Shark Tale

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Jack Black in a shark costume meets Will Smith in a fish costume.

"Don't you worry, boy, I learned from the greatest gangster movie of all time: Shark Tale."

—Homer Simpson, The Simpsons

This 2004 movie produced by Dreamworks Animation has probably the biggest ensemble cast in an animated Dreamworks movie. Starring Will Smith, Jack Black, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie, Renee Zellweger and even director Martin Scorsese. Every character in the movie looks worryingly like the actor voicing them.

This mafia movie, set in the world of saltwater fish, is the story of what happens when the son of the shark boss (De Niro) of a fish crime family is killed by a dropped anchor, and a bottom-feeder named Oscar (Smith) is found at the scene of the crime. Hoping to win favor with the enemies of the ganglord, the fast-talking hustler poses as the killer known as the "sharkslayer", but soon learns it's a dangerous game in a world where the big fish generally eat the little fish...

It's how The Godfather would be, if there were fish and Will Smith.

Tropes used in Shark Tale include:
  • Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male: no one seems to mind Lola beating the ever-loving crap out of Oscar, even though she does it in front of at least 20-30 people
  • Actor Allusion: When Oscar shouts "You had me at hello!" on tv, Angie is seen grinning. Renee Zellweger, who voiced Angie, stars in Jerry Maguire where the quote is said by her character in the movie.
    • Also, lines such as De Niro's character Don Lino saying, "I heard things" plus a conversation between the De Niro character and the Scorsese character (Sykes) spoof their infamous repeat the same lines back at one another.
    • The crowd even shouts "Oscar Bumaye!" the same where a crowd shouts "Ali Bumaye!" to Muhammad Ali (Will Smith plays Ali in his 2001 Biopic)
    • Oscar's "Pants" are big like Will Smith's clothes were in his older works.
    • "Don't swallow." "Oscar?" "No, it's Pinocchio. Of course it's me!" Will Smith voiced Pinocchio in an episode of Happily Ever After.
  • Adult Child: Ernie & Bernie
  • All-Star Cast: Most of the cast are mid-2000s stars.
  • Amplified Animal Aptitude
  • Ambiguously Gay: Lenny. He's vegetarian, wishes to be a dolphin and tries to hide this secret to his family.
    • Don't forget the speech Oscar makes after he's trapped Lenny and Don Lino in the whale wash: "What is your problem? So, your son likes kelp. So, his best friend is a fish. So he likes to dress like a dolphin, so what?! Everybody loves him, just the way he is. Why can't you?"
    • May be more like Does This Remind You of Anything?.
  • Ambiguously Jewish: the shark mobster who offers to sing the Titanic song
  • Ass in a Lion Skin: Lenny the shark passes himself off as Sebastian the Dolphin.
  • Betty and Veronica: Angie as the Betty and Lola as the Veronica.
  • Big Bad: Don Lino.
  • Big Guy, Little Guy: Lenny and Oscar
  • Big No: When an anchor lands on Frankie, Lenny screams this just before he tosses the anchor aside like a cottonball.
  • Billed Above the Title: The poster says it all. So did all the commercials, which did everything they could to make it seem as if the whole thing was just an excuse to have all the biggest superstars of the early 2000s (and Martin Scorsese) appear in a movie together.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Southside Reef was saved, Don Lino was brainwashed by Oscar to be good, and Oscar tells the citizens the truth and decides to quit his job as the Sharkslayer. But he decides to work in the Whale Wash again, with Lino, Lenny, Sykes, Luca, and the other sharks working with them.
  • Carnivore Confusion: Lenny the Shark, a principled vegetarian who refuses to devour sapient creatures, and massive disappointment to his father, makes an unsuccessful attempt to eat a sobbing shrimp who begs for his life.
    • Also, in the second scene, which shows off the city, we have a brief look at a sushi bar. There is not a single customer, to the owner's frustration. Guess why.
  • Celebrity Voice Actor: Dreamworks really went above and beyond for this one. In addition to casting just about the biggest name actors they could, they even went after non-acting celebrities like Martin Scorsese and Katie Couric.
  • The Dark Chick: Lenny is this of the sharks, until his Heel Face Turn.
  • The Ditz: Ernie & Bernie
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The movie wears some distinct resemblence to 1996's Dragonheart, which is about a knight and a dragon who ends up in a stalemate during a fight and decides to cooperate, to which they do by faking battles in front of awestruck villagers that the dragon pretends to attack, with the knight pretending to kill the dragon at the end.
  • Co-Dragons: Sykes and Lola become this to Lino. Sykes decides to keep Oscar forever and Lola is sent by Lino to pretend Oscar is her boyfriend.
  • Dueling Movies: Finding Nemo
  • Easily Forgiven: Oscar doesn't exactly hold the fact that Sykes ordered him murdered against him, even going so far as to let Sykes profit off of his new image.
  • Electric Jellyfish: Ernie and Bernie.
  • Evil All Along: Sykes, Ernie & Bernie
  • Face Heel Turn: Lola, after kissing Oscar for the first time ever, works for the sharks.
  • Fake Ultimate Hero: Oscar is hailed as a "shark slayer" (the film's original title) after the shark chasing him is killed by a wayward anchor and he takes all the credit.
  • The Family for the Whole Family: The sharks are like the mob.
  • Fat Idiot: Sykes
  • Father, I Don't Want to Fight: Lenny doesn't want to hurt Don Lino's feelings.
  • Fictional Counterpart: Coral Cola and Gup, anyone?
    • Don't forget the Kelpy Kreme
  • Heel Face Revolving Door: Lola, who decides to apologize to Oscar in the stinger, fails when Oscar is gone. So, she wants revenge on Oscar for dumping her.
  • Heel Face Turn:
    • Lenny, when he first meets Oscar.
    • At the climax, Mr. Sykes, Ernie, and Bernie decide to help Oscar save Angie.
    • Near the end of the movie, Don Lino got defeated by Oscar.
  • Herbivores Are Friendly: Unlike most sharks, Lenny is actually a vegetarian and is also pretty friendly since he doesn't want to hurt other fish. That doesn't stop the fish from being scared of him though.
  • I'm Cold... So Cold...:

Frankie: [dying] Lenny, is that you?
Lenny: I'm here, Frankie.
Frankie: Come closer.
Lenny: What is it, Frankie?
Frankie: I'm so cold.
Lenny: That's because we're cold-blooded. [Frankie slaps Lenny] Ow!
Frankie: Moron. (dies)

"We've worked together for a real long time."

  • Idiot Hero: Oscar
  • Ink Suit Actor: And how! The fish startlingly resemble their actors, with Oscar being the big offender.
  • Jerkass: Oscar, Don Lino, Sykes, Ernie, Bernie & Miss Sanchez
  • Kids Are Cruel: The Shorties
  • Leno Device: Katie Current.
  • Logo Joke: The boy from Dreamworks Animation casts his line and the action switches to the worm at the end, which segues into the movie proper.
  • The Mafia: The sharks are like the mob in the film.
  • Mister Big: Sykes
  • The Napoleon: Mr. Sykes
  • Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Don Lino & Mr. Sykes
  • Sequel Hook: In a post-credits scene, Lola is looking for Oscar in the top of the reef unaware that Oscar isn't there. After that, she still wants revenge on Oscar for dumping her (foreshadowing her appearance in a rumored "Shark Tale" sequel, where she'll be the Dragon Ascendant).
  • Shoot the Hostage: Oscar attempts to fake this when the Sharks kidnap his girlfriend by having his "dolphin" partner pretend to eat her right on the spot (he grabs her in his mouth, but doesn't swallow) on his order to show that he didn't care. Fails as the "dolphin" is a vegetarian shark who is repulsed by the simple taste of fish. He spits her out along with the contents of his various lunches.
  • The Smart Guy: Lenny - you think at first it's just wishful thinking on Don Lino's part, but Lenny is pretty sharp. He thinks up a plan to fake his own death. He disguises himself as a dolphin. He even skilfully blackmails Oscar into taking him - a shark - home. When he talks all smooth and "God forbid somebody should find out the truth", you remember that yeah, he may act cute and vegetarian, but he's still the son of a Mafia Shark - and he knows how to get his way with that veneer of amused dismay and some totally innocent suggestions.
  • Those Two Bad Guys: Ernie and Bernie.
  • Tsundere: Angie.
  • Uncle Tomfoolery:Oscar .
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: Angie. Became victorious in the end.
  • Water Is Air: Lampshaded when a race seahorse Oscar had bet on trips before the finish line.

Oscar: He trips underwater? Now who in the halibut trips underwater? And, by the way... on what?

  • What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: To the fish population of the Reef, Lenny the Shark is scary as a shark, but cuddly and safe when he disguises himself as a dolphin. Just so we're clear, dolphins eat fish too, but they're cute! (This led to a few reviewers reading a stronger metaphor in it...) Funny thing, is, the movie actually uses this, when Oscar tries to subvert I Have Your Wife by having Lenny fake eating his girlfriend. The "attack" appears to be just as quick and almost as savage as... well, a shark attack.
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