Arriving three years behind Finding Nemo and Shark Tale, and with scarcely a fraction of even the latter’s verve and invention, this fishy tale about a plucky guppy trying to find his plaice in the world can’t help but flounder. But it’s not just a lack of originality that leaves this US-South Korea co-production looking battered. The absence of star tonsils is equally telling, Freddie Prinze Jr and Rob Schneider being the most recognisable names in a cast distinctly short of Hollywood lustre.
With so much already stacked against The Reef, it hardly seems fair to carp on about a humdrum plot that sees Prinze Jr’s humble Pi use brain, not prawn to defeat a bullying shark and get his hooks into Evan Rachel Wood’s exotic angel fish. Suffice to say that, even at 78 minutes, this is the kind of piscine codswallop that makes you want to throw a toaster into the nearest aquarium.
