| | Zorro: The Sword and the Rose (2007) The melodrama loosely follows the retcon of Zorro from the 2005 novel by Isabel Allende, yet also uses the major characters from the 1950s Disney series. It shows a fantastic, ahistorical version of colonial Los Angeles full of romance, royal intrigue, and witchcraft, even polygamy. The city is populated with gypsies, slaves, clerics, cannibals, conspirators, rebellious Indians and Amazon warriors, along with Spanish settlers, soldiers, pirates and mestizo peasants. Bunny Wigglesworth does not appear in this version, however. The hero, Don Diego de la Vega, adopts the secret identity of Zorro, the masked avenger. Instead of being a Spaniard, however, Diego is now a mestizo born in the 1790s to a white father, Don Alejandro de la Vega, and his wife, a Native American warrior named Toypurnia, who was given the name Regina when she married Alejandro. (Curiously, the de la Vegas also own at least one slave, Delores, who is Diego's nanny and conserje of the family house.) Diego learned his acrobatics and fencing skills in Barcelona, under the tutelage of a great swordmaster. Remembering the injustices he saw as a child, he returned to his family's California hacienda. Now he lives as both a nobleman and a vigilante, fighting imperialist oppression. He is backed by the brotherhood of Zorro, a secret society called the Knights of the Broken Thorn. Since this is a telenovela, much of the drama focuses on romantic melodrama and family intrigue. Here, Zorro falls in love with a beautiful young widow, Esmeralda Sánchez de Moncada. She arrives in California with her sister and her father, Fernando Sánchez de Moncada, the newly appointed governor -- and villainous dictator -- of Los Angeles. The hero must challenge a host of evildoers, branding them with the distinctive Zorro “Z” - made from three swift scratches. The story arc focuses on mysteries concerning Esmeralda's long-lost mother and the man whose atrocities changed Diego's life forever. Their resolution threatens to shake the Spanish Empire. In this story Don Diego is sexually active. Much of the show spotlights the two sisters whom he allegedly impregnates outside of wedlock. One of these women is Esmeralda, who winds up imprisoned, starved and tortured. The other, Mariángel, plots to steal the de la Vega fortune. Both pregnancies lead to tragedy.
| Also Known As : | | * Zorro: La Espada y La Rosa (Original Title) | | * Zorro: La Novela (Alternative Title) | | * Zorro: La Telenovela (Alternative Title) |
|
|
