"Shark Tale" Bada-Banged

Don Lino, Luca and Giuseppe are three of the film's Italian-skewing monikers that, coupled with the animated comedy's mobster-skewing story, have irked the likes of the Columbus Citizens Foundation.

"Every little boy who's named Giuseppe, their friends are going to see the movie...and they're going to be, 'Ew, Giuseppe the Hammerhead," says Andrew Decker, spokesman for the New York-based cultural group.

The organization this week stepped up criticism of DreamWorks mogul Steven Spielberg, calling on his studio to strip the film, opening Oct. 1, of its Italian names, phrases and slang, and asking for a recall of the movie's tie-in books for children.

What names would be more fitting for the underwater characters voiced in the film by Robert De Niro (Don Lino) and ex-Sopranos star Vincent Pastore (Luca)?

"I don't know--[the filmmakers] are the ones who are supposed to be creative and inventive," Decker says. "I don't know--Thomas, Andrew, I don't care--things that are not associated with specific ethnic stereotypes."

Will Smith, or rather his voice, stars in the finned film as a creature named Oscar.

(DreamWorks, by the way, doesn't have a "Giuseppe" listed in its current production notes. But the studio says that doesn't mean the name isn't in the movie, as the group asserts.)

Living up to its own name, the National Coalition Against Racial, Religious and Ethnic Stereotyping, an umbrella group to which the Columbus Citizens Foundation belongs, has been on DreamWorks' tail about Shark Tale since January.

The movie netted attention for the promise of its GoodFellas-esque cast (De Niro, Martin Scorsese), its Godfather-esque touches (cheek kisses, et. al), and, arguably more than anything, its kid-friendly cartoon characters.

"There are any number of Mafia movies out there. If adults want to see them, that's okay...They can distinguish between gangsters...and the broader population," says Decker, whose group sued two years ago to keep two Sopranos stars from marching in its annual Columbus Day Parade. "Children don't make that distinction too easily."

Despite the letter-writing campaigns, the proposed sponsor boycotts, and the flurry of press releases, DreamWorks isn't backing down.

"The complaints that are being levied today are the same complaints [that were levied] six months ago--sight unseen," says DreamWorks spokesman Andy Spahn.

The film played last week, in Italy, no less, "to a tremendous response," Spahn says.

To the studio, Shark Tale is a comedy with "diverse characters," a diverse cast (featuring vocals by everyone from Ziggy Marley to Katie Couric) and "absolutely nothing that presents negative stereotypes."

The Columbus foundation, whose president, Lawrence Auriana, caught a screening last weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival, begs to differ--especially on the subject of aquatic diversity.

"There are two Rasta jellyfish," says Decker, "but they convert rather quickly to being good guys."

Italian-American groups claimed a victory earlier this year when a Shark Tale character voiced by Peter Falk, last name of Brizzi, was awarded the new surname of Feinberg.

But Spahn says it's "completely untrue" that outside pressure inspired filmmakers to make the conversion. He says the change was part of the "creative work in progress." (And, for the record, the studio hasn't heard from any groups crying foul over the Feinberg fish, he says.)

Decker says any further changes would be welcome; Spahn says none are in the offing.

The fish are staying out of it.