Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
48 17 Again
76 Adventureland
48 Angels & Demons
54 Battle for Terra
xx Bruno
80 Coraline
40 Dance Flick
83 Drag Me to Hell
72 Earth
45 Fast & Furious
61 Fighting
34 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
72 Gran Torino
73 Hangover, The
47 Hannah Montana: The Movie
51 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
54 Imagine That
41 Knowing
32 Land of the Lost
56 Monsters vs. Aliens
34 My Life in Ruins
51 My Sister's Keeper
46 Next Day Air
42 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
54 Observe and Report
25 Obsessed
48 Proposal, The
70 Public Enemies
61 Soloist, The
83 Star Trek
64 State of Play
55 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
52 Terminator Salvation
35 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
77 Under the Sea 3D
88 Up
43 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
34 Year One

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Shark Tale
DreamWorks Distribution LLC


5.2

based on 36 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 41 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

GAMES:

Shark Tale (Xbox)

MPAA RATING: PG for some mild language and crude humor

Starring Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Renée Zellweger, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Martin Scorsese, Doug E. Doug, and Ziggy Marley

Oscar is a fast-talking little fish whose big dreams have a habit of landing him in hot water. Lenny is a great white shark with a sensitive side and a secret -- he's a vegetarian. When a great white lie turns Oscar into an improbable hero and the truth about Lenny makes him an outcast, the two become the most unlikely of friends. (DreamWorks)

GENRE(S):	Animation \| Comedy
WRITTEN BY:	Rob Letterman Damian Shannon Mark Swift Michael J. Wilson
DIRECTED BY:	Bibo Bergeron Vicky Jenson Rob Letterman
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 8, 2005 Video: February 8, 2005 Theatrical: October 1, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	93 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Represents solid family entertainment, and will find a special place in the hearts of those who adore the "Godfather" movies and the TV series "The Sopranos."

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

By riffing off two iconic American narratives of the last 35 years, "The Godfather" and "The Sopranos," it has changed the template for animation, making a timely film that still deals with timeless children's themes.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

What Shark Tale lacks in originality it makes up for with sassy humor, bright, effective animation and terrific vocal work.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Not wildly imaginative, and it has a tepid mix of movie references. But the physical environment and characters make it irresistible.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

By avoiding the usual animation cliches, by keeping the story moving, the pictures pretty and the characters consistently amusing, director and co- writer Rob Letterman cobbles together an entertaining 90 minutes.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Boasts a really spectacular cast to voice those reasonably funny jokes.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

This dazzling CGI feature by DreamWorks Animation appropriates the vivid undersea psychedelia of "Finding Nemo," though in contrast to that movie, the father-son parable here is just an excuse to burlesque "The Godfather" for the 100th time.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Shark Tale is "Finding Nemo" with bigger-name stars, far less heart and, the guess here is, about one-third the staying power.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Story is everything and Shark's is rather thin and soupy, despite the winning improvisational skills of stars Will Smith and Jack Black.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Comes off as an overly jokey but often quite entertaining spoof that should please families everywhere.

Newsweek David Ansen

Full of invention, but under the colorful icing is a slightly stale cake.

Variety Todd McCarthy

With the combination of mobster characters and heavily R&B, hip-hop and disco/soul tune orientation of the soundtrack, pic has a more streetwise feel than most animated fare, which is not to say that it has street smarts.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The noisiest laughs in this watery animated comedy are reserved for those who value self-referential winks above all else.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Noisy, garish, cluttered, simplistic and often dark in content, it nevertheless sings and preens and jokes and tugs at you with such persistent verve that, exhausted, you give in.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's overblown and greedy and feels like more of a merchandizing scheme than a movie.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Where Finding Nemo suggested that under-the-waves adventure was limitless, Shark Tale suggests that this sea is over-fished. The krill is gone.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie lacks a port of entry for young viewers -- a character they can identify with. All of the major characters are adults with adult problems like debt, romance, and running (or swimming away from) the mob.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Though Shark Tale will make waves at the multiplexes and move a lot of plastic toys at Burger King, the movie lacks real heart. It feels like a cold-blooded, always moving, profit-making machine.

Time Richard Corliss

The film has a hectic, sitcom air and a full-of-himself hero who is as likely to grate as to ingratiate.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

It does not have as much invigorating freshness as audiences have come to expect in computer animation.

Premiere Peter Debruge

If you were hoping to find another "Nemo," you're likely to be let down by this insincere and borderline unpleasant alternative.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

It's stale, like something you wrap in yesterday's newspaper.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The screenplay isn't remotely as funny as it tries to be, and the visual style is equally unexciting.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Reasonably good fun, even if, in the end, it's not really very interesting.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

It's stunning, really, to consider how much time and expense went into something so chintzy and dull--a script full of non sequiturs shouted by a screen full of chum.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The story leaves you snoozing with the fishes.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Falls prey to the lazy assumption that a parade of whiz-bang CGI will cover for the absence of a muscular story.

Village Voice Ed Park

Shark Tale's shallow plot and leagues of padding put it fully in the shadow of last year's animated underwater offering, the nifty, heartfelt "Finding Nemo."

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Every single joke, character detail, music montage, and pop-culture reference looks extensively market-tested, whether via screenings, focus groups, or other box-office successes.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

There’s a surprising lack of surprises in DreamWorks’ answer to Disney/Pixar’s runaway smash "Finding Nemo."

Empire Leslie Felperin

Although the vocal performances often amuse and delight, the overall design is charmless.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

One soggy, charmless heap of chum.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Where "Nemo" was clever, soulful, and marvelous to look at, "Tale" is manic and surprisingly ugly, with a script that leans on the shallowest aspects of hip-hop street cred while pimping for corporate product placement at every turn.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

This movie just doesn't match its predecessors.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A shipwreck. They say a dead fish stinks from the head first - but the animated shipwreck Shark Tale arrives reeking all over.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Joyless, soulless.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.2 (out of 10) based on 41 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Elliott W gave it a4:
A mediocre film. All of it seems very uninspired and boring. Dreamworks got it right with Shrek and Madasgcar, but they failed here.

[Anonymous] gave it a0:
I'm not even gonna sugar-coat it. This has gotta be one of the worst movies I've seen in the last eight years. I hate this movie. Now I never wanna here the song Carwash ever again. This is the most retarded film since Barney's First Movie, and that was just terrible. This is the first time I've ever had a problem with Will Smith or Angelina Jolie. And why would such a big-name actor/director/writer like Martin Scorsese sign on to such a souless, terrible piece of crap? This movie's script make Eragon seem like Shakespeare. The story was as thin as a slice of pizza. Stupid jokes that make no sense and had no reason to be heard. I was wonder what I would give it. 1? 2? But I had to focus on the ending, and that sucked just as much as the rest of the film. If anyone recommends this to you and you see it, I wouldn't speak to them in a long time.

Todd gave it a2:
It isn't Pixar. It is Dreamworks. Pixar couldn't produce such crap even if they tried.

patrick d. gave it a6:
The most un-original of all Pixar films. To much refenences to pop-culture.

Jon P. gave it a1:
Very disappointing! I turned it off half way through. Jokes were stale, and storyline was weak. They studio crapped this out quickly to ride on the coat tails of Finding Nemo.

Angie G. gave it a5:
Very average movie on every level.

Beverly B. gave it a9:
I enjoyed watching it with my grandchildren. We have watched it three time so far and I'm sure we'll watch it many more times.

Shark Tale DreamWorks Distribution LLC

Shark Tale
DreamWorks Distribution LLC