Wishbone accidentally ends up at the pound and falls in love with a beagle there named Rosie. After the kids rescue him, Sam determines to adopt Rosie, but her dad says no. For Wishbone and Rosie, theirs may be a doomed romance, as in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
This is the first of three episodes to adapt a Shakespeare play. It's followed by "Shakespaw", which adapted The Tempest, and "The Prince of Wags", which adapted Henry IV, Part 1.
One tie-in book was released — Wishbone Classics #3: Romeo and Juliet, featuring a less compressed adaptation of the original story with comments by Wishbone rather than the modern-day segments.
Tropes
- Adaptational Heroism: Romeo doesn't kill Juliet's cousin Tybalt (justified as that killing was) or her fiancé Paris. In fact, Tybalt and Paris are both Adapted Out. The reason for Romeo's banishment from Verona is left unexplained.
- Bowdlerize: At the end, Wishbone's narration only explains that Romeo and Juliet "die together," with no mention made of the fact that they actually killed themselves. Presumably, the creators wanted to avoid a potential glorification of suicide on their PBS kids' show.
- Composite Character: The Prince is Adapted Out of the Romeo and Juliet adaptation, with Friar Lawrence given some of his lines for the concluding scene.
- Compressed Adaptation: The Romeo and Juliet adaptation goes from the balcony scene, to Wishbone explaining that Romeo is banished from Verona, to the ending in which the two die together.
- Kissing In A Tree: Wishbone sings this song about himself and Rosie.
- Nested Story: Instead of directly imagining himself as Romeo, Wishbone imagines himself as an actor who plays Romeo in a stage production of the play. This may have been done to emphasize that Shakespeare's works are plays and/or to decrease the blow of seeing Wishbone "die" onscreen. The death scene does go out of its way to make it clear that this is pretend, and Wishbone isn't really dead even in-universe.
- Pounds Are Animal Prisons: Wishbone perceives the pound this way. He even complains that he doesn't know how to press a license plate or play the harmonica. Later subverted after Wishbone meets Rosie and now wants to stay at the pound.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Wishbone and Rosie, of course. Sam's father refuses to let her adopt Rosie. In the end, Rosie is adopted by another family, and Wishbone apparently never sees her again.
- Unwanted Rescue: By the time Joe and the others show up, Wishbone has met Rosie and would rather stay at the pound with her.
