Disegnare Manga: the realized dream of the Mangaka magazine

A long time ago I told the story of the magazine Mangaka, an editorial project by Coniglio Editore that had as many ambitions as a brief existence: in fact, this experiment lasted only two issues. Since we already talked about it in detail, let's summarize: Mangaka was a specialized magazine dedicated to the creation of manga, the Japanese comics, with lessons and tutorials on one hand, and short comics by several artists on the other. Furthermore, it promised the chance to publish works by the readers themselves! Unfortunately, this promise could not be kept, because the magazine never made it past the second issue.

Cover of Disegnare Manga n.1

However, something very interesting happened in 2023: the publishing house Sprea brought to the newsstands a new and still familiar magazine. Disegnare Manga (Drawing Manga) in many ways could be considered a symbolic successor to Mangaka. With its large format, DM has the same purpose of helping newcomers to begin the study and creation of comics in Japanese style, but at the same time it focuses on in-depth analyses and interviews with artists from all over the world. DM started with a bimonthly release in November 2023, followed by the second issue in January 2024, then the magazine misteriously vanishes for a few months, missing the release of five issues. Personally, I was beginning to think this magazine as well, despite its quality, did not meet the expectations of the publishing house and was interrupted. But in November 2024, plot twist: after a "hiatus", Disegnare Manga came back to newsstands with the third issue!

After this pause to improve and refine a few sections, the magazine presents more lessons by international artists, and continues with the documentary part focused on the history of comics in Japan. However, in order to be fair, I will compare the first issue of Mangaka only with the first issue of Disegnare Manga.

Different members of the original Mangaka team can also be found in the editorial team of DM: this is due to the fact that Francesco Coniglio, head of Coniglio Editore in the past, and editorial consultant of the Sprea publishing house, decided to recover this old personal project and try once again. Unfortunately Francesco Coniglio passed away in 2023, without seeing the debut of his beloved project but at least he could witness the first editorial year of the other magazine focused on the world of Japanese animation, Anime Cult.

Davide Castellazzi takes care of directing the magazine's editorial staff and also writes some in-depth analysis articles. He currently writes the section on the history of comics in Japan. This column does not exist in the first issue but it is remarkable as an important feature of the magazine as it is now.

Both magazines have a skeleton of sections and tutorials, but DM expands it, swapping out the spaces designated to comics with more interviews, tutorials and analyses. Here we can see a comparison of the contents of the first two issues:

Mangaka	Disegnare Manga
Mangaka-san (D. Castellazzi-M. Dominici)	Mangaka-san (D. Castellazzi- S.&C. Corradori)
Anatomy tutorial (body)	Anatomy tutorial (head)
Tools (screentones)	Tools (pencil)
Interview (Massimo Dall'Oglio)	2 Interviews (M. Dall’Oglio and Misturu Miura)
Style lesson (chibi)	Style lesson (mecha robot)
Reading reviews	Reading reviews
In-depth artist (Tokidoki)	In-depth artist (Yoshihiro Tatsumi)
8 short original comics	1 short original comic
	Tools 2 (graphic tablet)
	Analysis of a manga (with Midori Yamane)
	Four-colour process tutorial (CYMK)
	2 of Narrative Structure ("NAME" and yonkoma)

"The adventures of Mangakasan" (2009)

The Mangaka-san section is an interesting case: a very simple tutorial in the form of a comic, Mangaka-san features the titular artist who speaks to the reader to give artistic advice. Written by Davide Castellazzi, the comic keeps the same script in both magazines, but changes the artstyle. This is probably in order to adapt to modern tastes and attract a wider group of artists. In Mangaka the comic was drawn by Marco Dominici with a similar style to Akira Toriyama's (Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump & Arale) with a very comical and somewhat cartoonish trait. On the other hand, in Disegnare Manga the comic is drawn by Samantha and Consuelo Corradori with a more proportionate yet stylized style, which lends itself to many more genres due to its versatility. Furthermore, the Mangaka version was in monochrome with the use of screentone, while the DM version is digitally colored with shadows and lights included. This second version not only presents the titular character as younger, and because of this it is easier for novice artists to identify themselves with, it is also ideal to include in the background many references to manga and anime appreciated by the artists.

"The adventures of Mangakasan" (2009)

The other original comic is Handed by Daniela Serri and Daniela Orrù, who together use the pseudonym Dany & Dany. This short self-contained story with a sweet and tragic tone is accompanied by a short analysis of the use of panels and of the story without words. In addition, these pages are show in their preliminary version in pencil, highlighting how all the stages of creation of a comic are important and can be studied.

One of the more remarkable sections is "Analysis of a manga" by Midori Yamane, who focuses on a narrative element using a different manga each time. For instance, the comic in the first issue is Domu by Katsuhiro Otomo, exploring the narrative technique of kishotenketsu: the division of the narration in introduction, development, climax and conclusion.

Disegnare Manga, with its structure more oriented towards tutorials and analyses, presents itself as a valid tool for novice artists and also those who already have experience but can still learn more: traditional drawing with markers, digital drawing, narrative structure and composition, this magazine could be considered an ideal "starter pack". The only problem is that, despite considering itself a bimonthly magazine, four months passed since the last issue and we still don't have news about the next one. Maybe in the future the magazine will officially change regularity, releasing every four or six months? Now we only have to wait and enjoy the potential given us by the first four issues, until the release of other news, hopefully soon!

A dream that ended too soon: the periodical Mangaka

Cover of issue n.1 of Mangaka

Japan Magazine was not the only periodical dedicated to the manga world that charmed me in the past. In the summer of 2009, after a day at the beach, in a newsstand I found a magazine called Mangaka, with a very colorful cover, and a subtitle saying “the only magazine that publishes your manga”. I was instantly fascinated and bought it. Inside it had a few short stories of European manga authors, with articles about techniques and interviews with manga authors. I hoped to find the following number, but I never found it: convinced I had found something that could fill the void left by Japan Magazine, I kept hoping to have luck and find an issue in the future. Years passed, and during a research on the internet I finally found an answer to my doubts: the magazine, published by Coniglio Editore in 2009 bimonthly, finished its publishing journey after the first two issues. The publisher itself doesn’t exist nowadays, it unfortunately closed down in 2011.

Ad for publishing on the magazine

Presented as a supplement to the title Scuola di Fumetto, Mangaka offered an incredible opportunity: the readers could send their own short stories to the editorial staff, and if it was published, the artist would have been paid 35 euros for each page! For me, a 13 year old kid, 35 euros per page seemed a fortune. Having the luck of seeing my drawings published in a magazine, and being paid as well? A dream! Here is the ad with the instructions to send by mail a story of one to four pages. Remember, it was the year 2009 and sending photocopies or digital scans on CD by mail was still more common and accessible than using e-mail.

Cover for issue n.2 of Mangaka

Unfortunately I don’t have the second issue, I would be very curious to see the works of non professional artists. The artists that collaborated on the first issue are:

• Joanna Zhou
• Åsa Ekström
• Marco Dominici
• Celia Machuca A. (script) + Elisabet Basanta 
• Federico Memola (script) + Teresa Marzia
• Giacomo Pueroni 
• Akane (Alicia Ruiz)
• Federica di Meo
• Enrica “Enrychan” Fastuca

Article about screentones

The articles talk about drawing techniques, fundamentals and tools, with easy writing for the beginners but at the same time very informative and interesting. For instance, a short article explains what are screentones, what is their function and where to find them in Italy.

In conclusion, the Mangaka periodical had the potential to be a point of reference and a stepping stone for beginner artists interested in the creation of manga, and it’s a shame that its publishing journey was that short. However, I am very glad I bought the first issue on that Summer day, fondly remembering the magazine to this day.

Before online forums and websites in Italy: Japan Magazine

During the boom of popularity of anime in Italy during the 80s-90s the average fan was very interested in discovering more about their favorite series, more aware of the differences between the censored dub and the original version, and as well wanted to meet other fans. However, in that era the forums and websites as we know them today didn’t exist yet. So, what did yesterday’s fans have?

Japan Magazine cover from 1991
(source: Guida al Fumetto Italiano)

In 1991 in the newsstands debuted Japan Magazine, a periodical dedicated to the current anime series. A versatile magazine, that through more than a decade changes many times covers, title and especially size. Japan Magazine’s inconsistent size was probably due to the change of publishers and the fact that technically it was a publication with pirated content, because it wasn’t authorized by the owners of the series, but this last part is speculation that was never officially confirmed. Correct or not, the rumors about the “pirate magazine” amplified its fame: Japan Magazine was the reference point for the newborn Italian otaku culture.

Its contents included articles about series on air and sneak peeks of what was about to come, interviews to the voice actors and comic artists, posters and spaces dedicated to the readers’ content. In fact, the readers could send their drawings and fanfiction to the magazine’s editorial staff! Furthermore, the staff replied to reader’s questions in La posta del Drago (Dragon Mail) and you could propose ads for selling, buying or exchanging in the column Fiera del Bambù (Bamboo Fair), where occasionally the ads were something along the lines of “I’m looking for friends to talk about manga and anime, you can write me at this mail address”. In the last period of its publishing history the Dragon Mail was accompanied by Matilda’s Mail: the first was about questions and daily general themes, the latter was dedicated to questions about the anime world and Japanese culture.

JM cover from 1993 featuring
unexplicably Dylan Dog
(source: Guida al Fumetto Italiano)

This all seems legit, right? Where is the pirated content then? In the early years of Japan Magazine, the periodical used to feature chapters of anime comics, that is a comic version of an episode created using frames from the animated series. Normally anime comics can be quality work, when they are made by a team that understands the visual language of comics. The point is that JM’s anime comics used to take already existing adaptations and modify them, sometimes cutting scenes and simplifying dialogues. We can see an example of this thanks to MikiMoz’s article, that presents us a Sailor Moon anime comic and the differences with the correctly translated version made by Marvel/Panini years prior. His article about the magazine is also quite interesting! During the third publishing phase of JM the anime comics were reduced and when they appeared it was a few pages put together by the editorial staff with frames of lower quality, they personally remind me of VHS recordings.

Page from the Beyblade anime comic
(2005, personal collection)

What’s more, in the early years a few issues had an annex of some VHS of movies or OVA (Original Video Animation) anime, and these were undoubtedly pirated, to the point of open conflict between publisher EDEN and authorized distributors such as Yamato.

This peculiar magazine, that sometimes can be considered similar to a fanzine, had three series through its publishing history:

• Series I (1991-1992) 10 issues
• Series II (1992-1995) 28 issues
• Series III (1998-2005) 66 issues

For this, although it’s not easy to identify the release date of each issue, it’s possible to estimate the year of publishing.

JM cover from the late 90s
(source: Guida al Fumetto Italiano)

During my childhood in the 2000s I used to buy Japan Magazine when I had the chance of finding it at the newsstand. I remember seeing different sizes, one time it was a small book, another time it was as big as printer paper! The number of pages changed as well and occasionally the title, and I used to wonder why it was like that. I own several issues titled JM Japan Magazine, and a few titles JM Cartoons, sized like a little book. Thanks to the archive site guidafumettoitaliano.com I could finally understand the bizarre journey of the magazine and it’s special editions, such as JM Cartoons. One of the articles that particularly impressed me was about drawing tools and it mentioned Pantone markers with many images as well.

JM cover from 2005
(personal collection)

In the end this was JM’s strength: in a time period where the internet didn’t exist or it wasn’t as accessible as it was today, images and information (although sometimes partially incorrect) were a precious treasure! After the golden age between 1995 and the first years of 2000, in the last period of its publishing history the magazine gradually lowered in quality, and concluded its journey in 2005. When I decided to write this article I looked for my issues of the periodical and I found two that are very likely from 2005. I hope to find the issue with the Pantone markers, so I could share the article here!

JM was a peculiar and a bit odd magazine, it wasn’t perfect but it was a product of passion from manga and anime enthusiasts. Thank you Japan Magazine for the happy memories of two generations of fans! <3

ITsART: the streaming platform of culture

During this period of pandemic, many industries suffered, especially those who involve contact with the public, such as the entertainment world. Concert halls, theatres, cinemas had to stay in a limbo for a long time, with limited opening periods. In order to support the industry in this moment of uncertainty, last January the Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini announced the project for a streaming platform dedicated to the national cultural content, ITsART. The platform is run by the namesake company, shared at 51% by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and at 49% by the streaming service Chili. At first the functioning platform’s debut was set for March, but some technical difficulties delayed the release until May 31st.

The platform is currently accessible from Italy and England, and the project’s page is available in Italian and English. This is because they hope to present the content to a foreign audience as well. Up to date, the platform presents three sections: Palco (Stage), Luoghi (Places), and Storie (Stories). In Palco are the shows that can be seen on a stage such as concerts and plays; Luoghi presents Italian museums and archaeological sites through music videos; Stories features Italian films and documentaries of different time periods.

Following the model of the platform Chili, ITsART doesn’t require a subscription, instead each event can be watched by buying a digital “ticket”. Part of the content has to be paid, while the rest is available for free, occasionally with ads while watching. 

Now it’s too early to assess if the platform is a success, but it’s surely a good resource in addition to the already important content library that is RaiPlay.

RaiPlay is the free streaming platform that features a vast amount of content including documentaries, tv series, game shows, films, cartoons and shows with different themes. RaiPlay is currently available as a website and app for Android and iOS. You can access the platform from any country of the world but some content is limited due to the shows’ broadcasting rights abroad. The online live broadcast of the Rai television channel is entirely available in Italy, while abroad it’s limited to the new channel RaiNews24.

Music and theatre
section from RaiPlay

Palco section
from ITsART

It’s important to consider that ITsART is a relatively small platform, it debuted a month ago and it’s already expanding its library. It has a lot of room for growth during the following months, I am quite optimistic about it!

The Sardegna Film Commission short films - Fifth: sustainability, climate change and quality of life

In the miniseries of analysis of Sardinia Film Commission animated short films we talked about the themes of “history, archaeology and legends of Sardinia”, “flora and fauna”, “distinguished Sardinian characters” and “anthropology, tradition and art”: the last chapter tackles the theme of “sustainability, climate change and quality of life” represented by “La Rondine”.

Theme: sustainability, climate change and quality of life

A group of children save and take care of a swallow that can’t fly with the help of the elder Aunt Igia. The short film will be produced by Claudio Marceddu’s Il Circolo della Confusione, directed and written by Eleonora Gambula and Daniele Arca, animated by Eleonora Gambula with the analogic rotoscope technique, with the voices of Cristina Maccioni, Amelia Daisy Melis, Marvin Sackey and Leonardo Grassellini. Luca Gambula will take care of the music and Tiziana Furcas will be the Sardinian language referent.

The animation technique of this short film will be the rotoscope. Created and patented by the Fleischer brothers in 1917, the rotoscope technique originally consisted in filming an actor in action and then using the frames as direct reference for the animation, tracing the main movements. This is possible by projecting the frame on a glass sheet, then an animator outlines the human figure with tracing paper sheets. Many of Fleischer studios’ works were created with this technique: Koko the Clown, Bimbo the Dog and Betty Boop, among others. It was used especially with the movements of famous dancers and singers of the time such as Cab Calloway.

Disney used the rotoscope as well for its first long feature animated film in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but in a looser way: this means that the first time you trace the movements with precision; in the next step you draw over the first sheets more synthetically in order to get the essential but more free movement; and finally an animator applies the principles of animation on the second batch of sheets in order to create the final sequence. In the case of this film, rotoscope was used to different degrees according to the level of difficulty of the scene when they needed a reference, and it was not a really corresponding tracing of the original filming, because the animators sometimes changed the pacing of the actions and the character’s expressions. 

Another more modern example of rotoscoping closer to Fleischer’s original technique is the iconic music video of Take On Me by a-ha, in which the drawings are not as polished and look like pencil drawings as a stylistic decision.

Eleonora Gambula studied drawing and illustration, then stop-motion animation, which soon fascinated her with its artisanal nature. In 2008 she gained a scholarship for the IED (Istituto Europeo di Design) in Milan. After a few years working in Milan, two years ago she took a break and returned to Sardinia because she missed her home, then she went back to Milan, where she currently lives. Among her works Eleonora was commissioned by RAI for the opening titles of the fiction Romanzo Familiare, with the rotoscope technique, and the commercials for Diadora and the 50th anniversary of Kartell, both with the stop-motion technique. 

In an interview in the radio program Captivity of July 2020, Eleonora told how she got the inspiration for the short film “La Rondine”: one day of December she saw a disoriented flock of swallows, and this was the beginning of the script for the short movie. After winning the tender by Sardegna Film Commission, she decided to set the story in the industrial area of Portovesme or Sarroch, because it is a landscape full of contrasts, on the line between nature and industrialization. The intent is to write a short film for everyone, kids and adults, showing how industrialization influenced the ecosystem.

Daniele Arca worked on two documentaries in 2019: in Jukebox al Carbone he took care of directing and editing, while in Bar Seui he did editing and photography. The first is a musical/social documentary that tackles the young revolution of the 60s during the economic boom period due the new industrial hub of Carbonia. The second tells the story of inner migration of Armando, that during the second postwar period had to move from Seui to go to Cagliari and try to improve his life. 

Luca Gambula is a sound engineer and music producer, he collaborated with the artists Dainocova and Takoma and worked for the film Jukebox al Carbone by Daniele Arca, creating its soundtrack. Here you can listen to one of his compositions:

Cristina Maccioli is a theatre actress and as writer and editor realizes radio programs in Sardinian. She debuted in theatre in 1972, then in 1975 as associate of the Cooperative Teatro di Sardegna she participated in the show Su Connottu by Romano Ruju, Francesco Masala, Gianfranco Mazzoni and since then is present in many productions of the establishment known with different names, currently it’s Sardegna Teatro, based in the Teatro Massimo di Cagliari. You can hear her voice in the trailer of the short film in the role of Aunt Igia.

So we finished the miniseries of Sardegna Film Commission short films! This little project is what led me to write articles for the blog more regularly, I am very glad it is appreciated, thank you readers! In a very near future I will talk once again about Italian animation, in particular a work by Nuova Animazione Sardegna, stay tuned!

S'arrùndini (La rondine) Trailer from Eleonora Gambula on Vimeo.

The Sardegna Film Commission short films - Fourth: anthropology, tradition and art

After “history, archaeology and legends of Sardinia”, “flora and fauna” and “distinguished Sardinian characters”, the fourth chapter of the miniseries that analyzes the Sardegna Film Commission animated short films features the theme of “anthropology, tradition and art”, represented by “Faulas si credia”.

Theme: anthropology, tradition and art

This short film is a collection of sayings of the popular tradition, of stereotypes and expressions contextualized through rhymes that explain their meaning, in the form of fables. 

Produced by Mommotty, the short film will be directed, written and animated by Michela Anedda, with the music of Emanuele Contis and the voice of Michela Atzeni. The animation technique will be one of my favorites, stop-motion. This type of animation consists in simulating the movement of static objects through a series of still images in succession. With this technique you can create animated movement of any object by taking sequential pictures. The possibilities are infinite: toys, articulated dolls, clay, sand, paper cutouts (as we saw in the case of the animated collage), and people as well! In the last case it’s a more specific technique called pixilation that uses the same principles with people instead of objects.

The stop-motion technique was also used for the special effects in famous films such as the first iteration of King Kong in 1933, the terrific effects of Beetlejuice (1988) and the formidable Gremlins in several scenes from the namesake features, alternating with the use of animatronic puppets. Famous examples of stop-motion animation are: films by company Aardman animations such as Wallace y Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep Movie; Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings and ParaNorman by Studio Laika; and finally the Swiss-British series Pingu.

One of the most known examples of stop-motion in Italy is the series Mio and Mao by studio Misseri, charming product animated with claymation starring two curious kittens that explore their colorful world. The same studio produced in collaboration with NHK a series, Pozzie, animated using real droplets of water to create moving figures, with a new technique! Personally I believe that studio Misseri deserves an article on its own devoted to its products, it might happen in the future!

Mio and Mao from studio Misseri's page 

Pozzie from studio Misseri's page

Michela Anedda has a degree in Industrial Design at the University of Studies of Sassari and achieved a Master of Arts in animation at the Edinburgh College of Art with the production of short film Cogas: selected for numerous national and international film festivals, it won Best Italian Animation at Sardinia Film Festival. She participated in the university research project for the visual communication of Region Sardegna at Expo. As a freelancer she collaborates with Sardinian directors and directs animated short films: among them is “Sei tu il nostro eroe” for Sardegna Film Commission’s Heroes 20.20.20 project, selected at Brazilian festival Anim!Arte. Michela Anedda organizes stop-motion animation workshops as well for adults, young adults and kids.

Cogas from michela on Vimeo.

In several occasion her work was part of documentaries: in 2018 her stop-motion animation contributed to the narration of “L’Uomo con la Lanterna” directed by Francesca Lixi, that pieces together the life of her uncle as worker for the Italian Bank of China in the 1920s, thanks to pictures and recordings in 8mm film, and how discovering this past influenced the life of Francesca Lixi herself. 

What’s more, in 2019 she worked on the motion graphics of the short documentary “Ràixe - Spazi digitali per la cultura tabarchina”, produced by Ginko Film as multimedia content for the museum of Calasetta. The documentary narrates the fascinating history of the tabarchino people and their nomadic path through Mediterrean through the centuries.

Michela Atzeni is a theatre actress, performer and voice director. After her theatre training she studied acting at Teatro dei Filodrammatici of Milan and in 2014 she graduated at the School of Voice Acting at Centro O.D.S. of Turin, for which she did her first voice acting gigs. Since 2010 she has been collaborating with Sardegna Teatro in different theatre productions that tour at national level. She read numerous audiobooks for the platforms Storytel.it and Audible.com. She is chief of the company QUARANTACINQUE audiolibri e doppiaggio and is producer, reader and curator of audiobooks distributed nationwide and dubbing and voice over services. We can listen to her voice in an extract of the audiobook “Sentinella della pioggia” on Audible.com.

Emanuele Contis is a Sardinian musician and composer. After a short period as engineer, he discovered his real calling and studied further music, his passion, at Berklee College of Music in Valencia. A passion that he has since he played the saxophone at the age of 6, and that now is his job. He is the founder of INDÒRU - Boutique del suono, a creative studio for music and sound based in Sardinia: in INDÒRU he composes music for tv series, short films, advertisement, and the soundtrack for his first long film as well. You can listen to examples of his work on soundcloud and his personal website.

I adore stop-motion’s aesthetic, especially when clay is used, furthermore the saying and idioms fascinate me, because of this I believe it could become one of my favorite short films when it is released!

The next and last short film will be “La Rondine”, representing the theme of sustainability, climate change and quality of life, stay tuned!

Hanna Barbera's "made in Italy" short films: the era of the animation of Carosello

Some time ago I discovered in the stream of content of Youtube a series of very charming videos, starring the most famous blue dog of American animation: Huckleberry Hound, known in Italy as Huckleberry Hound! I thought: “What, a Braccobaldo short animated here?” Well yes! These shorts films created between 1967 e 1969 by Organizzazione Pagot for the firm Locatelli and presented in the advertising interstitial show Carosello were paired with the food product “Formaggini Mio”.

Carosello was created in 1957 as a program of the recently born Italian public television (RAI, Radio Televisione Italiana) that used to include a small show and commercials. Its first broadcast happened on February 3rd 1957 at 20:50 with a defined pattern of the duration of the statements. Every product consists of 2 minutes and 15 seconds, divided in 1 minute and 45 seconds of show and a maximum of 30 seconds of commercial. What’s more, the sponsor could use its name in any form in the show for up to six times. This challenge for the studios encouraged the imagination of the authors, who managed to create different situations with the same characters in order to reduce the production costs. The audience quickly developed an affection for these characters, continuing to watch Carosello every night. For the first two years Carosello aired everyday at 20:50 except on November 2nd (commemoration of the dead) and Good Friday, with four short films during 2 minutes and 15 seconds each, still being the only advertising space of Italian television.

Since 1958, among the short films animated productions have debuted. The first short film was “Telequiz” with the little man with the moustache, “l’Omino coi Baffi”. In 1962 Huckleberry Hound debuted on Italian television screen with the “Braccobaldo Show”, starring him, Yogi Bear and BooBoo, and Pixie, Dixe and Jinks the cat. Around those years the animated short films “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies” were known in Italy as well, and for this their characters loved by children and the whole audience were protagonists of a few Carosello short films. Huckleberry Hound appeared in approximately seven short films, Yogi in one, the Flintstone in three and finally Sylvester the cat in nineteen short films.

L'Omino coi baffi with Moka Express coffee pot.
His mouth is animated in the shaped of the letter he's pronouncing.

The thing is that up to date the number is not certain, because part of the content broadcasted n Carosello is currently lost. For some reasons, since the conclusion of the interstitial show in 1977, part of the short films was intentionally discarded, probably because back then the archives needed more storage space. Part of the content is available as well in Rai Teche, the institution devoted to the conservation and valorization of the audiovisual material produced and broadcasted by Rai. Luckily, a dedicated community of fans is working to recover and document those who are currently “lost media”. Thanks to this community’s website, Il Mito di Carosello, I could report the most precisely possible up to date the short films of our blue dog and his friends. Here I will share one short film for each character, most of the others can be found on Youtube pairing the name of the character with “Carosello”, Let’s see the products advertised by each of them.

Huckleberry Hound was paired with the producto “Formaggini Mio”, small light cheese pieces loved by children (in my opinion they taste really good!) and the recurring theme in his adventures is travelling to other countries with his wife and son (characters created in Italy, originally he has a girlfriend but it was a different character).

Yogi and BooBoo were paired with the San Carlo products. Up to date only one short film was found, in which the two bears manage to avoid Ranger Smith’s traps and steal a truck full of San Carlo products. It’s legit to think that the other possible shorts had the same theme.

The Flintstones represented the “Neocid florale” bug spray. The only short film available on video up to date of the three documented features Fred and Barney trying to catch worms for fishing, with a few misadventures. Probably the other two short films have the same kind of daily stories with Fred, Barney, Wilma and Betty.

The same can be said for the Jetsons who had three short films with small stories of the future, presenting the line of home appliances Girmi.

The long list of short films of “Silvestro gatto maldestro” (Silvester clumsy cat) show the different and equally crazy attempts to eat the little bird Tweety. Each time the chase is interrupted once Tweety hides behind a can of tomato sauce DeRica and Silvester says “Oh no, you can’t over DeRica!” 

Personally I believe that the animated productions created for Carosello are a very interesting treasure that waits to be discovered by more people and I’d like to talk more about these collaborations and the original characters as well, icons of Italian pop culture in the 60s and 70s.

If there's a will there's a way: prevention in the voice acting booth

Voice acting is one of the activities that kept going on at the beginning of quarantine in March, even though it was not an essential service. That is due to a bureaucracy issue: the working activities in Italy are labeled through ATECO classification codes, and while the movie productions are in category 59, voice acting is in 59.12. This labels it as “post cinematographic post-production of videos and television programs” essential activity.

Of course, dude to the nature of acting in the proximity of other actors, voice acting is not a safe activity during a pandemic. Voice actors decided on their own accord to interrupt the works until the end of national lockdown, which is the hardest phase of quarantine. While we had to still wait for several weeks before we could move freely, a famous voice acting studio, PUMAIS DUE, was already preparing to go back to work. 

Fiamma Izzo, one of the funding siblings of PUMAIS DUE and voice actress, explained in an interview the new rules to work in the studio.

“A crazy race against time, where nothing was left to chance, but every detail was carefully thought out: I even bought one of those machines - used in operating rooms - for ozonation and sanitization of environments. Then, obligatory masks: they’re given by us at every entrance, together with shoe covers and carpets; and still, special glass sheets to separate the staff. Every worker, the actors, the voice director - which is basically like a movie director - the sound engineer, they all have an individual space and there’s even a box that sanitizes the scripts used by the voice actors.”

As you can see in this video on the newspaper La Repubblica's website, all voice actors have to respect distances and have their own personal tools. What’s more, the scripts are sanitized using an UV light (ultraviolet light, used to identify fake money), and both the engineers and the actors are separated by the glass walls. Usually plexiglass is used but it has terrible sound qualities and you can’t risk ruining the recording.

Up to the day of the interview in May, the PUMAIS DUE studio resumed working on the dubbing of Grey’s Anatomy and a few Amazon products, among many other productions.