Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
49
2012
53
Alice in Wonderland
41
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
84
Avatar![]()
69
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
53
Blind Side
53
Book of Eli, The
31
Bounty Hunter, The
43
Brooklyn's Finest
55
Christmas Carol, A
31
Cop Out
55
Crazies, The
57
Daybreakers
43
Dear John
64
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
27
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
55
Edge of Darkness
45
Extraordinary Measures
83
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
42
From Paris with Love
61
Green Zone
65
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The
74
Invictus
57
It's Complicated
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Leap Year
32
Legion
42
Lovely Bones, The
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
34
Ninja Assassin
19
Old Dogs
39
Our Family Wedding
47
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
39
Planet 51
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Princess & the Frog, The
69
Redbelt
40
Remember Me
29
Repo Men
64
Road, The
57
Sherlock Holmes
47
She's Out of My League
63
Shutter Island
27
Spy Next Door, The
36
Tooth Fairy
44
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
83
Up in the Air![]()
34
Valentine's Day
25
When in Rome
71
Where the Wild Things Are
43
Wolfman, The
63
Youth in Revolt
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
67
3 Idiots
47
44 Inch Chest
82
Ajami![]()
71
American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
73
Amreeka
75
Art of the Steal, The
43
Barefoot to Timbuktu
19
Bitch Slap
49
Blood Done Sign My Name
24
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
76
Broken Embraces
52
Celine: Through the Eyes of the World
67
Children of Invention
65
City Island
64
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
84
Cove, The![]()
83
Crazy Heart![]()
21
Crazy on the Outside
51
Creation
xx
Daddy Long Legs
81
Damned United, The![]()
57
Defendor
61
Delta
68
Departures
64
District 13: Ultimatum
72
Easier with Practice
85
Education, An![]()
61
Exploding Girl, The
70
Eyes Wide Open
24
Falling Awake
81
Fish Tank![]()
56
For My Father
52
Formosa Betrayed
xx
From Mexico with Love
43
Frozen
xx
Ghost Town
77
Ghost Writer, The
69
Girl on the Train, The
73
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The
47
Good Guy, The
78
Greenberg
35
Happy Tears
68
Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suess
20
Harlem Aria
xx
Killing Jar, The
52
Killing Kasztner
xx
Kimjongilia
41
Last New Yorker, The
76
Last Station, The
47
Little Traitor, The
51
Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The
71
Lourdes
73
Me and Orson Welles
77
Messenger, The
80
Mid-August Lunch
57
Missing Person, The
76
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
79
Mother
50
My Name is Khan
88
Neil Young Trunk Show![]()
49
Nine
67
North Face
64
October Country
67
Off and Running
52
Paranoids, The
40
Phyllis and Harold
49
Pop Star on Ice
49
Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The
74
Prodigal Sons
xx
Promised Lands (Re-release)
89
Prophet, A![]()
76
Red Riding Trilogy, The
63
Runaways, The
32
Saint John of Las Vegas
83
Secret of Kells, The![]()
69
September Issue, The
36
Serious Moonlight
57
Severe Clear
63
Shinjuku Incident, The
xx
Shutterbug
77
Single Man, A
76
Still Bill
34
Stolen
xx
Suicide Girls Must Die!
52
Tales from the Script
74
Terribly Happy
74
That Evening Sun
47
To Die for Tano
19
To Save a Life
63
Toe to Toe
69
Town Called Panic, A
54
Until the Light Takes Us
60
Videocracy
84
Vincere![]()
66
Waiting for Armageddon
45
White on Rice
82
White Ribbon![]()
xx
White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights, The
43
Women in Trouble
xx
Word is Out
64
Yellow Handkerchief, The
64
Young Victoria, The
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Shark Tale
EMAILPRINTDreamWorks Distribution LLC

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 36 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 43 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
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:
Theatrical: October 1, 2004
DVD: February 8, 2005
Running Time: 93 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
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)
Also On Metacritic
GAMES: Shark Tale (Xbox)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
What Shark Tale lacks in originality it makes up for with sassy humor, bright, effective animation and terrific vocal work.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Boasts a really spectacular cast to voice those reasonably funny jokes.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Comes off as an overly jokey but often quite entertaining spoof that should please families everywhere.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Full of invention, but under the colorful icing is a slightly stale cake.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The noisiest laughs in this watery animated comedy are reserved for those who value self-referential winks above all else.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's overblown and greedy and feels like more of a merchandizing scheme than a movie.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
It does not have as much invigorating freshness as audiences have come to expect in computer animation.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
It's stale, like something you wrap in yesterday's newspaper.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The screenplay isn't remotely as funny as it tries to be, and the visual style is equally unexciting.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
Reasonably good fun, even if, in the end, it's not really very interesting.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Theres a surprising lack of surprises in DreamWorks answer to Disney/Pixars runaway smash "Finding Nemo."
Read Full Review >Empire Leslie Felperin
Although the vocal performances often amuse and delight, the overall design is charmless.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.3 (out of 10) based on 43 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.
