If you love watching movies based on sharks and have been wondering which movie to watch next, here is our compilation of 21 Best Shark Movies And Documentaries on Disney+ to Stream Right Now. These movies will take you on an adventurous ride, make you travel through the ocean, and ultimately develop a sense of empathy for the innocent marine creatures.
You may have noticed that such movies only remain in the limelight for a short time. There might be instances when you have yet to hear of some of the films, but this is because they do not meet the standards of the so-called benchmarks for the successful films determined by the box office collection they make.
If we go beyond all this and try to explore the content that such movies have, we will realize that these movies are nothing less than a treat for animal lovers, especially those who love sharks. Sharks that are usually seen as dangerous creatures are often misinterpreted. They are not harmful if we follow the principle of peaceful co-existence.
Movies based on sharks do this work only. They work to enlighten the viewers about the tricky relationship between humans and sharks; what we need to know before we dare to interfere in the world of sharks. Read through to read about the 21 Best Shark Movies on Disney+.
21 Best Shark Movies on Disney+ to Stream Right Now
1. Sharkcano
Sharkcano is a documentary that is available on Disney+. It focuses on the journey of shark scientist Michael Heithaus, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida International University. He is a shark enthusiast and learned about the sharks that used to live in Kavachi, an underwater volcano in the Pacific Ocean.
The documentary lasts three weeks and focuses on sharks and their behavior. The documentary premiered first on Net Geo. Heithaus has to travel all around the world and find out about different species of sharks and how submarine volcanoes benefit the sharks.
He also finds bull sharks in the Indian Ocean, which is to take advantage of turbulent water. The teams found a lot of seals that were found in Mexico and were the food of these sharks. When they were around Kavachi, they had a chance to visit the site when there was a chance of a volcanic eruption.
And they took advantage of that and placed a camera inside the water, giving them a clear view. And they finally saw a lot of sharks near that area. Heithaus concludes that sharks come near the eruption for food or hot water.
2. Shark Gangs
This documentary is based on a group of sharks and their nature. It was first telecasted on National Geographic and mainly focused on a group of sharks and how sharks behave when they are in a group. Marine biologists also investigate whether these sharks could soon create a problem for humans.
This documentary changes the way we think about sharks. One of the most famous theories is that they hunt individually, but the researchers found that these sharks, like Great White and Hammerheads, form a group while stalking their prey. They found a new thing about bull sharks. They heard the sound of their game together, so they created a group to hunt by accident.
If you are a swimmer or want to swim in the ocean, you can find out where not to go through this documentary because of sharks. This documentary raises questions about the sharks, like why they have to move in groups for hunting because they are one of the oldest predators.
3. Sharks of Lost Island
In partnership with the Net Geo channel Disney+ is showing this 45 minutes documentary. This documentary primarily focused on sharks and pirates, like the old movies made for kids, and showed that the pirates were funny. This movie discards this theory and offers some natural life pirate history.
The documentary also focuses on sharks; they are not friendly. And last, where you don’t have to go into the ocean where deadly sharks are present that can kill you. The National Geographic team has some highly skilled and motivated scientists and researchers under Enric Sala’s guidance.
These teams dive deep into the Pitcairn Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean. The group focuses on finding both the sea’s and land’s environment and converting the ocean into marine reserves. Sala and her team will move into the ocean for 30 days and discover the different mysteries of the Pitcairn Islands and the other four islands that come in the way.
Every different Island has a different story and different puzzles. Enric finds out about the reefs, how the healthy reefs look in the ocean, how they survive, and also what could be the last surviving location in the sea. This adventure’s journey is the most dangerous and isolated.
4. Journey to Shark Eden
And, like always, it is also a Nat Geo documentary on Disney+. This documentary also focuses on wild sharks and where the sharks used to live the most in groups. Like the previous documentary, this documentary is also led by Enric Sala, one of the world’s best Marine ecologists. This time he dives into the South Pacific Ocean with his team.
The team finds out that the sharks usually live in Southern Line Islands, which the humans hardly visit. This place is considered the survival of the fittest. The team researches different types of reefs, from the smallest to the biggest, and also finds a prediction about what can be the last group of islands on the Earth.
Sala and his team have to cover 3300 Kilometers in 30 days to finish their research. This time they found a lot of reefs, and according to them, it was three times the amount of reef available in the Indo-Pacific on Flint Island. They found out about the reef and its ecosystem.
In their research, the team finds a reef in Malden Island, a prime location of three nuclear bombs from 1958. In this location, the reefs tend to live more and have more sharks than any other place on the Earth. And the second best location is Starbucks Island.
5. Shipwrecked
Shipwrecked is a movie about a father who is a sailor and his son. The film begins when the father is injured and is the only one to feed his family. He is now unable to return to his ship because of history. His son Haakon Haakonsen goes to the boat to replace his father and becomes the cabin boy to provide for his family.
After some time, Haakon has made everyone respect him and love him because of his work, and every member appreciates him. Haakon meets with different dangers, adventures, secrets, and mysteries during his journey, transforming him into a man from a boy only on his tour in the sea.
The movie is divided into three segments. The first part is the journey of Haakon on the ship, which describes how he joins the ship as a replacement for his father. The second part introduces the movie’s villain and how the interaction between these two happens. The final part is about the Island on which Haakon goes.
These three parts make the movie more exciting and hold the audience to watch the whole film in one go. If you think this movie is similar to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies because of pirates and sailors, you are wrong because this movie doesn’t involve sword fights. But instead, they use guns, and the violence is too less.
- Director: Nils Gaup
- Star Cast: Stian Smestad and Gabriel Byrne
- Release Date: March 1, 1991
- Running Time: 93 minutes
- IMDB Rating: 6.5
6. The Little Mermaid
The next movie we have for you on our list is The Little Mermaid. This movie was released in 1989 and was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. The story of this movie is based on the Danish fairy tale released in 1837.
The movie’s director is John Musker and Ron Clements, and the movie’s cast includes some of the finest actors of all time. Samuel E. Wright, Jodi Benson, Kenneth Mars, Pat Carroll, Jason Marin, Christopher Daniel Barnes, and Buddy Hackett are part of this film.
As the name hints, The Little Mermaid is the story of a 16-year-old mermaid. She is young and rebellious, a trait common to humans as well. Ariel, as her parents have named her, is amazed to see the life on land. The Mermaids were, however, not allowed to come down to the Earth as her father forbade it.
Consequently, she falls in love with a prince on land. To conquest her love and meet him, she asks the sea witch to turn her into a human and help her go to the planet. Things, unfortunately, do not go according to her plan, and in the end, the king is left with no other choice but to risk her daughter’s life.
- Director: John Musker and Ron Clements
- Star Cast: Jodi Benson, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Pat Carroll, Jason Marin, Buddy Hackett, Kenneth Mars, and Samuel E. Wright
- Release Date: November 17, 1989
- Running Time: 83 minutes
- IMDB Rating: 7.6
7. Finding Nemo
Marlin is a clownfish who lives in the Great Barrier Reef and loses his son Nemo. Nemo was captured by some divers in Sydney even after Marlin warned him many times, but Nemo never listened to him. And now Marlin wants to get his son back, so he rescues him. During his journey, he finds another fish Dory who was lost, and he finds many difficulties during this expedition.
During the film, Marlin does everything to keep Nemo safe, but the result is not good. He finds different types of animals during his journey, which he thought never existed, and he is changed as a person completely. Dory is another lost fish whose memory is not robust, and because of this, he doesn’t have a goal in life.
Nemo has been captured in a fish tank in Sydney. During the journey, Dory and Marlin were chased by Anglerfish which they escaped and saved their life. Later they found moonfish, who directed them to the correct route. Later a forest of jellyfish attacked them, and they fainted. When they woke up, they were present between a group of sea turtles. At last, they found a blue whale.
- Director: Andrew Stanton
- Star Cast: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe, and Geoffrey Rush
- Release Date: May 18, 2003
- Running Time: 100 minutes
- IMDB Rating: 8.2
8. Finding Dory
Finding Dory is the second part of Finding Nemo. This movie tells us about Dory, who was seen in Finding Nemo. Dory has a memory problem and doesn’t remember anything because of a short-term memory loss disease.
Dory and her parents were friends, and they used to play games together. Once while playing hide and seek with her parents, Dory was lost when she was sucked into a big pipe and didn’t see her parents after that for a long time.
Dory’s parents searched for her but didn’t find her for many days. And later, Dory found Marlin, who was searching for his son Nemo. And started to search for Nemo with Marlin. Later they succeed in finding Nemo, and now Nemo wants to help Dory reunite with his family, and Marlin thinks there are better ideas than this. But later, he was convinced and started finding the parents of Dory.
After the movie interval, the trio came in front of an aquarium. There was an exhibition, and Dory thought her parents could be there. And asked different fishes about her parents. But they refused, and then Dory went inside the most prominent tank. At the end of all, there is a struggle. At the end of the movie, Dory is reunited with her family.
- Director: Andrew Stanton
- Star Cast: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Hayden Rolence, Ed O’Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, and Eugene Levy
- Release Date: June 8, 2016
- Running Time: 97 minutes
- IMDB Rating: 7.3
9. Jaws Vs. Boats
Jaws vs. Boats is another documentary on Sharks created by National Geographic. In this documentary, the scientist tries to find out the reason for the sharks attacking boats as, in recent times, the attacks on boats by the sharks have increased. The scientist attempts to make the sharks attack the boats to see their behavior and reason for doing that.
This documentary is different from others as others mainly focus on why sharks tend to live at a distance from humans, but in this, we see how and why the sharks attack the boats, and the scientist finds many reasons.
One of the main reasons was chum bags, as scientists thought that sharks are attracted to chum bags as the fishermen drop large chum bags in the water to attract fish to capture them. Sharks also see that, and to get the food they are hungry for, they attack the boat. But there were other reasons, as sometimes the sharks also attacked the boats with no chum bags.
The documentary discovers a new thing called Electroreception which is a way to find electric current in water because of movements. And sharks can find them, which is one of the reasons for the attack on the boats in search of food, as they know if there is an electric field in the sea, they know there is food.
10. Shark Queens
Shark Queens describes the story of Great White Sharks in South Africa and Tiger Sharks in the Maldives. Nat Geo also creates this. The scientist in this documentary wants to find out whether the female sharks are the ones who are the ruler of the ocean.
The documentary describes how female sharks are, what they do to survive, and how smart they are and is one of the good documentaries on sharks that is aired on Disney+. Eric Clua is one of the scientists in this documentary, and she can also be seen in multiple shark documentaries.
11. Shark Side Of The Moon
This documentary tells the characteristics of sharks regarding the moon. There is also a horror movie of the same name, but this is different. It is a documentary by Nat Geo titled Shark Side Of The Moon and is one of the most exciting documentaries on sharks.
The documentary takes place underwater and demonstrates the different nature of the sharks and their actions according to the changing lunar cycle about how they change their behavior according to the moon. They found that sharks attack by the frequency of the moon and how the moon is lined up, and scientists did a brief research on this nature and incident.
12. Camo Sharks
Camo Sharks is a documentary by Nat Geo in which the scientist tries to find out the unique nature of the shark and if the sharks can change their colors before hunting their prey to confuse them.
The scientist used a color board when taking the photos and videos of the sharks under the water to get information on whether they changed their colors or if it was something else. At last, they found something which changed the image of sharks in front of humans.
The fact that sharks can change color like a chameleon described in this documentary makes this one of the most exciting shark documentaries. Great White Sharks are known to have the feature of not being seen from above because of their camouflage which is because of their grey body.
But now when, scientists have come to know that apart from camouflage, they can also change their colors is a different thing. The documentary shows many different types of sharks under the water, and some of the glow coming from under the water from the dark shark makes it look beautiful.
13. Maui Shark Mystery
This time a team of scientists goes to the coast of Maui to track the habits and nature of tiger sharks. Nat Geo also creates this documentary, and we see how the scientist attaches a go-pro camera to a shark fin so small that no fish can see. The documentary focuses on how they connect the camera and track the tiger shark.
The reviews of this documentary could have been better compared to others. This documentary tells that at different times a large group of sharks come together at the coast of Maui but doesn’t tell the reason for this journey. Fans are expecting that there will be another show which will describe everything that the camera will record.
The contents of this documentary were less, but we see some fantastic views of nature. The location of this documentary is on the beaches of Maui and Oahu, which are located in Hawaii and are considered one of the most beautiful places.
The marine biologists and Galapagos Sharks are seen training together. The sharks are not large and not dangerous compared to tiger sharks, so teaching them was easy. And we also see some interaction between the whales and the sharks.
14. Counting Jaws
Counting Jaws is a documentary created by Nat Geo. In this, the scientist tries to count the number of Great White Sharks currently swimming in the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast of North America. According to scientists, three different tribes of sharks can be found in that region of the Pacific Ocean.
The two primary locations of this expedition are the coast of California and the coast of Mexico. Earlier, they thought that they could only find the sharks from these two regions, but now they know that the sharks from Southernmost tribes have also joined these sharks, which has increased the number of Great White Sharks to thousands.
Great White sharks are considered the most dangerous sharks. Though they live far from humans, the terror of these sharks is still there. This documentary tells us when these sharks appear at what place. These tribal sharks move together and mix with different tribes, and this mixing is interesting.
There are so many sharks around the scientist that it is difficult for them to know which photos belong to which shark. It is exciting and dangerous at the same time to see so many sharks at the same time.
15. When Sharks Attack
After much said, we cannot deny that sharks will not attack humans. But what are the circumstances under which sharks attack humans and even kill them? Our next suggestion on the list seeks to answer this very question.
This documentary is different from the others because other documentaries show that sharks don’t usually attack. In the When Sharks Attacks documentary, we see how these sharks attack humans and the human community.
In the first episode, we see how Los Angeles gets affected by four shark attacks in four different months. Scientists try to find out the reason for these attacks when the number of attacks increases. They try to look in other places also where the attacks were noticed and try to find the reason why they attacked humans.
16. World’s Biggest Hammerhead?
Our next suggestion is a documentary named World’s Biggest Hammerhead. In this doc. Scientists from Florida International University went on an expedition on the coast of Florida in search of the world’s giant hammerhead. There were rumors that great hammerheads up to 20 feet in the length needed to be discovered. The expedition starts from Florida and goes up to the Bahamas.
This documentary was released in 2022 by Nat Geo in search of the giant hammerhead because earlier, they caught a hammerhead that was 14.5 feet long and weighed over 1282 pounds. Still, there was a belief from the scientist that there could be much more giant hammerheads than this in the ocean, so they moved up to the Bahamas.
17. Baby Sharks
Everybody likes baby animals, don’t we? Well, this is not hard to believe that baby sharks are cute. (or are you afraid of them?) If you are wondering why we are asking you this, our next suggestion is self-explanatory.
Baby Sharks is one of the documentaries that show the cute side of sharks in the form of baby Sharks. This documentary, released in 2022 by National Geographic, tells us about the different things about baby sharks, their nature, how they live, and everything they do.
The audience can learn about the baby sharks, like how they eat when they are so young that they don’t have teeth and when they don’t have strong jaws like the giant sharks. Scientists discovered that there are multiple species of baby sharks. Everyone is different from everyone, and how they grow and become powerful before they become independent and move alone in the ocean for survival and food.
18. Sky Sharks
In this documentary, we see how drones track sharks who come near the United States, which is considered a Bird’s Eye view. Using these, the team tries to discover how many sharks and people are in danger. This is a little disadvantageous for the sharks as they can hide in the water but can’t hide if someone sees them from the sky.
This documentary focused on Southern California and Southern Florida and tried to see the shark on both these seasides. Some things that were seen in this documentary were that the pregnant sharks go into the warm water to give birth to their child.
19. Man vs. Shark
Our following recommendation on our list is not a movie but a documentary based on Sharks, named Man vs. Sharks. Released in 2019, this is one of the best documentaries to date. This documentary is a work of art, and many people have reviewed it as a significant “contribution to shark science.”
This documentary shows Jeremiah trying his best to build a shark suit. His purpose for doing this was to be able to survive in the same water as the sharks and protect himself from being eaten by them. Jeremiah is the self-host as well for this documentary.
The voice you will hear in the narration is of Dave Hoffman, and Joe Romeiro did the research for this movie. The documentary shows some beautiful scenes and shots of Jeremiah and his crew members. With an IMDb rating of 6.1, this documentary occupies the nineteenth position on our list of best shark movies.
20. Playing With Sharks
Released in 2021, Playing with sharks remains one of the most loved movies for shark lovers. It is a must-watch for you if oceans and underwater life interests you and you want to learn about marine life. This film removes all the misconceptions about ocean creatures and tells us how marine animals deserve a better reputation; they are not life-threatening if we let them live peacefully in their habitat.
The film, Playing with Sharks works towards the same motive. Valerie Taylor, who is a scuba diver by profession, dedicates her entire life to busting the myth that surrounds sharks and tells in the movie how sharks are, in fact, innocent creatures that want to be left alone and can live in harmony with humans.
The movie is directed by Sally Aitken, the film’s writer. It has won numerous awards in various recognition shows, such as at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards for the Best Original Score in a Documentary and the FOCAL International Awards for the Best Use of Footage in a Factual World Production.
21. Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth
Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth is our last suggestion for you. This TV Special is hosted by Chris Hemsworth and is broadcast on National Geographic. The director of this show is Sally Aitken, and the writer is Benjamin Grayson. The show was aired on the National Geographic channel, and later the streaming rights were distributed to channels like Nat Geo WILD, Disney XD, Nat Geo Mundo, and Disney+.
The first episode of this show aired on July 5, 2021. The show was initially aired as a six week of episodes and has now evolved as a shark fest. The special tv works to celebrate the science of Mother Nature. In 2021 when the show premiered, it had more than 21+ shows and 60+ hours of new content.
The central theme of this is how Chris works to explore the relationship between sharks and humans; how they can co-exist peacefully. The eastern coast of Australia witnesses an increase in shark attacks, and he is on his way to finding the reason for the same. The TV special also casts the underwater conservationist Valerie Taylor.
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