Street Sharks


Street Sharks is an American animated television series about the adventures of crime-fighting half-man/half-sharks. The series was produced by DIC Productions, L.P. and Bohbot Entertainment and was initially syndicated as part of the latter's Amazin' Adventures programming block. The show promoted a line of action figures by Mattel. The creators were David Siegel and Joe Galliani of Mr. Joe's Really Big Productions.
In 1996, the show was retitled Dino Vengers Featuring Street Sharks with the addition of an extraterrestrial team of Dinosaurs named the Dino Vengers who were paired with the Street Sharks. The show also moved to ABC. The Dino Vengers would later receive their own short-lived spinoff, where they were renamed the Extreme Dinosaurs.
The series features theme music by Michael Benghiat and Lois Blaisch. Additional songs were written by Megan Cavallari and David Goldsmith.

Plot

A university professor named Dr. Robert Bolton and his partner Dr. Luther Paradigm create a machine known as the "gene-slammer" which is capable of changing aquatic animals into anthropomorphic hybrids by combining their DNA. In his attempt to prevent Paradigm from using this machine for personal power, Bolton is transformed into an unseen monstrosity, but escapes. Later, Paradigm gives Bolton's four sons John, Bobby, Clint, and Coop the likeness of four different sharks. When Dr. Paradigm captures their friend Bends, the resulting "Street Sharks" rescue him and the resulting battle causes Paradigm to be combined with piranha DNA. While the Street Sharks are known to enjoy eating hot dogs, hamburgers, and milkshakes, they have shown a disdain for pizza when they shoot down that suggestion to Bends and Lena Mack.
In subsequent episodes, Dr. Paradigm creates a variety of mutant animals to destroy the Street Sharks while attempting to persuade the inhabitants of their native metropolis of Fission City to imprison them. Of these mutant animals, a few sided with the Sharks themselves: namely Rox, Moby Lick, Mantaman, and El Swordo.
The final season introduced the Dino Vengers: a group of extraterrestrial dinosaurs allied with the Street Sharks against their rivals in the Raptor Gang. When Dr. Paradigm wanted to get a sample of the Raptors' DNA to improve himself, they tricked him by giving him iguana DNA, which transforms him into "Dr. Iguanazoid" leading to him working with the Raptors, where they will reward him by correcting the DNA mistake they gave him. In the end, Paradigm is captured and imprisoned while the Raptor Gang leaves Earth.
The Dino Vengers later had their own series called Extreme Dinosaurs, in which they and the Raptors had different backgrounds.

Characters

Bolton family

  • Ripster – John Bolton is the smartest, the leader, and oldest of the four brothers who enjoys creating inventions. He has taken up most of his knowledge and skills from his father. He is also an avid pool player. John was transformed into a great white shark hybrid with the ability to able to bite through steel as well as having extrasensory abilities.
  • Jab – Clint Bolton is the laziest of the Street Sharks, but enjoys boxing and appears to have some talent with mechanics. Clint was transformed into a hammerhead shark hybrid and uses his head as a battering ram.
  • Streex – Robert "Bobby" Bolton Jr. is a level-headed, cool, and self-proclaimed ladies' man. He is always shown wearing his rollerblades and appears to enjoy parachuting and snowboarding and later plays drums professionally. Robert was transformed into a tiger shark hybrid, deriving the Streex name from the purple streaks on his body.
  • Big Slammu – Coop Bolton is the strongest and youngest of the four. He is also a football player in high school. Coop was transformed into a whale shark hybrid and utilizes the "Seismic Slam", which enables him to shake or crack the ground with his fists.
  • Dr. Robert Bolton – A university professor and the father of the Bolton Brothers who invents the gene-manipulation device for peaceful uses. He is only seen on-screen in the first episode where he tries to stop Dr. Paradigm's experiments, only to become changed into an unseen inhuman creature. Bolton secretly assists his sons, contacting them through a TV screen.
  • Sir Thomas Bolton - An ancestor of the protagonists who is encountered in the episode "Sir Shark-a-Lot". He is the target of Paradigm's time-travel excursion to destroy the Bolton family.

    Allies

  • Lena Mack – A student of Dr. Paradigm's who suspects him of crime and therefore assists the Street Sharks. She has a younger brother named Malik.
  • Bends – Fission University's technical genius and a source of comic relief who supplies the Street Sharks with their motorbikes and weapons and conceals them underneath the University's ice skating rink.
  • Moby Lick – Jets Taylor is a good friend of the Bolton Brothers and Bends. Under Dr. Paradigm's mind-control, Jets is combined with an orca by Dr. Paradigm in order to make him his latest Seaviate. Becoming Moby Lick, he later broke free of Paradigm's mind control and became an ally of the Street Sharks. Moby Lick has a long prehensile tongue, superhuman strength, the ability to inhale water and expel it through his blowhole, and the ability to communicate with other killer whales. In the episode "Shark Hunt", Moby becomes an eco-conservationist in the Everglades National Park.
  • Rox – Melvin Kresnik is an up-and-coming musician who is mistakenly combined with a bull shark and exposes Dr. Paradigm's plan to change Kresnik's audience into mutants. Thereafter, Rox continues as a rock star by explaining his altered form as a costume and remains a friend of the Sharks.
  • David Horne – The President of the United States. The Street Sharks save him from Dr. Paradigm before he can be "gene washed" like he did with Vice-President Russell. Following this incident, Horne secretly leaks information to the Street Sharks.
  • El Swordo – A circus performer who worked with a large marlin named Spike. The two were combined by Dr. Paradigm, transforming El Swordo into a humanoid marlin. El Swordo remains active in entertainment as a professional swordsman.
  • Mantaman – A flying dinosaur-like alien specimen was found encased in stone by Dr. Terrence "Terry" Morton and reactivated by Dr. Paradigm. Dr. Morton then deliberately gene-slammed himself with a combination of the alien's DNA and manta ray DNA to help the Street Sharks fight the original alien.
  • The Dino Vengers – A military unit from an exoplanet inhabited by mutant dinosaurs who later allied with the Street Sharks. Once ordinary members of their race, the four volunteered to receive genetic enhancements that made them far larger and stronger to better combat Bad Rap and his gang of terrorists.
  • * T-Bone – A Tyrannosaurus and the leader of the Dino Vengers.
  • * Stegz – A Stegosaurus.
  • * Bullzeye – A Pteranodon.
  • * Spike – A Triceratops.

    Antagonists

  • Dr. Luther Paradigm – The main antagonist of the series and arch-enemy of the Street Sharks. A professor at Fission City University, he is easily identified by his metal eyepatch and later by a giant yellow robotic exoskeleton, with offensive capabilities including the ability to fire harpoons. In the second episode, Paradigm is injected with piranha DNA meant for Bends. When in public, Dr. Paradigm wears a robe to hide his exoskeleton.
  • * SharkBot – A product of Dr. Paradigm's experimentation with robotics. It was used to free Repteel from prison and frame the Street Sharks for the crime. The Sharks ultimately reprogrammed SharkBot to destroy Paradigm's laboratory. SharkBot was later rebuilt as SharkBot 2.0, which fought the Street Sharks until the end of the series' second season.
  • * Tentakill – A bipedal creature of unknown origins and species, first seen in the episode "Sir Shark-a-Lot" as Paradigm's newest weapon. It is incapable of speech and possesses limited intelligence.
  • * Seaviates – A group of mutant sea creatures who serve Dr. Paradigm.
  • ** Slobster – A lobster injected with the DNA of Genghis Khan and Thomas Blood.
  • ** Slash – A swordfish injected with the DNA of villains like Genghis Khan and Thomas Blood. Slash possesses a drill bit on its nose and speaks in a hissing lisp.
  • ** Killamari – An anthropomorphic squid that is able to project natural "spears" or "harpoons" from his mouth and the many suckers covering his body.
  • ** Repteel – The only one of Dr. Paradigm's Seaviates to have originally been human. Mr. Cunneyworth is the aged owner and hotel manager of a run-down hotel that was accidentally demolished by the Street Sharks during a fight with Paradigm's Seaviates. As he had nowhere else to go, Cunneyworth willingly allows Paradigm to gene-slam him with a moray eel and an electric eel. As Repteel, he feeds on electricity and can shoot miniature eels from his hands.
  • ** Shrimp Louie – A mutated shrimp and one of Paradigm's later Seaviates. He is not very strong, is quite the coward and his primary weapons are large blaster guns.
  • Maximillian Greco – An aged mafioso crime boss who blackmails Dr. Paradigm into using the Genetic Engineering Chamber to gene-slam him with the DNA of a rhinoceros and desert tortoise upon learning of his illegal and secret experiments. This granted Greco the strength of a rhinoceros and the longevity of a tortoise, rejuvenating him to half his real age.
  • * Zeus and Apollo – Greco's pet chihuahuas. They were genetically enhanced by Dr. Paradigm which made them larger than normal.
  • Malcolm Medusa III – A rich businessman and big game hunter who frequently targets endangered animals.
  • * Clammando – Medusa's right-hand man. He started out as a dock worker for Medusa before being mutated by toxic waste and transformed into an anthropomorphic clam.
  • Dr. Techno-Piranoid – A future counterpart of Dr. Paradigm. Techno-Piranoid first appears in the episode "Shark to the Future" when the Street Sharks visit his timeline, where he has taken over the world with an army of Seaviates. In "Shark Wars", Techno-Piranoid collaborates with his present-day counterpart to make sure an event that led to his future remains intact. When the Street Sharks foil the plot, the future is altered and Techno-Piranoid vanishes.
  • * MechaSharks – Dr. Tecno-Piranoid's army of mechanized shark monsters.
  • The Raptors – A trio of rogue Velociraptor-like criminals who come from the same exoplanet as the Dino Vengers.
  • * Bad Rap – The leader of the Raptors who has a metal brace-like device on his mouth and a rocket launcher on his right hand.
  • * Haxx – A Raptor with implants on the backs of each wrist that produce green blades. His tail has been replaced with a blade capable of spinning like a drill.
  • * Spittor – The scientist and brains of the Raptors. Spittor carries a tank with various liquids released from nozzles on his hands, tail, and mouth.