- For the Italian saint with this name, see Calimerius.
Calimero (カリメロ, Karimero?) is an Italian/Japanese cartoon about a charming, but hapless anthropomorphized cartoon chicken; the only black one in a family of yellow chickens. He wears half of his egg shell still on his head. Calimero originally appeared on the Italian television show Carosello on July 14, 1963, and soon became a popular icon in Italy.
The characters were created by the animation studio Organizzazione Pagot and originated as a series of animated advertisements for Miralanza AVA soap products shown throughout Italy. At the end of each episode, it turns out that Calimero is not actually black, but only very dirty, and becomes white after being washed by the advertised soap products.
The characters were later licensed in Japan as an anime series, twice. The first was made by Toei Animation and ran from October 15, 1974 to September 30, 1975, and the second, with new settings and characters, was made in 1992 . Altogether, 99 Japanese episodes were made (47 in the 1974 Toei series, and 52 in the 1992 series). The series mostly consists of the many adventures of Calimero and his friends as they solve mysteries and make documentaries. However, their adventures usually get them into quite a bit of trouble.
[edit] Characters
[edit] 1972 series
[edit] 1992 series
- Calimero – Calimero is voiced by Shinobu Adachi.[1]
- Priscilla – Priscilla is voiced by Akemi Okamura.[1]
- Peter (ピーター?) – Peter is voiced by Akirasa Ōmori.[1]
- Giuliano (ジュリアーノ?) – Giuliano is voiced by Yūji Ueda.[1]
- Susie (スージー?) – a wealthy girl duck. Susie is voiced by Natsumi Sasaki.[1]
- Roshita (ロシータ?) – Roshita is voiced by Hiroko Kasahara.[1]
[edit] Influence in popular culture
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- Calimero is the name and subject of a Welsh language song by the band Super Furry Animals [2]
- French singer Brigitte Fontaine collaborated with the band Stereolab on a song of the same name [3]
- The slang nickname during the 1970s-1980s for military policemen in the Israeli Army was Calimero, due to their egg-shaped white helmet. The helmet was changed to casquette style hat in the early 1990s
- Spanish military policemen are nicknamed calimeros after their Calimero-like helmets
- The word calimero passed into Portuguese, French and Slovene language usage to denote, someone that is always complaining or considers himself a victim. It is still occasionally heard and, as of 2009, remains widely understood [4]
- In the Netherlands and Belgium, Calimero complex is used to denote someone who thinks the world is against him or her because they are an underdog. In the Dutch series Calimero says They are big and I is small and that is not fair, oh no! (Dutch: "Zij zijn groot en ik is klein, en da's niet eerlijk, o nee!", erroneous use of the word "is" is intentional) [5]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
