Baby Shark's Big Show!

Baby Shark's Big Show! (Korean: 아기상어: 올리와 윌리엄) is an animated television series based on Pinkfong's brand and song that were based on a campfire song, Baby Shark. The Pinkfong Company, the South Korean company that owns Pinkfong, owns the trademark for this series.

Baby Shark's Big Show!

Pinkfong, did you really think what you did was THIS good? Look what you've got Nickelodeon and Paramount doing...

Genre:	Preschool Comedy
Running Time:	11 minutes (regular) 21-22 minutes (specials) 3 minutes (shorts)
Country:	United States South Korea Canada (Animation production)
Release Date:	December 11, 2020 – present
Network(s):	EBS 1 (South Korea) Nickelodeon (United States)
Created by:	Pinkfong
Distributed by:	Pinkfong Paramount Media Networks Nickelodeon
Starring:	Kimiko Glenn Luke Youngblood Natasna Rothwell Eric Edelstein Debra Wilson Patrick Warburton
Seasons:	2
Episodes:	51

It premiered on Nickelodeon on December 11, 2020, and it premiered on Educational Broadcasting System (EBS) on December 25, 2020, in South Korea.

Plot

The show follows Baby Shark and his best friend, William the fish, as they journey on comedic adventures in their community of Carnivore Cove.

Why It Shouldn't "Do-do-do-do-do-do" It

The idea of making a television cartoon series based on the infamously annoying and cringe-worthy preschool song, "Baby Shark" is a very bad idea, even from the very start. What doesn't help is that the song itself was an annoying earworm that got sucked into popularity within the general public for no apparent reason. Yes, it's a song for kids, but it doesn't mean the song itself isn't bad or ungodly annoying.
Not to mention, the only reason this show exists is just to make money, like Pinkfong always did after finding out Baby Shark became one of the most popular children's songs of all-time, if not, one of the most popular songs in general.
- In fact, it was so milked to the point Nickelodeon renewed it for two more seasons and a full-length movie that was released on December 8, 2023 on Nickelodeon and Paramount+.
- Speaking of Baby Shark's Big Movie!, the movie itself is not that great, although it is a slight improvement over the show (see RQ#1).
The theme song is just as bad as the song itself, if not worse.
The show steals too many elements from SpongeBob SquarePants and The Amazing World of Gumball, and completely lacks the charm and intelligence as the latter two.
It has lazy, cheap, tacky and unappealing animation. It doesn't help that it looks very similar to other shows like Breadwinners and Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go! and animated by Titmouse, which is the same crew behind Breadwinners.
The character designs, while not bad, may look somewhat ugly, plain bland, or even creepy at times, even for a preschool show. Special mention goes to Chucks, who is portrayed as a literal hippocampus instead of an actual seahorse.
Vola's design, while not totally bad, looks more like a green jellyfish rather than an octopus.
- On that topic, the character designs look more like Breadwinners or SpongeBob SquarePants rejects.
Aside from the unconvincing character designs, there are some moments that make this show feel more like a TV-Y7 show or even a mature-rated show at times, ranging from the glowing eyes from certain creatures and William tying Baby's loose tooth to a large anchor, to even the entirety of the Kelp Woods, complete with the large amounts of creepy looking ocean creatures there as well.
While on the subject, Kimiko Glenn and Shelby Young are severely miscast as Baby Shark himself and William's mom, Rayna Manta, respectively. Kimiko Glenn makes Baby Shark sound WAY too feminine and teenage, like a 14-year-old girl rather than the 9-year-old shark he's supposed to be. Granted, as this is the first boy character she's voiced. Shelby Young's take on Rayna Manta may sound decent, but she is not the kind of person that should be voicing a fish.
The redesigns of the characters look quite bland as well, and might've been only made just to cash in with Unikitty! or The Amazing World of Gumball.
William, Baby Shark's best friend, is useless and annoying as a character. He was also never mentioned in the song itself (albeit mentioned in the opening intro), and is also another carbon copy of Darwin fro The Amazing World of Gumball, right down to the fact that they're both orange fish and that they are both adopted.
The jokes in the show are very generic and unfunny, such as Grandpa Shark sitting on a whoopee cushion in "Baby Tooth".
The series has some very cringeworthy references to the song, such as Baby Shark's catchphrase: "Together we can do-do-do-do-do-do anything!", which gets old pretty fast.
It features a lot of overused clichés that are used in way better kids cartoon shows, such as "be yourself" moral cliché.
The show spawned some shorts back in 2021, titled Baby Shark's Big Show Shorts, which are not bad, but don't really make up for the show's flaws.
The show even had Cardi B, a rapper, involved in one of the episodes as Sharki B in a very poor attempt to make the show hip and cool with modern audiences. This is horrible because according to a video that was resurfaced somewhere online, she engaged in drugging and robbing men for money when she was a stripper. Plus, her music is incredibly inappropriate for children.

"Do-do-do-do-do-do" It Qualities

As said before, the movie, while not good enough, is an improvement over the show, however, that isn't really saying much.
The backgrounds are nice, despite how overly simplistic they look.
The background music is decent, and an improvement on the song the show was based on.
- There are also some okay songs such as "Flow On" from "The Masked Fishy".
Despite being annoying, the theme song is smooth and well-animated.
Some of the characters, such as Hank, look cute.
At least it doesn't have any feet jokes and tickle scenes are kept to a bare minimum.
Fine voice acting for the most part, despite being obnoxious to some.
- While Kimiko Glenn may be miscast, she at least did a decent job voicing Baby Shark, same goes for Luke Youngblood as William.
- Patrick Warburton (Steve Barkin from Kim Possible (TV series) also does an amazing job.
The show did improve slightly in season two, though that's not saying much, and that's not enough for the show to become the preschool version of SpongeBob SquarePants.
While the animation's lazy, cheap, tacky, and unappealing, the art style is at least great to look at.

Reception

While the Baby Shark song became the most viewed video on YouTube with over ten-billion views in 2022, Baby Shark's Big Show! had received very negative reviews by critics, audiences, and even parents alike, not helping that the song was already panned enough, to begin with. It was criticized for the animation quality, and the idea of this show itself turning the song into a preschool show and being a cash grab towards Nickelodeon and Pinkfong. The show has a 3/10 score on IMDb, making it the second lowest-rated Nick Jr. show on the site, after Ryan's Mystery Playdate.

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