Oscar is a fast-talking little fish who dreams big. But for the time being his big dreams are far from reach as he is a lowly tongue scrubber in a Whale Wash. But his big dreams are about to land him in hot water when a great white lie turns him into an unlikely hero. When a falling anchor kills a shark, Oscar takes the credit for killing the shark and earns himself the title of the “Shark Slayer.” At first, his fellow fish swallow Oscar's story hook, line and sinker and he is showered with fame and fortune. It's all going along swimmingly, until it starts to become clear that Oscar's tale about being the defender of the Reef is all wet. Oscar is finding out that being a hero comes at a Market Price when his lie threatens to make him the Catch of the Day. Because the father of the shark he claims to have killed is the Don of all the white sharks and he now wants to reenact his revenge for his fallen son. Now Oscar has to tread water until he can get the scales to tip back in his favor again.

Sometimes I feel like the dissenting voice when it comes to movies like this, or maybe I am the voice of reason. I know kids are probably going to love this movie but I cannot help myself from being highly disappointed by this movie. It has no substance or any depth it is just a cute glitzy movie that they know they can sell to kids. The movie was almost like licking a sugar cube it was that freaking cutesy to the point where it passes being cute and borderlines on annoying. Everything was so over the top, its like they have no idea on how to be subtle or be witty when telling a joke. Every joke had to be like a sledgehammer coming down rather than showing some class and wit. I guess I should blame movies like Shrek and Toy Story that so masterfully managed to be witty and funny all the while still being a kids movies. Those movies found a way to work on two levels one for the kids and another for adults who might see the movie.

As far as the voice acting went, I expected so much with this stellar cast of characters but not one of them impressed me. The only one that came close would have been Jack Black who voiced Lenny the Shark and was the only character that really had me laughing. I have said it before and I will say it again, somewhere along the line Will Smith fell in love with himself and he is just so enamored with himself he forgets to act. Oscar has to go down in history as one of the most annoying characters to ever grace the screen, hell I was rooting for the sharks to eat him so they cut put me out of my misery. The problem was all the pop culture references there was just too many of them and it was like being barraged with a VH1 do you remember the 90’s special. It went pass being funny to where I just wanted to throw things at the screen every time they tried to slip in another pop culture reference. Heck even the animation of the film felt too cutesy if I wanted to watch a movie with a bad story and bad characters I’d watch Finding Nemo which visually gorgeous. The kids will like the movie, and Jack Black is most definitely worth seeing but for the most part I think most adult audiences will be like me and want to go home and pop in a truly funny kids movie like Toy Story.
2 stars out of 5