Wednesday, February 27, 2008

more Lady Oscar

I'm hung up on Lady Oscar since I happened to think of it yesterday in the midst of my TV ramblings. I googled around a little bit to try to find out more about it -- I essentially haven't heard anything about this cartoon in 25 years, and lo and behold, there is an internet world out there! I loved this post, written by a girl (well, a woman who was a girl) who grew up watching it in Jordan. Apparently it was huge on Arab TV with kids who grew up when I did -- she writes how Lady Oscar was an awesome female role model for her!

The story is -- I had forgotten the details -- that Oscar Francois de Jarjayes is a girl raised as a man to become her father's successor as the captain of the guard at Versailles Palace. She's hot, of course, but [almost] always dresses in male military uniform -- these awesome epauletted costumes. I don't think my Italian was good enough at the time to catch the subtlties, but it was set in the years leading up to the French Revolution, and showed Oscar's growing unease with the treatment of the common people outside the palace that was her world. There was also romance! I really want to see the whole thing now, though I don't know that it EVER played in English, which seems weird, since the rest of the world from Japan to Italy to Jordan was crazy for it. Anyhow, I think we've found an English subtitled version. We shall see! I do love the sound of it in Italian, because it rockets me straight back to being 11 years old. Here's a romantic scene:


Off to the midwife this morning. Cheers!

7 comments:

Alex S said...

Off with Lady Oscar's head! We don't want to hear another peep about her. The only thing you should be writing about is the fact that you ate TWO sorbet tropical sundaes within 48 hours. I didn't want them myself but I promised you so..i force the ice-cream down my troggle out of devoted friendship. I dream of whipped cream and pineapple coconut skies today.

Jeanne said...

Okay, I loved the post about Lady Oscar because… while I didn’t grow up in Italy, I did grow up in Canada, where we got great French TV (okay, or not so great French TV). I was so reminded of a summer my brother and I spent watching every episode of a French anime version of the three musketeers (Sous le signe des Mousquetaires) that I just had to look it up! It totally made my day. Thanks!

Amber Lough said...

We had the same thing growing up in Cuba, Japan, and Bahrain--strange TV experiences. (Particularly in Bahrain, where all we had were shows straight from Bollywood.) When I started high school and moved back to the States, I was completely clueless about American pop culture...I don't even know if I've completely caught up yet!

I'm still so excited about your baby!

lily green said...

I had no idea the cartoons were shown in other countries -- I grew up reading the original comics in Japanese and then watched them on Japanese TV. The original title was "Roses of Versailles". It's definitely one of the most romantic stories ever. I'll have to go dig out my old comic books now.

Anonymous said...

I never watched this one, but I was a huge fan of Candy Candy, which was very similar to this one. I don't know if Candy was ever shown in theUS. Also, I think there was a fight regarding the copyright and it's never been shown again, but there are some clips in YouTube. Awesome story...Candy was a quite spunky girl!

Tinkerbell said...

I watched Lady Oscar, Candy Candy and Georgie. I simply loved them all. We used to watch Italian TV in Malta, so i watched them all in italian ... there were loads more, such as Lovely Sara, Piccolo Principe etc

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this article.

Lady Oscar (called too :the rose of Versailles, Versailles no Bara, Berubara, La rose de Versailles...)

It's my favourite story. I'm mde a blog about her, and I'm always happy to discover another fans around the web.

Whe are many fans in France to love it and talk about this story on forums or websites.

This is the most romantic story I've ever seen and read.