La Linea (TV series)

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.

La Linea
La Linea
GenreAnimation, Comedy
Created byOsvaldo Cavandoli (Cava)
Voices ofCarlo Bonomi (all voices)
Theme music composerFranco Godi
Country of originItaly
Original languageGibberish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes90
Production
Running time2-4 minutes
Production companiesB. Del Vita (season 1)
HDH Film/TV (season 2)
DistributorQUIPOS
Release
Original networkRAI
Original release1971 (1971) –
1986 (1986)
Chronology
Related showsCarosello
External links
Website

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, with occasional Italian or English words, giving the cartoon the possibility to be easily exported without dubbing. The voice resembles Pingu's, the Swiss-British 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 considered inappropriate for children.
  • It was also featured as part of KQED's International Animation Festival in the 1970s
  • La Linea was also featured on Nickelodeon during Pinwheel as one of their animated shorts.
  • In United Kingdom, La Linea was aired on ITV Called CITV from 1983 to 2003, and later on ITVBe and Channel 4.
  • In Canada, the La Linea cartoons aired on Radio-Canada and TVO.
  • In South Africa it was aired on SABC during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
  • 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).

Comic adaptations

Cavandoli also adapted his animated cartoon series into a comic strip.[2]

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.

  • The music videos for 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.[3]
  • In late 90s a Polish telecom Polkomtel has used La Linea in a TV ad campaign for its prepaid brand SimPlus.[4]
  • Shortly before his death, Cavandoli made some commercials for the Icelandic banking company Kaupthing featuring La Linea.[5]
  • The ending of the movie Pop'n Music used La Linea style for the credits.

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 Dwarf or Cool Dwarf) 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 North 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
  • "Abelardo" in Argentina
  • "La ligne" in Québec, Canada
  • "Bajum Badum" in Croatia
  • "Μπαρούμ Μπαρούμ" - Barúm Barúm Greece
  • "AlSeyed Khat" / "السيد خط" (Mr. Line) in Saudi Arabia
  • "Xiàntiáo xiānshēng" / "線條先生" (Mr. Line) in China

References
  1. "Streken". Dagbladet.no. Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2011-03-31.
  2. "Osvaldo Cavandoli". lambiek.net.
  3. "Ford C-MAX Commercials Launch with La Linea". Retrieved 2012-11-05.
  4. "Najlepsze reklamy w polskiej historii GSM" [Best ads in Polish history of GSM] (in Polish). Retrieved 2019-09-13.
  5. "La Línea - Línan".
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