Shark Tale

Shark Tale is generally acknowledged as Dreamworks' glib response to Pixar's Finding Nemo. The premise — the quest to recognise the important things in life — is presented within the confines of a hip-hop mob movie featuring obnoxious talking fish. The bigwigs at Dreamworks must have assumed that the more celebrities they heaped onto the project (Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, etc.), the less likely the audience would be to realise how shallow the script really is. While there are enough extras on the DVD to satisfy both adults and kids alike, the extensive list is deceiving. Not one section clocks in at much more than five minutes. The voice-acting "documentary" seems like it was ripped straight from an Entertainment Tonight segment. Prepare for a load of animator jargon on the commentary track, which is pretty sparse for such a technical movie. Even what looked like the most interesting feature — a section chronicling the trial and error process of digitising the characters — falls short; as most of the blunders were obviously fabricated (oops, how did those Shrek horns get on that fish?). In the end, the interactive features win out. For the grown-ups, there's a step-by-step rendering of how everything from the characters to the architecture of the sets went from simple pencil drawings to computerised madness. For the kiddies, there are some sweet trivia games and a "Learn to Dance" video featuring a choreographer and a couple of bratty kids. Dancing like the Fresh Prince has never seemed like such a reachable goal. Finally, there's the most useful feature of all: "Fin-filled Scenes" (anyone who combs through this DVD will never make another pun in their lifetime). In it, a chart divides the scenes of the movie into sections like "Gross Out!!!" and "Laugh out Loud!!!" Thus, kids can be sensible and not sit through the whole movie again, forwarding only to the part when Martin Scorsese says "yo yo yo, pound that, dawg." Plus: DVD Rom, previews, music, cast, filmmakers, more. (Dreamworks/Universal)