From the seagull to Garibaldi: the history of Lanterna Magica

 

One the most known and appreciated animated movies of the end of last century is La gabbianella e il gatto (Lucky and Zorba), part of the collective memory of many Italian children in the 90s. Here we are going to find out about the interesting history of its animation studio, Lanterna Magica.

Created in 1983 by Maria Fares and Roberto Baratta, it was initially a creative lab sponsored by the Department of Education of the Municipality of Turin. In its first years of activity, on one hand it created cartoons with kids of primary and secondary schools, and on the other it realized short films and commercials with social themes (alcohol, smoking, pollution and others) for companies and institutions. Furthermore, the lab operated as a center for audiovisual culture, with literacy courses and specialization in audiovisual techniques for teachers, cultural operators and citizens.

In 1992, the studio decided to try out the production of its first animated feature, La freccia azzurra, based on the Gianni Rodari's 1964 short story of the same name. The film was directed by the artist Enzo D'Alò, a very important character for the history of the studio, and it featured a team of  famous voice actors such as Dario Fo and Lella Costa. The production was complex and a real investment, which paid off very well when it came out in theaters in 1996, with great success from critics and audience, leading to winning four different film awards: David di Donatello 1997 (best musician to Paolo Conte), Nastro d'Argento 1997 (best soundtrack to Paolo Conte), special award for an animated movie produced in Italy, Bellaria Film Festival 1997 (Premio Casa Rossa for best technical contribution) and a nomination to the International Animated Film Festival of Annecy 1997 as best feature film. During the production of La freccia azzurra, the studio worked as well on tv productions such as the feature Kamillo Kromo (1993) and the series La Pimpa – Le nuove avvventure (1997).

 

Trailer of the restored version (2020) of La Freccia Azzurra

In 1998, La gabbianella e il gatto came out in cinemas with incredible success, managing to be the most popular and successful film by Enzo D'Alò and in general the Italian animated feature with the biggest commercial success. Based on the 1996 novel "The Story of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught Her to Fly" by the Chilean author Luis Sepúlveda, the film was proof of the incredible potential of the studio, that seemed to have a future of expansion. Among other tv productions, in 1999 Lanterna Magica worked on the opening titles of the kids show Melevisione. 

In that year, Maria Fares and Enzo D'Alò (she was chief executive, he was movie director), invested heavily in projects, tools and workers in order to expand the company. They had the goal of producing a feature film every year and a tv series every two years, respecting the commissions. The ongoing productions were the feature films Momo, Tempesta, Aida (degli alberi), the tv series Sopra i tetti di Venezia and the pilot for Pinocchio. At the end of the year, Lanterna Magica was approaching a deal with important companies in the field that would have let it gain more creative autonomy and the management of all the rights of its productions and collateral products.

The new millennium began with a complicated year. Thanks to a union statement from that time, we have a timeline of the events that led to the bankruptcy of Lanterna Magica as a company. This is not the end of the studio, but it is a very important transitional moment that defined its future. In January 2000, Enzo D’Alò began realizing something about what he wanted to do with his art. He insisted that the company had to stay exclusively an executive producer. The statement claims as such:

Clearly D'Alò doesn't manage to realize a synthesis between being a director and a producer at the same time and he's afraid of not being able to "control" a rapidly growing company anymore.

These thoughts from D'Alò resulted in lost opportunities and delays in the production of Momo and Pinocchio. Similar problems manifested with Sopra i tetti di Venezia, but thanks to the willingness of the other directors of the series, the studio maintained the contract with France Animation until the month of August, when the French company, worried about the repercussions of the internal conflict between D'Alò and the Lanterna Magica workers, rescinded the contract. After months of attempts at mediation by the workers and constant refusals of negotiation by D'Alò, on June 20th 2000 he assumed the bankruptcy of the company with a testimony at the Bankruptcy Court of Turin. This means that he declared his company could fail very soon, despite the efforts of Maria Fares. Due to the official pre-bankruptcy situation, the company could not pay its debts with the firms that collaborated with it for Momo and Sopra i tetti di Venezia, leading to the already mentioned conclusion of the contract by France Animation.

Finally, Lantena Magica failed around the end of the year, however the film production company Medusa acquired it in December 2000, allowing the conclusion of the ongoing projects and hiring back almost all the workers. Two years later, Maria Fares managed to buy back the company from Medusa, which only kept the role of film distributor. This way, Lanterna Magica continued producing films and tv series for many years.

 

Commercial for the Aida degli alberi VHS and its merchandise by Kinder & Ferrero (2003) 

Aida degli alberi came out in theatres in 2001. The work, inspired by Giuseppe Verdi's lyrical opera, was less successful than the seagull film, but still very appreciated. In the same year, Sopra i tetti di Venezia completed its production and debuted on European television among with Rai 2 in 2003, while the feature film Totò Sapore e la magica storia della pizza came out in theatres. Aida and Totò had merchandise in collaboration with Kinder & Ferrero. The golden age of the Kinder & Ferrero toys is a phenomenon that deserves its own article.

 

Trailer of Totò Sapore (2003) 

In the following years they worked on tv series such as Gino il pollo (2006) and Matt & Manson (2008, French co-production). In 2009, a new co-production with France resulted in the film Nat e il segreto di Eleonora. The following year, Maria Fares decided to close the historic headquarters of Lanterna Magica in Via Cesare Battisti 15 in Turin, with the plan of periodically renting spaces that were more convenient to the time and needs of the productions. The transfer led to the writing of the inventory of the archive of production documentation. The inventory is available online on the website of the State Archive of Turin. In 2011 Lanterna Magica produced the feature film for tv dedicated to the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy: Il generale e i fratellini d'Italia.

Nowadays, Lanterna Magica keeps working in collaboration with other companies. The studio's website was available until fall of 2024, it's possible that they changed the domain or simply they did not bother keeping it up. In any case, the website has been archived in the Wayback Machine and can be still be visited.