Zig & Sharko (French: Zig et Sharko) is a French animated slapstick comedy television series created and directed by Olivier Jean-Marie and produced by Xilam Animation. The series' premise focuses on the lives of Zig, a brown hyena, and Sharko, a great white shark, over their conflicts regarding the mermaid Marina, in which Zig seeks to devour her while Sharko loves and protects her. The series employs silent comedy: characters either do not speak; rather they use unintelligible vocalizations, gestures, and occasional pictograms in speech balloons (the Indian version dubs Hindi dialogue over the animation instead).
Three seasons with a total of 78 half-hour episodes (234 seven-minute segments) were originally broadcast on December 21, 2010, followed by an official premiere on January 23, 2011, on Canal+ Family, with the second and third seasons airing on Gulli, and reruns airing on TF1. A third season was announced in December 2018. A fourth season was announced in 2022.
Premise
The series focuses on the exploits and adventures of a group of characters - Zig, a brown hyena; Sharko, a great white shark; Marina, a mermaid with red hair; and Bernie, a hermit crab. Much of the stories of each episode revolve around an eternal war over Marina between Zig, who attempts to capture her to eat her, and Sharko, who loves her and acts as her bodyguard against Zig's various plans. The show itself draws inspiration for its plot and slapstick humor from the cartoons of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, in that Zig often makes use of various items or concocts plans based on things he witnesses with Sharko and Marina, but is often foiled in the process by Sharko, bad luck, or a combination of both. Although the pair are enemies to each other because of their constant battles and grudges, they are also good friends, akin to the relationship of Tom and Jerry. Alongside the main characters, the show is frequently populated by minor background characters, many of whom are animals and aquatic creatures that, alongside Zig and Sharko, are portrayed as anthropomorphic beings.
Throughout the first season, much of the plots revolve around the oceans surrounding a tropical volcanic island, in which Marina often spends the day residing on a rocky pinnacle off the coast during the day, while residing in an underwater home that she shares with Sharko. In the second season, the plots shifted to the island itself, including its beaches, volcano, and jungle, with some changes for the main characters - Marina takes residence in an ornate, life-sized sandcastle, built by Sharko; Zig and Bernie live with a cargo plane pilot in his crashed plane within the jungle; and Sharko operates as a lifeguard for the aquatic lifeforms who frequent the beaches. In the third season, the main characters and the island's inhabitants move onto a cruise ship to travel the oceans, where much of the season's plots take place.
Characters
None of the characters in the series speak; a form of gibberish speech is sometimes used, but most interactions involve hand signals and body language to convey what a character is thinking about. The show's main characters include: