SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron Review

hey everybody it's chuck and stacy from vo buzz

weekly and you are listening to geek geek geek

geek geek geek geek one more one more epic fail

Welcome to episode 75 of ToonCast Beyond, brought

to you by the Geekcast Radio Network. I am your

host, Steve, Jim, and Mike, and joining me today

is Steve Megatron. I return, yes. Yes, and we're

here to talk about a 90s cartoon that we both

loved at some point or another. This is before

Beast Wars, but after Turtles had already started,

yadda yadda yadda. Today we jump in the TurboCat

to talk about SWAT Cats The Radical Squadron.

Originally we were going to talk about Season

1 by itself, but since SWAT Cats The Radical

Squadron only had two seasons with a total of

23 episodes for the whole thing, we're going

to talk about both seasons later in the season

breakdown. For now, though, let's head to JT

and Just the Facts on Swatcats, the Radical Squadron.

Hey, guys, JT from Saskatoon here with the Just

the Facts all about Swatcats, the Radical Squadron.

Taking place on an alternate reality Earth populated

by anthropomorphic cats, Swatcats follows the

adventures of Jake and Chance, a .k .a. Razor

and T -Bone, the titular heroes as they fight

crime in Mega Cat City. Once part of the police

-like Enforcers, they were dishonorably discharged

from the service after being blamed for destroying

Enforcer HQ while pursuing Dark Cat, the primary

villain of the series. The boys are forced into

an indentured servitude of sorts, running the

city's salvage yard in order to pay back the

millions of dollars in property damage they allegedly

caused. While lamenting their fate, Jake and

Chance discover the salvage yard contains a wealth

of advanced military technology and machinery,

and decide to become vigilantes. They construct

a hangar underneath the scrapyard containing

their highly advanced fighter jet, the TurboCat,

as well as other assorted crime -fighting vehicles

and gear, like the Glovatrix. Regularly facing

off against villains like Dark Cat, the Past

Master, Dr. Viper and the Metallicats, Razor

and T -Bone must also deal with the fact they

are wanted fugitives being constantly pursued

by Commander Ulysses Farrow and the Enforcers.

Farrow incidentally is kind of an asshole and

the one responsible for the destruction of Enforcer

HQ to begin with, which also kind of makes it

his fault for the Swatcats being born anyhow.

However, not everyone is against the Swatcats

as they have an ally in Callie Briggs, the Deputy

Mayor of Megacat City under the cowardly Mayor

Manx. She summons the Swatcats with a special

communicator whenever the Enforcers are unable

to handle whatever is threatening the city. Created

by Christian and Yvonne Tremblay and produced

by Anabarbera Productions, Swatcats premiered

on September 11, 1993 as part of the syndicated

animation block The Fantastic World of Anabarbera.

SWAT Cats also ran on TBS as part of their Sunday

morning in front of the TV block and was a mainstay

on Cartoon Network throughout the mid -90s. The

series ran from 1993 to 1995 for a grand total

of 25 episodes and one special across two seasons.

The show is most fondly remembered by fans for

its distinctive voice cast. Series leads Razor

and T -Bone were respectively voiced by Barry

Gordon and Charlie Adler. might be familiar with

their work. Both worked in voice acting throughout

the 1980s, with Mr. Gordon voicing Donatello

on the original TMNT animated series in 1987,

and Mr. Adler voicing Silverbolt, leader of the

Aerialbots on the G1 Transformers animated series.

SWAT cats also featured Jim Cummings as Mayor

Manx, Tress McNeil as Callie Briggs, Frank Welker

as Dr. Viper, and Gary Owens, the original Space

Ghost, as the voice of Commander Farrell. The

show also featured the likes of Mark Hamill,

Neil Ross, April Winchell, and Rob Paulson in

recording and one -off voice roles. In addition

to the voice cast, the show featured a few notable

touches that endeared it to fans even to this

day, one of which is surely the somewhat cliched

use of guitar riffs and power rock music in each

episode. I say cliched, but I loved every chord.

A main feature of the show was one of the most

recognizable theme songs of the early 90s, I

would put this right up there with Ron Wasserman's

Go Go Power Rangers in terms of sheer get you

pumped up kind of energy. Another reason the

show has remained such a fan favorite may be

the switch from Ana Barbera in -house staff animation

to Japanese animation studio Mook animation for

the entire second season. This resulted in a

more dynamic anime style which also increased

the intensity of the on -screen action. And despite

the kid -friendly nature of the series, the show

featured some... darker story elements than most

shows at the time were likely to use. A good

example of this was in the first season episode,

The Giant Bacteria, where Dr. Viper horribly

mutates a one -off villain named Morbulus into

a hulking monster comprised of bacterial cultures

in order to steal some chemicals from Mega Cat

City Labs. I don't think it's escaped any fan's

notice that the show was largely created as a

response to the overwhelming success of Ninja

Turtles in the 80s, which in and of itself kind

of created a small anime Sure, there were dinosaurs,

street sharks, extreme dinosaurs, and even some

biker mice from Mars, but there is one radical

squadron that captured our easily excitable adolescent

minds the way SWAT cats did. This is JT from

Saskatoon, signing off. Thank you so much, JT,

for those just the facts on SWAT cats. Now it

is time for our history with the show. Steve,

did you watch this show as a kid? I did. Wake

up, buddy! We need a pilot now! And it was great.

Yeah, you were 7, 8 when this came out? Something

like that. Yeah, I was 13 in 93, so... I used

to watch a lot of television, though. So, not

anymore now! Yeah. And I just don't have time

for that anymore. Among other things. But so,

yeah, I think I saw some of it initially when

it came out on TBS. But I believe that most of

my rewatching was on Cartoon Network and Boomerang.

Right. And I just remember enjoying the show.

And I was like, oh, so it's like Batman and Ninja

Turtles if they were cats. Yeah, pretty much.

And so I was like, it's awesome. I'm going to

watch it. And I never realized how many people

were in it that I'd heard in other programs.

I knew Jim Cummings was in it. I knew Barry Gordon

was in it because of Ninja Turtles. I was like,

oh, that's Donatello in there. And then Gary

Owens. And some of the other characters, I couldn't

play some when I first listened to it. And even

now, I still can't play some of them. I know

that Frank Walker is a particular character in

there as well. And the show, one, I love the

theme, which is why it's used on GCR and Wars.

I love the season two version of the theme. Is

it the one that I use on Warners? I don't know,

but that's the one that I love. So, I'm looking

through here. I'm going to find out. Let's see

if we have Brock Peters as Dark Cat. Dr. Viper

was Frank Welker. I knew he was. I just couldn't

place a name. Season 2's intro is the one I like.

Yeah, me too. It's the... And then it goes...

And then you see the jet. And, yeah, I love that

theme so much. That was the theme that I was

like, that is the most awesome theme in the world.

It is very much so. And that's why I still use

that GCR in Wars. I got another excuse for using

it, too, because Dark Cat was in the tournament,

so... True. Very true. Did you know that T -Bone

is voiced by Buster Bunny? Charlie Adler? Yep.

Yeah, I could place it, but I couldn't place

it. Yeah, I couldn't place it at all until I

just looked at it. I know I like T -Bone's voice.

I've always liked T -Bone's voice, but I never

could place that it was Charlie. Nope, I never

could either. And like I said, Barry Gordon was

very easy to pick out. Yeah. But he doesn't really

change his voice all that much. He just kind

of, you know. Yeah, his voice is his voice, and

his voice, he uses different inflections in different

things depending on the lines, but it's essentially

still his own voice, which that's one thing that

I absolutely love about him because he doesn't

need to do it. There's so many other people that

do impressions or mimics or whatever, and that's

great. I love those, but I also love someone

that can just use their own voice. to create

characters with, which is so cool. When was the

last time before you went back this time to,

you saw the show. So before we'd researched it

for this podcast, when was the last time you

actually watched this? About two years ago. Really?

Yep. Cause I actually bought the DVDs. Cool.

So. I looked up one or two episodes a couple

of years ago, but I never actually sat through

and watched the whole show. So for me, it's probably

been about 15 years or so. I think it's somewhere

around 2000 or 2002 or so that I saw it last.

I think I got that. I'm not entirely sure if

I got that for review or not. I want to say I

didn't. But I remember getting the DVDs. I just

can't for the life of me remember when the DVDs

came out. What did you remember most about the

show before catching up with it recently? Well,

one, the jet. Turbo Cat, yep. The jet is my main.

And then the gear that T -Bone and Razor have

when they're going through. And then, of course,

you have, you know, the Metallic Cats, Dark Cat,

Dr. Viper. Those were those are my main memories

of the show. Right. Prior to this. And you almost

got like a Bebop and Rocksteady out of the Metallic

Cats. Oh, yeah. And Dark Cat, you had like the

Shredder. Yeah. If he were a crime boss. Pretty

much. Yep. Mixed with Dr. Claw. So, yeah, I really

enjoyed a lot of the nature of the characters

and what they were trying to go for. Absolutely.

For me, I remember most, obviously we talked

about the theme song, but I remember the theme

song the most. I remember both T -Bone and Razor

as characters. I remembered one of the villains,

but I used the wrong name for him. We were originally

going to do this, we were originally going to

record this like six months ago, folks. We just

couldn't get to it then. And I asked you, oh,

what's that villain on SWAT Cats? Is it the Taskmaster,

the Thismaster? And I'm like, oh, it's the Pastmaster.

Oh, yeah, the time -traveling villain. Yeah,

the time -traveling villain. I kind of liked

him. Only because of the Dark Cats, the Dark

Swat Cats thing. I love that episode. That's

my favorite episode of, like, storytelling kind

of thing. Because, let's face it, like, this

series does tell a story, and it is very good.

But it still, at the same time, is a 90s cartoon

that does Villain of the Week stuff. You still

have overarching things in this cartoon, like

Feral's always like, oh, those SWAT cats, I'm

going to arrest them. Well, I kind of get, like,

if you had J. Jonah Jameson as Commissioner Gordon's

job, and they're like, I'll get you, you know,

and I'm just like, okay, I get it. Yep. He hates

the, you know, I'll get those SWAT cats. Yep.

Absolutely. And what level of a fan were we heading

into the prep work for this record? I love going

back and watching this show. Can I watch all

23 or however many episodes there are? No, I

can watch specific ones, though. I mean, there's

at least... seven or eight out of these episodes

that I would love going back and watching. There

was a thing a while ago on another podcast on

the network, Talking in Circles. What is your

cartoon TV lineup or weekday, afternoon TV? This

would most definitely be in my lineup one of

those days. Yeah, I mean, I could see that too.

I was a pretty decent fan of it back in the day.

Like I said, I used to watch a lot of cartoons,

so this was on my list of things to watch between

the various Batman series or Marvel series or

Ninja Turtles or, at the time, Beast Wars. So

I watched... An obscene amount of animation during

the 90s. Yep, absolutely. So it is now time for

the season breakdown. And we are going to talk

about SWATCAT Season 1 after this. Too bad Razor

wasn't here to see it. Hey, T -Bone, how's it

going up there? Razor! Mission accomplished.

And I guess you must have stopped the bomb from

wrecking the city. Basically, yeah. But you better

pick me up at Enforcer Headquarters before Feral

comes back and sticks us with another bill. On

my way. Alright, we are back talking. Swatcat

Season 1. Do you have a favorite episode or story

arc or character moment from Season 1? Uh, I

have... I have some episodes. I like the Metallicats

because you kind of get your introduction to

them. And I kind of like whenever we get an episode.

Well, one, you get the Past Master showing up,

which is the first episode. Um, but then the

wrath of dark cat, like I, I love the character

of dark cat. Yeah. Just because he's so menacing.

It's, it's kind of hard to, uh, uh, think of,

of how, you know, just how would they beat this

guy? Like who's, who's very brilliant yet always

loses. Yeah. Pretty much. For me, with this one,

I like both T -Bone and Razor, but if I had to

pick one between the two of them, I would probably

pick Razor because he's just slightly cooler

in my personal opinion. Favorite episodes out

of season one? There really aren't. There is

an overall story arc, but there really isn't

individual story arcs or anything like that.

I like the very first episode, The Past Master

Always Rings Twice. I think that's very, very

cool. The Dark Cat episode, so Wrath of Dark

Cat, Night of Dark Cat. I like the Metallic Cats

episodes. That episode you have the professor

who's trying to do something good, but just can't.

Do anything good with the Metallic Cats. I like

Chaos and Crystal because that's the one with

Rex's shard. For some odd reason, I really remember

that villain. I remember his design. I remember,

you know, and I hadn't seen this in years. The

Ghost Pilot was good, the Red Lynx and the Blue

Manx, because apparently the Blue Manx is the

great -grandfather of Mayor Manx! Of course.

And then... Enter the Mad Cat. They have to do

a late -night television parody. That's just

hilarious. And you basically have the Trickster

Joker type of character. Yep, pretty much. Absolutely.

I think the pacing of the season was done well.

I think that each episode went fairly well. Nothing

was too fast. Nothing was forced. There were

no real cringeworthy moments or lines or jokes

or anything like that. Did you have any highlights

or lowlights from this season? Not really. I

mean, the only thing you kind of get is like

Commander Farrell kind of uses the same canned

lines of you know he almost seems like your your

typical 60s uh kind of character you know uh

in almost like how you would have the police

in the scooby -doo episodes oh yeah he would

have gotten away for it you know if it weren't

for these these meddling kids you know i mean

it's The same type of tone, basically, you're

getting with him. But he's kind of a bumbling

idiot that's put in charge. And then Razor and

T -Bone have the hots for Briggs and Feral's

daughter. What I find so infuriating about Feral

is, even in the first season, I think it's even

in the first episode, Where the episode where

they go back and give the origin for Chance and

Jake. Chance uses the same line, you know. That's

our mark or whatever it is. Farrell, you know,

it's our tag or whatever. He says that twice,

both not as a SWAT cat and then later as a SWAT

cat. You'd think Farrell being a police chief

or commander or whatever, he would, you know.

Put two and two together. Apparently math is

not that cat's strong suit. No, definitely not.

No. Up next is SWAT Cats Season 2 Breakdown.

We'll be back after this. I told you not to take

this hero stuff too seriously, Sir Razor. We

can't let her marry the Past Master. Sunrise

is only a couple of hours away. The TurboCat

has got to be operational by then. Whatever happened

to you? Thanks for the backup. Oh, and thanks

for the backup, buddy. All right, we are back

here on ToonCast Beyond, Episode 75, Talking

Swatcats, The Radical Squadron, Season 2. This

season had some really cool episodes in it. A

Bright and Shiny Future, which is a Past Master

episode. I love that one. Razor's Edge, which

is pretty much all about Razor who thinks he's,

you know, injured some civilians when it's not

really what happened. Gives great character development

to Razor. I thought that was really cool. Um...

Swatcats Unplugged was not exactly what I thought

it was going to be. I thought it was going to

be them, you know... At a rock concert that was

acoustic or something for some odd reason. I

don't know why I thought that, but yeah. The

Origin of Dr. Viper. I love that because it's

an Origin episode. The Dark Side of the SWAT

Cats. This, to me, should have been the series

finale or at least the season finale. if the

series was going to continue. Basically, flip

-flop episodes 9 and 10, and I would be more

than happy to say that the dark side of the SWAT

cats was the series finale for this. This is

the one where they get hurled into an alternate

dimension where evil versions of themselves are

not only wanted for just about every crime, but

they're also working for a dark cat. Yeah, I...

What's funny is I completely agree with you with

all of these episodes that you've picked so far

for Season 2. The only one I would add to it

is the Unlikely Alloys. Yeah, I like that episode.

I don't dislike that episode. I'm just saying

that I wish that 9 and 10 were reversed. So Unlikely

Alloys would be... It would be the penultimate

and then the dark side of the SWAT cats or whatever

it's called would be the finale. But yeah, I

like Unlikely Alloys as well. What's unfortunate

is there were six other episodes that never made

it to the light of day. Yeah. Which is sad. Yep.

And then kind of rounding that out, There was

at some point. Who knows what stage it is now,

but Tremblay Brothers Studios was back in 2015.

It's been that long, which is ridiculous that

it's taken this long, but there was an estimated

delivery for November of 2015. Yep, for the revival

of it, yeah. Yeah, for the revival. And their

pledge goal was $50 ,000. They got $141 ,500.

Yep. And... Nothing has ever come of it. No.

And it was... I would love to see this. See,

what I'm wondering about this is... You know,

I know people have told me how Kickstarter works.

If you don't get funded, you don't... The project

doesn't happen or something or other. This is

what essentially the funding got. The funding

stages, the basic funding for the $50 ,000, they

met the goal of the new TV series Bible, three

scripts, character design, and concept art. The

$100 ,000 goal was production of a two -minute

animation teaser to establish the look of the

new series. Had they hit 200 ,000, there would

have been a production of an all -new complete

episode of 22 Minutes. So there's actually really

nothing to see, aside from a two -minute animation

teaser, if there is one. Wow. If they'd hit a

million, there would have been a production of

a five -part miniseries of episodes, so 22 -minute

episodes, five apart. And if they would have

hit 1 .5 million, they would have done a 70 -minute

directed streaming movie. Right. See, like...

And it says they were looking for investors.

I think this would be perfect for Netflix. I

really do. I wish they would take it. Yeah. That

would be the only way I'd sign back up. Yeah.

But yeah, no. SWAT Cats, The Radical Squadron,

Season 2. Highlights for me from this season

are... The storytelling in The Dark Side of the

Swat Cats. The origin of Dr. Viper, because I

never expected to see that, but very, very cool.

Anytime Chance and Jake are messing around with

each other, I thought that was really, really

cool. I was hoping in the episode that Chance

has the fear of swimming. Like, he doesn't know

how to swim. I thought they were going to show

Jake having some sort of thing that they can

help each other with, but they never actually

did. The pacing of the season, I thought, was

very well done. I really grew to enjoy Feral's

daughter as a character, because she was pretty

much a kick -ass kind of... Well, and she was

starting to kind of grow in Season 2. Yep. Yep,

absolutely. So we are going to head on to see

how the season held up. So possible topics here

that we can talk about. Did the season keep your

interest throughout? Are you itching to watch

the next season now while there is no next season

for the series? Well, there could be if they

market this. Would you continue to watch the

show after this season? Would you recommend this

season of the show to people? Would you show

your children this show? That's a question for

you later. Which I'm pretty sure isn't new, but

we'll talk about that later. So the season, both

seasons of SWAT Cats, since we're talking about

both of them, they very much did keep my interest.

There was only a few times that I... was disinterested,

and most of that had to do with Mayor Manx and

his golfing. Looks like Sultan in Aladdin. Literally,

I don't want to... As I said earlier, as far

as are you itching to watch the next season now,

I can go back and watch various episodes of this

and very much enjoy myself because it takes me

back to the 90s and I absolutely love that. I

would definitely recommend for people to watch

this series. I would so tell people to watch

Swat Cats because it was just a fun little action

cartoon. What about you? Everything except the

kid question. What are your thoughts? I think

it's held up pretty well. I didn't really have

any moments where I was disinterested other than

the fact that the mayor is the most boring. part

of the show, and I get it. They have to have

him there, but I would continue watching it if

they revived it and came up with the Swamp Cats

revolution. And I would be itching to see more

if they had it, but they don't. But yeah, I would

definitely recommend this season and this show

to people. Absolutely. Alright, now, let's talk

about cartoons and kids. Would you show this

to your kids at any point? It's hard to say.

Would you like to expand on that? Not really.

Okay. Alrighty then. Overall grade for GCR Universal

Rating Scale. Let's see. Zero to five stars.

What would you give SWAT Cats The Radical Squadron

a series as a whole? I'd give it a 4 .5 because

it's got its couple of moments but it's not I

like it graphically and I like the story and

the voice acting and it's just a pretty solid

show. The only gripe is between the annoyingness

of the mayor and the fact it didn't get enough

episodes. Yeah. A proper send -off. Yeah, I'm

right there with you. 4 .5 as well. Animation

is well done, in my opinion. I love the music

of the series. Love the theme song. The characters

are all very well done. Very, very interesting

stories overall. I'm hoping if we do get revolution

that we get more stories with the villains that

were there. Other villains as well. So there

is that. We are going to take one final break

and then we're going to have the last word after

this. Do you like retro cartoons? Then Saturday

Morning Rewind is the podcast for you. Join them

each month as they talk about classic cartoons

and interview legendary voice actors like Jim

Cummings, Corey Burton, Rob Paulson, Nancy Cartwright,

and many more. So grab a bowl of Lucky Charms.

Put on your hammer pants. Go to SaturdayMorningRewind

.com. And be prepared to feel like a kid again.

Once again, that's SaturdayMorningRewind .com.

Saturday Morning Rewind was voted best podcast

ever by its host, Tim Nydell. So it's got to

be good. On the Simplistic Reviews podcast, we

talk movies. We talk TV. We talked. Hello, Julie.

What the heck are you doing? Trying to make our

spot sound more exciting by adding explosions.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you could have got the

point across with sound effects. Not the real

thing. Download the show on iTunes or at simplisticreviews

.blogspot .com. I'm sure your insurance company

will cover that. No, they won't. No, they probably

won't. I know what we're doing today. Okay, Michael.

If we're going to tackle this podcast thing,

we've got to do something really special. It

has to be cool. daily in audio form and undetectable

by radar. Something that screams summer. I know

let's do a Phineas and Ferb review podcast. We'll

call it the podcast organization without a cool

acronym or POCA for short. What do you think?

I think if we're not careful, Kansas is going

to bust us. You can find POCA on the geek cast

or radio network, iTunes, blog, talk radio, and

all of the other methods you find podcasts. Okay,

then. Carry on. We are back here on ToonCast

Beyond, episode 75. And we're going to close

out SWAT Cats, the Radical Squadron. Steve, what

would you like to say anything else about the

show? Anything we missed or any of that kind

of stuff? I don't think there's anything I missed,

but I would definitely say it was a fun and entertaining

show to watch. Great DVD series. Even though

there's not really anything in the way of special

features. It's literally just episodes, which

is something that Warner Brothers Home Entertainment

is terrible for. For old stuff. There's no extras.

It's literally just DVD. Yeah, they are terrible

at that. At times. At times. Unless it's a new

show. If it's a newer series, they're awesome.

Yep, so the show is on DVD, so you can get it

that way. That's going to do it for today's episode

of ToonCast. We'd like to thank you for joining

us here on the show. And, of course, we invite

you to get in contact with us and leave feedback

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enjoyed this episode of Tooncast Beyond. I wish

you'll join us next time when we will be giving

you our thoughts on X -Men 1992, the animated

series, with myself and Eduardo talking about

season two of that show. For now, I am TF2 and

Mike with... Steve Megatron Phillips. Thank you

for listening. Until next time. Hey, what's that?

That was close. Do you think Dark Cat will surface

again soon? Well, when he does, we'll be waiting.

Both of us. Count on it.