Road Rovers

Road Rovers is an American animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation that premiered on Kids' WB for the 1996 Fall Season on September 7, 1996. The series ran for one season and ended on February 22, 1997. Reruns continued to air until September 6, 1997. It was later shown on Cartoon Network from February 7, 1998 until 2000.

The show follows the adventures of the Road Rovers, a team of five super-powered crime-fighting anthropomorphic dogs, known as "cano-sapiens".

Plot

In the town of Socorro, New Mexico, Professor Shepherd was forced to relinquish an experimental transdogmafier technology to General Parvo in exchange for his lost dog, but instead Parvo gives him a bomb that destroys his laboratory. One year later, as normal dogs begin to mutate into monsters, Shephard, who miraculously survived the attack, takes measures to stop Parvo who is behind this.

Shepherd selects five different dogs and in his new, secret underground lab, he uses his new transdogmifier on the five, turning them into "Cano-sapiens".

Characters

• Hunter (Jess Harnell): A Golden Retriever mix breed from the United States and the leader of the team. While an effective, optimistic, and loyal leader, Hunter also can get overly cocky. Hunter's power is super speed; this allows him to run faster than the speed of sound. He is shown to love playing, especially catch with a ball. He has a good relationship with everyone on the team, especially Colleen, whom he shares similar qualities with. In terms of family, Hunter lives with President Bill Clinton in the White House. Hunter is also known to have a mother, which he lived with until she was taken to an animal shelter in episode thirteen.
• Colleen (Tress MacNeille): A no-nonsense Rough Collie from the United Kingdom, and the only (known) female in the group. Colleen is the coordinator of the team, always checking to make sure everything goes well without any problems or issues. She is also a skilled martial artist, using her skills to help the team. She gets along well with the team, and with her good looks, many of them have a crush on her. It is hinted that she had mutual feelings for Hunter. Blitz also has feelings for Colleen, but these go unreciprocated, with her playfully making fun of Blitz in return, to the point of anger. Nothing is known about her past family or master, and she currently resides with the prime minister of the United Kingdom.

• Blitz (Jeff Bennett): A Doberman from Germany. Unlike Hunter, Blitz is shown to have arrogant, selfish, and cowardly tendencies. Blitz has a short temper, and is quick to anger. His super powers are his sharp claws and strong jaws, which allow him to bite and claw through most things. He also loves peppermint milkshakes and biting rear ends. He sometimes has a strained relationship with the other Rovers, with many of them teasing him. He has a crush on Colleen, but only returns this by playing around with Blitz, and giving him unwanted nicknames. Colleen has been known to resort to physical violence when Blitz attempts to lay a finger on her. Blitz formerly was a guard dog for thieves, but now lives with the chancellor of Germany.

• Exile (Kevin Michael Richardson): A Siberian Husky from Siberia. His full name is Exilo Michalovitch Sanhusky. Exile speaks English with a thick Russian accent, sometimes mixing up words in the process (ex: "Aprilday" instead of "Mayday", "Jingle balls" instead of "Jingle bells"). Exile is a kindhearted, friendly person, but also has a bit of a temper. He has a good relationship with Blitz, although he does not like it when Blitz starts acting like a "weirdo" in front of him. His super powers are super vision, which include heat, freeze, as well as night vision, and super strength. He is shown to be good at fixing things, and just as good at breaking them. Exile used to work with other huskies as a sled dog, but now lives with the president of Russia. In episode three, Exile mentions having a mother, whom he misses, and a father, whom he has a much colder relationship with. Exile loves giving and receiving kisses and bear hugs, especially when it comes to his teammates, and has an affinity for children's books.
• Shag (Frank Welker): An Old English Sheepdog from Switzerland. Shag only transformed halfway into a Cano-sapien. He walks like a human, but speaks in a half-dog, half-human dialect. In addition to this, he does not wear a uniform, instead remaining in his natural state. He serves as the cook for the team, and gets along with all of its members. He possesses the ability to carry supplies for the team, and is able to carry whatever they need, he also was gifted incredible strength enough to lift two cars simultaneously. Shag is unfortunately a natural coward and has trouble understanding most of the technology used by the rovers and it tends to backfire on him. He lived in a valley with a flock of sheep, but now lives with the president of the Swiss Confederation.

• Muzzle (Welker): A Rottweiler. Muzzle was once "Scout", Professor Sheperd's dog that was kidnapped. He was never transformed into a Cano-sapien, but instead became aggressive due to Parvo's failed experiment on him. Due to this aggression, he is often restrained on a cart while wearing a straitjacket and mask. He serves as a “final attack” for the team. Whenever the Rovers feel they are outnumbered, Hunter takes off Muzzle’s straitjacket and mask, letting Muzzle jump in to attack on Hunter's command of “Let’s Muzzle ‘em!”. Muzzle and Hunter first meet when Parvo drops Muzzle off at an animal shelter, after having failed to turn Muzzle into a Cano-sapien.

• Professor William F. Shepherd "The Master" (Joseph Campanella): The geneticist behind the transdogmafier and the Road Rovers. He’s the master of the Road Rovers, and the one who selected each of them. Without him, the world would have been ruled by the cano-mutants led by Parvo.

When Shepherd attempted to recover Scout from Parvo, he gave Parvo what he asked in return for Scout. Unfortunately, he was tricked, and he received a bomb instead, causing the whole laboratory he owned to fall into ruins and sending him underground. By then, Parvo believed that Shepherd was dead. However, he had no knowledge that Shepherd survived, thus leaving him to finish what he started.

So, he built the team’s headquarters, while providing everything the Rovers need: weapons, food, vehicles, bathrooms, transformation pods, a recovery room, and even a meeting room.

Whenever there’s danger or troubles in an indicated place, Shepherd calls for the rovers and informs them about it. It was never explained how Shepherd's hair became white after his disappearance, nor why he’s always behind a gate of light which almost entirely hides his identity. (Although he gives a very simple reason: “special effects”)

• General Parvo (Jim Cummings): The Road Rovers' main antagonist who is out to destroy Professor Shepherd and conquer the world. He has a permanent cough. It was revealed later in the series that General Parvo was at one time a Cat before being transformed into a "Feline Sapien", which resemble humans a great deal more than Shepherd's Cano-sapiens. He shares a very similar appearance to wrestler Hulk Hogan. The name Parvo derives from a canine disease which often kills puppies.
• The Groomer (Sheena Easton): The Groomer is the mostly loyal assistant to General Parvo. She's generally armed with a portable hair clipper, though she uses other equipment when it's appropriate. She also provides Parvo with throat lozenges to calm his coughing fits.

Series overview

Episodes

Home Media releases

A multi-region DVD of the entire series was announced on February 4, 2015 by Warner Archive and was released on February 10, 2015. All episodes are also available for viewing on Crunchyroll's VRV streaming service.^[1]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Road Rovers

• Road Rovers on IMDb