Shark Tale

Shark Tale is a busy, poorly judged family comedy with a few good voices and too little for them to do. Directors Bibo Bergeron, Rob Letterman and Vicky Jenson build an underwater city around human appetites, familiar screen gangsters and conspicuous consumer goods. There is an amusing film somewhere in that arrangement, particularly when the fish get on with running the place. Too often, though, the joke amounts to recognising something that was already a joke on dry land.

Daniel St. Pierre’s production design supplies the most persuasive reason to stay: an undersea Manhattan with enough urban bustle to make the whale wash seem a sensible local business. That detail made us smile because it gives the creatures something to do besides impersonate people. Gil Zimmerman’s cinematography keeps the city visually lively, though the crowded images can make it difficult to know where to look. We wanted longer to enjoy the setting without another reference demanding attention.

We laughed at the early exchanges between Don Lino and Sykes, where Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese make the gangland fuss briefly worth listening to. Martin Scorsese’s puffer fish is particularly welcome: his voice gives the character more comic life than the writing supplies. Will Smith brings energy to his part, and the cast cannot reasonably be accused of withholding effort. The difficulty is that lively delivery keeps having to compensate for thin characters.

The writing credits belong to Michael J. Wilson, Rob Letterman and Lona Williams, and the script leans heavily on Mafia comedy, film references and readily packaged lessons. The adult jokes are meant to give parents something to enjoy alongside their children. Some do, but recognition is too often treated as sufficient reward. The brand jokes are especially wearing, because there is so little amusement beyond the fact that a familiar commercial idea has been transferred underwater.

John Venzon and Peter Lonsdale’s editing does little to relieve the sense of a film keeping itself occupied. At 90 minutes, it should be a brisk evening; instead, the constant business makes the weak story harder to ignore. Hans Zimmer’s music cannot make the moral lessons feel earned, because the characters have so little substance before those lessons arrive. We kept looking for a pause in which one of these fish might become more interesting than the next gag.

As a family animation, it also makes an awkward choice about its creatures. Their human qualities leave little room for curiosity about the ocean, while the character design is often less inviting than the city surrounding it. A fish need not behave like a fish for a comedy to work, but there ought to be pleasure in watching it move through this particular place. Here the Mafia routine and the consumer jokes keep pulling attention back to familiar human business.

The voices and the whale wash prevent this from becoming wholly dispiriting, and there are enough isolated comic touches to explain a warmer response. We cannot recommend a family film that offers its characters so little beyond a recognisable type and a lesson to learn. Anyone drawn chiefly by the cast may find a few agreeable minutes. For a shared evening, choose something that gives the children as much consideration as the adults spotting references.