"Shark Tale" probably isn't a copy of "Finding Nemo," since these computer-animated dealies take a long time and the films
were in production simultaneously. Still, "Nemo" made it to theaters a year sooner, did the job better, and is by far the better film. "Shark Tale" is not an imitator, technically, but it sure feels like one -- not just of "Finding Nemo," but of the Pixar films in general. Will Smith plays Will Smith again, only this time it's a Will Smith named Oscar. He is a fish at the low end of the food chain in an undersea, pun-filled version of New York City. (Everyone talks on "shell phones" instead of cell phones, and they hear the results not of the Gallup Pool, but of the "Scallop Poll"! Do you love seafood wordplay? Hope so, 'cause there's lots of it!) Oscar works at a whale wash (like a car wash, but with, you know, whales), scrubbing tongues. It's not glamorous. He makes very little money. He's a nobody, but he wants to be a somebody. "Small fish/big pond" references are made. Meanwhile, there is a shark named Lenny (Jack Black) who is the black sheep in a family of great whites. The sharks are the Mafia of the ocean, it seems, and though Lenny is being groomed by his father Don Lino (Robert De Niro) to take over the family business of extortion and racketeering, Lenny is in fact a simpering vegetarian rather than a ruthless killing machine.
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