The Plot
In the early 19th Century, the Robinsons, a Swiss family consisting of a Father, Mother, and their three boys Fritz, Ernst, and Francis leave Europe to head for New Guinea. When their ship is chased by pirates, they end up wrecked on an island. The Robinsons set about using the natural resources of the island and the wreckage of the ship to create a comfortable home for themselves.
While exploring the island the older boys Fritz and Ernst find the pirates, who have captured another ship and hold the captain and Bertie the cabin boy captive. The boys rescue Bertie, who turns out to be Roberta, the captain's very attractive daughter. Fritz (the athletic one) and Ernst (the brainy one) begin a rivalry to win over Roberta. After the boys end up fighting each other, Father declares a holiday for the new nation of "New Switzerland" which is celebrated with a race in which the participants each ride an animal from the island, including an elephant, an ostrich, and a zebra. However, festivities aside, Father realizes that the pirates will come to reclaim their hostage.
The family prepares a series of traps for the pirates, and when the pirates attack, the family holds them off for a while, but is saved by the appearance of a ship captained by Roberta's grandfather. Roberta's grandfather offers to take everyone back to Europe or on to New Guinea. Ernst decides to leave New Switzerland to go to a university, but the rest of the family plus Roberta, who plans to marry Fritz, elects to stay on the island.
Fitting it into the WW4C
The island itself is a conundrum. While the Robinsons speculate that at one time it was connected to Asia via a land bridge, it is home to animals from Asia, Africa, and Australia. In a feat of retroactive continuity, I have decided that New Switzerland was where the wizard Astaroth kept the animals on which he was planning to experiment before he gave them human qualities and put them on the island of Naboombu. (For more on Astaroth and Naboombu, see the entry on Bedknobs and Broomsticks.)
New Switzerland could become its own thriving nation in the WW4C, but I see it differently. The story of the Swiss Family Robinson is a lot like a less grim version of the origin of Lee Falk's classic comic character The Phantom (which was made into a non-Disney movie starring Billy Zane, Kristy Swanson, and Catherine Zeta-Jones).
However, in my vision of the WW4C, New Switzerland remains the home of the Robinson clan, but over the past two hundred years, it has become their high-tech base of operations in the South Pacific. The Robinson family fills the role of scientific adventurers and action heroes, like DC's Challengers of the Unknown crossed with Johnny Quest. They travel the world investigating anomalies, pushing the boundaries of science, and foiling international criminal plots.
In the early 19th Century, the Robinsons, a Swiss family consisting of a Father, Mother, and their three boys Fritz, Ernst, and Francis leave Europe to head for New Guinea. When their ship is chased by pirates, they end up wrecked on an island. The Robinsons set about using the natural resources of the island and the wreckage of the ship to create a comfortable home for themselves.
While exploring the island the older boys Fritz and Ernst find the pirates, who have captured another ship and hold the captain and Bertie the cabin boy captive. The boys rescue Bertie, who turns out to be Roberta, the captain's very attractive daughter. Fritz (the athletic one) and Ernst (the brainy one) begin a rivalry to win over Roberta. After the boys end up fighting each other, Father declares a holiday for the new nation of "New Switzerland" which is celebrated with a race in which the participants each ride an animal from the island, including an elephant, an ostrich, and a zebra. However, festivities aside, Father realizes that the pirates will come to reclaim their hostage.
The family prepares a series of traps for the pirates, and when the pirates attack, the family holds them off for a while, but is saved by the appearance of a ship captained by Roberta's grandfather. Roberta's grandfather offers to take everyone back to Europe or on to New Guinea. Ernst decides to leave New Switzerland to go to a university, but the rest of the family plus Roberta, who plans to marry Fritz, elects to stay on the island.
Fitting it into the WW4C
The island itself is a conundrum. While the Robinsons speculate that at one time it was connected to Asia via a land bridge, it is home to animals from Asia, Africa, and Australia. In a feat of retroactive continuity, I have decided that New Switzerland was where the wizard Astaroth kept the animals on which he was planning to experiment before he gave them human qualities and put them on the island of Naboombu. (For more on Astaroth and Naboombu, see the entry on Bedknobs and Broomsticks.)
New Switzerland could become its own thriving nation in the WW4C, but I see it differently. The story of the Swiss Family Robinson is a lot like a less grim version of the origin of Lee Falk's classic comic character The Phantom (which was made into a non-Disney movie starring Billy Zane, Kristy Swanson, and Catherine Zeta-Jones).
However, in my vision of the WW4C, New Switzerland remains the home of the Robinson clan, but over the past two hundred years, it has become their high-tech base of operations in the South Pacific. The Robinson family fills the role of scientific adventurers and action heroes, like DC's Challengers of the Unknown crossed with Johnny Quest. They travel the world investigating anomalies, pushing the boundaries of science, and foiling international criminal plots.
This causes me to think about the Thunderbirds movie, and makes me wonder if that might be an interesting direction to that this idea.
ReplyDeleteSomething like that would certainly work. I haven't seen the Thunderbirds movie, and if I ever saw the TV show I was too young to remember it, but the concept doesn't seem too far off.
ReplyDeleteThe pirates that the Robinsons fought could have been using the island as a base or a dumping ground.
ReplyDelete