Shark Bait

Pisces, or Pi (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), is a 5-year-old orange wrasse that lives happily with his parents Pike and Piper in the polluted harbor of Boston, Massachusetts, until a fishing boat scoops them from the sea. Pi's parents manage to help him escape, but cannot escape themselves. Before they are taken away, Piper tells Pi to promise her he would go live with his aunt. Pi's porpoise friend Percy (Trent Ford) and Percy's mother Meg (Megahn Perry) agree to take him, but Pi refuses to leave in case his parents return, Meg sadly tells him that once anyone is taken by a net they are killed. Pi is heartbroken that his parents are gone forever.

Meg and Percy take Pi to live with his aunt Pearl on an exotic reef. When Pi reaches the reef, he is a teenager and has stayed with the porpoises for most of his life. The first residents Pi comes across are three elderly marlin named Moe, Jack, and Manny, which direct him towards Pearl's home. On his way there, Pi immediately falls in love with Cordelia (Evan Rachel Wood), a beautiful angelfish that has appeared on the front cover of National Geographic. He also meets his cousin Dylan (Andy Dick), that quickly becomes Pi's best friend. However, Pi soon encounters Troy (Donal Logue), the meanest, toughest tiger shark in the ocean, who is not only terrorizing everyone in the reef community, but also has his eye set on Cordelia to become his mate. Pi confronts Troy, only to be physically assaulted by him. Cordelia tells Pi that the only dangerous place on the reef is between Troy and whatever he wants. She claims Troy is her problem, and if Pi wishes to help, he won’t interfere. Pi and Dylan find their way home, where Pearl (Fran Drescher) is excited to see that Pi has arrived. She is a fortune teller along with her assistant Madge, a sea star and uses a pink pearl that Dylan's deceased father gave to her as a crystal ball. Pearl reads Pi's future and is surprised, saying that he is destined for great things and that the reef is the best place he will be able to find it. Pearl then tells Pi that he can go anywhere on the reef excluding an old pirate wreck and a forbidden place called "flat bottom". Pearl leaves Dylan in charge of showing Pi around. Dylan tells Pi about Nerissa (Rob Schneider), a wise old hermit loggerhead turtle that lives in an abandoned shipwreck and practices martial arts, leading to rumors that he is a wizard. Eventually they stumble upon flat bottom, the open sea which is outside of the wildlife sanctuary free for humans to come with their fishing nets.

Dylan leaves after a close encounter and Pi sees Cordelia, but per her instructions does not interact. Until he hears her scream after getting a lure stuck in her fin and swears to help her. Pi brings Cordelia to Buddy and Lou who successfully remove it, she invites him to go to a concert with her. Beforehand, Pi meets Dylan once again and they observe Nerissa defend his blue pearl using the sea from a gang of squid nappers.

At the amphitheatre that night with Cordelia, Pi learns about the performer Thornton (John Rhys Davies) a harbor seal that fought a large monster. Afterwards, Pi and Cordelia look at the stars and she falls in love with him. Suddenly, Troy arrives and pursues them. Pi refuses to leave Cordelia, but Troy starts abusing him worse than ever, until Cordelia makes a deal with him: if he leaves Pi alone, she will marry Troy (which, in this case, is done when someone "accepts someone else's pearl"), Pi is knocked unconscious by Troy and is carried to Nerissa's shipwreck by a current.

When Nerissa tells Pi the following day, he decides he has had enough of Troy's abuse towards him, and asks Nerissa to teach him the ways of the ocean to combat Troy. Nerissa initially refuses, Pi asks other residents to help him, but the marlins think because of their age, they won't be useful, also revealing they were once friends of Nerissa's. Thornton states Pi must be crazy before he reminds Thornton of his tale. However, he states that he didn't actually fight a monster, but due to his "poetic license" it didn’t count as lying.

Meanwhile, Troy's henchmen Bart and Eddie try to steal Nerissa's pearl, but are frightened away by Pi and Dylan. Nerissa arrives and is impressed with Pi's skills, agreeing to train him the next morning.

On Pi's first day of training, Pearl is worried, telling Pi that she could not live with herself if he were killed. Pi reminds his aunt how she told him he would find his destiny on the reef, and he did when he met Cordelia and now he’s losing her like he lost his parents. Pi reminds Pearl how he couldn't do anything to save them, but he can still save Cordelia.

Nerissa leads Pi down a valley with obstacles, including razor-sharp elkhorn coral, burning fire coral, a long, narrow tunnel known as Bottleneck Alley, and finally the West Indies current, full of deadly Portuguese man o' war.

Meanwhile, Cordelia is informed by Buddy and Lou about Pi's upcoming battle with Troy. Nerissa reveals the story of his blue pearl to Pi and he gave it to his wife, but she got hooked in the open sea and taken away to a wildlife sanctuary. Nerissa desperately begged for help, but no one was brave enough. Pi understands, but is unsure how to stop Troy for good; Nerissa tells Pi that Troy has never learned about anything larger than himself, stating the ocean itself is bigger than Troy and if Pi can use the ocean against him, his size wouldn't matter.

Cordelia finds Pi and tries to convince him to reconsider, willing to sacrifice herself for his life. That night Pearl's pearl has been stolen by Troy's henchmen. She is heartbroken, being as Dylan's father gave her the pearl. Pi realizes that he cannot back down now no matter how much everyone else doubts him.

When Troy returns to the reef, Pi initiates a chase with Troy through the valley Nerissa instructed him to take. Troy is hit by all of the obstacles until they get to the open sea. Nerissa tries to help by disabling Bart and Eddie and Dylan shoves them down a lobster hole, retrieving his mother's pearl in the process. Pi is then swatted by Troy's tail into a cliff, burying him in rocks. Nerissa attempts to help him, but is hit by Troy; just as all seems lost Thornton and the marlins arrive to fight Troy and the marlins apologize to Nerissa for not helping him when he needed them.

Percy and Meg return and free Pi. Troy then sets Percy as a target. Pi sees a net and plans to trick Troy into it. Troy believes Pi is doomed since they are now in his domain. Troy chases Pi up to the surface, where he manages to lead Troy into a fishing net and narrowly escapes the shark's jaws as he leaps through the top of the net. Troy, trapped in the net, is lifted from the sea.

Pi is proclaimed a hero by the population of the reef who all mock Troy believing that he will be made into seafood. Nerissa admits he sees Pi as his son and gives him his pearl. Pi is honored and does not know what to say. Nerissa states that Pi knows exactly what to say, but he is just not the one to whom he needs to be saying it. Pi presents Cordelia with the pearl and she accepts it, they share a kiss as the reef celebrates, including a redeemed Bart and Eddie, which rejoice that they are all free from Troy.

In a mid-credits scene, Thornton tells Pi's story to everyone on the reef, proud now that he can tell a true story about himself ending with "Pi was determined, he refused to despair, I know it's all true, for you see, I was there..."

• Freddie Prinze, Jr. as Pi (Pisces), a male orange wrasse fish, orphaned when his parents were caught in a fishing net.
  • Jimmy Bennett plays Young Pi.
• Evan Rachel Wood as Cordelia, a female carnation pink angelfish model for National Geographic and Pi's love interest.
• Rob Schneider as Nerissa, an old widowed hermit green loggerhead sea turtle and Pi's mentor.
  • Schneider also voices Bart and Eddie, Troy's henchmen, Bart is a smart, sophisticated barracuda, while Eddie is a dim-witted wolf eel. Schneider also voices other characters like a Conch Shell, an Indian Crab, a Lobster, Lou, Madge the sea star, and a Pelican.
• Donal Logue as Troy, a tiger shark that terrorizes the entire population of the reef and Pi's chief nemesis.
• Andy Dick as Dylan, a teal sturgeon and Pi's cousin.
• Fran Drescher as Pearl, a purple sturgeon who is Dylan's mother & Pi's maternal aunt and adoptive mother. She is a fortune teller and has a sea star assistant named Madge.
• John Rhys Davies as Thornton, an elderly harbor seal who is very poetic.
• R. Lee Ermey as Jack an overweight marlin.
• Richard Epcar as Moe, an elderly marlin.
• Mel Rodriguez as Manny, a Spanish marlin.
• David Fickas as Max, a French-accented decorator crab who is Cordelia's boss.
• Trent Ford as Percy, a porpoise.
  • Dylan Cash plays Young Percy.
• Megahn Perry as Meg, Percy's mother and Pi's surrogate mother.
• Lena Gleen as Buddy, a flamboyant fiddler crab and Lou's boss.
• Joel Michaely as Lou, a sawfish and Buddy's assistant.
• Bruno Alexander as Pike, Pi's deceased father.
• Reedy Gibbs as Piper, Pi's deceased mother:

• Kim Hyung-jun as Pisces ("Pi")[3]
• Im Chae-moo as Nerissa
• Park Myeong-su as Troy
• Kim Kyu-jong as Dylan
• Kim Hyun-joong as a crab
• Park Jung-min as Percy

The reviews of this film were largely negative. It has been berated as a ripoff of DreamWorks' Shark Tale and Pixar's Finding Nemo as it heavily borrows from both films, as well as borrowing from other films such as The Karate Kid. It was also criticized for its poor animation and its visuals which were considered outdated.

On Rotten Tomatoes it has 4 reviews, 3 negative, and 1 positive.[4]

eFilmCritic.com's David Cornelius described it as "undoubtedly one of the cheapest, ugliest cartoon features ever produced", criticizing its CGI, graphics, and animation. He also criticized its plot, saying, "the script also rehashes every conceivable cliche the kid flick book".[2]

Vince Leo from Qwipster's Movie Reviews gave the movie 2 out of 5 stars, saying, "Shark Bait (aka The Reef in some markets) certainly is testing the limits. It's easily the worst CG-animated adventure to date (up to 2007), burdened with lame puns...". He criticized the animation, calling the character designs "lackluster" and the background "overly simplistic".[5]

Louise Keller of Urban Cinefile gave the film a positive review, saying the "The Reef" (the alternative title used in some regions) was a much better title than "Shark Bait" and that it was a "colourful and family friendly animated ocean tale".[6]

• Richard Epcar – voice director

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Shark Bait

• Shark Bait at IMDb
• Shark Bait at Rotten Tomatoes
• Shark Bait at HanCinema
• Time Out film review