KUDOS to Italic Institute for such a fine opinion piece, placed in an important metropolitan newspaper, with a large subscription base, in an area with a substantial Italian American populace.

Mr. Iaconis not only makes a well articulated argument, but he punctuates it effectively with "role reversal" examples to show how Totally Unacceptable this movie would be with other Ethnic Stereotypes!!!

The Italic Institute, despite its small size, (that deserves YOUR support) continues to amaze me with what it has been able to accomplish! I am in awe!

Join at:  http://www.italic.org
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'SHARK TALE BITES - WITH STEREOTYPES

By Rosario A. Iaconis
Director of the Italic Institute of America

Newsday
March 11, 2004

Find yourself another sea, Nemo. Absorb this, SpongeBob SquarePants. There's a new breed of anthropomorphic fish roiling the briny deep. It's the undersea predator spawned by DreamWorks SKG in "Shark Tale," the upcoming children's cartoon adventure.

Unlike Tinseltown's other aquatic role models, this animated bottom-feeder belongs to a vicious celluloid species: the "Sopranos" goombah stereotype.

By grafting the bigoted imagery of "The Sopranos" - along with a generous whiff of "Goodfellas" and "The Godfather" - onto a computer-generated flick for kids, DreamWorks' Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen have crossed the line into the cinematic exploitation of children.

Ethnic profiling, sinister crime families and mob rubouts are not the stuff of cutesy cartoon comedy. But the greater issue is the damage done to the self-esteem and psychological development of impressionable minors. Bigotry must not be nurtured at an early age; hatred should not come apparelled in primary colors.

Slated for release Oct. 1, "Shark Tale" is a computer-generated minstrel show filled with piscine mobsters who sleep, eat and kill with the fishes - and sport such names as Don Lino, Luca, Frankie, Lenny and Angie.

Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Michael Imperioli and Vincent Pastore provide the guttural voice-overs. And the plot would make Tony Soprano and Uncle Junior proud.

Over a year ago, DreamWorks animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg said the "Shark Tale" milieu should not be hard for mob aficionados to fathom: "Imagine an underwater cityscape that is Chicago meets Las Vegas meets Miami." He has even boasted of the movie's reverential nods to "everything from 'The Untouchables' to 'Some Like It Hot' to all three 'Godfather' films."

Is this appropriate children's fare?

No, "Shark Tale" is a calculated attempt to cash in on the popularity of "The Sopranos" by introducing a new generation of youngsters to the anti-Italian intolerance that has become a staple of adult entertainment. DreamWorks hopes that kids will, quite literally, buy into the benighted notion that Italian-ness connotes organized crime.

A sequel is already in the works. Hasbro and Activision have been tapped to provide the lucrative action figures and video games, respectively. If "Shark Tale" approaches "Shrek's" $267.7 million boxoffice tally, the stereotyping will reach tsunami-like proportions. Just consider the potential revenue from DVDs, T-shirts and lunch boxes.

Unfortunately, non-Italians cannot fully appreciate the enormity of such slander - unless they engage in a bit of role reversal.

Imagine the outrage in the Jewish community if DreamWorks unveiled "Gefilte Fish Inc.," an undersea mob comedy featuring the anthropomorphic likes of Meyer Sharksky, Scallops Shapiro, Bugsy Seagull and Arnold Squidstein.

Consider the horrified African-American reaction to "The Kingfisher Klan," a Spielberg cartoon production about a maritime mob consisting of Al Sharkton, Stepin Fishstick, Sambo Mako and Starfish Jones.

Picture the indignation of Arab-Americans when confronted with "Al Crayda," a computer-generated flick about the surf 'n' turf gang war between the Piranha fin Laden crime family and codfather Mohammed Manatee.

DreamWorks can make amends, however, by de-Italianizing "Shark Tale." This would require the removal of all offensive anti-Italian imagery, nomenclature and allusions, including such dumbed-down catch phrases as "Capeesh" and "Fuhgeddaboudit."

Prejudice has no place in the playground. In fact, when it comes to marketing violent entertainment to children, many legal scholars argue that minors have special protections under the First Amendment.

Rather than aping the apocryphal Mafia melodramas of Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola and David Chase, Steven Spielberg should derive inspiration from true Italianit ... .

Indeed, why not greenlight a cartoon adventure based on the youthful exploits of Octavian, the boy who would become Rome's first emperor and one of history's greatest rulers - Caesar Augustus?

With the snowcapped Sila mountains in Italy as a backdrop, Tomie de Paola's children's saga of "Strega Nonna" (Grandma Witch) would be the perfect vehicle for a DreamWorks computer-generated classic.

Imagine a real-life "Star Trek" with Tom Hanks as Michael Massimino, the Long Island-born NASA astronaut who journeyed to the heavens aboard the space shuttle.

And if Steven Spielberg wants to edify young audiences, he should helm a motion picture about the brave Italians of Ferramonti, Calabria. Risking life and limb, they saved Jews from annihilation in the Holocaust by transforming an internment camp into a sanctuary. That would be a tale worth telling.

'Non-Italians cannot fully appreciate the enormity of such slander - unless they engage in a bit of role reversal.'
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This article originally appeared at:
Newsday.com - Opinion
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/
ny-vpiac113702979mar11,0,6018894.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines