The Outing of an Animated Shark

Narratives of marginalization have been crucial to the thematic consciousness of animated films from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the slick CG kiddie films of today. Subversion of social ‘tradition’ and the transcension of adversive societal elements are key parts of this equation. The go-girl butt-kicking heroics of Disney’s Mulan and the odd-man-out subtexts of films as seemingly diverse as Aladdin and Finding Nemo are prime examples of this Disney-fied social flavoring.

But as good-intentioned as they may be, the most frustrating aspect of this narrative trope is the suffocating bathing of allegory many of these characters receive. The most recent example of this problematic trend is Dreamworks’ Shark Tale, which has a prominent character so metaphorically drenched in sub-meaning that it pinpoints with accidental exactness what is wrong with the contemporary Hollywood political praxis.

One of Shark Tale’s main characters, Lenny (a shark voiced by Jack Black) is so obviously meant to be a doppelganger for a homosexual man that five-year-olds are likely picking up on it well before the scene in which Lenny has a garish performance in full drag as a dolphin (the peaceful, sensitive creatures of the film’s world).

The characterization of Lenny in the context of the film is important here. He has a domineering, alpha-male father (naturally voiced by Robert De Niro), a moronic brother who behaves like a compulsive frat boy and eats anything that moves and in addition he identifies himself as a vegetarian, a lover of all things living, and as “different from other sharks.” Sharks in the world of Shark Tale are the patriarchal keepers of the sea, the top of the food chain. Lenny’s refusal to kill and be “like other sharks” makes him the odd fish out. They’re also Italian-American gangsters, a quasi-racist touch to a film rife with problematic ethnic representations (the film’s stereotypical representation of African-American culture is another topic entirely).

I don’t see the point of delving into ‘evidence’ of Lenny’s sexuality as is implicit in the film. Any reader who doubts the obviousness of the intended meaning of Lenny’s character should see the film immediately. It’s doubtful you’ll disagree. What Shark Tale ultimately represents, and what makes it so eminently aggravating, is Hollywood’s static view of homosexuality as something that must be hidden from the public. In a political atmosphere in which queers are increasingly gaining agency and winning countless victories in the marriage debate, Hollywood thinks itself sneaky and subversive by throwing a character into a kiddie movie that could be read as (hold your breath!) gay. Memo to Dreamworks: In 2004, your audience gets it.

The deeper problem is that Hollywood can’t escape the ages-old right-wing dictum that homosexuality is a perversion. It’s not that the predominantly liberal denizens of the world’s dominating film industry are homophobic. The problem is that by hiding representations of queers, be them human or shark, under a (pathetically transparent) veil of allegory reinforces queer-dom in culture as something that is adult, pornographic and too controversial to address directly. The question is, why can’t Lenny just be gay? Shark Tale’s makers already have him in drag and trying to cuddle with Will Smith, so what’s the problem?

The answer is, naturally, sex. Hollywood has a long, troublesome history of representing homosexuality as an all-encompassing identity. If you’re a gay character in a television show or a mainstream film, the only thing you’re allowed to discuss on screen in direct relation to your identity is the fact that you have a penchant for naughtiness with those of your own gender. In other words, Hollywood saps queers of any notion of a fluidity of identity—they must be gay every single second. Every motivation or action by a queer character must be rooted in easily discernible, usually stereotypical ‘gayness.’

Thus, Lenny the Shark can act just as gay as Jack in “Will and Grace,” but remember—this is a children’s film. The fact that Jack likes men is fine, but men liking men is a decidedly adult narrative element in Hollywood, and “Will and Grace” is marketed to adults. It’s fine that Angelina Jolie’s fish in Shark Tale is explicitly presented as a gold-digging, sexually charged vixen, but Hollywood fears that the mere mention of, say, Lenny the shark liking boy sharks would send parents into a popcorn-throwing outrage.

The key problem is the underestimation of audiences. Hollywood may be liberal, but only in the most politically correct sense. It is a reactionary industry, and besides a brief stint in the early ’70s (which was economically motivated), it has never been politically progressive beyond the most agreeable of causes. Some may think that having such an obvious allegory like Lenny in a mainstream children’s film is a step forward. But it’s really nothing new. A real step forward would be directly showing kids that queers aren’t all sex-crazed, club-kid heathens. At the moment, however, that’s about as likely as a theatrical sequel to Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.