''Taratabong: The World of the Meloditties'' (original Italian: ''Taratabong! Il Mondo dei Musicilli'') is a
cartoon
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...
produced and directed by Italian studio Toposodo, based on an idea by Marco Bigliazzi and Fabrizio Bondi, and distributed worldwide by
Mediatoon. It is intended for children aged 2 to 4 years.
Taratabong is the world inhabited by the Meloditties, which are animated musical instruments.
Characters
Main Characters
* Trumpee (a cute female
trumpet - Snari’s sister)
* Snaree (a funny male
snare drum
The snare (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used ...
- Trumpi's brother)
* Pino (a little sweet, bubbly, and friendly male upright
toy piano - Trumpi and Snari’s best friend)
* Maestro Nomo (voiced by Frank Welker, a male
metronome and the music teacher)
* Bone (a male
trombone, father of Trumpi and Snari)
* Drumba (a female
bass drum
The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. Th ...
, mother of Trumpi and Snari)
* The Xylo brothers (individual keys on a
xylophone)
* The great Grando (a male
grand piano, father of Pino)
* The Narrator (voiced by Sharon Mann in English, a female narrator interacts with and talk to the Meloditties)
Supporting Characters
* Pipeorg (a male
pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...
)
* Barello (a male
barrel organ)
* Trebass (a male
double bass, Iolin’s dad)
* Mari and Bimba (
marimbas
The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...
)
* Chimeo (a female
chimes)
* Rino (a female
tambourine)
* Grandpa Tuba (a male
Tuba, father of Bone)
* Fluto (a female in English or male in polish
flute
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
)
* Tymp and Tump, the
timpani twins
* Iolin (a male
violin)
* Tarrita (a female in English and male in polish girly girl
guitar)
* Paco (a
bass guitar, Electra’s cousin)
* Electra (a female tomboy
electric guitar)
* Jo (a male
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
)
* Andolino (a male
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
, Tarrita's cousin)
* Robo (a male in English and female in polish robot-shaped
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
)
* The Tchycapoon Tribe (a series of
percussion instruments)
* Aunt Accordia (a female
accordion
Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...
)
* Penny (a female Penny whistle, or
Tin Whistle)
* Professor Harpsy (a male
Harpsichord
A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...
)
* Lam, Ello and Phone (3
Jew's Harp
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
s)
* The Sax Brothers (a band of
saxophones)
* Clari (a male
clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound.
Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
)
* Clarence (a male
bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...
)
* Ocarina (
ocarina
The ocarina is a wind musical instrument; it is a type of vessel flute. Variations exist, but a typical ocarina is an enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouthpiece that projects from the body. It is traditionally made from c ...
)
* Soon (a male scaredy-cat
bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...
)
* Nola (a female bossy
Pianola)
* Frenchi (a
french horn)
* Tweeti (an
English horn
The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto ...
)
* Boe (a male
oboe)
* Agatha (the female
harp
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...
)
* Plate and Saucer (two
cymbals, cousins of Trumpi and Snari)
* Gingh Gong (a giant
gong)
* Viola (a
viola, Iolin's mom)
* Cello (a
cello, Iolin's older brother)
* Tom & Tim (a pair of tom-drums, Drumba's brothers)
List of episodes
# Grandpa Tuba / The Meloditty Big Band / A Strange Lesson / Drumba, We've Got Visitors
# Tarrita and Her Cousins / Ding Dong Bell / Big Voice, Little Voice / The Music of the Stars
# Taking Turns / Robo the Synthesizer / The Magic Carousel / Jump Up
# The Yawning Double Bass / The Off-Key Guitar / Follow the Beat / Musical Theater
# The Amazing Harp / The Horn Friends / The Pianola / Penny Among the Pumpkins
# Moonlight Sonata / Sound Patterns / Clary, the Chatterbox Clarinet / Professor Harpsy
# Lamellophones / The Tympani Twins / Ghing Gong / What Soon, the Bassoon, Saw
# Megaphone and Microphone / A Bad Day in Taratabong / Giant Pipeorg / Party Time in the Forest
# Paco, the Electric Bass / Taperee Remembers / Practice Makes Perfect / The String Family
# The Mysterious Track / Splish Splash / Hide and Go Seek ... the Echo / Happy Birthday!
# The Meloditties / Where's Do? / The Bum Note / The Way to School
# Soft and Loud / Wind Song / Carnival Time / Happy and Sad
# Here Not There / The Sax Brothers / Shy Fluto / A Quiet Winter
External links
IMDB EntryTV.com entry
Italian children's animated television series
{{animation-tv-prog-stub