Questa è una riproposizione dell’articolo originale pubblicato in spagnolo e inglese il 25 gennaio 2021!
Un po’ di tempo fa ho scoperto nella corrente dei contenuti di YouTube una serie di video molto graziosi, con protagonista il cane blu più famoso dell’animazione statunitense: Huckleberry Hound, conosciuto in Italia come Braccobaldo Bau! Ho pensato: “Cosa, un corto di Braccobaldo animato qui?” Effettivamente sì! Questi cortometraggi creati tra il 1967 e il 1969 da Organizzazione Pagot per la ditta Locatelli e presentati nel programma contenitore Carosello erano abbinati con il prodotto alimentare “Formaggini Mio”.
Carosello fu creato nel 1957 come programma della neonata televisione pubblica italiana (RAI, Radio Televisione Italiana) che includeva un piccolo spettacolo e pubblicità. La prima trasmissione ha avuto luogo il 3 febbraio 1957 alle 20:50 con uno schema definito della durata dei comunicati. Ogni prodotto aveva a disposizione 2 minuti e 15 secondi, divisi in 1 minuto e 45 secondi di spettacolo e un massimo di 30 secondi di pubblicità. Inoltre, lo sponsor poteva utilizzare il suo nome in qualsiasi modo nel filmato per un massimo di sei volte. Questa sfida per per le aziende di produzione incoraggiò la fantasia degli autori, che riuscirono a creare situazioni differenti con gli stessi personaggi per ridurre i costi di produzione. Il pubblico sviluppò presto un certo affetto per questi personaggi, continuando a vedere Carosello tutte le sere. Nei primi anni Carosello andava in onda tutti i giorni alle 20:50 eccetto il 2 novembre (commemorazione di tutti i defunti) e il Venerdì Santo, con quattro cortometraggi della durata di 2 minuti e 15 secondi ciascuno, continuando a essere l’unico spazio pubblicitario della televisione italiana.
A partire dal 1958, tra i cortometraggi esordirono produzioni animate. Il primo corto fu “Telequiz” con “l’Omino coi Baffi”. Nel 1962 Braccobaldo Bau esordì nelle televisioni italiane con il “Braccobaldo Show”, con protagonisti lui, gli orsi Yoghi e Bubu, e Pixie, Dixie e il gatto Mr. Jinks. Negli stessi anni i cortometraggi animati di “Looney Tunes” e “Merrie Melodies" diventarono conosciuti anche in Italia, e per questo i loro personaggi, amati dai bambini e da tutto il pubblico, furono protagonisti di alcuni corti in Carosello. Braccobaldo Bau è apparso in circa sette corti, Yoghi in uno, I Flintstones (Gli Antenati) in tre, e infine il gatto Silvestro in diciannove cortometraggi.
L'Omino coi Baffi con la caffettiera Moka Express. La sua bocca è animata con la forma delle lettere che pronuncia.
Il fatto è che finora il numero non è certo, perché parte dei contenuti trasmessi in Carosello è attualmente perso. Per qualche ragione, dopo la conclusione del programma contenitore nel 1977, parte dei cortometraggi è stato eliminato intenzionalmente, probabilmente perché allora c’era bisogno di più spazio negli archivi. Parte dei contenuti si può trovare anche in Rai Teche, l’ente che si dedica a preservare e valorizzare il materiale audiovisivo prodotto e trasmesso dalla Rai. Fortunatamente, una comunità di appassionati sta lavorando per recuperare e documentare quelli che sono attualmente “lost media”, cioè media perduti. Grazie al sito web di questa comunità, Il Mito di Carosello, ho potuto documentare al massimo della precisione possibile finora i cortometraggi del nostro cane azzurro e dei suoi amici. Qui condividerò un cortometraggio per ogni personaggio, la maggior parte degli altri si può trovare su YouTube accompagnando il nome del personaggio a “Carosello”. Ora vediamo i prodotti pubblicizzati per ogni personaggio.
Braccobaldo Bau fu abbinato con il prodotto “Formaggini Mio”, piccoli formaggi leggeri amati dai bambini (pure molto buoni secondo me!) e il tema ricorrente nelle sue avventure è viaggiare in altri paesi con sua moglie e suo figlio (personaggi creati in Italia, lui originariamente aveva una fidanzata però era un personaggio diverso).
Yoghi e Bubu erano abbinati ai prodotti San Carlo. Fino a oggi si è trovato solo un unico corto nel quale i due orsi riescono a evitare le trappole del Ranger Smith e rubare un furgone pieno di prodotti San Carlo. È legittimo pensare che gli altri possibili cortometraggi avessero lo stesso tema.
I Flintstones rappresentavano l'insetticida “Neocid florale”. L’unico corto disponibile in video finora dei tre documentati ha per protagonisti Fred e Barney che cercano di catturare vermi per la pesca, con alcuni inconvenienti. Probabilmente gli altri cortometraggio avevano lo stesso tratto di storie quotidiane di Fred, Barney, Wilma e Betty.
La lunga lista di cortometraggi di “Silvestro gatto maldestro” mostra i diversi e altrettanto folli tentativi di riuscire a mangiare il piccolo canarino Titti. Ogni volta l’inseguimento si interrompe quando Titti si nasconde dietro a una confezione di salsa di pomodoro DeRica e Silvestro dice “Eh no, su DeRica non si può!”.
Personalmente credo che le produzioni animate create da Carosello siano un tesoro molto interessante che aspetta di essere scoperto dalla gente e vorrei parlare ancora di questa collaborazione e anche dei suoi personaggi originali, icone della cultura pop italiana degli anni 60-70.
Dolls are one of the most versatile toys when it comes to children's imaginative games, however fantasy has no age and they keep being a wonderful canvas for adults as well. What happens when a doll collector is also an artist? The two passions join together and the result is a fascinating niche hobby commonly called doll customizing. The customization of dolls exists in many forms and degrees of modification: the range goes from any alteration between changing clothes or hair, painting a new face, and even creating a hybrid by putting together parts of different dolls or sculpting completely new parts!
In the early 2000s the artists and collectors’ favorite objects were garage kits (resin kits that let you piece together and paint a figurine by yourself) and especially the great novelty of the time: the BJDs, that is Ball Jointed Dolls. These resin dolls, introduced by Japanese company Volks in 1999 and since then produced in different forms by many companies in the world, are characterized by their very versatile spherical joints that allow posing in many more positions than a classic doll like Barbie. Furthermore, the possibility to change the removable eyes and hair with the wigs greatly increases the level of customization, letting the artist change character or aesthetic whenever they want.
However, this type of dolls requires care regarding the conservation of the resin and the joints. Some types of resin can change color with time, especially if the doll is often exposed to natural light. Because of this it’s necessary to pay attention while choosing the place for the bjd. In addition, the doll’s limbs are kept in tension by a long double elastic, which normally allows it to pose in a solid and secure way. With the passage of time, the elastic loses strength, and it has to be replaced, by taking apart the doll and connecting again all the limbs with a new elastic. With the explosion of the internet's popularity in the same years, many online communities were born, where fans from all over the world could appreciate together a relatively niche interest.
In that period doll customizing was generally a challenging and a bit expensive hobby, but the debut of a particular line of fashion dolls (dolls mainly designed to be dressed up and represent fashions) revolutionized the landscape of this hobby. In 2010 Mattel launched the Monster High doll line, which is very peculiar for different reasons. The dolls represent characters with defined aesthetics and personalities (among their accessories they have a small diary with their story): daughters or relatives of iconic figures of the horror scene such as Frankestein or Dracula, these girls go to a school full of teen monsters, following the slogan “Be Yourself, Be Unique, Be a Monster”. The characters’ aesthetic brings together the horror themes with the charming creepy cute fashion: the dolls have particular clothes and accessories full of details based on each character.
The first group of dolls from Monster High's original line (2010)
Monster High dolls, being fashion dolls and thus designed as toys and not collectors’ items, presented a more compact and cheaperalternative to bjds. Infact, with the average size of a Barbie and double the articulations, these girls not only conquered the hearts of many children, but they also contributed to the accessibility of the hobby to a larger group of artists.
In the span of 12 years, the doll market was filled with models of different shapes and sizes, for the joy of fans. Likewise, the concept of customization evolved in different forms. The term used in the community is OOAK (One Of A Kind), which means a unique piece. One of the most known artists even outside of the community is Filipino artist Noel Cruz, known for his incredible skills with the paintbrush, which gives great realism and life to his dolls, most of which represent celebrities. For example, here is his work with the Beyoncé doll:
Beyoncé doll repainted by Noel Cruz (2013)
Dolls can represent a favorite character, a mythological creature (werewolves, fairies, minotaurs) or even a concept (seasons, zodiac signs, arcana of the tarots. Depending on the artist’s vision, in order to bring this idea to light you need to modify the dolls with clay, resin or other materials. On YouTube you can find wonderful examples of OOAK dolls by artists such as Dollightful, Hextian, Dollmotion, Kyros Workshop, Enchanterium, Valkitty’s World, Doe Deer Wonderland (who takes care of restoring vintages pieces), Kiat B. Saguru and many others. Here I propose some gorgeous works:
Smarágdi, empress of Venus by Valkitty’s World. Part of a collaboration themed after the solar system, this doll represents planet Venus and the emerald stone. The artist explains her process with trivia on the planet and the gem's symbolism. All her videos have Spanish audio with English subtitles.
Xerneas the legendary pokemon by Dollightful. Part of a collaboration that reimagines the three legendary creatures of video games Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, this doll twice as tall as a regular Monster High piece presents an incredible number of body modifications that include all the aforementioned tools, and even the use of a small electric LED circuit for the horns! A project so big that its demonstration is split in two parts you can watch here: part 1 and part 2.
Olivia Aves the owl girl by Dollmotion. This hybrid doll was created with the techniques of head shrinking with acetone and plastic dyeing, with the addition of beak and wings. Olivia is one of the characters of original series Divus, animated with the stop-motion technique (which we talked about in other occasions). In fact, most of Dollmotion’s creations appear in the Divus series, which you can follow on its own YouTube channel.
“Porcelainpunk” doll by Kiat B. Saguru. Inspired by the steampunk aesthetic and the intricate and delicate designs of porcelain objects, this robot charms with her sweet smile and eyes full of wonder together with the story created for her by the artist.
After the more articulated dolls, here are the dolls turned into wonderful sculptures: year of the tiger doll by Hextian. Great fan of the culture and aesthetic of the Drag Queen world, Hextian loves to create strong silhouettes with exaggerated forms. His detailed and elegant dolls are inspired as well by works of fashion designers such as Thierry Mugler and the aesthetic of 2000s doll brand Bratz.
Futuristic Cyberpunk Shero by earthtolylah. Using dolls and resin figurine kits as a base, the artist creates complex, dynamic and unique sculptures. Part of the album “Tell me a fable”, this original character is a futuristic superhero with masks, cables and especially neon colors that react to the blacklight, creating a spectacular effect.
Closer to the concept of restoration is the idea of customizing dolls with the goal to create the illusion that they are factory made this way. Did your character not get a doll in the line dedicated to their film or series? Well, you can make it yourself, with the right materials! The couple of aficionados of dolls and mahou shoujo genre Cosmo and Luke have been showing for many years their collection on their YouTube channel and website Latte e Cartoni (formerly curemoon.com), together with their custom dolls. For instance, Luke managed to create dolls of the Sailor Starlights warriors from the series Sailor Moon Sailor Stars, which were never produced in Italy by Giochi Preziosi, using other pieces from the same line and clothes created with the closest material possible to those of the official products.
Through the years, Luke created with this method a great number of dolls from series such as Sailor Moon, Pretty Cure, Wedding Peach and Mermaid Melody Pitchi Pitchi Pitch for his collection and on commission as well. In a relatively recent video, Luke and Cosmo showed the three official dolls of Mermaid Melody by Giochi Preziosi (the protagonists Lucia in pink, Hanon in light blue and Rina in green) accompanied by the custom dolls of the rest of the group present in the series. The fact that you cannot recognize the factory made piece from the hand made one is proof of great skills and attention to details. The YouTube channel, among other content related to cartoons and toys, presents a few tutorials that can be watched in this playlist.
Any modification, from the smallest to the most complex, transforms a doll into a unique piece. That’s the beauty of this hobby: there is not one single way to customize, but infinite possibilities at the service of the fantasy of someone who keeps playing and imagining.
