Street Sharks
Street Sharks was an animated series about four teenage boys whose scientist father is kidnapped by a rival scientist named Dr. Paradigm and transformed into a monster. When they attempt to rescue him, Dr. Paradigm transforms them into anthropomorphic sharks. In their first battle, Dr. Paradigm is injected with the same chemical mixture intended for the sharks' kooky-but-genius sidekick, giving him the ability to transform into a piranha monster when angry. It causes severe drama, because the sharks are then painted as the villains and the villain made the city hero, whose dream it is to mutate everyone into fish people.
The Street Sharks are:
- Ripster (former name John): the leader; a great white shark.
- Streex (former name Bobby): the second in command; a tiger shark.
- Jab (former name Clint): the mechanics expert; a hammerhead shark.
- Slammu (former name Coop): The Big Guy and youngest of the sharks; a whale shark.
Their allies:
- Lena and Bends: Their friends from college
- Moby Lick (former name Jets Taylor): a friend from high school who was turned into an orca whale
- Rox (former name Melvin Kresnik): a rock musician who was turned into a mako shark
- Mantaman (former name Dr. Terrence Morton): a scientist who was turned into a manta ray
Tropes used in Street Sharks include:
- Animal Stereotypes
- Apathetic Citizens: The residents of Fission City seem weirdly...undisturbed, considering that they've got multiple large mutants (and later, dinosaur-shaped aliens) running around their city. On the other hand, very few seem smart to begin with...
- Atlantis Is Boring
- Bald of Evil: Dr Piranoid.
- Body Horror: The consequences of gene-slamming, especially on Dr. Bolton. He's never seen on-screen after his transformation, but from the looks of his shadow and the gurgling noises made whenever he appeared, Dr. Bolton became something truly grotesque.
- Catch Phrase: "Shark Attack!"
- Crossover: The Extreme Dinosaurs make appearances in the last season, though with a different name (Dino-Vengers) and backstory.
- Disappeared Dad: After showing up once in the pilot and being turned into a monster offscreen, the Sharks' dad is never seen again. His absence is the main concern of the heroes and finding him is usually their first priority.
- He sometimes appears in shadows, or as a 'just missed' character. He is still a major plot element, actually.
- Dying Like Animals: The entirety of Fission City had apparently been gene-slammed with lemmings years ago. They eagerly believed every word out of Dr. Paradigm's mouth and gladly complied with even his most transparent evil schemes. It took the Sharks forcing him to transform into his "Paranoid" form on national television to dent his credibility.
- Extreme Omnivore: The Street Sharks can and do eat just about everything from hamburgers to steel girders and concrete without indigestion. Just don't offer them pizza.
- Eyepatch of Power: Dr Piranoid.
- Fingerless Gloves: Streex wears them.
- Five-Man Band
- Follow the Leader: One of several humanoid animal hero groups in the wake of the Ninja Turtles.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Paradigm could blame the Sharks for anything he did and the citizens of Fission City would accept without question.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The word "shark" is in every title.
- Idiot Ball: Yes Doctor Bolton, we're sure you're a brilliant man. Perhaps confronting a Mad Scientist in an abandoned laboratory over illegal experiments at night, without telling anyone else about this wasn't the best idea though.
- Karmic Transformation: Dr. Paradigm to Dr. Piranoid.
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: Not too many ways to see this series anymore.
- The first five or so episodes are on YouTube and the first three episodes (which make up the pilot) are very easy to find, mostly because those were all released on VHS. Most after that are really hard to find and if you want to see the very last episodes, you're pretty much SOL.
- Netflix has the entire series available for streaming, albeit ordered differently from the original run.
- Merchandise-Driven: The toys and toy commercials debuted before the actual show.
- Missing Mom: Their mom is virtually nonexistent and is only mentioned once in the pilot, when it is revealed that she once gave their dad a watch and it was implied that she was dead.
- Obviously Evil: Dr. Paradigm. True, giant shark-men aren't exactly going to inspire confidence, but does that really mean that you should trust a man who goes around town in a giant, heavily armed diving suit? Of course he'd still set off villain alarms in civilian garb.
- Somewhat justified as Paradigm claims that the suit's main purpose is a life-support system, after a run-in with the Street Sharks.
- Overly Long Tongue: Moby Lick's prehensile tongue.
- Painful Transformation: Every transformation includes a lot of pain as the transforming characters nearly always scream in pain.
- Pinocchio Syndrome: One of the main goals of the protagonists is to get turned back to humans, though this tends to take backseat.
- Playing with Syringes: How the gene slamming works.
- Sixth Ranger: Moby Lick, Rox, and Mantaman (none of them stuck around permanently).
- Strapped to An Operating Table: Happens to the heroes in the pilot when they are being turned into sharks.
- Take That: Quite blatant "Take That" to the Jurassic Park toys on the back of the "Big Hand Puppet" toys' box. There was a small picture of one of said puppets smacking one of the T-Rex toys from said rival toy line.
- Also a blatant shot at the TMNT when during a early episode the four were disgusted at the idea of eating pizza.
- Teenage Mutant Samurai Wombats
- They Would Cut You Up: Justified, since the pilot has a part where all four are recaptured and Slammu is very narrowly forced to undergo "explorative surgery". He's saved and the others are tempted to try the same surgery on the doctor.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Hot dogs and hamburgers, though they seemed to eat anything. In a reference to the Ninja Turtles though, they all hated pizza.
- A case of Fridge Brilliance as Sharks are generally predatory animals and would prefer eating meat.
- Unscaled Merfolk
- Villain with Good Publicity: Paradigm, to the point at which he's able to blame the sharks for virtually everything.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: The Street Sharks never wear a shirt. Moby Lick, Mantaman and Killamari also go shirtless.
- You Fail Biology Forever: More likely Did Not Do the Research, but there's a reason why they are called whale sharks. Whale Sharks are shrimp-eating, filter-feeding, peaceful creatures that do not have giant sharp teeth and are not dangerous to anything larger than a tiny fish.
- You Fail Physics Forever: How in the world can the sharks swim through concrete?