What has attracted a whole school of Hollywood royalty to beat a path to Disney's front door, for an opportunity to be the voices of...fish?

The stellar line-up of A-list Academy Award-winning actors for Shark Tale includes Will Smith, Martin Scorsese, Angelina Jolie, Renee Zellweger, Jack Black etc. On the film's soundtrack: Some of the music industry 's powerhouses like Missy Elliot, Mary J Blige Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, and Sean Paul.

Disney cartoon alumni including the likes of Cameron Diaz and Mike Meyers are good testament that lending your vocal chords to a big green ogre and his princess can bring critical acclaim. Eddie Murphy completed this dynamic trio, hee-hawing his way to the top of the box office as Donkey, with the runaway hit that was Shrek.

What's more, plots of recent animation films have taken on an edgier and more sophisticated slant. This trend started in small strides with The Lion King and slowly evolved into Disney ' s distinctive brand of humour and acerbic wit that has made animation films fun for adults as well.

Paying audiences were no longer just dutifully lugging their children or nieces and nephews to the theatres only to doze through yet another fairy tale where beauty equals goodness.

A big green ogre, his ogre bride and a wise-cracking mule (Shrek), a pretty clown fish (Finding Nemo), a colony of insects (A Bug's Life), a roomful of talking toys (Toy Story), a young Hawaiian girl and her pet alien (Lilo and Stitch), all point toward a trend of innovation and change in the direction of more kooky scripts and plotlines peppered with clever adult-oriented dialogue and characters.

All growed up

In fact, Disney's creations in recent years have all tended to be a lot less perfect, going against the grain of the stereotypical form and mould of past incarnations. Characters these days are likely to have more than a chip on their shoulders and a major flaw that instead of being alienating, makes them the perfect underdog and accidental hero.

Disney songs have also evolved from the dreamy ballads of Anastasia, Aladdin and Pocahontas, to include theme songs with more razzmatazz and pizzazz, with strains of hip hop, R&B and dance genres in the music mix.

Even the animal characters are being imbued with more human traits and features, which is what renders the whole effect so hilarious. Among the more noteworthy characters to look out for in Shark Tale, is Lenny, a great white with a conscience. You see, Lenny, to the dismay of his imposing father Lino, is a vegetarian who refuses to crunch other sea creatures in his big jaws.

The fishy inhabitants of 'Southside Reef' not only sound like the voice actors who play them, animators also watched hours of existing footage in an attempt to incorporate the outstanding facial features of each actor into their cartoon personas. The end result is a merging of fish and human, a ‘fishification' process done to outstanding effect. Hence Sykes the puffer fish and owner of the Whale Wash, sprouts a distinctive and instantly recognisable pair of eyebrows a la Martin Scorsese.

The creators also drew inspiration from iconic characters that the actors have portrayed, spoofing them in an underwater setting resembling New York City. Robert De Niro's Lino is a great white mafia boss of a shark, a throwback to his character in The Godfather. Lino smells blood and makes it his business to ensure that Oscar becomes fish bait!

Small heroes

Voiced by Will Smith, who enjoys double billing as voice actor and singer on the film's soundtrack, Oscar leads a dreary mundane existence as an attendant at the Whale Wash, an underwater car wash equivalent. Pining for a more luxurious life than the one he now leads, up at the top of the reef where the apartments are spacious and the waters clearer, Oscar gets himself into a right bind with a big white lie.

In a bizarre twist of fate, while trying to teach his vegetarian brother how to kill prey, in this case Oscar, Lino's son Frankie, meets a premature end when an anchor falls on his head. In this chance encounter, Lenny and Oscar meet and become fast friends, recognizing that they can help each another. Voicing gentle Lenny is Jack Black, last seen in School of Rock .

Oscar trumpets to his fellow fishes that he single-handedly slayed Lenny the notorious Great White, receiving bouquets and finally achieving the life he has always longed for. But his bravado is about to be exposed for the lie that it really is, when yet another menacing shark threatens the community, and who else but newly minted hero Oscar, is appointed to take care of the situation.

Angelina Jolie's Lola Dragon fish and Renee Zellweger as Angie the Angelfish, complete this mish mash of characters. As the devil and angel in his life, will Oscar wise up to the feminine ruse of femme fatale Lola and realize that Angie truly cares for him and is really the one he loves?

As with all Disney tales, Shark Tale can't resist passing on a moral lesson. The main crux of this story is that we often don't have to travel long distances or go to extremes to fulfil our dreams. What we want and need might be right under our very noses, if we'd only see with our hearts.