Shark Tale

In the Southside Reef, a lowly Hawaiian cleaner wrasse named Oscar fantasizes about being rich and famous. He owes money to his boss, a pufferfish named Sykes. His best friend, an angelfish named Angie, offers him a pearl that was a gift from her grandmother to pawn and pay his debt. Meanwhile, Don Edward Lino, the boss of a mob gang of sharks, orcas, swordfish and octopuses, dislikes that his son Lenny is a vegetarian. Lino orders his violent eldest son, Frankie, to mentor Lenny.

Oscar brings the money from the pearl to a seahorse race to meet Sykes, but hears that the race is rigged and bets it all on a seahorse named "Lucky Day". A lionfish gold digger named Lola sees this and flagrantly seduces Oscar. Sykes is annoyed that Oscar bet the money, but he hopes that Oscar might win. Lucky Day eventually takes the lead, only to trip and lose short of the finish line. Sykes loses his temper and orders his two Jamaican jellyfish henchmen, Ernie and Bernie, to deal with Oscar. While the two shock a tied-up Oscar, Frankie sees them and urges Lenny to eat Oscar, but Lenny instead frees Oscar and tells him to escape. Furious and fed up with his brother’s tenderness, Frankie charges at Oscar, but suddenly an anchor from above the surface falls on his neck, killing him. Devastated and blaming himself for his brother's demise, Lenny leaves. With no other witnesses, Oscar takes credit for killing Frankie and quickly rises in fame as the "Sharkslayer".

Sykes becomes Oscar's manager and forgives his debt, and Oscar moves to the "top of the reef" to live in luxury. At the same time, Lino has everyone search for Lenny and the "Sharkslayer". Oscar encounters Lenny who, aware of Oscar's lie, begs Oscar to let him stay at his place to avoid returning to his father. Angie soon finds out about Oscar's lie and threatens to tell everyone, but he and Lenny convince her to be quiet. The next day, Oscar and Lenny stage an event in which Lenny pretends to terrorize the town, and Oscar pretends to defeat him in battle, thus cementing Oscar's popularity and making the sharks believe that Lenny has been killed too, infuriating Lino. Lola kisses Oscar on camera, making Angie jealous. That night, as Lenny disguises himself for his new life as a dolphin, Oscar and Angie get into a heated argument, where she reveals that she had feelings for Oscar even before he became the "Sharkslayer". Oscar reflects on his selfishness and dumps Lola, who beats him up in anger.

Oscar buys some gifts for Angie, only to discover that Lino has kidnapped her to stage a meeting, which Lola is also attending in revenge for being dumped. Lino threatens to eat Angie if Oscar does not surrender, but Lenny "eats" Angie to save her. He soon regurgitates her, and Lino realizes that the disguised Lenny is his son. Enraged, Lino chases Oscar through the reef. Oscar flees to the Whale Wash, accidentally trapping Lenny in the machinery before also trapping Lino. Everyone cheers for Oscar, but he finally confesses the truth behind Frankie's death while urging Lino to respect Lenny's lifestyle. Lino reconciles with his son and accepts him, and states that he and his gang bear the city no ill will. Oscar forsakes all the wealth he has acquired, becomes co-owner of the Whale Wash (which is now frequented by the gang members), and begins a relationship with Angie.

• Will Smith as Oscar, a comical, streetwise Hawaiian cleaner wrasse who works in the Whale Wash of Reef City and often concocts schemes to become rich.
• Robert De Niro as Don Lino, a great white shark and leader of a mob consisting of criminally-inclined sharks, who wants his two sons to take over his business and run it together.
• Renée Zellweger as Angie, Oscar's angelfish best friend and colleague who harbors a secret crush on Oscar.
• Jack Black as Lenny, Don Lino's youngest son, a vegetarian, and the younger brother of Frankie, who becomes good friends with Oscar and Angie.
• Angelina Jolie as Lola, a seductive female lionfish whom Oscar develops a romantic interest in.
• Martin Scorsese as Sykes, a loan shark pufferfish who owns the Whale Wash and to whom Oscar owes five thousand clams.
• Ziggy Marley and Doug E. Doug as Ernie and Bernie, two jellyfish with Jamaican accents and Sykes' enforcers, who enjoy torturing Oscar with their painful stingers when he is in trouble with their boss.
• Michael Imperioli as Frankie, Lenny's older brother and Don Lino's more vicious son, who is embarrassed by Lenny's vegetarian views.
• Vincent Pastore as Luca, Don Lino's green octopus "left-hand, right-hand man", with a tendency to state the obvious, much to Lino's frustration.
• Peter Falk as Don Feinberg, an elderly leopard shark and leader of a mob of criminally-inclined leopard sharks, who is a friend of Don Lino.
• Katie Couric as Katie Current, the local reporter of the Southside Reef in the U.S. release. At the time, Katie Couric co-hosted Today in America.[4] In the Australian release, then local Today co-host Tracy Grimshaw dubbed the lines.[4] Fiona Phillips of the UK's GMTV performed the voice for the British release of the film.[5] Cristina Parodi of Italy's Verissimo provided the Italian version of the character.[6]
• David P. Smith as Crazy Joe, a deranged hermit crab who is Oscar's friend.
• Bobb'e J. Thompson, Kamali Minter, Emily Lyon Segan as the Shorties, three delinquent young fish and friends of Oscar who love to spray graffiti.
• Shelley Morrison as Mrs. Sanchez
• David Soren as an unnamed shrimp who fears being eaten by a shark and is an enemy to Don Lino.

Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott portray fish versions of themselves at the end of the film, singing "Car Wash".

The film was officially announced and began production in April 2002, under the title of Sharkslayer,[7][8] with Vicky Jenson (Shrek) and Eric "Bibo" Bergeron (The Road to El Dorado) as directors. By September 2003, it had been retitled Shark Tale, to make the title sound less violent and more family friendly.[9][10] Bill Damaschke, the producer of the film, explained the change of the title: "We set out to make a movie a little more noir, perhaps a little darker than where we've landed."[11] Shark Tale is the first all computer-animated film produced at DreamWorks Animation's Glendale facility, which previously animated the studio's four hand-drawn animated movies, The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, as well as the first computer-animated film to not be produced by Pacific Data Images.[8]

James Gandolfini was initially set to voice the kingpin shark, named Don Lino, but he had to drop out, with Robert De Niro taking over the role.[8][12]

The film was produced concurrently with Finding Nemo, another animated film set underwater, which was released a year and a half before Shark Tale. DreamWorks Animation's CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg, defended the film, saying that "any similarities are mere coincidence. We've been open with the Pixar people, so we don't step on each other's toes."[12]

The film had promotional support from Burger King, Kellogg’s, General Mills, Coca-Cola and Hewlett-Packard.

The Piazza San Marco in Venice a day before the film's world premiere, where it was projected on the world's largest inflatable movie screen.

Shark Tale was originally scheduled for general release on November 5, 2004, but it was moved up to October 1 to avoid competition with Pixar's The Incredibles releasing on the same weekend.[13] The film had its worldwide premiere on September 10, 2004, in Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy.[14] Screening as part of the Venice Film Festival, it marked the first time that Piazza San Marco was closed for a premiere of a major feature film.[14] The film was projected on the largest inflatable screen in the world, measuring more than six stories tall and over 3,900 square feet (360 m²). It required 20,000 cubic feet (570 m³) of air to inflate and more than 50 tons of water for stabilization.[14] The premiere was attended by 6,000 visitors,[15] including Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, and Michael Imperioli.[14] Jeffrey Katzenberg, the executive producer of the film, explained that they "wanted to find a unique way to introduce this movie to the world. We needed a big idea. … More than anything, we are in showbusiness. This is the show part."[15]

Shark Tale: Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on September 21, 2004. The soundtrack features newly recorded music by various artists, including Christina Aguilera, Mary J. Blige, Sean Paul, Timbaland, The Pussycat Dolls, Ludacris, Missy Elliott, and Justin Timberlake, as well as "Some of My Best Friends Are Sharks", the film's closing theme composed by Hans Zimmer.

Janet Jackson and Beyoncé initially planned to record a duet for the film's soundtrack. Jackson's frequent collaborator Jimmy Jam, who had recently worked with Beyoncé for The Fighting Temptations soundtrack, commented, "Obviously we'd love to have the involvement of Janet and Beyonce, who we just worked with on Fighting Temptations. They've already expressed interest", adding "There are a lot of opportunities with an animated piece to work with some different people."[46] Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, had appointed Jackson's producers Jam & Lewis to be involved with the soundtrack, though the duo only ended up producing only one song for the film, with Jam saying "We worked for DreamWorks before on the Bryan Adams song for Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and the Boyz II Men tune for The Prince of Egypt, and Katzenberg is a fan of what we do. He thought we would be perfect to do the music for Shark Tale."[46]

A video game based on the film was released on September 29, 2004, for Microsoft Windows, Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Game Boy Advance.[47] Published by Activision, Edge of Reality developed the console versions of the game, while Vicarious Visions developed the Game Boy Advance version, and Amaze Entertainment developed the Microsoft Windows version.[47] The cast from the film didn't reprise their roles in the game, except David P. Smith reprising his role as Crazy Joe.

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• Official website (Archived from the original)
• Official website at DreamWorks
• Shark Tale at IMDb
• Shark Tale at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Shark Tale at AllMovie