Reception

Nominations

• 2004 Oscar nominated for Best Animated Feature

Critical

Critical reception to Shark Tale since its release has been mixed to negative. On Rotten Tomatoes, it was reported that 33% of the critics gave the film positive reviews based on 166 reviews due to similarities to another fish-themed film, Finding Nemo, calling it “derivative and full of pop culture in-jokes”. Critical reception from Metacritic to Shark Tale were also mixed. It received a 48% rating based on 36 reviews. Users of Metacritic gave the film a 5.2 rating based on 39 votes.

Box office

Despite the negative reviews, Shark Tale grossed $47,604,606 on its opening weekend placing itself #1. For the next two weeks, it stayed as #1 movie grossing $31,330,299 on its second week and on its third week, the film grossed $22,005,952. Overall, Shark Tale made $160 million nationwide and $206 million overseas with $367 million worldwide.

Criticisms and analysis

Many Italian-American organizations protested Shark Tale for perpetuating negative stereotypes of Italian-Americans. Many groups feel that such a movie would promote negative ideas about Italian-Americans among the younger viewers that the movie appealed to. Though much protesting was done, only a few aspects of the film had stereotypical features removed upon release.

Gay groups noted Lenny’s “vegetarian” shark as a possible metaphor for coming out of the closet, and even speculate that the character Lenny could be a representative of a gay man. Noteworthy in this discussion is the fact that refusing to “eat meat” could be construed as a rejection of masculinity. A brief passing of Walter, a sperm whale voiced by Anthony Anderson, triggers a few suggestive comments regarding “sperm whales”, although it isn’t said outright. Lenny also expresses his fear of telling his father of being “vegetarian” and how his orientation would not be accepted. This is metaphorical of the stereotypical factor of a relationship between a conservative father and a homosexual son. The American Family Association has raised concerns about the movie, suggesting that it was designed to promote the acceptance of gay rights by children.

Roger Ebert has said that the film doesn’t make sense as a children’s movie, “Since the target audience for Shark Tale is presumably kids and younger teenagers, how many of them have seen the R-rated “Godfather” and will get all the inside jokes? Not a few, I suppose, and some of its characters and dialogue have passed into common knowledge. But it’s strange that a kid-oriented film would be based on parody of a 1972 gangster movie for adults.”^[3] He also observes that younger viewers would have trouble enjoying a movie about adult characters with adult problems (elaborate love triangles and a main character wanting to clear his debt with loan sharks) and compares it to more successful fish-focused animated features The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which features a simpler plot that anybody can identify with, and draws humor from the lifestyle of the fish instead of transferring ethnic stereotypes into fish as does Shark Tale.

According to the Internet Movie Database there were plans for a Shark Tale 2, however the listing has disappeared.