Angelina Jolie at the Venice Lido on Friday. (Reuters)

Venice, Sept. 10 (Reuters): Robert De Niro splashed up in Venice as a tough-talking gangster with fins for the spectacular world premiere of Shark Tale today, which will be screened for thousands in the city?s famous St. Mark?s square.

De Niro is none other than Don Lino, the godfather of the great white sharks in the new animated feature by DreamWorks. The star of Raging Bull and Goodfellas will hit the red carpet with Will Smith, who plays Oscar, a fast-talking fish in hot water with the shark clan, and Angelina Jolie, a slippery fish fatale.

Some 6,000 moviegoers will attend the premiere with the magnificent arcades of St. Mark?s Basilica as a backdrop. The film will be projected on to a giant inflatable screen amid tight security ? including underwater surveillance in the lagoon city.

Shark Tale is the story of Oscar, who is hailed as a hero after he pretends to slay a great white shark. As he struggles to fend off the mob?s hitmen he finds an unlikely ally in Don Lino?s vegetarian son Lenny, played by Jack Black.

?It was great. You get to shape it, you actually get attached to the character, you start to fall in love with it,? Smith told a news conference after serenading journalists with a hip-hop Shark Tale theme song.

Indeed, the characters were created to look like the actors playing them.

In the movie, Jolie is the seductress who wants to steal Oscar away from hard-working Angie, played by Renee Zellweger. Director Martin Scorsese also lends his voice to the comedy and is reunited with De Niro as the mobster sidekick Sykes.

?They?ve made nine films together, but this was the first time they?ve ever acted together,? said executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg.

?They were able to spark things off each other that got both of them crazy and funny and silly.?

A cross between Finding Nemo and The Godfather, the film had critics laughing at a preview showing on the Lido.