[critical] GANG OF SHARKS

During the first half of the 2000s, the world of water was the fashion in the animated films american in dark rooms. After the very successful (and profitable) finding NEMO at Pixar in 2003, Dreamworks replied the following year with the GANG OF SHARKS that takes us again to the bottom of the oceans. However instead of a journey into the enchanting of Nemo, the film opts instead for the parody of gangster movies, amidst the influences of rap / R&B contemporary. The choice is quite relevant to not evacuate the image of the “copier” that was Dreamworks at the time as the projects were close to those of Disney-Pixar (insects with FOURMIZ / 1001 LEGS, monsters with MONSTERS & CIE / SHREK), but to have a different approach to a movie aquatic for a year after finding NEMO.

Once this comparison story inevitable with the “competition”, it is also attempted to oppose the technical aspect of the two long-feature films. GANG OF SHARKS has probably aged less well than his counterpart emerged recently in cinemas : the means were already lower ($75 million against $ 94 million for Nemo), and this is felt sometimes in the quality of the animation in some scenes but it is especially the design of the universe, playing more on the resemblance to their voice actors / actresses respective and bright colours (or gaudy), fishing by a premature aging there where the simple child of the WORLD OF NEMO is quite topical even today. Similarly, like the license SHREK for example, the multiple references in the film are sometimes dated (particularly those with appeal to the rap / R&B).

Nevertheless, GANG OF SHARKS exists by itself, and the film is very far from a failure ! In effect, the speech-to-text and visual among these marine animals of the faces and personalities of the voice actors in US is very well done : it is easy to recognise Will Smith in the main character of Oscar, but also De Niro in the role of Don Lino and Angelina Jolie in the one of Lola. Humor is the ultra-referenced, and is typically fly, even if the main character is sometimes “surjoué” to death (and the VF is also very faithful to this, with Eric Judor who reuses her recipes also with some replicas of his film, LA TOUR MONTPARNASSE INFERNALE). He will prefer his friend shark a vegetarian, more fun, or even the secondary characters are fairly well-found in the establishment of an atmosphere on THE SPONSOR or a band-reggae. Despite a simple storyline, it is fun to watch this film and you don’t have time to get bored.

GANG OF SHARKS suffers from the comparison with THE WORLD OF NEMO, that’s for sure. But the film remains a good time of fun in itself : we laugh a lot and the adults will find more easily their account with multiple references and some innuendo as well. The film will not be a masterpiece, timeless certainly, but a small film and animation friendly.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

[rating:6/10]

Oscar, a young fish talker and storyteller, assisted accidentally the death of a dangerous shark. He took advantage of the situation to pretend to be a great hunter of sharks. But he did not know that the shark in question was the son of Don Lino, the leader of the sharks-gangsters…

• Original title : Shark Tale

• Achievement : Eric Bergeron, Vicky Jenson, Rob Letterman

• Scenario : Mark Swift, Michael J. Wilson, Rob Letterman, Damian Shannon

• Main actors : Will Smith / Eric Judor (voice-VO/VF), Robert DeNiro / James Frantz (voice-VO/VF), Renée Zellweger / Ludivine Sagnier (voice-VO/VF), Jack Black / Patrick Timsit (voice-VO/VF)…

• Country of origin : United States

• Output : 13 October 2004

• Duration : 1h40mn

• Distributor : UIP

• Trailer :

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