La Linea (TV series)  

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La Linea ("The Line") is an Italian animated series created by the Italian cartoonist Osvaldo Cavandoli. The series consists of 90 episodes which are about 2–3 minutes long each which were produced originally broadcast in the Italian channel RAI between 1972 - 1991. Over the years the series aired in more than 40 countries around the world. All episodes of the series are available today on DVD version.

Due to its short duration (usually 2 minutes 30 seconds), it has often been used in many networks as an interstitial program.

The tune played in the background of 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 Lagostina series had 8 (5 min) episodes, the 100 series had 56 (101-156), and the 200 series had 26 (200-225).

Contents

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Synopsis

thumb|La Linea The cartoon features a man (known as "Mr. Linea" or, in some parts of Europe, "Balou", as well as "Linus på linjen" (Linus on the Line) in Sweden, "Badum badum" in Slovenia, "Menő Manó" (Walking Pixie) in Hungary, "Mar Kav" (Mister Line) in Israel, "Bajram" in Albania, "Streken" in Norway, "Stregen" in Denmark, "Línan" in Iceland, "Baljum Baljum" (Баљум Баљум) in the Republic of Macedonia, "Bay Meraklı" (Mr. Curious) in Turkey, "Barum Barum" in Serbia and "Lineman" in the U.S.) 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 to draw him a solution, with various degrees of success. One recurring obstacle was an abrupt end of 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 character's relationship with his cartoonist is very similar to that of Daffy Duck's plight in the Warner Brothers' 1953 cartoon short Duck Amuck where he too is at the mercy of the cartoonist (Chuck Jones). Their reactions to their artists' whims are also very similar in as they both try to work with what is drawn around them, but often end up hurt and losing their tempers.

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.

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Distribution

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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, Roy, Goriddle Gorilla, Gary Gnu, and Knock Knock, before the cartoon was played. Not all La Linea cartoons were featured on this show.
  • In Canada, the La Linea cartoons aired on Radio-Canada and TVOntario.
  • From June 30, 2008 until October 31, 2008, the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet published all episodes of La Linea as daily episodes on its website(La Linea 1-8, La Linea 101-156, and La Linea 200-225).
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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 Sweden. A set of two DVDs containing 56 episodes is sold in Quebec since 2008 by Imavision.

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Popular culture

  • 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.
  • A similar concept was used in the final introduction for the British version of Whose Line is it Anyway?.
  • Cavandoli drew La Linea for the last time, just before his death, for use in advertisements of an Icelandic bank called Kaupthing.
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Alternative Titles

The show is known by different names around the world, including:



Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "La Linea (TV series)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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