SHARK TALE

Starring: Will Smith, Robert de Niro, Angelina Jolie, Renee Zellweger, Jack Black, Martin Scorsese

GENRE: Family comedy

CERTIFICATE: U

GUIDE: No swearing, no sex, no violence

RATING PP

'SLEEPING with the fishes' is given a whole new meaning in Shark Tale, an undersea, computer animated comedy from the producers of Shrek.

Sadly, the film, which has taken almost 90 million dollars in its first two weeks on the other side of the Atlantic, is dead in the water almost from the opening frames.

Oscar (voiced by Will Smith) is a fast-talking little fish - a cleaner wrasse - who works at the Whale Wash run by Sykes (Martin Scorsese), a puffer fish with a fiery temper who never misses an opportunity to make a few extra clams out of his customers.

Oscar has ideas and dreams far above his station, which often land him in trouble, including a close run-in with Rastafarian jellyfish heavies Bernie and Ernie. By chance, Oscar is caught in shark territory when great white Frankie attacks.

In a freakish accident involving an anchor, Frankie is killed and Oscar cockily takes the credit for the shark's demise. Feted as a hero amongst his fishy community, Oscar is bestowed the nick name 'Shark Slayer', and the media swarms to tell his remarkable story, including the reef's top anchorfish, Katie Current.

Oscar tries to keep up the pretence and he strikes up an unlikely friendship with Frankie's brother Lenny (Jack Black), a closet vegetarian with a good heart who has become an outcast from his shark community.

He also finds himself torn between two women: beautiful angelfish Angie (Renee Zellweger), who has harboured a secret crush on Oscar for months, and fin fatale Lola (Angelina Jolie), a seductive cross between a lion fish and a dragonfish.

Meanwhile, as the news of Oscar's notoriety spreads, Frankie's father, great white godfather Don Lino (Robert De Niro), turns his grief into vengeance.

Aided by ageing shark Don Ira Feinberg and oily octopus Luca, Don Lino marshals his forces, ready to despatch of this so-called shark slayer and restore the great whites to the top of the food chain.

Shark Tale is little more than a collection of pop culture and movie references (Jaws, A Few Good Men, Gladiator) and some visual puns, hung on some very ordinary if colourful computer animation.

Vocal performances are adequate if unremarkable and the plot nets as many cliches as possible into 90 minutes.

Humour is predominantly geared towards younger viewers.

If Finding Nemo was catch of the day, fresh and bursting with flavour, Shark Tale is tinned sardines.