Saban's Adventures of Oliver Twist (1996)
First episode title: Oliver's Narrow Escape
How familiar with the show am I?: I know what Oliver Twist is of course, and I know who Saban are, but not this particular show.
It's Dickens's Oliver Twist but with animal characters! But it's not the 1988 Disney film "Oliver & Company". Oliver is a dog here, not a cat. But I don't think it's too much of a stretch to guess that this show might exist in some kind of attempt to cash in on the existence of that film.
It seems to be a recurring thing for Saban to start their shows with a character-narrated summary of what today's episode is going to contain. They did it in The Why Why Family and they're doing it here. I didn't mind it in an educational show, but here I might not have wanted to know the plot going into it! They even included literally the last line of the episode!
Anyway, because of this little pre-cap, some things are immediately clear. For one, it's set in London, but most of the accents are American. For another, all the major characters are the standard cartoon "half-dressed animals" with nothing on their bottom half, but we will also see plenty of fully-dressed human characters, and the fact that the animal characters are animals never seems to get brought up! The theme song even tells us of Oliver that "there's never been a boy like this", as if the fact that he's also a dog is just unimportant here.
So the episode begins with some shots of London as an Irish-accented narrator tells us how great London is, unless you happen to be poor. We're shown a workhouse where children without families are put to work - all of the children who live and work here seem to be non-human. The animation seems to give the impression that the work they're all forced to do mainly consists of cleaning the workhouse itself, which would make the whole operation pretty pointless!
The children eat a disappointing meal - the famous gruel, though the term isn't used here - while watched over by a pair of sinister cats who clearly have some authority over the other workers. One of the kids present is Oliver, and the other kids start pestering him to ask for more food, eventually knocking him off his seat to the feet of the workhouse master. He's an angry-looking wolf in a big blue coat and hat. The equivalent character in the book is named "Mr Bumble", but this version is always just "workhouse master", even in the theme song. Anyway, with Oliver now in front of the workhouse master, he gets to deliver this show's variation on the book's most famous line:
Oliver: Please, workhouse master, sir, may I have... some more?
The two cats, who are the only animal characters in this show to actually have Cockney accents, start mockingly repeating his line, so the workhouse master slaps both of them a couple of times. He does also have an English accent, but not Cockney. Then he tells Oliver he'll give him "more"... work to do, and gets the cats to forcibly take him into the kitchen to start right away.
The cats like to call the workhouse master "your workhouseship", which is wonderfully silly, and there's some lovely henchman banter between the cats as they carry him off, one carrying the head end and one carrying the foot end, as the latter cat gets repeatedly kicked by Oliver:
Cat: Why do you always get the head? I want the head!
Cat: No! You might let him drop on it! Then he'd be just like you - stupid!
The master threateningly asks the other kids if any of them also want more, and no-one is stupid enough to say yes. The cats dump Oliver in a big sink in the kitchen full of things to clean and they leave him to it, but Oliver quickly realises that if he piles up all the pots and pans, they reach the window and he can escape! You have to wonder whether any kid has tried this before now, and why the master didn't put one of the cats on guard duty inside the room.
Anyway, speaking of the master, he's eating a big delicious meal in front of the starving orphans, when one of the cats spots Oliver sneaking away through the window, and the enraged master orders the cats to catch him. I'm not even going to mention every time the cats do something stupid like crash into each other - these two are an endless source of physical comedy. Oliver, looking back, says something that I can only hear as "uh-oh, gotta yop!" so I can only assume I'm mishearing it.
To the cheers of the other workhouse kids, Oliver flees, the cats right on his tail. Oh, uh, not literally, even though he has one. They all rush into a theatre, knocking over the worker at the door - oh, he's the first human we've seen! - and they end up on stage during a performance of Romeo and Juliet, judging by the balcony. The characters look older than Romeo and Juliet would typically be portrayed, though. In the process of trying to grab Oliver, the cats end up tearing the set down!
The cats run Oliver into an alleyway and he thinks he's trapped, but then a rabbit in a top hat and coat calls down to Oliver and helps him up onto a walkway, right out of the clutches of the cats! Like seriously, both cats are holding on to Oliver and they have gravity on their side, so that's one pretty strong bunny.
The bit they've climbed up to is like a fire escape and it lets them climb all the way up to the rooftops. The rabbit easily jumps from one roof to another - is that why they made him a rabbit? - but Oliver hesitates, and only the fact that the cats are closing in on him gets him to jump across. One of the cats tries and gets stuck in a chimney, and, when the other tries to get him out, the chimney... goes off like a firework and sends them flying? Not sure that's how chimneys work but OK. The pair continue to jump around the rooftops, the bunny still a lot more confident than Oliver, until they get back down to ground level and reach a hole in a wall - they enter, and the rabbit puts a sack and a wheel in place to cover up the hole, clearly used to performing this action, and causing the cats to go in completely the wrong direction.
Leading Oliver through some tunnels, the rabbit finally introduces himself to Oliver. If you hadn't already guessed, he's the Artful Dodger. Oliver Twist also introduces himself, including the most surprising and odd piece of information about this show's version of Oliver - he specifically is not an orphan. He only ended up in the workhouse because he got separated from his mother somehow, and he wants to find her again. He even carries a picture of her around with him. She is, of course, also a dog. It's bizarre to change one of the most fundamental things about the character of Oliver Twist like that, but presumably they were going somewhere with it, that they don't get to in this episode. Dodger says Oliver can stay with his family if he has nowhere else to go, and leads him away.
We see what looks like an abandoned warehouse building with boarded-up windows. The narrator explains that the two boys followed a secret underground tunnel to get there, and that this would be the first time "we here at Fagin's fellowship" would meet Oliver - the first time we've found out that this narrator is actually a character within the story! They head in, and Oliver is very put off by how dilapidated it all seems. When he steps onto a stair and it sounds as though it's close to breaking, Oliver almost heads back, but Dodger claims these stairs are fine because they're made of "genuine Himalayan hardwood". Tricky little guy.
They reach the top floor of the warehouse and Dodger introduces Oliver to everyone. There's a cat called Nancy who aspires to be an actress, who curtsies politely to Oliver when introduced. There's a dog called Annushka who is apparently a Russian princess and seems quite snooty - when she sees Oliver she turns up her nose and says "Hm!", and Dodger claims that "Hm" is Russian for "Hello", which Oliver seems to believe. And then there is Charley Bates the pig. Dodger describes him as having "interesting habits" - his behaviour might seem to suggest that Dodger means he's a drunkard, although Dodger then claims that Charley was "hit by lightning", not that I trust anything he says now. Charley seems to think he has met Oliver before, and hugs him while remarking on how much he's grown. Out of these three characters, Nancy and Charley are from the book, whereas Annushka is made up for this show.
Then Fagin himself enters the room. He's a tall fox, and it's clear from his voice that he's the Irish-accented narrator we've been hearing. Why they made Fagin Irish I do not know. If you don't already know, Fagin is the leader of a gang of thieves in the book, and he's originally Jewish - if they were trying to avoid an anti-Semitic stereotype in this cartoon, then they've run right into an anti-Irish stereotype instead! I'm not sure if he is a thief in this cartoon, though. Everything about this gang feels pretty toned-down and child-friendly, as we'll see.
Dodger explains Oliver's situation to Fagin - Fagin is impressed by the fact that Oliver was able to escape from the workhouse. Maybe it used to be harder. Anyway, it turns out that if Oliver wants to join the fellowship he has to pass three tests, and he has until sunset the next day.
So I guess it's the next day now as it's daylight out, and the fellowship are explaining the first test, involving removing the hat from a "guard" - we'll see what sort soon - to test Oliver's speed. Dodger and Charley are going to come along to help Oliver out, and he doesn't seem enthusiastic about having Charley along, as Charley manages to fall over and roll across the room just as he's saying that he'll come. Dodger starts addressing Oliver as "Ollie" from here on - it doesn't seem like he asked before doing so.
Annushka: Is complete waste of time. Boy will never be worthy of same group that I, Princess Annushka, am belonging.
Dodger: Um, that's Annushka's way of saying "Good luck!"
Okay... So the trio head off, Nancy genuinely wishing them good luck, and they go out across the streets of London. But the two cats are following them, with a net! Forget about the cats for now, though. That's just foreshadowing.
The three boys reach Buckingham Palace, and now we know what kind of guard we're talking about - you know, with the red uniform and the tall black hat. He's human, and for some reason he has a ridiculously big chin. Oliver tries to sneak up on him and is almost given away when he steps on some dry leaves, but he's able to keep himself behind the guard as he turns around. Then Dodger openly approaches the guard and offers to shine his coat buttons, distracting him long enough for Oliver to grab the hat and run. The guard chases them for a bit, yelling in a proper Cockney voice, but when Dodger points out Oliver has passed the test he throws the hat back. See? Not much of a group of thieves if they don't even keep what they steal.
For the second test they go to a train station and sneak onto the roof of a train. To test Oliver's agility, he has to get all the way from the back carriage to the front one, while the train is moving. The first jump is hesitant but he gets better at it as Dodger and Charley cheer him on. He does make it to the front carriage, but then, not being able to see amongst the steam from the train, he falls through a hatch in the carriage roof! Not being a train expert, I have to wonder, what's the purpose of a hatch like that?
Dodger: Come on, Charley! Oliver needs our help!
Charley: Yeah! We need Oliver's help!
You OK, Charley? They slip themselves into the carriage they're on top of, not without difficulty, and then run through the train, causing a commotion amongst the passengers. Again, presumably there's just a commotion because they're kids running through a train uncontrolled, rather than anything to do with the fact that they're animals.
Oliver has been picked up by a conductor, but Dodger and Charley get there in time. Dodger claims that Oliver is his cousin (now how would that work?) who has "scratchulitis", a highly contagious disease that means you won't stop scratching yourself all over, and the conductor drops Oliver in surprise as all three of them start scratching - the conductor runs away shouting for the train to be stopped, and the trio are able to jump off it, laughing.
Dodger produces two small cakes which he says he got for them to celebrate, and Charley just immediately gulps them down without any consideration for the other two. What a... pig. Then they hear a bell chiming and it reminds Dodger they have to get to Big Ben fast for the last test. As they leave, we find out the cats had been watching.
Cat: Big Ben? You think they mean the clock?
Cat: [sarcastically] No, they mean the sewer.
The cats rush back to the workhouse to tell the master that Oliver is going to be at Big Ben, and then we see the three boys on a ledge at the top of the clock tower, above the clock face. This is a test of courage where Oliver will have to move the hands on the clock one hour forwards, although Oliver thinks climbing all the way up Big Ben was enough of a test of courage already. I'm inclined to agree!
Oliver is nervous about even trying to move the clock hands, but Dodger reminds him if he doesn't he'll be back on the streets trying to flee the workhouse master again... speaking of which, at that moment, the master and both cats approach, having climbed up there too! He's now eager to catch Oliver and both his friends. The cats chase Oliver and Dodger around, but Charley is on one corner of the tower, almost falling off and yelling for help - Oliver manages to jump over the cats and grab Charley, and then inadvertently uses him as a weapon against the cats when he swings him back onto the ledge! He doesn't seem to mind.
Oliver escapes the cats' next attack by sliding down one of the clock hands, and the cats chase him down there. It all ends up with Oliver swinging around on the minute hand, unfortunately taking it one hour backwards instead of forwards, knocking the cats down in the process so that they're just barely hanging on.
Oliver climbs back up and he and his friends get away, while the master has to help the cats back up. Back inside the tower, the cats end up hanging onto the bell itself, which Charley picks that moment to decide to ring - he doesn't even seem to realise he's torturing the cats by doing so.
Heading down the tower, the boys see a couple of guards (big-hatted ones again) coming upstairs right towards them, so they hide, and it's the cats who end up getting arrested as trespassers instead! They yell for the master to help them, but for some reason he just glares down the stairs at them. Perhaps he's only thinking of Oliver and doesn't even notice what's happening to the cats.
Back at Fagin's warehouse, Oliver is just finishing telling the fellowship the story of what happened, and Annushka points out that "little Oliveski" didn't pass the test so he can't join up. Oliver is about to just leave, disappointed, when Dodger stands up for him and points out he risked his own life to save Charley, and the whole point was to test courage. Charley, helpful for once, agrees. Fagin concedes and lets him join, everyone celebrates, and Nancy gives Oliver a kiss on the cheek. And Oliver gives a cheeky wink to the camera!
And at the workhouse, the cats are wearing stripy prison uniforms and balls and chains, like they've only just been released from prison, although you'd think they would remove the ball and chain. And the master is smashing things up in anger.
Workhouse master: I'll capture that boy if it takes all century! Nobody escapes from me! Nobody!
Overall I have mixed feelings on this. I don't have any problem with an animal version of Oliver Twist, but as I mentioned, it's not very original. Some of the changes they made just feel wrong, and the portrayal of Charley is just bizarre. I enjoyed the workhouse master and the cats, though.