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. The background tune for the series was created by Franco Godi.

The series features a man known as "Mr. Linea" (voiced by Carlo Bonomi in a grammelot similar to the Milanese dialect) drawn as a single outline of an infinite line, which encounters various obstacles during his walking, and often turns to the cartoonist, represented as a live-action hand holding a pencil, to draw him a solution. All episodes are short subjects, ranging from 2:30 to 6:40 in runtime.

The series aired in more than 50 countries around the world; due to the short length of episodes, it has often been used in many networks as an interstitial program, including in the United States. Over the years, ''La Linea'' gained a widespread popularity worldwide, and it is considered to be a cult classic. It also spawned a comic strip, books, additional short movies, merchandising gadgets and objects, and countless homages and parodies, with many appearances of the protagonist in other media.

Even though the episodes are numbered up to 225, there are actually 90 ''La Linea'' episodes. The 1971 series had 8 episodes, the 1978 series had 56 (101–156), and the 1986 series had 26 (200–225). All episodes of the series are also available 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.

Production history

In 1969, Osvaldo Cavandoli proposed his character "Mr. Linea" to some advertising agencies that made films for ''Carosello''. The character pleased the engineer Emilio Lagostina, art collector and owner of the pressure cooker industry Lagostina, who wanted him to be the protagonist of some commercials for his company.

The presentation of the character, initially called ''Agostino Lagostina'' (the name was later removed after the first series) was: "Who is Agostino? A lively little man, with a truly expressive nose, with all the concerns and concerns of modern life. Son of a pencil and a hand."

The character 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, which was also voiced by Bonomi. The background tune for the series was edited by Franco Godi and Corrado Tringali.

The first 8 episodes of the series were created to publicize Lagostina kitchenware products, and the accompanying narration identified Mr. Linea. After the series broke its association with Lagostina, the character became the protagonist of his own television series, which enjoyed huge success worldwide. Over 90 episodes were produced distribution cartoon Universal Pictures.

International broadcast

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 50 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.
* In Iran , ''La Linea'' published as Mr line in ''Islamic republic of Iran broadcast'' (IRIB)
* 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-TV during the late 1970s and early 1980s as a filler. SABC-TV carried no advertising during shows at the time, and needed to fill gaps, for example before top-of-the-hour news broadcasts.
* 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'' as daily episodes on its website (''La Linea'' 1–8, 101–156, 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.

Other media

Comic strip

Cavandoli also adapted his animated cartoon series into a comic strip, which won many international awards.

Popular culture

* 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''.
* In late 1990s, Polish telecom Polkomtel used ''La Linea'' in a TV ad campaign for its prepaid brand SimPlus.
* Shortly before his death, Cavandoli made some commercials for the Icelandic banking company Kaupthing featuring ''La Linea''.
* The ending of the movie ''Pop'n Music'' used the ''La Linea'' style for the credits.
* The 2020 Pixar movie ''Soul'' has the soul counselors ("Jerrys"), which were seen by critics as a reference to ''La Linea''.

Alternative names

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'' in Greece
* "AlSeyed Khat" / "السيد خط" (Mr. Line) in Saudi Arabia
* "Xiàntiáo xiānshēng" / "線條先生" (Mr. Line) in China

References

External links

*

Pictures of La Linea
(German site)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Linea
1970s animated television series
1980s animated television series
1971 Italian television series debuts
1986 Italian television series endings
1980s Italian television series
1970s Italian television series
Italian children's animated comedy television series
RAI original programming
Television shows adapted into comics
ITV children's television shows
Channel 4 original programming
Animated television series without speech