Road Rovers: The Complete Series (1996/Warner Archive DVD Set)

Picture: B- Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: D

PLEASE NOTE: This two disc set comes with all thirteen episodes of the series, is MOD (manufacture on demand) and available at the link below, so if you are interested in it, you may not find it in stores and can get it there.

It's time to hit the road - Roooad Rovers!

Road Rovers is a lost Warner Brothers cartoon from the '90s that is finally making its way onto DVD. Meet Cano-sapien the next, heroic step in the evolution of man's best friend! After the evil General Parvo unleashes Professor Shepherd's inventions upon the world, mutating dogs into monsters, Professor Shepherd recruits an international team of canines and transdogmafies them into super-heroic, humanoid crime-fighters.

From the White House hails Hunter, the leader of the pack; from 10 Downing Street comes high-kicking Colleen; from the German Chancellery bounds hard-biting Blitz; from the Kremlin comes eye-blasting Exile; and from the Swiss Confederation comes devout coward, Shag. And waiting in the wings is Muzzle, their maniac secret weapon, confined to gurney and mask until the chips are down and some savagery is most definitely on the menu.

The concept of the show is silly and the animation is pretty standard and nothing really to write home about - typical of other Kids' WB titles around the same time period. The dialogue is riddled with one-liners that highlight the absurdity of the concept on several occasions. I'm not too surprised that this show didn't really catch on.

Episodes include such on-the-nose titles as Let's Hit The Road, Storm From The Pacific, A Hair of The Dog That Bit You, Where Rovers Dare, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, The Dog Who Knew Too Much, Hunter's Heroes, Dawn of the Groomer, Still A Few Bugs In The System, Reigning Cats and Dogs, Gold and Retrievers, Take Me To Your Leader and A Day In The Life.

Sound and Picture on the standard are a slight improvement over the original broadcast and are featured in standard definition with a 4:3/1.33 X 1 full screen aspect ratio. The sound is a lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track that is nothing to write home about but sounds fine for this.

There are no extras aside from the episodes, which span both discs. Just non-moving menu screens that aren't too impressive with episode selection only.

If you are craving to see dogs as super hero crime fighters, then this old cartoon archive may have you howling and barking at the moon! For me, it left a little much to be desired but I am more of a cat person.

To order this Warner Archive DVD set, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:

https://www.warnerarchive.com/

- James Lockhart

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/