Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds

DOGTANIAN AND THE THREE MUSKEHOUNDS
Made by: BRB International Shown on: BBC Years shown: 1985
Theme tune: “One for all and all for one, Muskehounds are always ready/One for all and all for one, helping everybody/One for all and all for one, it’s a pretty story/One for all and all for one, that’s how it should be/La-la-la la-la-la, they cross their swords and pray/La-la-la la-la-la, they’re never far away/La-la-la la-la-la, they say a prayer and swear they’re faithful to their king.”

Those crazy folks at BRB International! Fond of classic French literature and cuddly animals, this combination proved deadly; before their assault on Jules Verne (see Around the World with Willy Fogg), they thought they’d give Alexander Dumas’ Dartagnan and the Three Musketeers an overhaul of the canine kind. But the cynicism stops there, because Dogtanian was my absolute favourite show when I was six years old - I was positively obsessed with it.

Dogtanian himself was a floppy-eared beagle from 17^th century Gascogne, who travelled to Paris with the ambition of becoming one of the king’s elite Muskehounds. Initially, he was useless in all areas of swordsmanship and valour, but he was taken under the wing of kindly Porthos (an Old English sheepdog/bear), wise-cracking Athos (a German Shephard), and ladies’ man, Aramis (a King Charles Spaniel), the king’s three Muskehounds. Together they defended the King of France against the sinister Cardinal Richelieu and his henchmen, and Dogtanian also fell in love with Juliet, a maid in waiting (actually a Cocker Spaniel, I think.) The path of love didn’t run smooth, of course, and the frisky mutt had a near-thing with M’Lady, a mysterious and beautiful feline informant in a cloak, who helped Dogtanian when he was in trouble. But Juliet soon put a stop to this, and smashed a vase over Dogtanian’s head when she found out.

The whole saga ended happily, naturally enough, with the king making him a fully-fledged Muskehound, and he and Juliet married and had kids who, amazingly, were carbon copies of either their mother or father - no mongrels here.

Like all BRB International productions, they were originally broadcast in French, and, it seemed, at a much faster tempo, because the dubbing was always completely out of synch, but I didn’t care. I also didn’t mind that one of the lines of the English version of the theme song sounded a lot like “Kids are pretty corny” (see above for actual lyrics), which was always rather hypocritical in my mind.

SQUARE EYES RATING: 9/10