Cómplices Al Rescate (English title: Accomplices to the Rescue) is a Mexican children's-teen telenovela produced by Rosy Ocampo for Televisa. It premiered on January 7, 2002 and ended on July 12, 2002.
Mariana and Silvana are twin sisters. Silvana is kidnapped as a newborn by Regina, who lies that the girl is her daughter and the result of her relationship with Rolando, a rich man. Silvana becomes a spoiled girl, while Mariana, who is raised by her biological mother, becomes a humble girl.
After 12 years, the twins finally meet by sheer chance. After the initial scare, Silvana asks Mariana to switch places with her for a day so that she can audition as Silvana and get a part in a famous upcoming children's band called "Cómplices al Rescate". The two sisters also try to investigate why they grew up apart, and they also deal with the fact that they like the same boy.
This telenovela is best known for the fact that its leading actress Belinda left the production after chapter 92, being replaced by Daniela Luján.
This telenovela also got a Brazilian Remake adapted by Iris Abravanel, it premiered on August 3, 2015 and ended on December 13, 2016. The Remake was broadcasted on the Brazilian television network known as SBT.
This telenovela has the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Regina is a very bad mother to Silvana and is completely against the idea of her becoming a singer. She and her brother were responsible for taking Silvana away from her biological mother and sister when she was a newborn.
- Always Identical Twins: Silvana and Mariana look so much the same to the point their different hairstyles and clothes are the only things that are able to tell them apart.
- Anti-Hero: Silvana is not exactly a villain, she’s just a very bitter girl due to her loneliness.
- Big Brother Instinct:
- Joaquim often shows this towards his younger siblings Julia and Felipe.
- Female example. Despite often being harsh towards Mariana, Silvana still loves her sister dearly and even defended her from Regina in one scene.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Both Silvana and Priscila fit this trope, especially the former after Daniela Lujan starts to play the character.
- The Bully:
- Omar Contreras with Ramón; Silvana falls under this trope several times, as well.
- Downplayed with Priscila Ricco, but played straight in the earlier episodes.
- Character Exaggeration: Mariana’s kindhearted personality and Silvana’s bossy attitude became way more emphasized after Daniela Lujan started playing them.
- Damsel in Distress: Mariana becomes one after she’s kidnapped by Regina and Gerardo’s henchmen, Silvana also counts due to her being hold captive in the attic through half of the story.
- Dreadful Musician: In stark contrast to her twin, Silvana initially cannot sing well but she still sings a few times in earlier episodes such as the song "Contigo Siempre".
- Evil Redhead: Regina Del Valle.
- Extreme Doormat: Mariana is often shown to be this, especially towards Silvana.
- Parental Neglect: Priscila often suffers from her mother neglecting her.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Silvana Del Valle is rich, vain and snobby while Mariana Cantú is poor, humble and kindhearted.
- Rescue Arc: The main plot of the series is about the members of the "Cómplices al Rescate" band having to rescue the twins Silvana and Mariana from the hands of Regina and Gerardo.
- Separated at Birth: Silvana was taken away from her biological mother and sister when she was a newborn baby, however, both her and Mariana are reunited when they get older in a band contest.
- Twin Switch: Silvana and Mariana do this a lot.
- Twin Telepathy: Mariana often feels what Silvana is going through and there’s even a couple episodes where they’re able to communicate with each other in the mirror of their respective houses.
The Brazilian remake Cúmplices de um Resgate 2015 has the following tropes:
- Adaptational Badass: Julia is a lot bossier and more courageous than her previous incarnation to the point of fitting the "leader" role better than Joaquim on occasion.
- Adaptation Distillation:
- The Mexican original version had Mariana constantly experience Twin Telepathy whenever Silvana was sad or upset and was a major plot point early on, this Twin Telepathy between the two is almost completely absent from the Brazilian 2015 Remake to the point that there’s at least three scenes when it is heavily referenced.
- Another major plot point in the original was the fact that Silvana was romantically interested in Joaquim and was (albeit initially) jealous of his and Mariana’s close relationship. Aside from one line said by Julia in the very first episode, this is completely dropped in the remake and Silvana never shows any romantic interest on Joaquim. In fact, Priscila seems to be Mariana’s true rival when comes to competing for Joaquim’s affections now!(which was also shown in the original but it’s far more emphasized in the remake.)
- Adaptation Dye-Job:
- Zig-Zagged In the Mexican original version, the twins were blond haired when played by Belinda and they become brunette girls after they start to be played by Daniela Lujan but the Brazilian Remake turns them into brunettes from the beginning to the end.
- Priscila is a more textbook example as she was a brunette in the original but becomes blonde in the remake.
- Adaptation Expansion: There’s a lot more subplots added to the story in the Brazilian Remake such as the drama between the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church, a romance between the Priest’s niece and the Pastor and the fact that Isabela stayed in the Vaz siblings’ apartment for more time.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Giuseppe’s wife was known as Mamá Biba in the original, she was simply shown to be jealous of Doña Pura being around her husband but it was treated as being a silly thing and despite her occasional nagging tendencies, she still got along with most people in the town but in the 2015 remake, she’s known as Fiorina and she’s a louder, more domineering woman who attempts to control Giuseppe’s life, not only that but she’s now a religious fanatic whose rivalry with Nina is treated like a super serious thing because Fiorina doesn’t approve of Nina being Protestant, their rivalry also tend to be the cause of many conflicts in the village.
- Adaptation Name Change: Lots of characters had their names changed but most notably the main characters Silvana and Mariana who are now named Isabela and Manuela.
- Always Identical Twins: Even more so than the Mexican original version as Isabela and Manuela both have the exact same hairstyles.
- Ascended Extra: Although Doris and Mateus were always part of Manuela’s band in the original, they were still considered minor characters whose only main storyline was about their father losing his job and how it affected them while in the remake, both Doris and Mateus get fleshed out personalities and are given more storylines, some of them doesn’t even involve Manuela or Téo(Ramón in the Mexican original version).
- Beta Couple: Isabela and Téo are this to Manuela and Joaquim.
- Canon Foreigner: Sabrina, Nico, Frederico, Padre Lutero, his niece Flávia and Pastor Augusto are all characters that didn’t exist in the Mexican original version.
- Camp Straight: Frederico is a character that is very effeminate and says a lot of gay slangs but he has a large crush on the secretary Lurdinha.
- Characterization Marches On:
- Sandro’s personality was initially closer to his original portrayal but only a little more dim witted and childish than the other two henchmen but after Manuela is kidnapped, he becomes much friendlier and more sensitive to the point he is the only one of the three who turns against Regina and Geraldo.
- Sabrina’s debut episode shows her being an opinionated girl who wanted to play with some girls that were perceived as being her female friends in the school gym which clashed with Mateus’ sexist beliefs but in her later appearances, Sabrina is firmly characterized as a quirky girl with a friendless background who is jealous of Manuela getting all the attention and her crush on Téo is more obvious.
- Consistent Clothing Style:
- Isabela is often seen wearing turbans, purple hair streaks, glasses and dark clothes that are almost always purple and black.
- Isabela’s twin Manuela regularly wears tiaras and flowery clothes.
- Joaquim wears beanies, vests and rock n roll outfits.
- Joaquim’s younger sister Julia is always wearing caps, overalls and sneakers.
- Doris often wears animal hats, pom pom tiaras and very girly clothes.
- Depending on the Writer: Sabrina can either be a lonely girl with a hidden talent for music or a mean girl that rivals Priscila in terms of being competitive but has no talent at all.
- Darker and Edgier: The later episodes of the remake make the original version(which was already pretty dark) look a lot tamer by comparison(e.g: there’s a scene where Omar almost drowns Mateus, another scene where Isabela gets brutally tortured by Regina and the latter nearly kills Otávio in a car accident.)
- Dwarfism in Media: Nico was the only recurring character with Dwarfism until the introduction of Allegra.
- Informed Attribute: André’s official profiles describe him as a "vain and charming" boy who can be a bit of a Casanova Wannabe, however, this is rarely seen in the remake, in fact, he’s consistently loyal to Julia and tends to act like an average teen boy for the most part.
- Innocently Insensitive: Doris is often shown to be disrespectful towards Téo’s blindness but he doesn’t seem to mind.
- The Makeover: Rebeca initially dresses conservatively but after she starts working on Otávio’s On-Enterprise fashion company, Frederico gives her a makeover and she starts wearing more trendy clothes and her hairstyle went from being straight to wavy.
- Mistaken for Gay: This happens with Frederico…many times.
- Series Continuity Error: In the earlier episodes, the kids knew where Sabrina lived as it was blatantly stated that they went to her house to find Manuela in a certain episode but later on, the kids all of sudden doesn’t know where Sabrina lives and there’s an entire plot focused on that and it’s actually revealed that Sabrina is the granddaughter of the mayor.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad:
- Although she IS one of the main characters, Isabela falls under this trope since she often takes a more active role than Manuela and most of the main plot lines are about her as a character.
- A much bigger example would be some of the people from the village, most notably the siblings Doris and Mateus, Sabrina, Pastor Augusto, the Priest’s niece Flávia, as well as Fiorina, Giuseppe and Nico. There are many episodes where their scenes take half or most of the episode’s screen time, this becomes more notable after Manuela gets kidnapped.
- Token Minority: Chloé is the only black character among the children of this remake.
