This character in your kid’s soon-to-be newest favorite show is not quite the “man’s best friend” we know.
One of Netflix’s newest ventures is a children’s animated series called Sharkdog, which follows a 10-year-old boy and his titular pet, sidekick, and bestfriend that is – you guessed it – half shark and half dog. Sharkdog is “blissfully unaware of his own strength, stealth and general sharkiness”, which would probably create unintended chaos and adorable mishaps for the two. Sharkdog comes from ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS), which is associated with various popular studios and networks such as Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Channel, and Channel 5, among others.
The series was created by Singaporean storyboard artist Jacinth Tan who pitched Sharkdog for Nickelodeon’s Global Animated Shorts Program, an initiative that aimed to create content for international audiences. Out of 850 pitches from around the world, Sharkdog was chosen and made into a short-form series with 20 90-second episodes that is currently streaming in the Nickolodeon play app, which is available in limited countries. The Netflix series will have 20 episodes as well, this time with 7-minute long episodes.
Syahrizan Mansor, Vice-President of Nickelodeon’s brand in Asia, previously described Sharkdog as a show that “has a lot of silly humour and a lot of heart.”
Netflix and ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS) partnered with One Animation, a CGI company based in Singapore, to create this project. Recently, Netflix also released over a hundred Singaporean titles on their video streaming platform in celebration of Singapore’s National Day.
Sharkdog is set to premiere globally on Netflix in 2021.