La Linea (TV series)
La Linea | |
---|---|
La Linea | |
Genre | Animation |
Created by | Osvaldo Cavandoli (Cava) |
Voices of | Carlo Bonomi (most voices) |
Theme music composer | Franco Godi |
Country of origin | Italy |
Original language(s) | Gibberish |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 90 |
Production | |
Running time | 2-4 minutes |
Production company(s) |
B. Del Vita (season 1) HDH Film/TV (season 2) |
Distributor | QUIPOS |
Release | |
Original network | RAI |
Original release | 1971 – 1986 |
Chronology | |
Related shows | Carosello |
External links | |
Website |
www |
La Linea ("The Line") is an Italian animated series created by the Italian cartoonist Osvaldo Cavandoli. The series consists of 90 episodes, which were originally broadcast on the Italian channel RAI between 1971 and 1986. All episodes were short subjects, ranging from 2:28 to 6:37 in runtime. Over the years the series aired in more than 40 countries around the world. Due to the short length of episodes, the series have often been used in many networks as an interstitial program. The background tune for the series was created by Franco Godi.
Even though the episodes are numbered up to 225, there are, in fact, only 90 La Linea episodes. The 1971 series had 8 (4 min) episodes, the 1978 series had 56 (101-156), and the 1986 series had 26 (200-225). All episodes of the series are available today on DVD.
Synopsis
The cartoon features a man (known as "Mr. Linea") drawn as a single outline around his silhouette, walking on an infinite line of which he is a part. The character encounters obstacles and often turns to the cartoonist, represented as a live-action hand holding a white grease pencil, to draw him a solution, with various degrees of success. One recurring obstacle was an abrupt end of the line. The character would often almost fall off the edge into oblivion and get angry with the cartoonist and complain about it. He was voiced by Carlo Bonomi in a mock version of Milanese that resembled gibberish as much as possible, giving the cartoon the possibility to be easily exported without dubbing. The voice resembles Pingu's, the Swiss animated penguin, which was also voiced by Bonomi.
The first 8 episodes of the series were, in fact, created to publicize Lagostina kitchenware products, and the accompanying narration identified Mr. Linea as "Agostino Lagostina, a sharp little man with a truly expressive nose." After the 8th episode, however, the series broke its association with Lagostina.
Television
From 1972 on La Linea was shown on numerous TV stations in Europe as well as in cinema, mostly as interstitial between commercials. La Linea was shown in more than 40 countries over the world. The series won prizes 1972 in Annecy and 1973 in Zagreb.
- In the United States, the cartoons were featured on the children's TV series The Great Space Coaster, although La Linea was given different names by the show's characters before the cartoon was played. Not all La Linea cartoons were featured on this show, as some had a mature theme and were therefore inappropriate for children.
- It was also featured as part of KQED's International Animation Festival in the 1970s
- La Linea was also featured on the Nickelodeon during Pinwheel as one of their animated shorts.
- In Canada, the La Linea cartoons aired on Radio-Canada and TVO.
- It was screened by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Australia as a filler between longer programmes.
- From June 30, 2008 until October 31 the same year, Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet published all episodes of La Linea [1] as daily episodes on its website(La Linea 1-8, La Linea 101-156, and La Linea 200-225).
DVD releases
A set of three DVDs containing all the episodes was released in Germany in 2003 and re-edited in September 2008. The first volume was released in France, Hungary, Serbia and Scandinavia. A set of two DVDs containing 56 episodes is sold in Quebec since 2008 by Imavision. The complete series was released in Scandinavia in the beginning of 2008 in a 3-disc box set.
Popular culture
- The music video Italian DJ Gigi D'Agostino's 1999 hit song Bla Bla Bla as well as his cover of Nik Kershaw's song The Riddle are animated in the style of La Linea.
- The opening of the UK TV series Whose Line Is It Anyway? used La Linea style for seasons 5-9.
- In 2005, the video for the Jamiroquai song "(Don't) Give Hate a Chance" paid homage to La Linea. The video is an animated commentary on the War on Terrorism and features 3D representations of the familiar La Linea character, as well as the animator's hand and pencil.
- BabyFirst TV uses a La Linea style animation for the opening and closing animation for their BabyFirst TV FYI segments
- In October 2012 Ford ran a TV ad campaign for its C-MAX hybrid using La Linea.[2]
Alternative titles
The show is known by different names around the world, including:
- "Bay Meraklı" (Mr. Curious) and "Çizgi Adam" (Line Man) in Turkey
- "Aghaaye Khat" / "آقای خط" (Mr. Line) in Iran
- "Linus på linjen" (Linus on the line) in Sweden
- "Linus linjalla" (Linus on the line) in Finland
- "Linea" or "Badum Badum" in Slovenia
- "Balum balum" and sometimes "Złośniczek" in Poland
- "Menő Manó" (Walking Elf or Cool Elf) in Hungary
- "Mar Kav" / "מר קו" (Mr. Line) in Israel
- "Barum Badum" in Albania and Kosovo
- "Streken" (The Line) in Norway
- "Stregen" (The Line) in Denmark
- "Línan" (The Line) in Iceland
- "Бајум Бајум" in Republic of Macedonia
- "Барум Барум" / "Barum Barum" or "Абаракандиши Ди Фјури" / "Abarakandiši Di Fjuri" in Serbia
- "Lineman" in the United States
- "La Linéa" in France
- "A Linha" in Brazil
- "Lijntje" in the Netherlands
- "Abelardo" in Argentina
- "La ligne" in Québec, Canada
- "Bajum Badum" in Croatia
- "Μπαρούμ Μπαρούμ" in Greece
References
- ↑ http://www.dagbladet.no/streken
- ↑ "Ford C-MAX Commercials Launch with La Linea". Retrieved 2012-11-05.
External links
- La Linea on IMDb
- Pictures of La Linea (in German)