Shark in Modern Culture

In today’s culture, there have been some notable characters from movies and media forms that have become our friend in a sense. Ranging from Pixar’s Finding Nemo to the cartoon Street Sharks, sharks have made their way into our mainstream culture whether they like it or not. The way that sharks are presented is interesting to look at as well, while most of the time sharks are labeled as one to be feared, there are a couple times where the shark is “de-enemized” in a sense.

Here is a list of some of the ways sharks have been involved in popular culture:

1. Bruce, the Great White, from Pixar’s animation, Finding Nemo.
Below is a scene that is doing two things for the sharks: 1) it is trying to present them as less of a predator and more of a friend. And 2) It makes a joke about the fact that the sharks are apart of a “FishAholics” group and they are trying to stop eating the fish.

2. 90s cartoon series, Street Sharks

Plot summary: A university professor, Dr. Bolton, and his fellow professor, Dr. Paradigm, invent a gene-manipulation machine device for peaceful uses on animals. When Dr. Paradigm uses the machine on animals in an unethical way, Dr. Bolton attempts to destroy the machine. But Dr. Paradigm kidnaps Dr.Bolton’s sons and turns them into sharks. The brothers planned to capture Dr. Paradigm so that they could force him to return them to their human selves and expose Dr. Paradigm’s genetic experiments. Here is the into to the show.

3. Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery

In this movie, Dr. Evil makes the request to get sharks with laser beams attacted to their heads because he wanted to have extra vicious animals. When told that the shark is on the endangered species list, he simply cares about the level of evilness that the animal has.