Cartoon review: “Kenny the Shark”

Last updated on February 23rd, 2026

This week’s cartoon review is the animated series “Kenny the Shark.” The series debuted on Discovery Kids in 2003, and ran for two seasons totaling 26 episodes.

Summary

The series focused on the misadventures of Kenny, a goofy tiger shark who, tiring of his life in the ocean, moves to a seaside community. There, he becomes the pet and best friend of Kat Cassidy, an 11-year-old girl who’s immensely interested in aquatic life, and sharks in particular. Most of the plots revolve around Kenny’s zany antics, usually involving his voracious appetite or Kenny’s bumbling but well-meaning efforts at some task.

Similar to Dr. Doolittle, Kat is capable of talking to and understanding Kenny, though nobody else can. Kat’s parents are highly skeptical of said ability; her father tells her mother in the opening credits: “honey, she’s talking to that shark again!”. Similar to other cartoon sharks like Jabberjaw, Kenny is capable of walking upright on his tail fin, while also (apparently) breathing air.

Other than those cartoon liberties, however, the show tries to present some educational facts about sharks (given Discovery’s tone at the time, pre-reality show emphasis). One episode compares the differences between tiger sharks like Kenny and great white sharks.

Cast

The main cast of the series:

Kenny. The aforementioned main star. Kenny is voiced by Jim Conroy, who also uses the same voice for Ruff Ruffman in the PBS Kids series “Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman.”
Katarina “Kat” Cassidy. Kenny’s best human friend and owner. Kat’s voiced by Kelli Rabke.
Karl Cassidy. Kat’s baby brother; he’s voiced by Karen Culp.
Grace Cassidy. Kat and Karl’s mother, an Asian American woman who works as a therapist. Grace is voiced by Karen Culp. Grace seems to tolerate Kenny well, unlike…
Peter Cassidy. Kat and Karl’s father, a Caucasian man who runs a grocery store. Unlike Grace, Peter considers Kenny the bane of his existence, thanks to Kenny’s destructive antics costing him money, but tolerates him for his family’s sake. Peter is voiced by Russell Horton.
Oscar. Kat’s best human friend who’s obsessed with his Mayan ancestry. Oscar’s voiced by Nicolas King.
Marty. Kenny’s best animal friend, a dachshund. Marty’s voiced by Rob Bartlett.
Burton Plushtoy III. A spoiled, wealthy, and arrogant boy who wants Kenny as his own pet. Burton’s voiced by Oliver Wyman.

Highlights

“Kenny the Veggie” has Kat decide to become vegetarian. Kenny also tries to do so to appease her (despite being a carnivore), with disastrous results.
“Trash Talking” sees Kenny try to fight off raccoons who keep getting into the Cassidy family’s trash. “Try” being the key word, as the raccoons keep one-upping or tricking Kenny.
“Mr. Popularity” features an in-universe shark-themed pastiche of “Finding Nemo” as a popular movie, one which Kat hates (for getting everything about sharks wrong).
“His Fate is Sealed” sees Kenny’s obsession with eating seals cause more trouble than usual (and more bills for Peter). The series usually shows him eating “Seal Pops” (seal-flavored popsicles) as a substitute.
The Cassidys live in the real-life town of Tiburon, California. “Tiburón” is the Spanish word for “shark.”

Home video

Only a handful of episodes saw a release to several single-disc DVDs, but those are long out of print. Some episodes are available to buy digitally on Apple TV. As of this writing, the series also isn’t available on streaming, save as an on-demand feature on the cable-replacement streaming service Philo. At this point, the best way to watch the series is via episodes others have uploaded to YouTube.

Since (I assume) Warner Bros. Discovery now owns this series, it’d be nice to see a DVD/Blu-ray release… maybe via Warner Archive?