Its a penguin eat fish world out there.

 The Penguin and The Fish

The Fish

Genre: Mafia, Comedy, Aquatic

Shark Tale is a 2004 comedy about an anthropomorphic fish named Oscar who falsely claimed to have killed the shark son of a mafia boss, Don Lino. He created this lie to further his social standing within the fish community and even team up with the other son of the mob boss, Lenny top keep up the gangster mask.

Although this movie is deserving of its own review, this blog will be mostly about the underlying gang ties the movie has. From gambling to mafia social standings, this movie is just The Godfather for children. Shark Tale has its mafia roots, of course, and does explore it, but the real implications of gang violence are there. The mysterious murder of a mob boss's son and the shrimp begging for its life tie into the fear factor of being involved in a gang.  

The movie hides its gang approach with comedy and jokes fit for a children's film. For example, as mentioned before, the shrimp scene had him explaining his entire life story to save his own fins, which is reminiscent of a gang leader hanging the act of violence over his victim. Shark Tale's main setting is in "Southside Reef," and its entire city is financed and run by gang affiliations. Within the movie, Oscar works for a drive-through cleaning business, which is a clear front for running a collections racket for the shark mafia. When Oscar is slammed with debt, he is taken to the outskirts of the city just to be tortured and tied up by two jellyfish gang bangers. This is an obvious tie to the way everyday people can be extorted in the real world. 

Later on in the film, when it's discovered Oscar lied about killing the mob boss's son, they do not start a typical cartoony chase of him. They use calculated mob techniques to kidnap Angie, Oscar's long-time childhood friend, and hold her in a hideout to extort Oscar into a sit-down with the boss himself. 

There is also a class disparity, with the "Lower class reef" being where Oscar and his friend reside. This neighborhood represents the hood in the real world with its graffiti-ridden buildings, heavy police presence, and dilapidated buildings. The depiction of this neighborhood also reflects its residents being vulnerable to the upper-class citizens and gang affiliations.

The mob that is controlling Southside Reef is that of the shark mob. They are the predators metaphorically and literally, exiling the mob boss's other son, who is a vegetarian because he isn't predator enough. This is reminiscent of how the mob and gangs will kick you out for not following their dangerous and brutal ways of living and preying on people. The entire point of this movie is enacting revenge, and in the real world this is called a revenge cycle. A revenge cycle within a mob or a gang is a result of prolonged gang violence. As long as there are two gangs, there is always a rivalry or a truce and no in-between. The person who encapsulates gang violence is that of a bird, a bird that cannot fly, a penguin.

The Penguin

Genre: Crime, Gangster, Action

The HBO series The Penguin hit the screens in 2024 with a grounded approach to a superhero universe. The show is set within the Batman universe with a realistic mob twist. The show is a spin-off of The Batman movie, which is a hybrid of different comics, with the main one being "Batman Year One." Although a superhero universe, the show is a sick and realistic approach to a comic book character known as The Penguin. Oswald "OZ" Cobb, or The Penguin, is a disturbed individual who has a history of violence and getting what he wants. He kills when he feels like it, and as messy as he is, he kills without a trace. 

The Penguin is an original Batman character with a limp and a good suit dawning the name the penguin from it. The show version of him shows a more put together version of his character, rather than the easily made fun of and cartoony behaviors of every version of him before. Oz served as the right hand man to the main villain of the Batman movie, Carmine Falcone, the mob boss that was essentially running Gotham at this time. But when he's put in prison, the Penguin is left to foster his own gang of sorts as he recruits a teenage orphan. Oz becomes greedy and desperate as he backstabs the Falcone family by first killing Alberto Falcone. Oz lies to the family and everyone around him about the murder, as his ego allows him. 

The root of this show is about the revenge cycle, an eye for an eye, as gangs say, and how it can destroy you from the inside out. The second main character, Sofia Falcone, was sent to prison under false pretenses and ends up serving longer than intended. When she gets out, she is dead set on finding out who left her in Arkham Asylum, but when she discovers her brother, Alberto, has been murdered, she sets off on a revenge plan. She destroys her family from the inside out alongside Oswald to discover who murdered her brother and why her family left her to rot for decades; unbeknownst to her, it was Oswald and his greed that killed her brother.  

The Penguin eats the fish to become one

Although one movie is filled with color and is a comedy about anthropomorphic fish, and the other is an R-rated dark, grimy TV show, both have similarities. The penguin eats the fish after all to become one being. Both stories introduce traditional Italian-American mob stories that feature the revenge cycle, vulnerable cities, and the crutch of a lie. Both protagonists fake it until they cannot anymore, lying to their respective crime families about a death in their family until circumstances bring out the truth. Both stories are heavily inspired by popular crime families like The Sopranos and The Godfather. Both of these stories, although opposites, share the same dynamics; one is for kids and one for adults, but both together create a crime story worth unraveling.