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“Any requests? How about that Titanic song? [the sharks moan and groan their dissent]” – Don Feinberg
Number of Times Seen – 1 (18 Feb 2022)
Brief Synopsis – A fish takes credit for killing a shark that died accidentally and must deal with the shark mobsters who want him dead.
My Take on it – This is a film that I never had much desire to watch.
The premise didn’t sound so interesting and despite having a stellar voice cast, it just wasn’t anything that I’d be interested in.
When Darren chose Oscar nominated films as this month’s theme, I had a bit of trouble finding Oscar films that I’ve never seen or reviewed to use for this theme.
This film was nominated for Best Animated Feature, so I decided to give it a try.
The story itself is quite bland and feel very unoriginal because they take a normal stock idea and apply it to a world inhabited just by fish and sharks under the sea.
None of the characters are intriguing enough to care about and that hurts things far too much.
The voice cast is truly stellar, but without a more compelling story, things just don’t work well at all even with Will Smith, Jack Black, Robert DeNiro, Renee Zellweger and Martin Scorsese as these characters.
The animation is done well tho and I loved the plethora of Titanic (1997) reference throughout even when they knew that they needed to keep things more tasteful and family friendly in these references.
The film was far too bland the whole way and that doesn’t help make things more engaging or enjoyable to watch which is such a shame.
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – There are nods throughout this movie that the sharks’ den is the wreck of R.M.S. Titanic. However, the outside and interiors of the shipwreck were based on S.S. Normandie, a French ocean liner of the 1930s. Particular examples are, the scenes at the bar, when Don Lino and Sykes meet for the first time, and the dining room, where the sitting is set. (From IMDB)
Rating – BAFTA Worthy (5/10)
