale (Angelina Jolie), a pair of Rastafarian jelly fish (Doug E. Doug, Ziggy Marley), an octopus (Vincent Pastore) and a puffer fish (Martin Scorsese) who is loaded with hot air.
There are many other distractions. The script is crammed with terrible puns (stars on a fishy Walk of Fame include “Mussell Crowe” and “Cod Stewart”), fart jokes, disco classics (“To Be Real”) and brief tributes to “The Sopranos,” “Titanic” and “The Godfather.” When the theme from “Jaws” turns up, one shark claims it as “our theme song.” A news anchor named Katie Current, who gives a report on the “Scallop Poll,” is played by none other than “The Today Show’s” Katie Couric.
“Shark Tale” may be the umpteenth movie to quote “You can’t handle the truth” (from “A Few Good Men”) and “You had me at hello” (from “Jerry Maguire”), though it’s surely the first to string them together in one sentence. Rarely has one movie been built from the parts of so many others.
Supposedly this is intended to keep potentially bored parents entertained with pop-culture references and innuendoes (including the suggestion that Lenny is gay), while the kids are carried away by the rich colors and fast-talking characters. But does it really work that way?
DreamWorks’ “Shrek” movies were partly based on this formula. It certainly clicked at the box office, and on video, where the recycling reached epic proportions as kids replayed the tapes and discs over and over.
But perhaps “Shark Tale” goes too far in this direction. In spite of the well-chosen voices and the charming animation — which is eye-poppingly state-of-the-art — it begins to feel as annoying and overwhelming as feedback.