SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron facts for kids
Quick facts for kids SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron |
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SWAT Kats season 2 title card, featuring Razor, T-Bone, and the Turbokat.
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| Created by | Christian Tremblay Yvon Tremblay |
| Developed by | Glenn Leopold Davis Doi |
| Directed by | Robert Alvarez |
| Voices of | Barry Gordon Charlie Adler Tress MacNeille Jim Cummings Gary Owens Candi Milo Mark Hamill Lori Alan |
| Composer(s) | Matt Muhoberac John Zuker Randall Crissman Nick Brown |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 25 (and 1 Special) (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Buzz Potamkin |
| Producer(s) | Davis Doi (1993–1994) |
| Running time | 22–26 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Hanna-Barbera Cartoons |
| Distributor | Turner Entertainment Turner Program Services |
| Release | |
| Original network | TBS |
| Picture format | 480p SDTV |
| Audio format | Dolby SR |
| Original release | September 11, 1993 – January 13, 1995 |
SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron is a 1993-1994 American animated television series created by Christian and Yvon Tremblay and produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. The series takes place in the fictional metropolis of Megakat City, which is populated by anthropomorphic felines, known as "kats". The SWAT Kats of the title are two vigilante pilots who possess a state-of-the-art fighter jet with an array of weaponry. Throughout the series, they face various villains as well as competition from Megakat City's militarized police force called the Enforcers.
The show originally premiered and ran on the syndication block The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera, as well as TBS Superstation (as a part of the Sunday Morning In Front Of The TV block) from 1993 to 1995. Every episode of the series was directed by Robert Alvarez. The bulk of the series was written by Glenn Leopold (15 episodes) or Lance Falk (9 episodes). Jim Stenstrum contributed two episodes, while David Ehrman, Von Williams, Eric Clark (with Lance Falk), Mark Saraceni and Jim Katz all contributed one episode each.
There exist:
- a total of twenty-six finished episodes (two were cut into two segments, making twenty-five when counted individually),
- two special episodes that feature a report on the SWAT Kats and of all their missions and gadgets, and a bonus episode with a romantic team,
- three unfinished episodes,
- and two episodes still in the concept stage.
The show re-aired on Cartoon Network throughout the 1990s, and later on Boomerang until 2013. A revival of the series was funded via Kickstarter, which ended with over $140,000 in funds, guaranteeing new SWAT Kats animation for the first time in over two decades. However, the series had no further announcements after the Kickstarter and has yet to be picked up by Cartoon Network.
Overview
Jake "Razor" Clawson and Chance "T-Bone" Furlong were members of Megakat City's paramilitary law enforcement agency, known as the Enforcers. They were discharged from the Enforcers after disobeying the orders of Commander Feral, which resulted in the destruction of the newly built Enforcer Headquarters. While in pursuit of Dark Kat, one of the main arch-villains of the series, the two rebelled against Enforcer Commander Feral's orders to fall back and leave Dark Kat to him. When they objected, citing their already-acquired target lock, Commander Feral crowded out their jet, clipping their wing and sending Jake and Chance's jet crashing into Enforcer headquarters. The resultant explosion distracted Commander Feral, allowing Dark Kat's escape. The Commander took no responsibility for the incident, discharged Jake and Chance from the Enforcers and reassigned them to work at the city's military salvage yard to pay for the damage to the Enforcer Headquarters which Feral caused.
Using discarded military parts and weapons from the salvage yard, Jake and Chance built themselves a three-engine jet fighter called the Turbokat, which resembled several different jet fighters, most notably the Grumman F-14 and the Saab Draken, along with a handful of other vehicles such as the Cyclotron (a motorcycle built into the jet's seating, deployed from the bomb bay of the Turbokat like a missile), the TurboMole (a subterranean vehicle used to drill underground), the HoverKat (a militarized hovercraft), and the Thunder Truck (a militarized Jeep modified from their tow truck). All these vehicles were stored, along with a training area and other equipment, in a secret hangar below the yard. Razor and T-Bone now patrol Megakat City as the SWAT Kats, defending it against any kind of menace that threatens the city. Their enemies include the criminal mastermind Dark Kat, the undead sorcerer Pastmaster, the mutant evil genius Doctor Viper, and the robotic gangsters the Metallikats. The SWAT Kats also face many villains-of-the-week, such as Madkat and Volcanus.
The SWAT Kats keep their identities secret from everyone, including their closest ally Deputy Mayor Callie Briggs, who assumes the responsibilities of both her post and of her boss, Mayor Manx, who mainly neglects his political duties in favor of pastimes like golf. Their methods do not endear them to Commander Feral, and the three of them often clash throughout the series. In the second season, Feral's niece Felina (who holds a lieutenant rank in the Enforcers) becomes another ally of the SWAT Kats.
Episodes
List of SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron episodes
Characters
Revival
On July 23, 2015, creators Christian and Yvon Tremblay announced a Kickstarter campaign to revive SWAT Kats, seeking to produce a new series, and if possible, a 70-minute film. On July 24, one day after the campaign began, the Kickstarter successfully reached its first funding goal of $50,000, needed for production of concept art and promotional material, which the pair had aimed to use to help them find an investor who would be interested in helping with the revival.
A more major goal of $200,000 would allow the pair to produce a 22-minute episode, while a pledge total of $1,000,000 would allow them to do a mini-series of five episodes. Their highest pledge, $1.5 million or more, would help them to make a film of the SWAT Kats. The campaign ended on August 22, 2015, with $141,500 pledged, and already passing another goal of $100,000 will help to create a 2-minute-long trailer of how the series should look.
On February 17, 2016, the Tremblay Brothers confirmed they had started development on the trailer, which they will show to a TV company in order to have the green light for production on SWAT Kats Revolution.
Christian Tremblay, confirmed Warner Bros. had expressed interest in "bringing back" SWAT Kats on Boomerang, but were unable to convince the parent network to commit for a new series, and thus they passed on the project. Tremblay then started working with investors to create independent episodes of SWAT Kats that will be available online for streaming. In the latest Kickstarter campaign update on July 23, 2020, show co-creator Christian Tremblay alluded to the issues being faced in getting the Swat Kats: Revolution re-boot picked up:
"It has been a long time coming to provide an update on Swat-Kats Revolution, we sincerely apologize. I hope this update will bring you comfort that the efforts to bring back SK is very much alive and we are actively pushing to make it happen...For us the challenge is not IF a new series will be produced, but WHEN will it be done...So we encountered roadblocks after roadblocks: Hulu passed, Netflix passed, Warner Bros passed. Amazon was not really the place for it and changed its animated content approach. A fairly important movie producer wanted to bring Swat-Kats to Netflix, where he has an output deal, but ultimately, the deal did not make sense for us. I can't count the number of potential business investors we met, trips we did, meetings we held. There have been many opportunities we believed were very promising (with some very important mini Major studios, among others), and we hold on to those opportunities to bring some good news, only to fall apart. Some additional difficulties were unexpected, such as the movie CATS! (Anthropomorphic cats), and a major box office disaster, ridiculed by everyone, let's just say that we had to let the dust clear on this one before we could even approach anyone in the industry, so they could not make any types of similarities between the two properties...this is a Hollywood mindset; when something bombs at the box office it becomes radioactive...We are more motivated than ever before. We have seen and encountered roadblocks in the past but we are resilient. It's not the 100's of NO that count, its the one Yes that allows everything to fall into place. We will make SK happen, no matter how hard or how long it takes.
In other media
Toys
Remco produced a line of action figures in 1994 which included Razor, T-Bone, Dark Kat and Dr. Viper. Both White Castle and Carl's Jr. have offered SWAT Kats toys in their kids' meals in the 1990s.
Video game
The game SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, developed by AIM, was released by Hudson Soft on June 9, 1995, for Japan and August 21, 1995, in North America for the Super NES. A Sega Mega Drive game based on SWAT Kats was in development by Traveller's Tales but it was cancelled before being completed.
See also
In Spanish: SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron para niños
