Shark Tale wouldn't be a DreamWorks movie without many of references to pop culture, in an aquatic way.
- The most obvious and numerous are to Jaws. This film's music is even described as their "theme song" by Frankie, but Lenny hates it.
- Lenny's name is probably inspired by Lennie Small of Of Mice and Men. There's even a short "And Call Him "George"" moment with Oscar.
- Crazy Joe watches The Benny Hill Show inside his shell.
- To the movie Car Wash, of all things with a cover by Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott heard twice.
- When Luca fixes his record player in Lino and Sykes’ meeting, "Baby Got Back" plays for a few seconds.
- Possibly accidental, but the movie bears some distinct resemblance to Dragonheart, in which a knight and a dragon ends up in a stalemate during a fight and decides to cooperate. They do this by faking battles with each other in front of awestruck villagers that the dragon pretends to attack, where he at the end of the battle pretends to die.
- One of the shrimp says "Say hello to my little friends!"
- Another shrimp says at the ending "You Got Served"!
- Oscar references three R-rated movies back to back during his battle with Lenny:
- When Oscar shouts "You had me at hello!" on TV, Angie is seen grinning. Renee Zellweger, who voiced Angie, made the quote famous in Jerry Maguire.
- Speaking of Renée Zellweger, earlier in the film, Angie is seen writing her innermost thoughts about her and Oscar. Hmmmm, sound familiar?
- Also, lines such as De Niro's character Don Lino saying, "I heard things" plus a conversation between the De Niro character and the Scorsese character (Sykes) spoof their infamous repeat the same lines back at one another.
- The crowd even shouts "Oscar Bumaye!" the same where a crowd shouts "Ali Bumaye!" to Muhammad Ali (Will Smith plays Ali in his 2001 Biopic).
- Oscar's "Pants" are big like Will Smith's clothes were before in his older works.
- Ira Feinberg played by Peter Falk mentions his wife at one point.
- Oscar also sarcastically says that he’s Pinocchio. Funnily enough, Will Smith actually voiced Pinocchio in an episode of Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child.
- Oscar hums the Superman theme as he fake fights Lenny.
- "Oscar the Sharkslayer" is a play on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Lola resembles an aquatic version of Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- At the end, one of the sharks with clown paint asks "You think this is funny? What am I? A clown to you?"
- Oscar asked to Lenny if Don Lino was like The Godfather.
- After Lenny spews out Angie and other items, he yells "The horror! The horror!"
