"Shark Tale" is loaded with amiable gags and likable characters, and some juicy touches that end up very funny, such as when a squirming, squealing shrimp is pleading for his life to great comical effect. It also has a primary lesson of accepting yourself and who you are as its main teaching, along with sidebar issues about respect and playing fair.
The best material in Shark Tale involves Don Lino and Sykes. The De Niro/Scorsese dialogue will be most amusing to adults, since they'll get the sly references. They will also recognize the significance of the mole on Don Lino's face and Sykes' bushy eyebrows. Will Smith is perhaps a little too high energy as Oscar. Listening to him do his shtick is a little exhausting. I kept reflecting about how much better Eddie Murphy was in Shrek precisely because he was in a secondary part. Had Lenny been elevated to the main character with Oscar playing the wise-cracking sidekick, things might have been more relaxed. (Even though Jack Black is known for being manic, Lenny is surprisingly mellow, despite his neuroses. (cythina)
