For the past year DreamWorks has been sending me the cutest little “Shark Tale” toys. They started by sending me this giant plastic Great White Shark that opened up to reveal a miniature underworld city. In the months that followed I received a little, intimately detailed figurine, each a character from the film with their own designated place inside the metropolis-concealing shark.

These toys are fantastic and the whole publicity ploy reeks of imagination. I mean, I’ve been smiling about this film since last February, and if you’re trying to sway the opinion of a finicky film critic that has to be music to a publicists ears. For a former Micro Machines and My Little Pony fanatic, this whole gimmick was truly a dream come true. Unfortunately, that’s where the music ends because the most imagination to be found in “Shark Tale” is the promotional campaign put together to laud it.

Not that this is a bad movie, quite the opposite actually, it’s just that it’s such a derivative and immediately forgettable one. As quick as the smile on my face appeared during the film’s witty worm-in-a-shark’s-headlights opening, it just as quickly vanished upon my exit through the Cineplex’s front doors. What did I like? Which parts made me laugh? Which performers made me sit up and take notice? For the life of me, I’m hard pressed to say, “Shark Tale” not exactly holding a place near the forefront of my brain.

Still, as far as kids are concerned this concoction is sure to entertain. The story of Oscar (Will Smith), a professional whale tongue scrubber with aspirations for more, and Lenny (Jack Black), a vegetarian Great White, “Shark Tale” is an undersea “Goodfellas” for the highchair set. The son of oceanic kingpin Don Lino (Robert De Niro), Lenny just can’t take it anymore, the thought of eating even a bipolar shrimp more than enough to send him into twitter-patted fits, and he wants out of the family business. But how?

Enter Oscar, a fast-talking fish who owes far too much money to all the wrong people. So when small-time hood and Whale Wash owner Sykes the Blowfish  (Martin Scorsese) puts a hit out on his smooth as silk employee, fate intervenes in the shape of a big brass anchor taking down Lenny’s brother Frankie (Michael Imperioli) and turning Oscar into an undersea superhero known as the Sharkslayer. Suddenly he’s the talk of the reef, being interviewed by Katie Current (Katie Curic) for the nightly news and living the high life in spanking new high rise. But Lenny knows the secret behind the big-O’s masquerade, and with his assistance maybe this fish-friendly predator can both disappear and make his miserable papa proud.

“Shark Tale” is a cute enough diversion. It’s quickly paced and the digital animation is unquestionably impressive. As for the vocalists, I particularly enjoyed Black and Scorsese, both of them performing with a bizarrely amusing bravado that’s quite giggle inducing. The former, in particular, appears to be having a blast portraying the mild-mannered shark, and if I didn’t know going in Black was part of the cast I’d never have guessed the voice behind Lenny was his. Of the rest, Renée Zellweger (as Oscar’s lovesick best friend) and De Niro get the most mileage out of their characters, both doing far more for the movie than the movie’s cavalcade of writers do for them.

A hodgepodge of in-jokes and stolen ideas, it is that writing which is “Shark Tales” weakest link. Since “Shrek,” DreamWorks seems to think the key to an animated film’s success is directly analogous to how many allusions and references to other features can be packed into a 90-minute run time. But whereas those allusions – by and large – helped move the two jolly green ogre flicks forward, here all they do is just stall things out completely. Heck, some of the references don’t even make sense when taken into context of the scenes they fall in, allusions to “Jerry Maguire,” “A Few Good Men,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “Flashdance” falling flatter than a pin-pricked blowfish. It also doesn’t help that Smith’s constant chitter-chatter grows quickly tiresome, the talented comic not remotely capable of riffing like Robin Williams or Eddie Murphy without becoming annoying.

But the biggest problem with “Shark Tale” isn’t even its own fault. The fact that “Finding Nemo” covered the undersea world brighter, better, funnier and to much greater success just last year isn’t just an annoyance it’s also a problem. With such a short span between the two different family friendly fish tales, it is nearly impossible not to compare one to the other and unfortunately for the newbie on the seashore it can’t help but come up a fin or two short.