CALIMERO

By Venus Villa

Calimero was created for an advertisement for a detergent in 1961. Then in July 1963 the brothers Nino and Toni Pagot created a series dedicated to him entitled "Calimero, the Black Chick”. And this was the beginning of the stories of Calimero.

Calimero is an Italian cartoon. He is the only one with black feathers in his family, where all the others have yellow feathers. In this series, it explains that he is black is because he fell in the mud when he was born. The little chick carries half of its shell on his head.

In the series, Calimero is introduced as the sixteenth child of a chicken called Cesira, who rejects him because he is black, but only in appearance. Calimero lives a lot of adventures in which truth and goodness always triumph, because he is honest all the time. At the end of each episode it is revealed that Calimero is not black: the chick is only dirty and is cleaned with the detergent that he advertises.

In the late seventies, the Pagots wanted to introduce Calimero to the United States but this was not possible because he was rejected by American culture, as the chick was black and at that time this could have created controversy.

MAIN CHARACTERS

Calimero: The hero of the series.

Priscilla: Calimero's girlfriend, a shy chick with common sense.

Piero: Susy's boyfriend, a green duck. Her parents are millionaires.

Valerian: A green chick who likes to tell stories.

Rosella: A chick who is Valerian’s girlfriend.

Susy: A millionaire who is very stingy, because her mother works in television.