'SHARK TALE' Group fights stereotyping of Italians

The name of an aging gangster was changed from Italian to Jewish.
By ANTHONY BREZNICAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES -- John Mancini has a beef with some cartoon fish.
Mancini is the founder of the Italic Institute of America, which decries what it calls Hollywood's stereotyping of Italians as dumb thugs or murderous gangsters.
Now, after years spent fighting movie and TV mafia, along comes a kid's cartoon, the DreamWorks movie "Shark Tale," filled with villainous Italian-sounding sea creatures -- played by Italian actors.
"We're concerned about what preteens are learning from the outside world," said Mancini, 56, a Long Island real estate manager. "They don't associate other groups as criminals; they only know Italians as gangsters."
"Shark Tale," which is computer-animated like the DreamWorks hit "Shrek," features some fearsome fish who run the undersea underworld.
One, a shark named Don Lino, is voiced by Robert De Niro. Will Smith plays a little fish who tells a tall tale about "whacking" a shark gangster who was actually taken out accidentally by a ship's anchor, drawing the attention of vengeful aquatic villains.
"The Sopranos" actors Michael Imperioli and Vincent Pastore portray criminal characters, and filmmaker Martin Scorsese lends his voice to a sneaky blowfish. Renee Zellweger and Angelina Jolie also star.
Work in progress
With an October release date, the movie is not yet finished. The Italic Institute hasn't even seen the script, and there is no trailer so far.
DreamWorks spokeswoman Terry Press said the movie "is about family and telling the truth and the cost of telling a lie."
"You wish they would wait until they'd seen the movie before attacking it," she added.
Mancini can already claim an extremely rare victory while swimming against "Shark Tale's" tide: After his group lobbied DreamWorks, the name of an aging shark gangster (voiced by Peter Falk) was changed from Don Brizzi to Don Feinberg.
But switching one gangster from Italian to Jewish isn't enough for Mancini.
"We want character names identified as Italian dropped, the mannerisms, the forms of speech should be dropped," he said. "If they choose to make them Jewish or Rastafarians, we don't like that either, but our bag is Italians."
DreamWorks is unlikely to give in -- in part because the movie is a parody of such films as "The Godfather" and TV shows like "The Sopranos."
"The foundation of comedy is poking fun at stereotypes," Press said. "I don't care if you're talking about Chris Rock, Mel Brooks ... that's what comedy does. We didn't create those stereotypes."
The Italic Institute has made "Shark Tale" the latest in a long battle over Italian-American representations at the movies. The group says there have been at least 1,233 films related to Italians since 1928, and about 31 percent show the culture in a positive light, while 69 percent are negative.
Although most actors feel the issue is overblown, even some Italian-American actors, like John Turturro, acknowledge that the gangster goombah stereotype can get tiresome.
Another idea
Turturro, who portrayed real-life crook Sam Giancana in the 1995 TV movie "Sugartime" and a fictional conniving bookie (who's Jewish) in the Irish mobster drama "Miller's Crossing," said he tries to avoid mafia roles now.
"Over the years, I don't do those parts," he told The Associated Press. "Once you've done it, you've done it. Isn't there any other part I could do?"
"Instead of protesting things, people should go out and, you know, try to tell a story that you want to tell. I've done that, but it's been very difficult," said Turturro, citing his 1992 film "Mac," the story of a 1950s construction contractor inspired by his father's life.
"With 'Mac,' it was hard to do. Nobody wanted to do it because they weren't criminals. That really makes you feel terrible."