The Low Points Of The 2000s Decade
Before we
begin, let’s get into a little history
Ahh, yes,
the 2000s, a rather interesting time, a new century had begun and things were
evolving. Technology was evolving as DVDs were the new trend as VHS tapes were
declining, and CDs were becoming more popular than cassettes and cell phones
were evolving. And animation is no exception. Computer animated movies were
becoming more popular while hand drawn animated movies were declining. While
the 90s had some computer animated features like Toy Story, Antz, A Bug’s Life
and Toy Story 2, it was really in the 2000s when it was starting to rise. While
films like Shrek, Monsters Inc, Ice Age and Finding Nemo did really well
critically and financially, hand drawn animated movies like The Road To El
Dorado, Atlantis The Lost Empire, Spirit Stallion Of The Cimarron, Treasure
Planet, Sinbad; Legend Of The Seven Seas and Home On The Range were doing
really poorly financially and/or critically. The companies that made said hand
drawn animated movies, Disney and DreamWorks had taken notice and decided that
going forward, they would make computer animated movies (though Disney did
release the Princess And The Frog and Winnie The Pooh afterwards but they did
poorly financially with the former being released around the same time as
Avatar and Alvin and the Chipmunks The Squeakquel (ugh!) and the latter being
released on the same day as the final Harry Potter movie).
While films
like Shrek 2, Madagascar, Meet The Robinsons, Kung Fu Panda and Bolt had
good/great/favourable reviews and decent box office ratings before (and after
in some cases) both DreamWorks and Disney had the misfortune of releasing a
major low point computer animated movie in the mid 2000s. DreamWorks released Shark Tale
and Walt Disney Animation Studios released Chicken Little.
When I was a
child, I loved both of those movies. I saw them either at home by rental or in
the cinema when I was 6 and I got them on DVD when I was 7 and I couldn’t get
enough of them. However, as I got into high school, I started to notice how
incredibly flawed they really were and my love for them deteriorated even if I
could find some good qualities.
Now you
might be thinking, “Why compare these movies? They don’t look the same,” and at
first glance yes, they do look different, however when you look a little
closer, you might see that these movies have a lot more in common than one can
imagine, they have similar flaws and I mean major ones, they do admittedly have
some small strengths, they have similar plot elements, and some similarities
are coincidental in terms of release dates, cast and crew members.
Well, that’s
why we’re here today. I’m going to compare these two movies and show if one
does something better than the other or if both succeed or fail at something
and some similarities will be fun to talk about, particularly the coincidental
ones. Well, now. Let’s begin.
Underdog Protagonists
Both movies
have an underdog protagonist who want to be respected. Shark Tale has Oscar and
Chicken Little has, well, Chicken Little himself. In terms of these
protagonists, I’d say Chicken Little is the better protagonist because he has
really good values. He is willing to try new things, he cares about his friends
(since he rang the bell when an alien robot grabbed Abby and when Foxy hit Abby
with a dodgeball when they were in a timeout, he was going to fight her for
that) and he can be very adaptable, whenever he gets stuck in a sticky
situation (literally one time), he finds creative ways to solve them like using
a soda bottle to launch himself into somewhere higher (like Buzz and Woody with
the rocket) or using a flower to climb to the button to cross the street. Plus,
the fact that he still remains kind and optimistic and never shows any ill will
towards the townsfolk and even his own father, despite all the abuse and
neglect, is a very admirable thing, like Cinderella says, “Have courage and be
kind.” Oscar on the other hand is way too unlikable and selfish as a
protagonist, I’ll explain why later.
Side Characters
Both movies have side characters that serve as allies to the protagonist. Shark Tale has Angie and Lenny and Chicken Little has Abby Mallard, Runt Of The Litter and Fish Out Of Water. This is one of the small strengths that both movies succeed in. Angie is very likable even though I don’t understand why she’s attracted to Oscar. Lenny, I adore this character even though I don’t understand why he was willing to befriend and help this jerkass that’s using him and his brother’s death for fame, when he would know that it would just make things worse. Chicken Little’s friends are likable too even though the romance between Abby and the title character is forced (more on that later) and she can be a bit too pushy, Runt can be a bit annoying (especially near the end where Foxy Loxy gets brainwashed) and Fish is pointless as some have pointed out before, he just fools around and distracts the audience and even when something happened to him, he could’ve been replaced by anyone else and it wouldn’t have made a difference. Even so, they are nice characters and I’ll explain why.
First let’s
start off with the Shark Tale allies.
Angie is a
decently written character, she’s kind, hard-working, she’s very generous as
she was willing to help Oscar get out of debt, by giving him her grandmother’s
pearl (even though he didn’t deserve it, seeing what does happen right after
and was too blind to see that she loved him.) and she’s also caring towards
others, like how she was caring towards Lenny when she told him to show his
dolphin disguise again, since she didn’t see it due to her fight with Oscar.
She deserved a better man, if she had to be with anyone, I’d say Lenny
should’ve been the guy for her because of how sweet he is towards her. Yeah, I
know it would be weird for a fish and a shark to be a couple, but this is from
the same company that had a donkey and dragon fall in love with each other, get
married and somehow have babies, so it’s not that far-fetched.
Speaking of
Lenny, now onto him, I adore this character, he was my favourite when I was a
child, and he still is. I felt for him and he didn’t deserve to go through what
he did from being given a hard time by his family for his gentle nature (being
a vegetarian shark), seeing his older brother Frankie get killed by an anchor,
blaming himself for the accident and worst of all, overhearing his mourning
father saying hurtful things about him, which lead to him swimming away from
home (can’t say I blame him). Whenever I see him crying or when I see the hurt
in his eyes when he hears those words from his dad (not going to lie, that part
might’ve made me cry once, just a little bit) it breaks my heart so much that I
just wanted to reach into the screen and give the poor guy a hug. Other than
feeling for him, there are some other qualities I love about him. He’s shown to
be willing to help those that are helpless, like how he freed the worm at the
beginning or the shrimp at the restaurant, he is empathetic, he has good values,
since he was the one who told Angie the truth about what happened, (I really
wish we could’ve seen the two meeting) and he’s very caring too, as he was the
one who comforted Angie after her fight with Oscar, this is why I think that he
should’ve been the guy for Angie because he was honest and caring towards her,
everything Oscar wasn’t. Plus, there’s a scene he has with his dad that never
fails to warm my heart, but I’ll get more into that later. Not only do I think
that he should’ve been the guy for Angie but I agree with what a lot of others
had to say, that the movie would’ve been better if it was more about him than
Oscar, because he has a relatable problem and is more likable and sympathetic.
Had that been the case, it probably would’ve justified it’s Best Animated
Feature nomination (how it got nominated over The Polar Express and The
SpongeBob Squarepants Movie is beyond me) and maybe it would’ve been up there
with the Finding films. While it is frustrating that Lenny’s plot plays second
fiddle to Oscar's drab story, at least his voice actor got the spotlight from DreamWorks a few years
later, and when that did happen, it was totally awesome, but I’ll get more into
that later.
Now onto
Chicken Little’s friends
Starting
with his best friend Abby Mallard, people make fun of her because she looks
ugly, but she doesn’t let it get her down. She cares very deeply about Chicken
Little, she tries to encourage him to confront his dad about how he treats him,
is always by his side and tries to make him see that he’s not a loser. There’s
even a deleted scene where she tries to assure him that he doesn’t need to
prove himself, and if anyone couldn’t see how great he was, then that’s their
problem, which is a great message, especially in today’s pressuring and
judgmental society. The scene even has her inviting Chicken Little to see a
movie with her and the two briefly look at each other, that scene could’ve made
a certain scene work better, which I’ll explain later.
Runt may be
a bit annoying and he does lose points for taking advantage of Foxy's brainwashed state, but he
can be funny, that scene where he goes berserk on the soda machine has me in
stitches because I’m sure we’ve all wanted to do that whenever technology
doesn’t work for us, he clearly cares about his friends and his ability to sing
when he gets nervous is nice and relatable.
Fish is very
pointless but he can be a good friend too, he does show to care about his
friends, he looked concerned for Chicken Little when his father rejects him and
when he was feeling sad and alone and he was able to let his friends know that
the baby alien, Kirby was friendly.
In fact,
Chicken Little and his friends are very likable, they care about each other and
are willing to stick together despite the cruelty and never give up on each
other no matter what. If that’s not true friendship, then I don’t know what is.
Soundtrack
If there’s
anything these movies succeeded in doing other than having likable side
characters, it’s having banger music. Both movies have decent scores, Shark
Tale has Hans Zimmer doing the score, before he did the Madagascar and Kung Fu
Panda movies, and Chicken Little had John Debney (Elf, Liar Liar) and the music
they played for the movies were actually nice and fitting. Hans’ score does fit
well with the comedy and gangster like themes, and John Debney’s score does fit
fine with the sci fi aspects and the comical and dramatic scenes. It is a shame
they’re overshadowed by the music but I have to give them credit for working
with what they had.
Speaking of
which, let’s get onto the songs. Both soundtracks contain classic or modern pop
songs, and in my opinion, they can be really good.
Shark Tale
has covers of Car Wash and To Be Real, and some good original songs like
Goodfoot by Justin Timberlake and Lies and Rumors by D12. I remember listening
to their version of Car Wash, a lot when I was a kid, whenever I hear Mary J
Blige singing “To Be Real,” along with Will Smith rapping, I will admit to
busting a few moves, and Goodfoot and Lies and Rumors are quite catchy, I either bust moves
or sing along. And it did introduce me to some songs I love to listen to like
“Little Less Conversation” by the king himself Elvis Presley (even though it
plays in a scene that makes me want to hit my face with a pillow, thankfully it
played in a better DreamWorks movie, Megamind) and I Can’t Help Myself by The
Four Tops, when I was younger I never would've guessed that the lead singer of that band was also a man eating plant!
Chicken Little
has great songs, like One Little Slip by the Barenaked Ladies (yes, the big
bang guys sang a song from Chicken Little) and covers of All I Know and Stir It
Up. I find One Little Slip very catchy, and also ironic as it perfectly
describes the movie. The cover of Stir It Up is also catchy, I find myself
shaking my body whenever it plays. All I Know is such an emotional song,
fitting into Chicken Little’s sadness over his broken relationship with his dad, I sometimes like to listen to it when I feel sad or when I want to think about something.
The soundtrack also contains other classic songs like It’s The End Of The World
As We Know It or Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (the Diana Ross version, not the
one by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell), which are good songs too.
Sure, the
songs were featured in not so great movies, but for what it’s worth, they did
at least introduce kids in the 2000s generation to great tunes, and they do make the movies worth at
least one look.
Ugly Animation
One of the
fails both movies have is having rather unpolished character designs.
Shark Tale received a lot of criticism for the ugly character designs mostly on the fish and for good reason. When Pixar made the Finding films, they made the smart choice to make the fish look like real fish, sure they had human like eyes, but it makes them more, "human" while still looking like real fish. Having human faces on fish, and making them look like their voice actors and in computer animation, doesn’t mix well, it just makes them look scary! It really says a lot when the fish look more scarier than the sharks. Beware! Will Smith fish will be in your nightmares tonight! I remember when I was a kid, that scene where Lola got mad, sent shivers down my spine, so much so that I used to try to avoid that part. Plus that scene where Ernie and Bernie the jellyfish get too close to the camera before stinging Oscar's eye and the screen goes black, god it’s unsettling, makes me thankful this is where it cuts to a commercial break whenever it plays on TV! It makes me wonder if these character designs are bad enough to make AniMat want to take off his glasses when watching it. Well, we might get the answer, because it looks like he’ll be reviewing it this week, i know for sure, it's getting the seal of garbage, let’s all pray for AniMat, good luck dude, I hope you’ll survive. And let’s hope his next classic review is a great one.
Chicken
Little was Disney’s first attempt to do CG without Pixar’s help and boy does it
show. They tried to bring their old 2D look into their new 3D look, especially
trying to use squash and stretch, and while in films like Cloudy With A Chance
Of Meatballs, Hotel Transylvania, Madagascar, Luca and Turning Red, they worked well, Chicken Little
doesn’t. As internet reviewers like AniMat pointed out, these cartoony designs
don’t mix well, sometimes the character designs can be confusing, like how some animals look like different kinds of animals than they really are, and I must
warn you to be careful not to pause at certain times, if you do, you might want to change your pants. Thankfully Disney improved on their
computer animation as time went on, more on that later.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic
Characters
Another fail
both movies have is having at least one main character that we’re supposed to
like but they’re so detestable and they have a lot of bad qualities that
outweigh their very few good qualities, or they don’t have any good qualities
at all, that we don’t like them at all, even when they, “change their ways” and
they may also be considered worse than the antagonists. Shark Tale had Oscar
and Chicken Little had Buck Cluck
Shark Tale has the misfortune of having one of the most hateable protagonists in animation ever and that is Oscar or Will Smith fish! My god I really despise this character! He’s selfish, annoying, an incompetent moron, and such an asshole! He does pretty awful things like scamming his boss with get-rich-quick schemes, fooling around at work, he’s rude to his coworkers, he used the money he got from selling the pearl Angie gave him (to pay off his debts) to bet on a seahorse race and ends up losing (even as a kid I was not happy with that), he took credit for Frankie’s death and used it to become famous, which lead to the sharks coming to the reef, putting himself, his friends, and home in danger, he pushed Angie aside for Lola without any second thought, talked Lenny into helping him pull off his Sharkslayer stunt (keep in mind before Lenny (oddly) came up with the plan he said he didn’t want any part of it), he lied to everyone, including his friends, he was too stupid to see that Angie was in love with him and even when he seemed to have learned the error of his ways, he still acts the same. When he finds out that Angie had been kidnapped by the sharks, the plan included having Lenny catch Angie in his mouth (he knew full well that Lenny was a vegetarian and eating fish or meats makes him feel sick, as he almost hurled him out when he accidentally caught him in his mouth during the fake fight), he just starts jacking off, intimidating the other sharks and ignores Lenny and Sykes trying to get his attention when Lenny starts to get nauseous, and once he does respond it’s too late as Lenny ends up vomiting Angie out and accidentally reveals himself to his father (the funny thing is in the video game when Don Lino chases Oscar, Lenny and Angie are with the latter, and they call him out for the idea, really says a lot). I also noticed something else when I revisited the movie, when Lenny was caught and he removed some of his dolphin disguise, I noticed Oscar looked like he was smiling while Angie looked concerned for him, more proof he’s a dick! Not to mention he’s an incompetent moron, when Lenny was told to eat Oscar but he couldn’t, he decides to give him a chance to get away without Frankie knowing, he gave him clear instructions on what to do, and what happens? He doesn’t listen! I swear, that part makes me so angry that I just want to throw my shoe at the television! Plus, like I said before, he stays the same throughout the whole movie, even when he’s poor, he still is a hateful idiot, like before his Sharkslayer scam he made that stupid bet and even after he redeems himself it doesn’t feel genuine! He also never truly apologized for his actions and never receives any consequences for fraud and for putting his friends and home in danger. I honestly wanted Frankie to eat him and I even cheer for Don Lino when he chases him near the end, and sometimes I wish the anchor fell on him squashing him like a pancake he deserves it more! Also, while the scene where Lola got mad at Oscar for dumping her gives me chills, I do smile a bit because this is the closest to a comeuppance he’s ever gotten (though I do wish she could’ve done more than beat him against the glass like maybe do some Kung Fu moves, I’ll explain why later). He’s more of a villain/antagonist than Don Lino, because at least he did love his sons and was avenging them, while Oscar was a cockhead. This is a great example of how an unlikeable protagonist can ruin a movie. He is, without a doubt, the worst DreamWorks protagonist every, even when it comes to movies I find worse, like, as annoying as Oh from Home was, at least he was good hearted, better than a character with really bad qualities.
Chicken Little may not have a hateable protagonist but it does have one character that is so loathsome that he ruins a lot of the movie, and that character is Buck Cluck, Chicken Little’s father. My god I loathe this character! He’s a terrible father, he cared more about what the shallow and jerk faced townsfolk wanted than the feelings of his own son, whenever the townsfolk pick on or abuse Chicken Little, Buck does absolutely nothing, not once does he berate them or stand up for his son, he just allows these assholes to bully him and goes along with them, ignoring any pleas from his son, and you can see how much this hurts Chicken Little. I’m going to quote Miss Honey from Matilda to say this. For parents out there, if you think your public image or reputation is more important than your child’s well being, then maybe you shouldn’t be a parent. If you put your reputation before your kid, you failed and good luck having a relationship with them when they grow up and leave. Buck only cared when his son did something he could stroke his ego in (as the Nostalgia Critic said) like winning the baseball game winning the townsfolks’ attention, but that doesn’t mean anything because that very same night when Chicken Little tries to warn the town about aliens invading, and the ship takes off before anyone can see it, it’s back to square one and when Chicken Little practically begs for his dad’s support, he turns his back again! My goodness! Even when Chicken Little tells him off, and calls him out for his treatment towards him, and Buck does apologize for his actions, at this point, it’s too little, too late because he’s spent most of the movie ignoring, shunning and being embarrassed by him. Not once does he show any signs of regret for his actions to make this apology feel genuine and make us want him to patch his relationship with his son. Even after that moment he keeps making jokes about being a bad dad, he rubs it in your face that he is supportive and is only happy when his son becomes a hero, even when Chicken Little becomes the star of an action movie (this movie should’ve been real) he didn’t even return the hug from Chicken Little. It’s only a matter of time until something will go wrong and once again it will be back to square one. Not to mention he is a total hypocrite, because when he claims to the alien Melvin that he left Kirby behind and was a bad dad for doing so, he had some nerve to say that seeing how he was towards his son. While the aliens invaded Oakey Oaks, they were just looking for their child, that’s great parenting and considering how the townsfolk behaved, I don’t feel sorry for them when they got chased or captured by the aliens. These folks that seem to have no shame in humiliating and bullying a kid for one little mistake deserve no mercy whatsoever. The sad thing is, there are some deleted scenes that could’ve made Buck a better parent, like a scene where he tries to make his son breakfast and orders the reporters who were harassing Chicken Little to go away, actually standing up for his son! There's another one where in the original concept the title character was a girl, there’s a bit where Buck blows up but quickly regrets his words and apologizes to his daughter. Alas executive meddling messed it up and we ended up getting without a doubt, the worst Disney dad in history, he makes me hungry for KFC!
One more
thing, Buck makes Kevin’s parents look like Mufasa and Mrs. Potts, at the very
least Kate and Peter looked for Kevin (though they still lose points for
treating Kevin like a scapegoat, from not chastising Jeff for calling him a
disease, not punishing Buzz for bullying Kevin and being a moron, and not
standing up for Kevin when Uncle Frank verbally abused him). A happier ending
for both kids would be that the McCallisters and Buck lose their parenting
rights, and spend a lifetime in prison, while both Kevin and Chicken Little should’ve
been sent to an orphanage or put in foster care until someone would come to
adopt them, (for Kevin it probably would be nice if Old Man Marley’s son
adopted him, he’d have a new family, a great sister to play with and have a
wonderful grandpa). I once saw a picture on Deviantart that showed Chicken
Little with Nick and Judy from Zootopia taking a selfie with Chicken Little,
one of the comments had a brief storyline where Judy arrests Buck for his
neglectful parenting, the school gets closed down for their unprofessionally
cruel policies (seriously, popular vs unpopular, if Dewey Finn saw this school,
he’d for sure say, “What kind of a sick school is this?” that school needed him
to run the place, he’ll put those bullies into shape) everyone in Oakey Oaks
are out of jobs and suffer for life, Nick and Judy take Chicken Little and his
friends to Zootopia and they get adopted by families and live happier lives. Sadly, that picture with the commented storyline is nowhere to be seen but
I give kudos to whoever did that picture and to whoever wrote that storyline.
Forced Romance
Another fail
both movies have is having a forced romance between the protagonist and his
best friend, where the romance feels like an obligation rather than a desire.
Shark Tale has Oscar and Angie and Chicken Little has the title character and
Abby.
Need I say
more about the romance between Oscar and Angie? Oscar never cared for her, he
didn’t respect her, he ignored her and he was willing to leave her for a gold
digger who told him before that she was superficial. Angie shouldn’t have taken
him back because after all she did for him, from covering for him when he was
late for work, giving him good advice and offering to help him pay off his debt,
he never shows any appreciation and even when trying to save her, it involved something that could've killed her. This is exactly why I don’t feel happy when
they end up together. It would’ve been better if she dumped him at the end, she
could either enjoy being single or find a better boyfriend, someone who treats
her well, like maybe Lenny. Oscar should be with Lola because they’re both
superficial, like Kim and Kanye were as a couple, blech!
As for Chicken
Little and Abby, well, while their characters are likeable and have a nice
friendship, the romance between them came out of nowhere, there was little to
no build up or hint (okay there was a part where Abby calls Chicken Little cute
catching him off guard, but that was too quick), this is why the scene where
Chicken Little tells Abby he always found her attractive and kisses her,
doesn’t work. Oh, and remember how I mentioned a deleted scene where Abby
invites Chicken Little to go to the movies with her and they look at each other
could’ve made a scene work? That’s the one! Had they kept that part in the
movie, the kiss scene would’ve worked, too bad it got replaced by the dodgeball
scene and a scene a lot meaner than said deleted scene. It’s such a sad story
when the deleted scenes tell better stories than the movie itself.
Father/Son Conflict Resolution
Another thing both movies have in common is they both have a
subplot where a father and son have a hard relationship, the father doesn’t do
the best job expressing their love for their offspring, which leads to the son
feeling unloved but by the end the father is able to realize their mistakes and
patch things up with their sons and they have a better relationship by the end.
Shark Tale had the relationship between Don Lino and Lenny while Chicken Little
has the relationship between the title character and Buck Cluck. I’ll say Shark
Tale did a better job with this one, and I’ll explain why.
In Shark Tale, Don Lino didn’t seem like the best father. He
was a bit too hard on his younger son, he had trouble accepting Lenny’s gentle
personality, he was too caught up in the traditional ways of sharks, what he
thought was best, and handing over his mob business to both of his sons, that
he didn’t seem to think about Lenny’s feelings and that he probably didn’t want
to take over, and even when Frankie tried to stick up for Lenny offering to
take over on his own so Lenny wouldn’t have to (showing while he did bully and
hit his younger brother a lot, he did care for him, trying to get it off his
shoulders, I can imagine Frankie being one to protect Lenny from bullies when
they were kids) Lino refused and ordered Frankie to teach Lenny how to be a
real shark which even Frankie wasn’t okay with. However, even with these
problems, it’s clear that Lino does love both of his sons very much, in the
first scene we see with him, he mentions that he lived his life for his sons,
raising, protecting and teaching them, plus when Sykes made fun of Lenny for
being different, did Lino let it slide? Nope! He actually stood up for his son
and fired Sykes for insulting him! Sure, Sykes wasn’t wrong about Lenny but Don
Lino showed that he was not going to let anyone hurt or insult his sons and get
away with it. He also said that Lenny had the brains, which is very sweet (he
was also right, as shown by the moment Lenny sees that Oscar is the
“Sharkslayer” how does he respond? He laughs his tail off, pretty much the only
sane reaction to a small fish being able to kill a shark, it’s even funnier
when you see the recording session, gets me every time!). He also did show
sadness in his eyes at Frankie’s funeral, and did briefly speak and show signs
of regret for being so hard on Lenny (even though right after he expresses
shame about him, with his heartbroken son listening), he had his crew go
looking for Lenny, he felt sad when he thought Lenny was dead (you could see
him looking down when he arrived for the sit down), he mentioned both of his
sons at the sit down, he was clearly relieved when he saw that Lenny was alive,
he chased after Oscar for supposedly killing Frankie and turning Lenny against
him, and he did show a little remorse when Lenny told him why he ran away from
home. Now remember when I mentioned that there’s a scene with Don Lino and
Lenny that never fails to warm my heart? Well, that moment would be that scene
where Don Lino hugs Lenny and tells him that he loves him for who he is. I will
say however, the speech Oscar gives to Lino isn’t quite effective seeing what a
horrible character he is, he never really cared for Lenny and was a terrible
friend. As someone had pointed out, it would’ve been more effective if Lenny
was to speak for himself, showing others how to stand up for themselves and
expressing with others how you feel, or if someone was to speak for Lenny, it
could’ve been Angie because she was a better friend. However, even with that,
it doesn’t take away how sweet what happens right after is. Just the smile on Lenny’s
face when Lino says he wants to hug him and tell him he was sorry, (not gonna
lie I actually smile the same way Lenny does in that moment) the way he
approached his father, and how he nuzzled into his shoulder, it’s just so
beautiful, you can tell this was all Lenny really wanted. Again, it’s such a
shame this plot was shoved to the side, because it’s 100 times more interesting
than Oscar’s story.
As for the father/son subplot in Chicken Little, well, what
can I say that hasn’t been said? It doesn’t work because Buck never cared about
Chicken Little at all, he was only there for him when he was successful but
never when he was struggling. As Dhar Mann says, “If someone isn’t there for
you in your hard times, they don’t deserve to be there in your good times.”
That is not a true father. Makes you wish child services was called so Chicken
Little can be taken out of his home and live a better life, and Buck should’ve suffered
severe repercussions, like losing custody, being in jail or even getting a
severe lecture from Supernanny, it’s always satisfying to see Jo calling out
bad parents, she’s the perfect guide for parenting and this is coming from someone who doesn’t have children.
Sing Coincidence
Now, there is a bit of a coincidence, notice that the daddy
issues in in the low points seem to be precursors to the daddy issues in a
certain franchise from Illumination in the future, and that would be, the Sing
movies.
The problems Lenny has with his father are quite similar to
the problems Johnny had with his father, Big Daddy. Both characters are the
sons of mobsters or crime bosses, their fathers want them to follow in their
footsteps, the sons don’t want to because their hearts are too big (Lenny is a vegetarian while Johnny wants to be a singer, instead of a crook or a getaway driver), but they
don’t have the courage to say so, their differences do cause a strain in their
relationship, but by the end, the fathers realize their sons’ happiness is more
important than traditions and they make up and have a closer relationship
afterwards. Like how I feel about the father/son subplot in Shark Tale, I do
enjoy Johnny’s story in Sing. I felt for him wanting to follow his dream and
not be a crook, and when his father disowned him for accidentally getting him
arrested and for wanting to be a singer. I also felt the joy when Johnny sang
his song on stage. The moment Big Daddy sees him on TV while in prison, he’s so
proud of him and feels bad when he remembers the last thing he said to him is
so touching. The fact that he broke out of jail, knowing he was risking doing
more time, just so he could make up with his son, just aww! It also is sweet to
show how they’ve been closer in the sequel, to the point where once Big Daddy
and his crew were out of jail and doing community service, Johnny called him and his gang for help when they needed security. Maybe once they finish their community service sentences, they could be full time security guards for Buster’s group. I adore the Sing movies
and I’d say Johnny’s stories are one of the things that make it true.
The problems Chicken Little had with his father is similar to
the problems Porsha had with her father, Jimmy Crystal. Both fathers care more about
their public image and reputation than the well being of their child, who just
want their dad’s love and approval, which is a huge burden that no child should
ever carry. Jimmy spoiled Porsha but never really cared about her, he only saw
her as a tool to make money, he never noticed her when she was singing, and
when Porsha thought Buster fired her (he was really asking to switch to a side
character since she wasn’t doing well as a lead character) Jimmy got mad, not
because he was upset with how they treated her, but because of how it made his
name look bad. He called her a talentless loser and doesn’t comfort her when
she was crying, which was again proof that he cared more about his reputation
being down the line than his own daughter’s hurt feelings. However, Buster was
able to convince her to come back to the show, which she agreed to and was
happy to have a side role, and when Jimmy tried to force her to get off the
stage, she not only refused but sang out loud that she wasn’t going to listen,
finally standing up to him. It’s a great moment showing how Porsha is becoming
her own person and more independent. It ends on a satisfying note where Jimmy
gets arrested and Porsha goes with Buster and the crew, hopefully maybe Buster
will adopt her so she can have a better father.
Both dads really suck, however it is debatable about which
dad is worse, maybe Buck is better because he does apologize to his child,
while Jimmy never does, but like I said before, the apology was very insincere, and it was too little, too late. Plus, Jimmy is a character we’re supposed to hate
because he’s the main villain/antagonist, while Buck is a character we’re not
supposed to hate, but because of poor writing, we do. I guess it does fall into
the jerks are worse than villains tropes.
Before we go to the next point, I’ve seen things on the
internet that made me see the Sing fathers are quite similar to the fathers in the
low points so if those that showed me are reading this, kudos to you!
Wannabes
Another
problem both movies have is that they try way too hard to be like, well let’s
go back into a little history.
In 2001, DreamWorks released the movie that put them on the map, Shrek. It’s the story of a big green ogre, who loves to be a disgusting creature and frighten any intruders who invade his home. But one night, things change, he sees that fairy tale creatures have been banished from the kingdom of Duloc by their ruler Lord Farquaad. Shrek, along with an annoying but funny talking donkey, named Donkey go to confront Farquaad, who makes a deal with him. If he goes to rescue this princess the lord wants to marry to be king, he will remove the creatures from his swamp. This leads to the rescue of Princess Fiona, a funny adventure that also contains some romance, surprises and messages about inner beauty.
When the movie came out, people fell in love with it, a critical and commercial success, the first winner for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, a successful home media release and sequels and spinoffs, this became one of the biggest animated movies ever! It was so good that a lot of animated movies, tried to make their own Shrek like movie. They would try to use the elements for Shrek, like pop culture references, some crude humor, all star celebrity casting and a soundtrack containing pop music. Even the debuts of animation companies were kind of like Shrek. Blue Sky gave us Ice Age, Sony Pictures Animation gave us Open Season (ehhh, better than the Emoji Movie) and Illumination gave us Despicable Me (while that one doesn’t have a grouchy protagonist and annoying sidekick duo like the other two I mentioned, it does have a story about a man who is alone a lot and his life is changed by love. Plus like Shrek, Despicable Me started a trend in animation, it involves minions) We had also gotten a lot of parodies or fairy tale spoofs. We got a lot of the latter throughout the 2000s and early 2010s. We got some good ones like Hoodwinked and Enchanted (half parody half tribute to Disney) and some bad ones like Happily N’ever After and Hoodwinked 2. Even some live action movies were kind of Shrek-ish with films like the two live action Scooby Doo movies, Ella Enchanted and the dreaded live action Cat In The Hat.
Shark Tale
and Chicken Little were two different types of parodies, Shark Tale was trying
to be a parody of gangster movies like The Godfather or Goodfellas, while
Chicken Little was trying to be yet another fairy tale spoof like Shrek. Both
movies try to use pop culture references but for the most part they failed
because, they just do it randomly just to get a cheap laugh. As some people
have said, the reason why the jokes in Shrek worked was because they did it
subtly, they made it feel like it was a natural part of the films environment, where even if you hadn’t seen the movie they referenced you would still
be charmed by it. That doesn’t happen here
Shark Tale
had a lot of references to Jaws (because duh) and Titanic, (no joke, the sharks
were literally in the sunken Titanic, don’t believe me? You literally see a
picture of Rose, except she’s not naked.) and they really overdid them, to the
point where it just gets really irritating. I also mentioned earlier that it
was a parody of the Godfather, well they try to shove it in your face, don’t
believe me? There’s literally a scene where Lenny refers to his father as the
Godfather to Oscar, yeah, very subtle, as if we don’t know it’s a parody of a
classic gangster movie. Well to quote Don Lino in one scene, “Oy vey!” how
funny that the Rugrats parodied the Godfather 4 years earlier, Chucky being the
“bobfather”, it’s a sad story when babies do a better job parodying the
Godfather than gangster sharks.
It honestly
is mind boggling that DreamWorks somehow forgot about what made Shrek so
charming when working on Shark Tale, because not only is it made by DreamWorks
(funny enough it came out the same year as Shrek 2) but also one of the
directors of the movie, Vicky Jenson actually was one of the directors of the
first Shrek. Once again, very mind boggling.
Before I go
into Chicken Little, I also want to point out another thing that makes Shark
Tale a Shrek wannabe. This time it’s not just the movie itself but also the
home media release. It has very similar bonus material, not too different than
the first two Shrek DVDs, one of which has a bonus feature called, “favourite
scenes” where you could choose a part you like from the movie with categories
like, “gross out!” or “laugh out loud”, I do not recall seeing that in the
DreamWorks DVDs after that, like Madagascar or Kung Fu Panda. Oh, and if you
watched Shrek 1 and 2 on DVD, you probably remember seeing musical bonuses
after the movies, where the characters sing and dance to songs we all know like,
Baby Got Back, Like a Virgin, Who Let The Dogs Out, Disco Inferno, Hooked On A
Feeling or These Boots Are Made For Walking. Well, the Shark Tale DVD has that
too. It has a short called Club Oscar where the characters dance to different
songs, like, You Should Be Dancing, Do The Hustle (I can assure you the dance
to that there is better than the bit in the Lorax), Conga, Bye Bye Bye, and U
Can’t Touch This. Its quite cheesy and silly, but you could have a kick out of
the songs, I fall over giggling at the bit where Lenny pretends the broom is a
guitar and he briefly screams like a rockstar, maybe a little voice actor
reference? (we’ll get to that later). This might’ve been the last time we got
something like that, because again, I don’t recall things like that in the
future DreamWorks DVDs.
Now onto
Chicken Little. This movie was plagued with pop culture references, and is
clearly trying way too hard to be like Shrek. It tries to have a fake out
opening similar to how Shrek began, but instead of being subtle it just keeps
switching to different types of openings like, “Once upon a time,” opening a
book or the opening of The Lion King, only for the narrator to shut them down
and joke about how cliché they are, and they just start the movie without any
intro, it just cuts to Chicken Little ringing the bell. A good signal that the
movie has no idea what to do with itself. As for the pop culture references,
they really try to rub it in your face, there’s a part where the citizens are
literally watching Indiana Jones, no not an animal version, literally the real
movie, just to make the giant ball from the water tower pop out, like it was
the boulder. Why is a live action movie with a human playing in a world filled
with anthropomorphic animals?! It just makes no sense! The funny thing is, in
the previous year, there were two animated movies that gave Indiana Jones
references. Shrek 2 had Puss grab his hat before the doors closed and The
Incredibles had Bob/Mr. Incredible running from the Omnidroid, which was
rolling like a ball. Those were subtle references and didn’t rub it in your
face, unlike Chicken Little. Another one had Fish ripping Abby’s magazine pages
to make the Empire State Building, and then he pretends to be King Kong, and
once he falls, it has Runt say the iconic line, “T’was beauty that killed the
beast,” This joke was either to promote the upcoming King Kong remake or they
were just trying to give a cheap laugh, I’d go with the latter. A month prior,
DreamWorks and Aardman’s Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit, had
the climax be like King Kong, and again that was subtle, not rubbed in your
face. Heck 3 months after Chicken Little, there was an animated movie for kids based
on the classic books, “Curious George,” and it had a King Kong reference in a
kid friendly way, but it still could charm viewers. Chicken Little just keeps
shoving more references like Runt out of nowhere saying, “Darth Vader is Luke’s
father?!” or Abby saying that the alien invasion is like War Of The Worlds, or
the aliens making crop circles on the cornfield, making a reference to Signs.
This clearly isn’t a Disney movie, it’s a DreamWorks movie. Its quite ironic
seeing Disney try to be like the movie that was meant to be a middle finger to
them, thankfully they didn’t repeat that in the future.
Before I go
to the next one, here’s another thing. Years later we got a certain animated movie
that handled something better than the two low points. You know what that movie
was? Zootopia! That movie did a better job handling a Godfather parody, with
Mr. Big, the arctic shrew, and it did a better anthropomorphic animal town with
than Chicken Little, making it more unique than just a regular, generic town that we humans would live in.
You could say, Zootopia was Disney’s apology for making Chicken Little.
Meddling
Another
similarity both movies have is that they had potential and good ideas, but
executive meddling got in the way and that’s how they became Shrek wannabes.
I read some
comments on YouTube that said that Shark Tale really was supposed to be a
parody of gangster media, like Goodfellas, or maybe the Sopranos, it was
supposed to be more darker and the sharks had a lot more to do. Now it might
seem kind of wrong to make that the concept for a family movie, but it could
work if executed well. There are some family movies that had adult plots or
parodies that worked well, like how Chicken Run was based on the Holocaust
(which is a pretty risky move but it still is iconic to this day), or Toy Story
3 was like a tribute to a lot of prison escape movies. Now, I haven’t really
watched a lot of gangster flicks or even some movies I’ve mentioned earlier, but
a true family friendly gangster parody could’ve been good, again if executed
well. However, DreamWorks founder Jeffrey Katzenberg stepped in and ordered
them to make it more family friendly, which lead to a muddled mess, and thus
becoming a movie that seems confused with what it wants to be, either a gangster movie or a comedy.
Chicken
Little really had potential, the original idea sounded great. After finishing
The Emperor’s New Groove, director Mark Dindal wanted to make an adaptation of
the classic fable. The idea was about a little girl with an overactive
imagination, which leads to her overreacting and being seen as crazy, and
causing a hard relationship with her father. After a while, she decides to go
to summer camp to ease herself, she makes friends but soon she discovers that
the counsellors are literally wolves in sheep’s clothing and she and her new
friends have to save the camp and this helps her gain more confidence. That
concept sounds great, plus it was kind of a personal project for Mark basing it
on his relationship with his daughters, but alas, Michael Eisner wasn’t
satisfied with it, he demanded that they make Chicken Little a boy because
short boys are more likely to get picked on and he found that a lot of guys
won’t be seeing movies with girl protagonists, ironic considering some of their
famous movies star princesses. And it was then Walt Disney Feature Animation’s
president David Stainton’s idea to include aliens and make it more comical, while taking away the more dramatic and heartfelt moments,
which is what lead to this messy plot and mean-spirited movie, that had Disney
fans groaning and ranting, even Mark Dindal didn’t seem very proud of the
result, you know something is very wrong when that happens. Not to mention, some
deleted scenes as I’ve said before, could’ve given the movie some potential
only for them to get scrapped. If any Disney movie deserves a remake, it should
be this one, have Mark Dindal direct it and make the movie he wanted to make.
Coincidences
Now it’s
time to go into the similarities that are more coincidental, in terms of
release dates and the cast and crew. Be prepared to have your minds blown
Releases
One similar
coincidence between these two movies, is that they both had different release
dates planned but they changed it because of Pixar.
Shark Tale
was originally planned to be released on November 5th 2004, but
because a certain superhero movie was set to be released that day, DreamWorks
moved it a month early to October 1st to avoid competition. Probably a smart
move on DreamWorks’ part, the movie was already doomed to be compared to a
certain fish movie Pixar released the previous year, better to avoid the
competition, plus it could’ve been in more competition if it was released on
the original planned date, it would’ve also been in competition with the
SpongeBob movie. So, since they released it earlier, it did manage to be on top
of the box office for three weeks, so while the result was crappy, I’d say
smart move, DreamWorks. Smart move.
As for
Chicken Little, Disney originally planned to release it on July 1st
in 2005, only for Disney to delay it to November 4th. The latter was
the day Pixar planned to release Cars, but the reason they delayed it was
because of some issues Disney and Pixar were having with each other, leading to
a bit of uncertainty of their future in partnership, but I’ll get more into
that later, so as a result Chicken Little got the November 4th 2005
date while Cars was moved to June 9th 2006.
Directors
Another coincidence is actually having two directors directly or indirectly competing with each other once again. Here’s what I mean. In 2000, both DreamWorks and Disney released two buddy road trip comedies, which also had rough times in production, where according to research, they were planned to be a lot different than they were today and they took years to complete. In 2000, DreamWorks released The Road To El Dorado and Disney released The Emperor’s New Groove. Well, the funny thing is this, one of the directors of Shark Tale, Bibo Bergson was also one of the directors of El Dorado, while Mark Dindal, who had the misfortune of directing Chicken Little actually did direct The Emperors New Groove. So, these two directors directed two animated movies that became cult classics, and then sadly ended up directing low points from the same animation company. Now I haven’t seen El Dorado, and I have no interest in doing so, I just thought it was worth mentioning. Hopefully the Garfield movie will redeem Mark’s directing career.
Casting Coincidence
Now it’s
time for my favourite one to talk about, the casting coincidence! Each low
point had one actor from one of my favourite movies of all time, School Of
Rock!
Shark Tale had one of my favourites, the one and only, the very talented, the very funny, the always awesome, JACK BLACK! (Dewey Finn from SOR) as Lenny. This wasn’t Jack’s first-time voice acting, since he had Ice Age 2 years prior, (I bet you readers are surprised about this one. It took me years to realize that , my mind was blown) but it was his first-time voice acting for DreamWorks, a few years before, well, I’ll get into that soon. Oh and this was also the first time Jack did a voice over role where he made his voice sound different (here he has a high pitched voice) and nearly 2 decades later he had a role where he changed his voice again, only this time, his voice sounded more deep and menacing, fits for Bowser, and won fans over! Beware, the Peaches song will never leave your head🤣🤣!
Chicken
Little had another one I really love, the funny, lovely and talented Joan
Cusack (Ms. Mullins from SOR) as Abby, this thankfully wasn’t her first time
voice acting as well, as before this, she had, well, I’ll get into that real
soon!
While these
two School Of Rock actors had the misfortunes of starring in these low point
animated movies, the good news is, they had the joy of starring in successful
animated franchises, one of them was made by the same company that made the low
point they starred in, while the other was in a franchise made by the same
major studio.
Jack Black
may have had the misfortune of starring in DreamWorks’ low point, but the good
news is, 4 years later, he came back to DreamWorks to star in the movie that
put DreamWorks back on their feet, Kung Fu Panda, where he voiced the Dragon
Warrior himself, Po! He finally got the lead role (which should’ve happened in
Shark Tale) and did a great job bringing a lovable and relatable character to
life, and he nailed the comical moments with Po, whether he’s being a goofy
fanboy or getting into pratfalls, as well as the dramatic moments (thanks to
Dustin Hoffman tutoring him) whether it has him telling Shifu how he really
felt about himself, or when he’s feeling doubtful, showing how capable Jack is
as an actor and voice actor.
On a side note, notice that the times Jack voice acted for DreamWorks, he's been characters that are black and white, have green eyes, are very bubbly, sweet, kids at heart, kind hearted, a bit clumsy and very sensitive, while the times he voice acted for companies that weren't DreamWorks whether it was Blue Sky or Illumination, he's been villains or antagonists.
Joan Cusack
did have the misfortune of being in Walt Disney Animation Studio’s low point,
but the good news is she starred in Pixar’s biggest franchise, Toy Story (or in
this case, sequels) where she voiced Jessie. A character that has been so
beloved ever since her debut in Toy Story 2, (which came out 6 years before
Chicken Little), and part of her charm comes from Joan’s performance, whether
she’s silly and energetic, or distressed or scared, (like whenever you see her
hyperventilating) or whenever she has to act for a dramatic, sad scene, she nails it perfectly.
Now I’m going to go a bit off topic to say this. Both franchises had silly ideas yet surprised viewers with how emotional they could be, and speaking of emotional…
Emotional Backstories
Notice the said School Of Rock actors’ characters in the successful franchises they starred in, had emotional backstories that were explored in the second movies.
Kung Fu
Panda 2 had flashbacks of Po’s origins, fearing that a warrior of black and
white would defeat him, Lord Shen and his wolves went to the panda village and
attacked them, Po’s biological dad ordered his wife to take their little Lotus
(that was Po’s birth name) and run away, which she did. After realizing there
was no way to escape, she placed her baby in a radish basket, bid him a tearful
farewell and left him to distract the wolves so her baby would live. This bit
is just too heartbreaking, hearing baby Po cry for his mother, and seeing grown
up Po sad when he remembers and realizes what happened, my goodness, it’s so gut-wrenching,
makes me want to give him a hug. However, things get better when the Soothsayer
reminds him that while his life started rough, it doesn’t make him who he is,
it’s the rest of his story. Po then remembers the life he had after his mother
died and how great it was and still is. He had great friends, a teacher who
taught him very well, his dream life and passion for Kung Fu, good food to eat,
all because of his mother’s sacrifice and also being adopted and raised by a
goose who loved him so much, this helps Po come to terms with his past, and not
let it define him. This gives him inner peace, which helps him do a better job
fighting Lord Shen (since the memories were earlier making it hard for him to
focus and nearly got him killed) and it leads to a heartfelt scene where after
returning to the Valley Of Peace, he goes to see his dad and assure him that
he’s his son (since him learning he was adopted earlier made him feel doubtful
about Mr. Ping being his dad and question everything he knew and his current life, a relatable thing
I’m sure anyone who was adopted can relate to that, always know that you are
loved), it’s such a powerful moment.
Toy Story 2
had a moment that truly showed Pixar’s ability to make you cry. At first, we
seem annoyed about Jessie being resentful over Woody wanting to go back to
Andy, but when he goes to talk to her, we find out why she feels this way. She
was once owned by a little girl named Emily. They were inseparable, they played
together and Jessie was always there for her whenever she was sad or lonely.
But then Emily started to find interest in different things, like makeup, which
meant one thing, she was growing up. Poor Jessie spent years under the bed
collecting dust, waiting for Emily to play with her. One day, a grownup Emily
found her and it looked like Jessie was getting her chance to be played with,
only for Emily to put her in a box and drive away, leaving her forever and
Jessie’s heart was broken. This is what helped viewers sympathize with her,
showing why she’s bitter towards humans but it also shows why she’s so afraid
to go back into storage, due to spending year alone in a box,(a fear that I’m
so happy Pixar had her confront in the Halloween special, where she actually
gets the spotlight as well, check it out, it’s so good, especially if you love
that cowgirl) and it also helps her
understand why she was hesitant to go with Woody to Andy’s, but once she does
come around, we feel happy to see her happy to have an owner again, it’s such a
deep moment, thanks to the power of Pixar, plus Jessie’s song, When She Loved
Me is such a powerful and tearjerking song, thanks to Randy Newman and Sarah
MacLachlan, so good that it had Tom Hanks and Tim Allen in tears.
Now back to
the low points. There is another part of this casting coincidence, each low
point also has an actor who not only co starred with said School Of Rock actor
in the low point they starred in also co starred with them in the successful
franchise.
Both Jack
Black and Angelina Jolie (who voiced Lenny and Lola in Shark Tale respectively)
also co starred in the Kung Fu Panda franchise, where Jack was Po, and Angelina
voiced Tigress, where instead of making you cower in fear or trying to look sexualized,
she did well at bringing a badass tiger to life, impressing viewers with her
Kung Fu moves, and touching hearts when Tigress shows her soft side.
Both Joan
Cusack and Wallace Shawn, (who co starred as Abby and Principal Fetchit
respectively) were already co stars in the Toy Story franchise, where Joan was
Jessie and Wallace was Rex, where he did a great job bringing a seemingly
fierce dinosaur who’s actually a bit of a coward, he’s afraid of everything and
has some relatable quirks (“I don’t like confrontations!” I’m sure we can all
relate to that one) and make him such a lovable character.
Silver Lining
While these
movies were duds, there are some bright sides about them, as they lead to good
things happening afterwards, it’s like they say, “Every cloud has a silver
lining.”
Earlier, I
mentioned that Jack Black and Angelina Jolie eventually co starred in the KFP
franchise. I could be wrong but according to research, it was Jack and Angelina’s
performances and Lenny and Lola that partially inspired DreamWorks to call them
again to star as Po and Tigress respectively which is pretty neat (while Katzenberg also animated Po saying lines from either High Fidelity or School Of Rock to convince Jack to voice Po and it worked, regardless of how I may feel about Katzenberg’s actions or choices, I do have to praise him for giving JB a role he cherishes so kudos!). I also heard
this is also what lead to Jack and Angie becoming friends, they met each other
on set sometimes, but it was when they (along with Will Smith) promoted the
movie at Cannes, riding on an inflatable shark (beware when you see the
pictures of Jack jumping off the shark and into the water, those pictures have
me in stitches), this was their bonding moment, it was the beginning of a great
friendship, which got stronger when they co starred in the Kung Fu Panda movies.
This lead to sweet moments like Angelina giving Jack good advice to be himself
to get him to ask out his high school crush Tanya (leading to a lovely marriage
and two sons), Jack supporting Angelina during her pregnancy with twins when
promoting the first Kung Fu Panda and Angelina even invited Jack and his family
to join her family for Easter (until Angelina and Brad Pitt split up). Now, I don’t know anything about their friendship as of now, but I think anything else about it is private so it’s really none of our business, but either way, their friendship is or was one of the sweetest things
I’ve ever seen and I am a bit thankful this low point did lead to this
happening. Plus it made me a TiPo lover.
Chicken
Little was a complete embarrassment that even Mark Dindal wasn’t proud of, but
there is a silver lining. In the 2000s Disney was in a huge slump, when the
Disney Renaissance had ended, their post renaissance movies did poorly
financially with films like Atlantis, Treasure Planet and Home On The Range,
and it looked like Disney was losing it’s touch, with the exception of Lilo and
Stitch and the films they did with Pixar, like Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and
The Incredibles. Not only that but then CEO Michael Eisner was messing the
company up big time, so much so that Walt Disney’s nephew quit and lead a
campaign to have Eisner booted, that’s how bad it was. Even Disney and Pixar
were having problems, since the success of Pixar’s flicks are pretty much what
lead to hand drawn animated movies deteriorating, and Eisner and Steve Jobs had
a big fight that could’ve lead to both companies splitting up, Pixar would be
seen as none other than a money hungry factory and Disney would’ve made a
company called Circle 7, where they would make mediocre or crappy sequels to
Pixar’s movies. All that was saved when Bob Iger took over and Eisner resigned,
and there was another thing that saved Disney, which ironically was Chicken
Little. While it was panned by critics, it did do very well financially, it
made so much money and Pixar could see that Disney was capable of making CG
movies alone. The companies rekindled their friendship and not only did Disney
buy Pixar, but co founder Ed Catmull and John Lasseter would become president
and CCO of both Disney and Pixar respectively. Plus, Disney got better with
their CG movies with films like, Meet The Robinsons, Bolt, Tangled, Wreck It
Ralph, Frozen and Zootopia and they were slowly but surely going back to their
former glory, I do hope things work out for Disney in the future seeing how
things are with them. While Chicken Little was a terrible movie, it’s success
did save a beloved company.
Verdict
Now that
I’ve explained the strength and weaknesses of Shark Tale and Chicken Little, I
would like to share my personal thoughts on these movies.
Shark Tale is not as good as I used to think it was when I was younger. I do agree with a lot of the complaints it has received. It has ugly character designs, really unfunny jokes, and once again, one of the most despicable, selfish and unlikable protagonists to ever exist, that really messes up the movie. However, for all the grief I’ve been giving it, I will admit it is kind of a guilty pleasure and I don’t think it’s that bad. I will admit to catching it if it played on television, I like seeing reactions to it on YouTube (sometimes their reactions to Oscar not listening to Lenny's plan to secretly get away do make me laugh), bought the VHS tape at the thrift store (a tape that’s really hard to find, because at this point VHS tapes were dying due to DVDs becoming more popular), ordered the DVD online, observe!
I also would read some fanfictions (mostly if they focused on Lenny) and if any of the vintage cinemas in my hometown, or my local cineplex plays it on a Saturday for a family favourites screening, I would gladly go.
The
nostalgia I have with this movie keeps me from hating it completely. Revisiting this movie sometimes reminds me of when I was a kid. I remember
when my dad rented it for me to see a couple of times when I was like, six
years old, I remember sitting on the couch, while having baseball gumballs (why
the heck do I remember that?) I also remember when my nanny surprised me by
giving me the DVD as a gift for my 7th birthday and I watched it so
many times, I loved it that much. Plus, another thing that keeps me from hating
it completely is Lenny because, what can I say that hasn’t been said? I adore
this character!
Earlier I mentioned listening to their version of Car Wash a lot. I remember my mom would put it on a song mix for me to listen to, and that was one of the songs that played on my 8th birthday when I played Pass The Package and Musical Mats with the girls at my party.
I also remember when I was finishing second grade, our teacher played the movie on tape for us to see. For a minute I will admit to have been condescending and corrected some classmates about it, and if those I did correct are reading, I apologize, that wasn't right. And to think it was the summer before the first Kung Fu Panda came out, speaking of which...
On a side note, I am a bit embarrassed to admit, this movie might’ve been what got my 9-year-old self to see Kung Fu Panda in the first place. I remember watching Shrek The Third on DVD, and it showed a sneak peek for the first Kung Fu Panda, I saw Jack Black introducing himself, giving a funny performance, and saying who some of the other characters are and who their voice actors are, not only was I surprised to find out Tigress was female (I assumed she would be male when I saw that small trailer on the Bee Movie DVD) but when I found out Angelina Jolie would be voicing her I was amazed. I was so excited to see her and Jack co star again. Plus, the trailers did look pretty funny. So, a couple of weeks after it came out, I was inside the cinema with my mom to see the first movie, and I really enjoyed it. I came for two stars but I stayed for a great movie. Plus, I remember years ago, I revisited Shark Tale not too long before my dad took me and my brother to see Kung Fu Panda 2, I don’t know why but I did. Plus, during the movie, I remember some scenes from Shark Tale played in my head scenes that fit into the scenes I could see, and it added to my enjoyment, gave me a warm feeling, and I had a great time.
Another thing, whenever I revisit Shark Tale nowadays, I like to make a lot of Kung Fu Panda references, just to get a good giggle, like in the scene where Lenny crashes into things while in the city, the first thing I think of is Po trying and failing to do the Kung Fu moves like the Furious 5 did, and getting himself hurt, to the point where I say, “That’s a level zero.”
So, not only do I consider Shark Tale a guilty pleasure,
but also a blessing in disguise, we probably wouldn’t have had one of
DreamWorks’ biggest franchises, nor would I have gotten into it had it not been
for this movie. On a side note, while I do feel the franchise is getting
milked, as I’m really worried about the upcoming fourth film, it won’t stop me
from loving the first two movies so much, while I’m not a huge fan of the third
movie, it still is enjoyable and has a nice ending. Plus, I don’t think Shark
Tale is the worst DreamWorks movie, I honestly would rather watch that, than
Bee Movie (I do enjoy the game though) Turbo, Home and The Boss Baby (the thought of the last two make me
want to vomit) feel free to disagree.
As for
Chicken Little, well, despite the good qualities, some nostalgic memories I
have with it, from having books and playing with figurines, and watching it a
lot, I will say this movie is total garbage, it’s very unpleasant due to its
mean-spirited nature and it’s just a big mess. I find myself shaking my head a
lot, like come on Disney! I know you’re better than this.
And that
concludes my article about Shark Tale and Chicken Little, the low points of the
2000s decade. What are your thoughts on these movies? Do you love them? Do you
hate them? Do you consider them the worst movies from their companies? Which do
you consider better or worse? Are there any similarities between these two I
missed? Feel free to comment!
Plus, if any
of you do like these movies, I respect your opinions.
I’d also like to end it off with a shoutout to one of my favourite internet reviewers, Mat Brunet, or AniMat, love your videos and I think you inspired me. Some of the facts I’ve typed here, particularly the Chicken Little trivia, I’ve learnt from you, whether it was from Animation Lookback or your history videos and I just want to say, thank you. I highly recommend you watch his videos, he has really cool facts to share about your favourite animated movies or puppet franchises, you might learn a thing or two, as I did.
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