Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo!note
Baby Shark's Big Show! (아기상어: 올리와 윌리엄, Agisang-eo: Olliwa Willieomnote) is the second television adaptation of Pinkfong's Baby Shark franchise. (The first, Baby Shark Brooklyn Doo Doo Doo,
was short-lived.) This time around, the show is a collaboration between South Korean company SmartStudy (the owner of Pinkfong) and Nickelodeon. The show airs on EBS, or the Educational Broadcasting System, in South Korea and Nick Jr. in the United States. It is headed by Gary DiRaffaele, the creator of Breadwinners.
The show focuses on the titular Baby Shark (Kimiko Glenn), a young shark who lives in the underwater town of Carnivore Cove with his parents, Mommy Shark (Natasha Rothwell) and Daddy Shark (Eric Edelstein), and his grandparents Grandma Shark (Debra Wilson) and Grandpa Shark (Patrick Warburton). Along with his best friend William (Luke Youngblood), Baby Shark has a variety of adventures, while making new friends and singing songs along the way.
A movie was released on December 8th, 2023, with an All-Star Cast of new characters starring the likes of Ashley Tisdale, ENHYPEN, Lance Bass, Ego Nwodim, Chloe Fineman and Aparna Nancherla as well as the return of Cardi B and Offset alongside their kids Kulture and Wave.
The show includes examples of:
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife:
- All of the Shark family are in a variety of bright colors that real sharks don't come in: Baby Shark is yellow, Mommy Shark is pink, Daddy Shark is blue, Grandma Shark is orange, and Grandpa Shark is green.
- William is a pilot fish, but is bright orange, instead of the standard black-and-white stripes of the real species.
- This also extends to the rest of the fish folk. Chucks is purple, Hank is blue, Vola is green, the minnows are blue while their leader Marty is mint green, and Rayna is violet. Shadow is an exception, being a shark's natural blue-grey.
- Animated Adaptation: Of a sort. The show is adapted from already animated music videos, with a new style compared to those.
- Animesque: The show looks very much like a Korean Chibi show.
- Artistic License – Marine Biology: Chucks the seahorse is often depicted as the fastest swimmer of Baby Shark's friends. Real-life seahorses are extremely weak swimmers.
- Art Shift: The theme song starts in the traditional lineless Pinkfong art style, before shifting to the show design.
- Audience Participation: The "Get Your Game On!" special is a game show, and in turn, encourages viewers to play along.
- Be Yourself: The main moral of "Shark-Off".
- Birthday Episode: "Baby Shark's Big Movie!" Has a subplot focusing on William's birthday party.
- Canon Foreigner: The Shark Family and William are the only characters that existed prior to the show, with all the other characters being created specifically for it.
- Christmas Episode: The episode "All I Want For Fishmas" takes place during "Fishmas", the undersea equivalent of Christmas. All of the children in Carnivore Cove want the Burpin’ Bubz, the hottest toy of season. Unfortunately, this puts a toll on Santa Jaws, nearly shutting down Fishmas for good.
- Clip Show: The special "Live From the Shark House", combining clips from the first couple episodes and the shorts, including some that weren't fully released at the time.
- Companion Cube: In "Slobber Slug", Hank has a rock named "Rocky" for a best friend.
- Crossover:
- An online short (which was later shown in "Live From the Shark House") has various popular Nick Jr. characters do the "Shark Shake".
- The actual show had one with Bubble Guppies called "The Jaw-some Sharkventure!". In it, the guppies become sharks themselves by singing the Baby Shark song, but replacing their names where the song says "Baby".
- Cyclops: Ernie Urchin only has one eye.
- Debut Queue: "All I Want For Fishmas" only introduced the Sharks and William. "Fish Friends Forever" introduced Vola, Walter, Shadow, Bait and Switch, while "Slobber Slug" introduced Chucks and Goldie.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage:
- In "All I Want For Fishmas", William wakes up Baby Shark by singing the first part of the classic song.
William: Baby Shark...
Baby Shark: (snaps awake) Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo! - Baby Shark also requests the Tooth Fish Fairy to sing the song with him at the end of "Baby Tooth".
- In "All I Want For Fishmas", William wakes up Baby Shark by singing the first part of the classic song.
- DIY Dentistry: The episode "Baby Tooth" has Baby Shark's tooth go loose, causing him to be desperate to pull it out when it's not ready. After attempts from William tackling it fail, the two of them tie it to an anchor and throw it in the Water Warps where it does pull out, but also is dragged through with the anchor.
- Don't Go Into the Woods: The Kelp Woods in "William vs. Wild". William lies about being a brave fish and that he's friends with the legendary creature Bigfin to avoid being embarrassed, but his fears are eventually put to the test when he is forced to go in with Baby.
- Expressive Accessory: In "Fish Friends Forever", Baby forms a band with William and Vola with him using Grandpa Fish's electric guitar. The face of the guitar changes its expression based on how Baby is feeling.
- Extreme Close-Up: Often one of the Shark family's faces completely fills up the camera when bewildered, shocked, or really excited over something.
- Facial Markings: Baby Shark has a star-shaped mark on his cheek.
- Fictional Fan, Real Celebrity: The movie reveals that Baby Shark and William are die-hard fans of K-pop boyband ENHYPEN.
- Flintstone Theming: The show has everything modified for an undersea community. Water spout currents are used instead of roadways and falling snow is instead small jellyfish.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Mommy Shark refers to Baby Shark by his full name of Baby Shark Brooklyn when he chews on the kitchen table in impatient hunger in "Baby Tooth".
- Fully Automatic Clip Show: There is a scene in "Live From the Shark House" where "Baby" is said in rapid succession for 30 seconds.
- Fun with Flushing: On the "babysharkbrooklyn.official" Instagram, Goldie's bio stated that she was "accidentally flushed down the toilet."
- The Gadfly: Grandma Shark. In "All I Want For Fishmas", she wraps a sleeping Grandpa Shark up in wrapping paper, and she places a whoopie cushion on his chair in "Baby Tooth". She insists that "pranking is a virtue", as it teaches spontaneity.
- Gasshole: The "Burpin' Bubz" toys in "All I Want For Fishmas" are bubble-shaped objects that belch when they're squeezed.
- Happily Adopted: Hinted to be the case with William. His mom is a manta ray, while he is a pilot fish.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Various words are replaced with fish-based equivalents. This is lampshaded in "All I Want For Fishmas", during the "Coraling Melody"
Coraling is caroling,
Except we're in the sea! - Idiosyncratic Wipes: The screen being chomped out. The screen also closes like shadowed jaws to end the episode.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Occurs with Baby and William in The Movie.
- Informed Species: William is meant to be a pilot fish, but has an orange color scheme that more resembles a goldfish.
- Jaw Drop: Invoked by both Baby and William in "Baby Tooth" when they meet the Toothfish Fairy.
- Living a Double Life: ENHYPEN's characters aren't just a boyband, they're also an elite team of musical operatives.
- Loose Tooth Episode: Baby Shark, in a fit of impatience, causes his tooth to come loose. Still impatient, he and William come up with an idea that ends up with his tooth caught up in a cave surrounded by sea snakes, leading them to enlist the help of the Tooth Fish Fairy to get it back.
- Missing Mom: "Fishtival of Lights" shows Chucks' dad having recently married a fish named Anya, who has become Chucks' stepmother. What became of his birth mother remains unknown.
- Mouth Cam:
- A shot from inside Baby Shark's mouth was seen in:
- "Baby Tooth" twice, when Daddy Shark takes a look at Baby Shark's loose tooth and when the Tooth Fish-Fairy takes a look in Baby Shark's mouth to see that he is missing a tooth.
- "Shark-Off", when William opens Baby Shark's mouth to show his sharp teeth as a way to prove to Shadow that Baby is a real shark.
- "Extreme Dodge Bubble", when Vola looks in Baby Shark's mouth to see if he was Bobbie Gills in disguise.
- In "Daddyshack", there is a shot from inside Mommy Shark's mouth when Daddy Shark finished cleaning her teeth.
- A shot from inside Baby Shark's mouth was seen in:
- Mouthscreen:
- In "Baby Tooth", a close up of Baby Shark's mouth was seen twice. When his tooth first became loose and after his tooth came out.
- At the beginning of "Live From the Shark House", we see the camera zoom up to Baby Shark's mouth, revealing that he has kelp in his teeth.
- In "Best Fin-Ship Day", as Baby Shark is calling out to the clams, there's a close up shot of his mouth as he says, "Fly".
- In "Buds at First Bite", as Goldie is telling Penny what she can count to, she mentioned that Penny can count the times she says coral, and there's a close up shot of Goldie's mouth when she says, "Coral".
- Multigenerational Household: Baby Shark lives with both his parents and his grandparents.
- Musical World Hypotheses: The show tends to flip back and forth between Alternate Universe, Diegetic and All In Their Head, depending on the episode. Usually it's the first one which comes out of nowhere, though other times the third would be used in an appropriate montage sequence. The second is used when someone puts on a show or does a performance for someone.
- Mythology Gag: Baby Shark's full name is "Baby Shark Brooklyn", in reference to his name given to him for his exclusive YouTube channel.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: Grandma Shark is portrayed as a peaceful woman in-tune with nature. Despite this, she has a surprising prankster streak as well.
- Non-Mammalian Hair: Grandpa Shark has bushy eyebrows and a moustache.
- Once per Episode: A song is sung every episode, sometimes twice.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Baby Shark is rarely ever called by his real name, Brooklyn.
- Oral Fixation: Occasionally, Baby Shark chomps down on objects like tables, documents, and mops.
- Seahorse Steed: While citizens that are seahorses exist in Carnivore Cove, such as Chucks, animal-like ones exist as well. Santa Jaws has his sled pulled by reindeer-like seahorses.
- Serious Business: The short "Operation: Cool Quest" has Baby Shark and William go on a serious, Mission Impossible-esque adventure... to get ice cream.
- Moving Angst: The Movie focuses on the sharks moving to Chomp City due to Mommy Shark getting a job with as the city's entertainment director, which was in reality just a scheme by Stariana to steal Baby Shark's star mark, they move back to Carnivore Cove at the end of the film.
- Shout-Out:
- Baby Shark replicates Kevin's scream from Home Alone in "All I Want For Fishmas" when he learns that Santa Jaws has gone missing.
- "Baby Tooth" has the Tooth Fish Fairy asking "Why did it have to be sea snakes?".
- The episode "Slobber Slug" takes a lot from The Sandlot in terms of plot, featuring a baseball-esque game hampered by a large dog-like creature.
- In the short "Time Out", the imaginary William says "Nofishy puts Baby in a corner".
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Shadow is this to Baby Shark.
- Stock Footage: Background example. The quiz show setup in "Get Your Game On!" was originally used in a web series called "Know Your Nick Jr.", which tasked various Nick Jr. characters to answer questions based on the shows currently on at that time.
- Subbing for Santa: Downplayed, in "All I Want For Fishmas", Baby Shark and William are helping Santa Jaws, rather than fully subbing for him.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The seabird in "All I Want For Fishmas" is unable to give information on the missing Santa Jaws, as not being able to breathe underwater means he's unable to waste his time talking.
- Synchronized Swarming: The minnows do this in "Shark-Off" to help Baby take on a challenge against giant shark Mariana.
- Threatening Shark: Inverted, Baby Shark and his family are a kind and cheerful bunch. Shadow on the other hand plays the trope straight, with his scarred appearance and rivalry with Baby Shark.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Of Baby Shark's friends, Vola is the energetic, sporty tomboy to Goldie's glamorous, vain girly-girl.
- True Meaning of Christmas: The episode "All I Want For Fishmas" has Baby Shark and William and later Santa Jaws himself learn that it's better to give than to receive during the holidays.
- Two Shorts: The show's format. However, it usually airs as Quarter Hour Short on original airdates.
- Vocal Dissonance: Goldie, who's supposedly a kid like the rest of Baby's friends, sounds like a grown woman.
- Water Is Air: While the sea creatures do swim, they are mostly seen hovering over the seafloor as if they were walking. They also actually fall into holes when they can just swim right over them.
- Wingding Eyes: Baby's eyes get stars or hearts in them when amazed over something.
- You Mean "Xmas": Under the sea it's "Fishmas". Instead of Santa Claus, Santa Jaws is the one to deliver presents, with a sleigh pulled by reindeer-seahorses.
- Happy Birthday to You!: Sung during William's birthday party in "Baby Shark's Big Movie!", although only the last two lines are heard.
