Wild C.A.T.s is a short-lived Canadian-American cartoon based on the Wild Storm comic of the same name and produced by Nelvana.
Thousands of years before human history even began, two warring factions of alien races were stranded on Earth: the heroic Kherubim and the evil Daemonites. Battling each other in secret, the Daemonites ultimately seek total domination of the planet, while the Kherubim (as well as some of their half-human descendants) have organized themselves into a squadron of fearless superpowered warriors known as WildC.A.T.s (with the "C.A.T." standing for Covert Action Team). But as the dawn of the twenty-first century approaches, the ancient conflict between the Daemonites and the Kherubim nears its climax, and soon the fate of both Earth and humanity will be determined in the ultimate battle between good and evil!
The show lasted from October 1, 1994 to January 21, 1995 for a single season of 13 episodes on CBS.
Every episode is available on Nelvana's Retro Rerun
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This series provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: In the comic, Voodoo's only abilities are telepathy and separating Daemonites from their hosts, making her an important member, but useless in a fight until Zealot gave her some Coda training. Here, she is given telekinesis as well. The show still makes a point of it taking Voodoo most of the season to develop any stomach for a fight, though.
- Adaptational Skill: Warblade is shown to be a computer expert here, in addition to the martial arts skills he had in the comics.
- Adaptational Species Change:
- In the comics Spartan is an android, here he's a Cyborg instead.
- In the comics Void was a human woman who was merged with an Orb of Power, here she’s a Kherubim supercomputer with a Gynoid body.
- In the comics Jacob Marlowe was revealed to be the Kherubim Lord Emp, here he’s a normal human being.
- In the comics Pike was a human/Kherubim hybrid who worked for the Daemonites, whereas here he is a Daemonite.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: In the comics Maul would become dumber the larger he grows, but here this aspect of is dropped with him getting more enraged as he grows.
- Age Lift: Voodoo was an adult in the comics, but a teenager here.
- Almost Kiss: Zealot and Grifter spend most of the thirteen episodes doing the UST dance; when they finally admit their feelings, they lean in...and then an emergency warning starts blaring.Grifter: Couldn't have waited thirty seconds?
- Artifact of Doom: The series MacGuffin that the heroes and villains are in a desperate race to find, the Orb, is an artifact left behind by the Precursors on Earth that can give anyone power on a cosmic scale. It's also evil to the core, possibly more evil than the Big Bad himself. Guess the Precursors hid the thing on Earth for good reason.
- Badass Bookworm: Warblade, who runs a computer programming operation in the first episode and in general fills the role of The Smart Guy for the team, but who's also a black belt who morphs his arms into weapons.
- Badass Normal: Grifter is the only member of the team who is full-blooded human, while the rest have superpowers due to being descendants or full-blooded members of an ancient alien super-race. His only powers are trickiness, good aim, and general badassery.
- The Big Guy: Maul, the one with Super-Strength who's physically the biggest already, but also has the power to grow into a giant.
- Bragging Theme Tune: The show had one:WildC.A.T.s , WildC.A.T.s
We've got invincible power
WildC.A.T.s , WildC.A.T.s
Yaah!
One and only WildC.A.T.s
We're heroes, Not zeroes
We got what, They fear so
Here's the facts
We got power to the max
You know we're tough as nails
When all else fails
call WildC.A.T.s
Nerves of steel
WildC.A.T.s
Here's the deal
WildC.A.T.s
Better watch out - Captain's Log: Every episode starts with Jacob Marlowe making an audio log of the latest mission the episode's about. The first episode starts on number 1, even though the team's mostly formed and begins on them completing their roster by recruiting Warblade. A few later episodes even have an earlier log number than the one before. The randomness stands out more in that the series was unique for an animated series of the time in having a definite Story Arc, where the villain has a clear goal he gradually gets closer to over the course of the season.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: Had a comic tie-in called WildC.A.T.s Adventures which retold the first 10 episodes of the show.
- Contrived Coincidence: In episode 4, Daemonites plan to lure Voodoo into a trap by sending her a letter to where she used to live. Coincidentally, Voodoo quits the team and goes to her old place and finds the letter, despite the place being abandoned.
- Crimefighting with Cash: When the team itself was temporarily unavailable and with no evidence strong enough to bring the government in to stop the Daemonites, their corporate sponsor, Jacob Marlowe crippled the villain's plan by figuring out what highway the enemies were going to have to travel down, buying it, and turning it into a toll road (somehow managing to do this in one night). When the Daemonite transport runs the tollbooth without paying, this provides him with the evidence he needs to bring the government down on them. In the series finale, he discovers that the Daemonites had acquired a nuclear missile and were transporting it cross country to kill the heroes. He starts by having shrapnel and debris scattered across the road and then had his company buy all the truck tires in the area. The truck blows its tires and then has to wait for replacements. Then he proceeds to buy the inventory of all the gas stations in the area, leaving the truck desperate for fuel. When the Daemonites finally overcome these obstacles and launch the missile, Marlowe then buys out a competitor's entire company (using some highly illegal market manipulations) for the sole purpose of being able to order the pilot of said competitor's private jet to intercept the missile.
- Decomposite Character: In the comics, Voodoo was introduced as the newly recruited rookie of the team, here that role is given to Warblade, with Voodoo already a member of the team before the start of the series.
- Human Alien Discovery: The show starts with Reno Pryce (aka Warblade), having the discovery he wasn't Human All Along as he thought. Or at least that he has Kherubin roots, being recruited by the Wild CATS in the first episode.
- Interspecies Romance: Between Zealot, a pureblooded Kherubim who's hundreds of years old, and Grifter, the only one with no powers or alien heritage on the team.
- Lighter and Softer: The original comics are very violent, dark and cynical. By contrast, the show is more standard superhero fare.
- Merchandise-Driven: The cartoon has every villain working for Helspont (even the Troika, who worked for rival villain Gnome in the first comic miniseries) to get the more toyetic setting of "a hero group against a villain group". Accordingly, there was an action figure line based on the show.
- Play-Along Prisoner: In one episode, a friend of Grifter's has just finished a jail sentence. The warden is proud of the fact that he was able to hold a notorious robber for his entire sentence. Grifter simply said "You weren't holding him. He was just serving his time." Said robber proves this right when he breaks out of the prison in a matter of minutes, with the breakout starting the moment his sentence officially ended - just to prove that he could have broken out at any time if he'd wanted to.
- Side Bet: Maul and Warblade bet on how many days it's going to take Grifter and Zealot to give in to their simmering UST. When they confess their feelings before the end of the episode, Warblade smugly collects his money.
- The Smurfette Principle: Taboo is the only Daemonite female under Helspont's command.
- Theme Tune Rap: The theme starts off as an upbeat rock song, then transitions into a rap and then back into rock again.
- Villain Exclusivity Clause: The cartoon had all villains working for Helspont, even some who were independent or even rivals in the comics. The only exceptions were Majestic (a hero in the comics) and the Orb (a MacGuffin), and even in episodes featuring them, Helspont appeared.
- Villains Act, Heroes React: The plot was advanced entirely by Helspont's quest to acquire the orb. For all their good qualities, the WildC.A.T.s don't do much but respond to the latest step in his plans.
- Weapon Twirling: There almost seemed to be some kind of executive mandate that Grifter always had to do this when he drew his guns.
