Let's Watch This - An Episode of "Road Rovers"

If there's one thing that I've learned, it's that if something is successful, expect others to try to cash in on the success of it. And nowhere is that more true than in the wonderful world of animation. A lot of cartoons are made for one reason and one reason alone: to cash in on the success of something else. For example, the success of Muppet Babies resulted in The Flintstones Kids being made. And it should be pretty obvious that Scooby-Doo's popularity is the reason why Fangface exists. And then there are the Ninja Turtle clones. When the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon premiered in the 1980s, EVERYBODY wanted a slice of its toy-selling money-making pie.

Literally.

And as a result, many more cartoons where the plot is "anthromorphic animals or whatever fight evil-doers" were created, mainly during the 1990s. And we ended up getting shows like Biker Mice From Mars, Street Sharks, the Mighty Ducks cartoon, and the show that we'll be looking at today - Warner Brothers' Road Rovers.

"Heroes with a cold nose! PUPPY POWER!"

Premiering in 1996, Road Rovers focuses on dogs - specifically, the pets of world leaders - who become anthropomorphic crime-fighting pooches. The leader of the pack is Hunter (voiced by Jess Harnell), an American mutt who serves as the nicest member of the team. Then there's a British collie named Colleen (Tress MacNeille), the only girl on the team and the character who we're obviously supposed to see as Hunter's love interest. There's also a German doberman named Blitz (Jeff Bennett), who sounds like Arnold Schwartzenegger and acts kind of like Zapp Brannigan. The Donatello of the group is a Siberian husky named Exile (Kevin Michael Richardson). And then there's Shag, a sheepdog who's the muscle of the group and a crazy rottweiler named Muzzle (both voiced by Frank Welker).

It aired for one season on the Kids' WB before being cancelled in 1997. Why didn't the show catch on? Well, maybe kids thought the idea of crime-fighting dogs was too absurd or something.

Then again...

I admittedly haven't seen a single episode of this show before - which makes it, in my opinion, ripe for a review. Today, we'll be looking at the episode "Where Rovers Dare". Why that episode? You'll see as we go along...

The episode opens with a narrator informing us that the nations of Katzenstok and Eisneria lived side by side in harmony. A golden bridge linked the two companies. But then they went to war, for some reason, and the nations collapsed.

Yeah, it should be pretty clear what the joke here is, right? Katzenstok = Jeffrey Katzenberg and Eisneria = Michael Eisner. For those not in on the joke, I would recommend searching "Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg" online.

The only remnant of these ancient civilizations is a scepter that's located in Katzenstok - but it ends up being stolen. This does not help with the tension between Katzenstok and Eisneria. And just to add to the joke, the leaders of these two nations (voiced by Rob Paulsen and Victor Brandt respectively) even LOOK LIKE Jeffrey and Michael.

"No, Shark Tale was NOT a blatant attempt to cash in on the successs of Finding Nemo!"
"Yes it was! And while I'm at it, Antz was an enormous knock-off of A Bug's Life that you only made so that you could blackmail PIXAR!"

So Katzenburg shouts that if Eisneria does not return the scepter by noon the next day, it's war. A United States representative (Tress MacNeille) reassures them that they've got their best men looking for the scepter. And by "men", I mean "dogs".

Then we cut to Hunter and Colleen riding sleds and being chased by some guys on snowmobiles. Exile and Shag show up in their, uh... big tank thing... what is this thing supposed to be?

It kind of looks like an airplane on wheels...

They end up flying off a cliff, and it's revealed that the vehicle is actually a helicopter. And they didn't just fly away to escape the bad guys before becaaaaaaaaaaause?

The bad guys' snowmobiles can fly too, apparently, and they end up shooting down the helicopter. Which then converts into a snowmobile. Yeah, it's one of THOSE kinds of vehicles. Eventually Exile gets rid of the bad guys with his laser vision and they meet up with Blitz and Muzzle at the Rovers' plane. And as it turns out, Hunter has the scepter, which apparently is why those evil dudes were chasing them.

Speaking of which, those evil dudes? They show up again. The Rovers take off, but the evil dudes take off after them in their flying snowmobiles. Where the heck does somebody GET a flying snowmobile? I agree with Hunter, I want one of those.

The evil dudes shoot down the plane and the dogs flee into a nearby village. I know what you're thinking: just who ARE these evil dudes? Well, I have no idea, so why are you asking me?

Hunter puts Shag in charge of guarding the scepter... specifically, guarding it with Blitz's life.

Is it just me, or does Shag kind of look like a polar bear here?

At the Pentagon, a general informs the woman from the United Nations that the Rovers were shot down in a nation called Ovitsnai, which is apparently an EEEEEEEEEEVIL nation led by an EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL guy named Colonel Gustav Hovac (George Dzundza). As it turns out, Gustav is the guy that sent those evil dudes after the Rovers.

Is this guy supposed to be a caricature too?

Not only that, but he also had the scepter stolen in order to send Katzenstok and Eisneria into war. Why? Well, he's selling supplies for the war to the leaders of Katzenstok and Eisneria. Once they blow each others' nations into pieces, he'll swoop in and take over the entire region. He tells his Lituenant (Brian George) that it's pathetic how they were outsmarted by dogs and that HE WANTS THE SCEPTER AND HE WANTS IT NOW.

We get a scene where some wolves show up in the village, which confuses the evil dudes, then Liteurant Whatshisname announces that they're going to flush the Rovers out by demolishing the village. Speaking of which, doesn't anybody LIVE in this village?

I like the gag where Blitz keeps trying to warn Hunter about the tanks, only for Hunter to think that he's thanking him for giving him a dog biscuit.

To escape the evil guys, the Rovers - plus a wolf that they rescued - jump inside a truck (at least, I think it's a truck... I could be wrong, though). There's a gag where Shag has to go to the bathroom. I feel his pain... if I had a dollar for the number of times that I'VE had to go to the bathroom while in the car, I would be rich.

The Rovers end up being cornered by the evil dudes as General Havoc arrives. He's all "GIVE ME THE SCEPTER!", but the Rovers are saved by a pack of wolves.

"I have not been this humiliated since that time I was defeated by that rascally rabbit!"
Come to think of it, if they'd sent Bugs to get the scepter this whole episode would've been over in five minutes.

Then some helicopters that the general from before sent show up to rescue the Rovers. One of the pilots (Rob Paulsen) informs Mission Control that they found them. General Havoc gets arrested (and he would've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling dogs), war is averted, and the leaders of Katzenstok and Eisneria return the scepter to its original location (did I mention that the scepter is shaped like a wolf's head?), which causes the golden bridge to rise out of the water. And then, just in case you didn't realize what this was all supposed to represent, we get this.

And according to the narrator, the region became known as "The Happiest Place on Earth". Part of me wonders if this was Warner Brothers' way of saying, "See, we don't REALLY hate Disney! Those jokes we made about it on Animaniacs were just that! Jokes!"

So that was Road Rovers, and I gotta say, I'm not sure why this show didn't catch on. Maybe people had difficulty looking past the fact that it was an obvious Ninja Turtles cash-in, but for a cash-in it's still a decent show. Good voice acting, decent animation, and I personally found the Disney references amusing. I recommend checking the show out.

Of course, I'm only scratching the surface when it comes to Ninja Turtle clones... I have plans to review the Mighty Ducks cartoon, Street Sharks, and Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa. But for now, I'll say this: those Road Rovers are good dogs.