lupercal
11-08-2005, 09:03 AM
When I figured this out some months ago, I thought about adding it to my review of the short lived 1997 WB series 'Road Rovers', but figured nobody would read it, since edited reviews don't get bumped back to the front page. However now there is a forum here, I may as well.
On my first viewing of 'Road Rovers' I thought is was a pretty good, occaisionally very witty show, but nothing breathtaking, and that I just had an idiosyncratic fondness for it.
A couple of months ago I was bored and started watching the 13 eps again, and came to the one titled 'Where Rovers Dare', which on first viewing I had thought one of the poorer episodes. It concerned the Road Rovers intervening to rescue a sceptre, whose symbolic power had kept two neighbouring states (which in the show seemed to be placed in central northern Asia) from war.
A golden bridge between these countries had previously kept them at peace during some almost forgoten golden era, but this had collapsed long ago, and the only remnant of this era was the sceptre.
One country believes the other has stolen the sceptre and of course war breaks out, until the road Rovers recapture the scepter and peace is restored.
That was all I got from it first time around.
Then on the second viewing I noticed that on a map, one of the countries was called 'Eisneria' and the other 'Katzenstok' - and it turns out at the end that the scepter was stolen by the leader of a third country to the north, 'Ovitznia' (controlled by rebel guerillas), in order to plunge Eisneria and Katzenstok into war, and then sell arms to each side.
I realised something was going on beneath the action-story plot as soon as I noticed 'Eisneria', but I had to do a little research on Disney in the 90's to get this straight.
In fact this ep is a brilliant parody of the politicking between Disney powermen in the mid 90's. In real Life, Jeffrey Katzenberg (Katzenstok) was Disney's studio head during the Disney Rennaisance of the late 80's/early 90's, while Michael Eisner was CEO, and had been Eisner's close advisor for 20 years.
In 1994 Disney President Frank Wells died, and Eisner passed over Katzenberg as his replacement. Katzenberg left in disgust and founded Dreamworks. Eisner apparently renegged on a promised severence pay-out, which led to a prologed legal battle, covered in books such as 'Disney Wars'. Finally, a third party, a 'super' talent agent named Michael Ovitz (Ovitznia), was appointed as President. At once stage he was apparently engaged in trying to sell new movie technology to both Disney and Dreamworks - the higher bidder. Forgive me if I have some of the details marginally wrong. It's convoluted.
In any case, the lost 'Golden Age' in the ep obviously refers to the period which ended with 'The Lion King', which is when the Katzenberg-Eisner feud erupted and Katzenberg left to form Dreamworks. At the end of the ep, when the scepter is recaptured, the ambassadors of Eisneria and Katzenstok make up and pledge themselves to a future of friendship, the Golden Bridge rises again, and the three countries (including Ovitnzia) are united into a kingdom which, the narrator tells us, was henceforth called simply 'The happiest place on Earth'. What I didn't notice the first time, is that the rough outline of the new country formed by the reunification is a rough outline of Mickey Mouse's head.
Of course, that part of the parody hasn't come true, but it was a surprisingly un-bitter piece of wishful thinking on the part of co-writer Tom Reugger and WB.
Let's just say my appreciation of this series went up significantly after I'd spent half an hour working all this out. And the ep played better as a straight action story than it had the first time, too. What's also impressive is that the first time I saw it, the parody was subtle enough that I didn't notice it at all. It's one thing to write a multi-layered script, quite another to make the symbolism and in-jokes for the adults so completely transparent and unobtrusive that they doesn't present a single bump or 'huh?' in an adventure story for the kids.
I think I wrote before that 'Road Rovers' was Warner TV animation's last gasp after the classic Tiny-Toons-Animaniacs renaissance. Now I'm thinking maybe it actually belongs in that period.
Loop
On my first viewing of 'Road Rovers' I thought is was a pretty good, occaisionally very witty show, but nothing breathtaking, and that I just had an idiosyncratic fondness for it.
A couple of months ago I was bored and started watching the 13 eps again, and came to the one titled 'Where Rovers Dare', which on first viewing I had thought one of the poorer episodes. It concerned the Road Rovers intervening to rescue a sceptre, whose symbolic power had kept two neighbouring states (which in the show seemed to be placed in central northern Asia) from war.
A golden bridge between these countries had previously kept them at peace during some almost forgoten golden era, but this had collapsed long ago, and the only remnant of this era was the sceptre.
One country believes the other has stolen the sceptre and of course war breaks out, until the road Rovers recapture the scepter and peace is restored.
That was all I got from it first time around.
Then on the second viewing I noticed that on a map, one of the countries was called 'Eisneria' and the other 'Katzenstok' - and it turns out at the end that the scepter was stolen by the leader of a third country to the north, 'Ovitznia' (controlled by rebel guerillas), in order to plunge Eisneria and Katzenstok into war, and then sell arms to each side.
I realised something was going on beneath the action-story plot as soon as I noticed 'Eisneria', but I had to do a little research on Disney in the 90's to get this straight.
In fact this ep is a brilliant parody of the politicking between Disney powermen in the mid 90's. In real Life, Jeffrey Katzenberg (Katzenstok) was Disney's studio head during the Disney Rennaisance of the late 80's/early 90's, while Michael Eisner was CEO, and had been Eisner's close advisor for 20 years.
In 1994 Disney President Frank Wells died, and Eisner passed over Katzenberg as his replacement. Katzenberg left in disgust and founded Dreamworks. Eisner apparently renegged on a promised severence pay-out, which led to a prologed legal battle, covered in books such as 'Disney Wars'. Finally, a third party, a 'super' talent agent named Michael Ovitz (Ovitznia), was appointed as President. At once stage he was apparently engaged in trying to sell new movie technology to both Disney and Dreamworks - the higher bidder. Forgive me if I have some of the details marginally wrong. It's convoluted.
In any case, the lost 'Golden Age' in the ep obviously refers to the period which ended with 'The Lion King', which is when the Katzenberg-Eisner feud erupted and Katzenberg left to form Dreamworks. At the end of the ep, when the scepter is recaptured, the ambassadors of Eisneria and Katzenstok make up and pledge themselves to a future of friendship, the Golden Bridge rises again, and the three countries (including Ovitnzia) are united into a kingdom which, the narrator tells us, was henceforth called simply 'The happiest place on Earth'. What I didn't notice the first time, is that the rough outline of the new country formed by the reunification is a rough outline of Mickey Mouse's head.
Of course, that part of the parody hasn't come true, but it was a surprisingly un-bitter piece of wishful thinking on the part of co-writer Tom Reugger and WB.
Let's just say my appreciation of this series went up significantly after I'd spent half an hour working all this out. And the ep played better as a straight action story than it had the first time, too. What's also impressive is that the first time I saw it, the parody was subtle enough that I didn't notice it at all. It's one thing to write a multi-layered script, quite another to make the symbolism and in-jokes for the adults so completely transparent and unobtrusive that they doesn't present a single bump or 'huh?' in an adventure story for the kids.
I think I wrote before that 'Road Rovers' was Warner TV animation's last gasp after the classic Tiny-Toons-Animaniacs renaissance. Now I'm thinking maybe it actually belongs in that period.
Loop