Apprentice
Posted:
Apr 24, 2008, 9:16 PM
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La Linea
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Today at my local video store, I picked up an interesting DVD. The DVD is called La Linea. For those of you who do not have a clue on what I am talking about, let me explain. La Linea ("The Line") is an Italian animated series of about 150 episodes created by Osvaldo Cavandoli in 1969. The character, La Linea, 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 Italian gibberish, 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. 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 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 and Knock Knock, before the cartoon was played. Not all La Linea cartoons were featured on this show as a few of them featured some rather suggestive content that children would not have understood. 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 advertisements purposes. In Canada, the La Linea cartoons aired on TVOntario. A set of three DVDs containing all the episodes was released in Germany in 2003, but is no longer in print. Now I own, on 2 DVD Discs, 56 episodes of La Linea. I know that the degree of difficulty of getting La Linea on DVD is quite high. I was lucky to find it myself. I really like it. It brings me back to my childhood.
(This post was edited by LTFanSince85 on Apr 24, 2008, 9:24 PM)
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Supervising Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Apr 25, 2008, 6:11 AM
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I've seen La Linea. Like many Americans, my 1st exposure to the shorts was on the syndicated series The Great Space Coaster. The shorts have been discussed a few times here at the BCDC as well, so feel free to discuss your favorite La Linea shorts. You're not alone in enjoying them. 
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I love humanity, it's people that I have issues with.
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Apprentice
Posted:
Apr 25, 2008, 6:41 AM
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I always thought I was the only one who liked them.
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Animator
Posted:
Apr 25, 2008, 9:36 PM
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I always thought I was the only one who liked them. I watched these as well. Sadly the creator of the series passed away last year.
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