Is This Shark Gay? Kiddie Cartoons and the Culture Wars

Does 'Shark Tale' have a pro-gay message? Does 'The Incredibles' mock schools where everyone's 'special'? Should anyone care?

In this tense post-election climate there's a tendency to look for suspicious messages in everything but the stickers on grocery-store produce. That's the only way I can explain a writing assignment that included these instructions: "I need you to go to a movie and find out whether the shark is gay."

Now, sharks have done some memorable things in American movies, but this would be a first. Granted, they're usually engaged in disrupting social norms, but not in the size-twelve-high-heels way. A gay shark doesn't make any sense-except, it seems, in a movie for children.

That's the charge, anyway, and where you pitch your tent on the cultural battlefield will determine whether you see this as a bad or good thing. Most of us who sat through the recent animated feature, "Shark Tale," saw nothing more than a typical Dreamworks Studio offering: an impressive glossy look, big-name voices, plenty of tiresome pop-culture references and potty jokes, and a curiously empty place where its heart should be.

But some reviewers insist they saw more. Ramon Johnson, writing for Gay Life on About.com, says the movie "sends a message of hope to closeted gay men who live their lives feeling different and out of touch." See, Lenny is a shark whose mob-boss dad won't accept him for who he is. He's a gentle soul who doesn't want to kill. He prefers to live among fish, and to avoid terrifying his new friends, disguises himself as a dolphin. Johnson goes on, "The similarities between Lenny and some gay men is even more apparent when he cross-dresses as a dolphin."

You might think this is silly, but stories aimed at children have always aimed to teach, and often to teach morals. (The first talking animals weren't Disney's but Aesop's.) Parents have the responsibility of guiding their children's moral development, and when kids are awash in entertainment day and night, it's a lot to keep track of. The last thing we need is to have the field of kiddie cartoons become the next battleground in the culture war. While there are some classic themes we all agree on ("Do what is right"), there are others we don't ("Gay is OK"). Which is the message of "Shark Tale"?

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