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

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.

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.

Alternative titles

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

References

  1. ↑ http://www.dagbladet.no/streken
  2. ↑ "Ford C-MAX Commercials Launch with La Linea". Retrieved 2012-11-05.
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