Reviews

What's happening to the world of animation? I remember the days when animation was all about telling/visualizing a story in animation form to provide good and wholesome holiday entertainment for the whole family. The names of the voice-over actors could be found, discreetly mentioned, in the credit rolls at the END of the movie. Gradually we saw more and more big names lending their voices to animated works usually "in order to do something for their children". Noble cause huh? OK, I must admit it was amusing for me as an adult to recognize a well-known movie personality acting out his or her typical roles in an animation. I was much less amused with the happenings in "Sharktale". We were first of all bombarded with the all the names of the big stars lending their voices to the movie. Mind you 1 whole frame for 1 big name. (Robert DeNiro, Will Smith, Jack Black, Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Martin Scorsese etc). Then to my utter astonishment I had to observe that their fishy counterparts were exact lookalikes. It was so dominant that it seemed to me that the whole movie was about THEM. Must be great not only to hear your mummy or daddy in a cartoon but see them "animated" as well. But I wonder seriously if this going to be a fashionable trend in Hollywood. Is it going to be a sign of true stardom to :a) have your name, feet/hands/boobs imprinted on a tile on the Walk of Fame and b) have yourself eternalized as an animated character? From a business point of view it is of course a clever gimmick to have these famous movie personalities in animated movies. Cartoons were for kids and families with kids mainly. A movie like Sharktale shall undoubtly attract a whole lot of teenagers and young adults. I feel mostly sorry for the kids though. Unknowingly children are now being "familiarized" with the big movie stars of today whose movies are as yet unsuitable for them. Perhaps this is a big Hollywood psychological plot to guarantee that the next generation of moviegoers will be guaranteed fans of the stars of today? In my opinion it is a sick trend!!!

I feel the earlier 2 comments were very detailed and sufficient. Nevertheless would like to add on some personal comments.I have just watched this movie at the European Film Festival here in KL. Having lived in Malaysia for 26 years it was a real treat to watch a Dutch movie on the big screen here. It made me feel quite nostalgic to see all the typical Dutch scenery, habits and other trivia. And then those cats attributed with typical Dutch characters. Lovely! The audience here was of the same opinion as I heard a lot of them laughing out loud. This movie is especially great for children AND adults with a ticklish inner child!! Praise for the acting of Carice van Houten. I thought she was more real and believable as a catwoman than Halle Berry!

When I started to see this film I thought "o no another B movie brought out here to attract 'sex craving men". And initially it was very bad indeed. Dapna as proper and prim lady was totally unbelievable. Only when she loosened up she became more believable. The men in the movie were all horrible and one dimensional, but there needed be men in the movie so.... Bad casting!! I don't think Madrid is really a place where couples are making out on every corner. The filmmaker merely tried to show us the state of Dapna's mind. When I was pregnant it was just like I only met women who where pregnant also. In other words she very much wanted a relationship but was haunted by the history of her parents, who she imagined to be like those couples. It was only much later that she found out that her father was not a holiday flirt but had cared about her mother. The scenes relating to the unraveling of this with her mother were great I thought.It was a journey of finding out who she was making the usual human mistakes, but ultimately the truth set her free!

I have read through about 20 of the users comments after watching this movie earlier tonight on DVD. Most viewers seem to be rather disappointed with this film mainly because they had expectations of the film based on genre, director's and actors' previous work both of which I have seen very little before. The film had my attention from the beginning till the end and I found it very thought provoking.

Will was a gangster who had turned away from crime after a break down (indication of severe depression?). Sometimes when people get overloaded with negative emotions like guilt they can turn into the total opposite of who they once were. As Will mentioned himself : grief about a wasted life. I think this indicates guilt. He coped by turning his back to the world he knew, but also the person he loved most, his brother Davey whom he therefore was not able to help move away from the crime life.Imagine his anger but also the guilt he must have experienced to find his brother raped and having taking his own life! Another wasted life! He could have done something about that but HAD NOT because he ran away from life. In the interactions with former associates and ex-girl friend Helen he established who he had become. Also showing them that they played no role in his life anymore, emotional or otherwise. For his brother who was still important to him he was not able to do anything anymore (and unable via police) except to come up for him by discovering the reason for his death and revenging it. The only way to do that was to take on his former identity again, because the new Will could not do that. Imagine the horror that his brother was hated for behaving the way he himself had before his departure. (Of course this is never a valid reason to rape someone! Rape is hideous crime!) Charming, but cocksure and arrogant!! For Davey Will had always been his role model!!! Davey never got to know the new (more real?) Will. Instead he had lived like Will basing his self-esteem on Will's former reputation as well. Fancy the pain of discovering that! By shooting Boad he kills himself; by intensifying the guilt which had taken over his life. This was exactly as Helen predicted when she said that he was not getting out of it because he wanted to die himself! Nor Clive Owen or Charlotte Rampling acted stiffly out of incompetence, but merely because it was required for their roles of people who had died emotionally a long time ago already! I have greatly enjoyed this movie. It made me think deeply about emotions, motivations an behavior. The above is my interpretation of these, (which doesn't mean I am right).