Just when you thought it was safe to go on YouTube again: A Baby Shark movie is coming to the Paramount Plus streaming service.
The feature-length film is in development for 2023 as a co-production between Nickelodeon Animation and the Pinkfong Company, which originally released the viral earworm in June 2016.
The Baby Shark Dance video became the most-watched clip on YouTube in 2020, swimming past Luis Fonsi’s Despacito with a jaw-dropping 7 billion views. In January 2022, it became the first YouTube video to surpass 10 billion views.
At the time, Pinkfong CEO Min-seok Kim teased that the company was “look[ing] forward to providing more fun and creative content and expanding Baby Shark’s universe in 2022 and beyond.” The film will join a line of Baby Shark children’s toys as well as a television show and live concert tour.
There’s no information about the film’s plot or release date yet, but ViacomCBS, which has now rebranded as Paramount, announced it on Monday as part of a whole slate of new kid-friendly streaming films and shows. They include new Spongebob, Blue’s Clues and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies and a live-action Dora the Explorer series aimed at helping Paramount Plus garner more than 100 million subscribers.
“As we’ve known with Nickelodeon’s long-standing success, the kids and family audience is incredibly loyal, and we see that on Paramount Plus as well, with kids and family ranking as one of the strongest genres on the service in terms of both engagement and subscriber acquisition,” Brian Robbins, Paramount Plus chief content officer for movies and kids and family, said in the release.
“So, as they stay for our shows and look for even more of them, we’re doubling down on giving them what they want by expanding the universes of the characters they love the best.”
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