Set in the futuristic metropolis of Megakat City, two wrongfully demoted fighter pilots named Jake and Chance are removed from the paramilitary guardians, the Enforcers, and forced to take a demeaning salvage job by the vindicative superior Commander Feral. While the two initially loathe the prospect of their situation they soon decide to use the military salvage to fashion together a custom fighter jet and use it to protect the city as costumed vigilantes T-Bone and Razor from criminals, aliens, and a host of supervillains.
Running from 1993 to 1994, Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron was one of several animal based superhero shows that appeared on the airwaves which fell well within the lines of products of the time (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Extreme Dinosaurs, Street Sharks, Biker Mice from Mars, etc.). Swat Kats takes this familiar premise and makes it engaging through well-choreographed action sequences and striking animation that can't help but capture eyes with its aggressive geometry, fluid movement, and harsh lighting that scream 90s "extreme" (rather apropos for a title with "radical" in its name). The show was unfortunately cancelled after its 2nd season, but not for the reason people think. While concern over violence in children's TV and Ted Turner's wife at the time, Jane Fonda, were rumored to have played part in the show's demise in actuality it was late moving on merchandising contracts and tie-ins with the show that were only initialized far too late for Hanna-Barbera to justify further seasons so the show became a victim of short sightedness from the marketing department who couldn't recognize the toyetic and merchandising appeal of the show....one of the most callous and cynical reasons to cancel a cartoon, but that's business. The show is undoubtedly fun, but I think its reputation supersedes its actual quality.
The star of the show first and foremost is the action. Swat Kats despite having the standard "lazer gun" setpieces designed to make children's action shows less real rather uncharacteristically for a show like this has actual consequences to its action sequences. In the monster of the day plots, while nothing is ever explicitly shown (save for a prison warden whose turned to crystal and shattered) it's clear the monsters and supervillains' collateral damage is more than just "evacuated buildings" that made up shows like Power Rangers or other shows. The show has a distinctive look to it with a look that feels very much inspired by 90s comic books with the city's shading and coloring looking like it wouldn't be too far removed from one of the early Image comics (albeit with better artwork). Season 2 sports a style change that's more angular and utilizing more still images in a very anime-ish style still in line with what's established, but experiments with more striking designs and details.
The actual plot and characters of the show I honestly didn't find all that interesting or memorable. All the villains in this show have memorable designs and voices, but pretty much every villain is just evil for evil's sake. Dr. Viper (who's like Spider-Man's The Lizard with the voice of COBRA Commander) wants to destroy Megacat City and replace it with a swamp because......Dark Kat wants to destroy Megakat City and make Dark Kat City because.... As you can see there's a bit of a pattern to the villains, in that their means are different as are their appearances but there's really not much substance to them, and the ones that do get more established character like Mac and Molly Mange the Metali-Cats are basically one note affairs that are run into the ground way past the point of tolerance. Our heroes are perfectly serviceable with T-Bone serving as the muscle while Razor serves as the brain, but again like our villains of the week there's not much past those traits.
Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron certainly above average for a show of this type given the time it came out and when compared to many of its contemporaries its animation and production values have few if any equals...but why has that earned it such a massive cult following? While the show is unique in that it doesn't pull its punches with its villains doing senseless destruction the show's surface level details alone don't really elevate that far above the writing that was standard for these kinds of shows. Sure Swat Kats looks great, but what else is there? Yes it's unfair that Swat Kats only got 26 episodes while far inferior schlock like Street Sharks got 40, but the show is basically what Star Fox would've been like had it been made by Sega instead of Nintendo, interesting as a novelty but not as a cult show.
Running from 1993 to 1994, Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron was one of several animal based superhero shows that appeared on the airwaves which fell well within the lines of products of the time (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Extreme Dinosaurs, Street Sharks, Biker Mice from Mars, etc.). Swat Kats takes this familiar premise and makes it engaging through well-choreographed action sequences and striking animation that can't help but capture eyes with its aggressive geometry, fluid movement, and harsh lighting that scream 90s "extreme" (rather apropos for a title with "radical" in its name). The show was unfortunately cancelled after its 2nd season, but not for the reason people think. While concern over violence in children's TV and Ted Turner's wife at the time, Jane Fonda, were rumored to have played part in the show's demise in actuality it was late moving on merchandising contracts and tie-ins with the show that were only initialized far too late for Hanna-Barbera to justify further seasons so the show became a victim of short sightedness from the marketing department who couldn't recognize the toyetic and merchandising appeal of the show....one of the most callous and cynical reasons to cancel a cartoon, but that's business. The show is undoubtedly fun, but I think its reputation supersedes its actual quality.
The star of the show first and foremost is the action. Swat Kats despite having the standard "lazer gun" setpieces designed to make children's action shows less real rather uncharacteristically for a show like this has actual consequences to its action sequences. In the monster of the day plots, while nothing is ever explicitly shown (save for a prison warden whose turned to crystal and shattered) it's clear the monsters and supervillains' collateral damage is more than just "evacuated buildings" that made up shows like Power Rangers or other shows. The show has a distinctive look to it with a look that feels very much inspired by 90s comic books with the city's shading and coloring looking like it wouldn't be too far removed from one of the early Image comics (albeit with better artwork). Season 2 sports a style change that's more angular and utilizing more still images in a very anime-ish style still in line with what's established, but experiments with more striking designs and details.
The actual plot and characters of the show I honestly didn't find all that interesting or memorable. All the villains in this show have memorable designs and voices, but pretty much every villain is just evil for evil's sake. Dr. Viper (who's like Spider-Man's The Lizard with the voice of COBRA Commander) wants to destroy Megacat City and replace it with a swamp because......Dark Kat wants to destroy Megakat City and make Dark Kat City because.... As you can see there's a bit of a pattern to the villains, in that their means are different as are their appearances but there's really not much substance to them, and the ones that do get more established character like Mac and Molly Mange the Metali-Cats are basically one note affairs that are run into the ground way past the point of tolerance. Our heroes are perfectly serviceable with T-Bone serving as the muscle while Razor serves as the brain, but again like our villains of the week there's not much past those traits.
Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron certainly above average for a show of this type given the time it came out and when compared to many of its contemporaries its animation and production values have few if any equals...but why has that earned it such a massive cult following? While the show is unique in that it doesn't pull its punches with its villains doing senseless destruction the show's surface level details alone don't really elevate that far above the writing that was standard for these kinds of shows. Sure Swat Kats looks great, but what else is there? Yes it's unfair that Swat Kats only got 26 episodes while far inferior schlock like Street Sharks got 40, but the show is basically what Star Fox would've been like had it been made by Sega instead of Nintendo, interesting as a novelty but not as a cult show.