SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron is a 1993-1994 action cartoon about two anthropomorphic “kats” named T-Bone and Razor, who defend Megakat City in their jet, the Turbokat. Though it only ran for only two seasons, the show was a hit, receiving good reviews and becoming the top syndicated animated show of 1994. Despite this, the show was canceled before its time and in the years since, it has gained a sizable fandom worldwide. A Kickstarter campaign to bring the show back under the new title of SWAT Kats: Revolution was launched by series creators, Christian and Yvon Tremblay, in 2015. In January 2022, the Tremblays announced they had partnered with the India-based Toonz Media Group to bring the show back. While we wait for more details on the revival, let’s look back at some of the best episodes of SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron.
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7 The Deadly Pyramid
Distributed by Turner Entertainment
The Pastmaster finds an ancient headdress that allows him to revive a pyramid and its residents: giant kat mummies with laser guns. He orders the mummies to destroy Megakat City, and it’s up to the SWAT Kats to stop him. This time, they have a little help. Professor Hackle, feeling guilty about creating the Metallikats, gives the Swat Kats a robot companion named Cybertron to help out. This is one of the best animated episodes in the show. The mummies prove to be incredibly tough opponents and give our heroes, as T-Bone puts it, “a bad vehicle day,” as both the Turbokat and the Cyclotron take heavy damage. Even the Enforcers, who are almost always outclassed by the SWAT Kats, get a moment to shine once the SWAT Kats share the secret of beating the mummies with them. Cybertron was supposed to come back in a future episode, but the show was canceled before that episode was produced.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
6 The Dark Side of the SWAT Kats
While experimenting with the Turbokat’s new dimensional radar, a stray lightning bolts knocks the SWAT Kats into an alternate dimension where they are wanted for every crime in Megakat City and working for Dark Kat. Dark Kat and the evil SWAT Kats are planning to steal a detonator to place in a bomb that will destroy Enforcer Headquarters, something our heroes obviously can’t allow. One of the strengths of the episode is seeing how differently the good SWAT Kats and the bad SWAT Kats interact. Where the good ones are always supportive and friendly with each other, the bad ones will insult each other. If the good ones sneak into a weapons facility quietly, the bad ones will beat up the guards just for fun. There’s even a shocking reveal that another normally good character is in league with Dark Kat. All of this adds up to a great “what-if” episode and the final fight between the two Turbokats is quite fun, too.
5 Razor’s Edge
Commander Feral’s biggest issue with the SWAT Kats is that they’re reckless vigilantes who do more harm than good. This is an episode that touches on that. While chasing Dark Kat’s Black Widow craft, the SWAT Kats fire two missiles that blow up an abandoned warehouse and injure two innocent bystanders. Razor, being the one who fired the missiles, is horribly shaken up by this and worries that it’ll happen again. This has the unfortunate effect of leaving the SWAT Kats powerless to stop Dark Kat as he continues to steal components to make his Black Widow unstoppable. Of course, not everything is as it seems as Dark Kat set our heroes up and rigged the warehouse to explode. It’s a great episode for both SWAT Kats. Razor gets the more emotional journey, while T-Bone uses some investigative skills to realize that the missiles couldn’t have done the damage that the warehouse sustained. It’s still an action-packed episode, as every episode of the show is, but the dramatic moments in this one really stand out.
4 Katastrophe
The season finale for the first season sees Dark Kat form an alliance with all the show’s major recurring villains (except the Pastmaster) to kill the SWAT Kats once and for all. Villain team-up episodes are always a challenge since there’s only so much screen-time to go around, especially for a 22-minute cartoon. Luckily, all the villains get at least one moment to shine. Their interactions with each other are quite fun, and it looks like the alliance is enough to kill our heroes. However, the alliance falls apart due to infighting and every villain planning to betray the others, Dark Kat especially. A perfect opportunity for the SWAT Kats and Commander Feral to exploit.
3 Destructive Nature
This episode sees Megakat City’s newest and tallest skyscraper taken over by Dr. Viper, who creates an army of plant-animal hybrids to keep everyone else out while he readies a spore pod to explode and turn Megakat City into a giant swamp. With Deputy Mayor Callie Briggs trapped inside, Razor must sneak into the skyscraper to rescue her and stop Dr. Viper. The episode is essentially Die Hard with Razor playing John McClane. Viper’s mutant plantimals, as he calls them, prove to be very difficult to defeat. No weapons the Enforcers or the SWAT Kats can throw at them seem to work… until Razor discovers that freezing them does. So how do the SWAT Kats stop Viper? By dropping a bomb of rocket coolant on the building, with Razor hooting and hollering Dr. Strangelove-style as he does so.
2 A Bright And Shiny Future
The second episode of the second season sees the Pastmaster bring the SWAT Kats into a nightmarish future, where the Metallikats rule Megakat City (now called Metallikat City), have enslaved all non-robots, and the future SWAT Kats are dead. The Metallikats show their gratitude to the Pastmaster (he’s the one who helped them take over the city) by… betraying him and stealing his magic watch. Now it’s up to the SWAT Kats to not only liberate the city, but return to their own time. The future city is animated beautifully. The show received a new animation style for its second season and this episode really shows it off. It’s easily a top-tier SWAT Kats episode.
1 Metal Urgency
The Metallikats escape from Professor Hackle’s lab and try to recover the Metallikat Express from the salvage yard that serves as the front for the SWAT Kats. Unfortunately for the SWAT Kats, the Metallikats discover the Swat Kats’ hidden hangar and learn their secret identities. After seemingly defeating the deadly duo, the SWAT Kats learn that their heads are gone, and the Metallikats plan to replace their destroyed bodies with two giant robots with enough firepower to level the city. This is such a fantastic episode. Not only is there the normal threat of the Metallikats, but there’s the added threat of them knowing the SWAT Kats’ secret identities. It’s a tough situation since the Metallikats threaten to spill the beans unless the SWAT Kats back off. The fight between the heroes and villains in the hangar shows some inventiveness on the SWAt Kats’ part. The fight with the two robots is mayhem in all the best ways. Even Commander Feral gets a very powerful, character revealing moment when the Metallikats offer him the secret identities of the SWAT Kats in exchange for their freedom. All of this adds up to the best episode of the show.
