The Will Smith animated film that storms Netflix's top charts

Great news, Shark Attack fans: We're finally getting to shine. The 2004 animated film starring Will Smith and Robert De Niro recently made the jump to Netflix and is currently topping the charts, according to streaming data website Flix Patrol. More specifically, at the time of writing, it's number one on the kids' movie audience chart and number five on the overall movie audience chart, beating out more recent family-friendly hits like Sonic the Hedgehog, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Trolls Band Together on both lists.

On Netflix's own top 10 site, Shark Tale ranks seventh on the list of best movies, and is mostly outpaced in viewership by new Netflix originals like Jeremy Saulnier's thriller Rebel Ridge and Lee Daniels' obsession film The First Man. This week's top pick on the kids' movie front, Shark Tale, debuted on Netflix on September 1, 2024, and has been on the top 10 list for four weeks in a row, according to Netflix data.

While streamers' self-reported data is never as transparent as we'd like, it makes sense that Shark Tale tops the charts: It's a lot of fun and nothing like the kids' movies being made today. Released just a year after Finding Nemo, the animated film about a fish named Oscar was a strange contrast to the film's wholesome ocean adventure, but it still managed to gross $375 million worldwide despite pretty abysmal reviews. The film's initial reception is understandable: As a wacky, diverse story told from specific (if stereotypical) cultural angles, Shark Tale was the antithesis of the broad, “universal” animated movies the world seemed to be craving at the time. Its plot also defies conventions for kids' movies in some pretty bizarre, compelling ways.

It's hard to believe, but the romantic adventure comedy Shark Tale is largely a mafia movie. The drama begins with the death of the shark Frankie, a freak accident that Oscar uses as a springboard to boost his reputation by claiming he killed him. It's a move that brings the cleaner wrasse fame and glory — not to mention a step up the social and economic ladder — but it also makes him a target. “It's odd that a movie for children should be based on a parody of a 1972 adult gangster film,” Roger Ebert wrote in his two-star review of the film, pointing out the obvious references to Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. That's really odd, and the film also displays broad stereotypes of blacks, Italian-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans alike. But for some younger millennials (myself included) who were able to recognize the film's weaknesses and still give it a chance, Shark Tale was also an unexpectedly entertaining comedy with quotable lines and high rewatch value.

Incidentally, Shark Tale not only has an inexplicable mafia movie story, but also an incredible voice cast to back it up. De Niro played mafia boss Don Lino, while The Sopranos star Michael Imperioli played the hapless Frankie and fellow actor Vincent Pastore (yes, from Big Pussy) voiced Don Lino's right-hand man the octopus. Incredibly, Peter Falk and Martin Scorsese also appear, playing the roles of the leader of a leopard shark gang and the loan shark Whale Wash (who is ironically a pufferfish), respectively. In addition to star Will Smith, other cast members include Renée Zellweger, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Ziggy Marley and even Katie Couric. And of course, Missy Elliott and Christina Aguilera drop in for a musical number.

Shark Tale will perhaps be remembered by most as a lesser entry in the Dreamworks pantheon, but it's actually a throwback to a time when kids' movies were entertainingly messy and cluttered, not in service of a larger franchise or higher IP power, but simply because they wanted to be. Shark Tale is silly for silliness' sake, and features a star-studded performance from Smith at a time when Hollywood was still investing in him as a star. It's nice to see Netflix viewers flocking to a film starring Smith, further proof that despite the damage to his reputation in recent years, he's still a movie star to be reckoned with.

It's also nice that a film that was so culturally specific (though again, it's riddled with flawed ethnic representations) can have a second life on streaming, while every single new kids' film featuring actors of color is dismissed as “woke” by racists and trolls. Shark Tale derives its humor from the idea that the underwater world is more similar to our own than we realize, complete with diverse cultural flashpoints and an entire criminal underworld at sea. There's a lot to enjoy about the film, which feels like a cult film despite its box office success. Now, it seems to have found its way to a new generation of young viewers. Love it or hate it, Shark Tale is officially taking Netflix by storm. You might as well try to accept it, at least long enough to dance along to the “Car Wash” cover.