The Will Smith Animated Movie That's Thriving On Netflix's Top Charts

Huge news, fellow "Shark Tale" fans: It's finally our time to shine. The animated 2004 movie starring Will Smith and Robert De Niro recently made the leap to Netflix, and according to streaming data numbers site Flix Patrol, it's currently topping the charts. Specifically, as of this writing, it's number one on the kids' movies viewership chart and number five on the overall movies viewership chart, having beat 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" sits in the number 7 position on the top movies list, mostly bested in viewership numbers by new Netflix original movies like Jeremy Saulnier's thriller "Rebel Ridge" and Lee Daniels' possession flick "The Deliverance." This week's top dog on the kids' film front, "Shark Tale" debuted on Netflix on September 1, 2024 and has been in the top 10 list for four weeks running, according to Netflix's data.

While streamers' self-reported data is never as transparent as we wish it was, it makes sense for "Shark Tale" to top 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 feature about a fish named Oscar was a weird contrast to that movie's wholesome ocean adventure, but it found its audience to the tune of $375 million worldwide despite pretty abysmal reviews from critics. The movie's initial reception is understandable: As a zany, diverse story told from specific (albeit stereotype-courting) cultural points of view, "Shark Tale" was the opposite of the broad, "universal" animated movies the world seemed hungry for at the time. Its plot also defies convention for kids' movies in a pretty bizarre, engrossing way.

Incredibly, adventure rom-com "Shark Tale" is in large part a mob movie. Its drama kicks off with the death of Frankie the shark, a freak accident that Oscar uses as a launchpad to increase his reputation by claiming he killed him. It's a move that gives the cleaner wrasse fish fame and glory — not to mention a step up the social and economic ladder — but it also puts a target on his back. "It's strange that a kid-oriented film would be based on a parody of a 1972 gangster movie for adults," Roger Ebert wrote in his two-star review of the movie, pointing out its overt references to Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather." Strange indeed, and the movie also featured broad stereotypes of Black Americans, Italian Americans, and Afro-Caribbean people alike. But for some younger Millennials (myself included) who were able to acknowledge its flaws and still give it a chance, "Shark Tale" was also an unexpectedly entertaining comedy with quote-worthy lines and lots of rewatch value.

By the way, "Shark Tale" doesn't just have an inexplicable mob movie storyline, but an incredible voice cast to back it up. De Niro played mob boss Don Lino, while "The Sopranos" star Michael Imperioli was the ill-fated Frankie and his colleague Vincent Pastore (yes, of Big Pussy fame) voiced Don Lino's right-hand octopus. Incredibly, Peter Falk and Martin Scorsese also appear, playing a leopard shark gang leader and a loan shark Whale Wash owner (who, ironically, is a pufferfish), respectively. Aside from star Will Smith, other castmates include Renée Zellweger, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Ziggy Marley, and even Katie Couric. Plus, Missy Elliott and Christina Aguilera stop by for a musical number, naturally.

"Shark Tale" may 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 enjoyably messy and overstuffed not in service of some larger franchise or IP higher power, but just because they wanted to be. "Shark Tale" is silly for silliness' sake, and it features a star-power performance from Smith at a time when Hollywood was still invested in him as a star. It's nice to see Netflix audiences flocking to a Smith-led film, further proving that he's still a movie star worth banking on despite damage to his reputation in recent years. 

It's also nice that a movie that was so culturally specific (although, again, rife with flawed ethnic depictions) can have a second life on streaming at the same time that every single new kids' movie starring actors of color is rejected as "woke" by racists and trolls. "Shark Tale" mines humor from the idea that the undersea world is more like our own than we realize, complete with diverse cultural hotspots and a whole sea-based criminal underworld. There's a lot to enjoy in the film, which feels like a cult favorite despite its box office success. Now, it's seemingly found its way to a new generation of young viewers. Love it or hate it, "Shark Tale" is officially taking Netflix by storm. You may as well try to embrace it, at least long enough to dance along to the "Car Wash" cover.