SWAT Kats revival

Considering I did not back them, I am not mad at all.

I'll just keep waiting. Life taught me that waiting is a good thing. Makes things happen.

Eh, I didn't back them either, so maybe I'll just wait it out calmly like you are.

Wonder if it'll be on Netflix or Amazon Prime. I really hope it doesn't go to Hulu or VRV since I only have so much to spend on streaming services...

Two years later:

Christian Tremblay chimed in yesterday saying the project is not dead, but they're still looking for a partner.

• Hulu, Netflix, and Warner Bros. passed on it. Amazon Prime wasn't really a good spot since they changed their approach to animated content.
• An anonymous, but pretty important movie producer wanted to bring the show to Netflix, since he has an output deal with them, but the Tremblay Brothers thought his plan didn't make sense. (10 bucks says this producer was Avi Arad.)
• Remember that movie Cats? All of Hollywood sure did, and that trainwreck of a movie sort of convinced the Tremblay Bros. to wait until Hollywood forgets about it so they don't freak out about being pitched something that featured anthropomorphic cats. Had the movie turn out better, Hollywood studios would've been more open to SK. (Thanks, Tom Hooper!)
  • The Tremblay Bros. stress that they're not making excuses, but rather explaining how the entertainment industry ticks.
• Despite the hiccups, they could always try the streamers again since executives always change and there might be that one exec who loved SK.
• Furthermore, they made a 5-part miniseries to hit the ground running and a movie treatment with visual development and are having discussions with some bigtime people.
• They're going to try shooting for HBO Max and before the COVID-19 pandemic put everything on pause, Cartoon Network was tracking for the show. (I'm guessing the Looney Tunes Cartoons, Close Enough, and Adventure Time: Distant Lands sort of gave them reason to take a look there.)

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Jul 24th 2020 at 12:11:08 PM

Amazon doesn’t do much animation wise (other than Invincible, most of their animated material is older stuff like the entire Retro Crush library), Netflix is spending most of its cash on comedian focused comedies or Japanese productions, and Hulu? No idea about Hulu.

Wouldn't HBO Max also fall under Warner Bros.? Not that re-pitching to the same company never works, but I don't know if they'd change their mind, especially since they don't have a single action cartoon coming up for the streaming service.

They did have a couple of Dreamworks shows (Rocky & Bullwinkle and Kung Fu Panda: Paws of Destiny), Undone, and the underrated Costume Quest and Niko & the Sword of Light.

Edited by GamerSlyRatchet on Jul 24th 2020 at 10:49:11 AM

I'm not surprised the show's having trouble finding a network, honestly. Now isn't exactly a great time to be shopping around a series about a paramilitary police force with military gear, in which two guys get fired for screwing the rules so they build their own military vehicles to patrol the skies and take the law into their own hands.

I loved this show when I was a kid but it's, uh, not exactly a great political environment for it right now.

Even so, there were elements you could play up (they were booted off the force for rouge ways, so if a remake played up police corruption, it could work) but the fact of the matter is, very few Western studios are making action cartoons. Even companies like Netflix that have a huge influx of them are either ordering them from a Japanese studio, or asking domestic studios to resemble the Japanese ones (case in point, Seis Manos, which needs a second season). The era of the high concept Western action cartoon is well and truly dead and no one seems to be in a hurry to return to it. What you said though, is assuredly one of many other obstacles in the way.

There are way too many pilots and concept trailers these days that show up, get people’s eyes to light up, and then vanish into the ether. I still remember this one that went nowhere -

That all being said, any association with Cats does not help its case.

Edited by Beatman1 on Jul 25th 2020 at 11:31:37 AM

Update: They have officially found a partner in Toonz Media Group and they will be rolling out a press release and other news in the coming weeks.

Oh snap! I totally forgot about this!

Toonz Media Group, eh? Let's what they're all about!

They're from India. Um...okay?

Oh, they did Wolverine and the X-Men! That's a good one, yeah? And everything else they did was exclusive to India?

Um.

Yay?

Finally! I wonder if it will be a reboot or continue from the last season?

Probably wouldn't make much of a difference considering how it was a Monster of the Week series for the most part. There wasn't much in the way of an overarching plot.

Kidscreen is now officially reporting the news with some updated tidbits:

Interesting that they're keeping the kid-friendly target demographic, rather than making it adult like Samurai Jack and Young Justice.

Ewww at the company bragging about their NFT plans, though.

Plus, if this ends up being anything like Thundercats Roar or Teen Titans Go!, then I'm not gonna watch it.

Why would it? The original show was also kid-friendly, and it also wasn't like those shows.

Also its the original creators that were pushing this pitch in the first place.

:

Yeah, I'll concede: Palling with animation guys looking into the NFT "business" makes me want to slam "X" to doubt until the button breaks in half. But I guess this is just one of those "when life gives you lemons" moments, yeah?

And...I have to admit, this promo art they made is DOPE AF! (...Right?)

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Feb 2nd 2022 at 10:09:15 AM

Yes. It indeed looks dope.

The thing with NFTs is that it looks like more companies are going to try to jump on board the bandwagon than not. Why not? To the average stock holder it sounds like free money. This is how economic bubbles happen. And when it pops, and I'm sure it will, it'll ruin more than a few of these companies (depending on how far they extend themselves investing into the whole spiel).

It's a tricky situation because the NFT stuff seems unrelated to the show, and the creators have said it has nothing to do with the show. So, at least they aren't endorsing them like so many celebrities and well-known creators unfortunately are. But that doesn't mean the company can't try to integrate them somehow later.

Seriously? What kind of idiot would dare to compare SWAT Kats with Cats, other that they have cats in the show?

It's like someone would compare West Side Story with Beastars. Both share some similarities, but that's the only thing they had in common.

Edited by luisedgarf on Feb 3rd 2022 at 6:08:24 AM

There are people that stupid. Cats caused a lot of trouble for felines everywhere.

Why are NFTs getting so popular anyway? Or are they only popular in the sense that only the people who could make money on them like them?

Edited by Kaiseror on Feb 3rd 2022 at 10:55:33 AM

The latter, I've seen very few, if any, normal people who are into them.

Well, maybe coronavirus really affected the brains of some creative people in Hollywood.

The SWAT Kats Revolution Instagram account posted some sketches, storyboards, and scripts for unfinished episodes of the original series. They'll be posting another one covering more episodes at a later time.

Edited by GamerSlyRatchet on Jun 12th 2022 at 1:29:03 PM