The Red and the Blue (TV series)

The Red and the Blue (Il Rosso e il Blu) is an Italian stop-motion animated series for children. It has two clay animated characters, antagonistic shapeshifters, one colored red, the other blue.[1]

The Red and the Blue
GenreAnimation, Stop motion
Created byFrancesco Misseri
Written byFrancesco Misseri
Directed byFrancesco Misseri
StarringCarlo Bonomi
Theme music composerPiero Barbetti
Country of originItaly
Original languageOnomatopoeia/gibberish (no language spoken)
No. of episodes39
Production
Running time4-5 minutes
Production companies1974 series: CineMac2TV, HDHfilmTV (original print)
L+H Films (80s TV print) 2005 series: Misseri Studio, Associati Audiovisivi
Release
Original networkRAI (Italy), ABC (Australia), CBS (USA)
Original release1976 (1976) –
2005 (2005)

The show sets the two characters in an undifferentiated white plane in which they interact. They are able to assume various forms at will, for example in one episode The Blue becomes a boat while The Red becomes an island, later the Blue becomes a suitcase while The Red partially converts his body into a chest-of-drawers, filling the suitcase with red 'clothes'.

Misseri's website describes the situation as:

Two blocks of clay. The Red is big and passionate; he like driving fast cars, eating... enjoying all the pleasures of life. The blue is small, smart and cunning, and he's there just to bother the red.

The characters communicate in a prelingual form that conveys emotions without using any particular language. This avoided the need for translation or subtitles. Francesco Misseri describes the language "non-verbal" and "onomatopoeic" on the website and in a comment on YouTube.

The series was written and directed by Francesco Misseri with music by Piero Barbetti. In Australia it was first broadcast on the ABC. In the United States, it first aired in 1976 on Captain Kangaroo on CBS.

Episodes

1976 series
  • The Car
  • The Little Plant
  • The Gun
  • The Suitcase
  • The Opera
  • The Slot-Machine
  • The Umbrella
  • The Imitator
  • the Tv Set

2005 series
  • The Policeman
  • The Tap

The Red and The Blue lookalike characters appears in one Play-Doh commercial in Australia back in 1997, except the colours for the characters were changed as Green and Red.

References
  1. Nostalgia Central: "The Red and the Blue"


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