''The Red and the Blue'' (''Il Rosso e il Blu'') is an Italian

stop-motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...

animated series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

for children. It has two clay animated characters, antagonistic shapeshifters, one colored red, the other blue.Nostalgia Central: "The Red and the Blue"
/ref> 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 Subtitles are texts representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, caption ...

. Francesco Misseri describes the language "non-verbal" and "onomatopoeic" on the website and in a comment on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. 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 as part of ''

Captain Kangaroo ''Captain Kangaroo'' is an American children's television series that aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS for 29 years, from 1955 to 1984, making it the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program ...

'' on CBS, and later as post-show interstitials on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

in the mid-1980s. During some reprints and recent YouTube releases, the title was also shortened as ''Red and Blue'' while the original name still remains intact on recent YouTube releases.

Episodes

1976 series

*The Car *The Little Plant *The Gun *The Suitcase *The Opera *The Slot-Machine *The Umbrella *The Imitation *The Lion Tamer *The TV Set *The Camera *The Magician * The Robot

2005 series

*The Policeman *The Tap

TV Broadcast aired history

AUS * ABC Television USA * CBS (''

'') *

GER * Sat.1 (''JuxBox'') CAN *

Canal Famille Vrak (stylized as VRΔK) was a Television in Canada, Canadian French language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. subsidiary Bell Media. The channel primarily broadcast live-action programming aimed at 13-to-35 age group audiences. Launched i ...

NED * Kindernet

References

External links

Misseri Studio's YouTube Channel
1976 Italian television series debuts 1970s animated television series 1970s children's television series Claymation television series Italian children's animated television series Stop-motion animated television series Animated television series about shapeshifting Animated television series without speech {{Italy-tv-prog-stub