Italo Bettiol, the creator of shorty shortya mythical animation series from the 1970s, died this Wednesday at the age of 96 at his home in Aniane in the Hérault, announced one of the relatives of the Italian-born director.
The nonagenarian, to whom we also owe cucumber the bubbleFirst broadcast in the late 1960s, he “died peacefully,” according to Eric Valin, “a long-time collaborator and family friend,” quoted in a Magic company press release, representing the rights of shorty shorty.
cult credits
The characters of the series -a blue boy and a pink girl with giant hats-, their universe populated with magic cubes and the cult credits of François de Roubaix, appeared in the ORTF on October 16, 1974.
Their stories (60 five-minute episodes) were “broadcast around the world, as far as the United States on Nickelodeon’s Pinwheel,” the statement said.
A specialist in the “stop motion” technique, which “consists of animating foam and felt puppets frame by frame in front of the camera”, Italo Bettiol was originally destined for a career as an artist-painter.
It is in this perspective that the native of Trieste had left Italy for France in 1947 with his partner Stefano Lonati, a recent graduate like him from the Fine Arts in Milan.
tireless inventor
Finally setting their sights on animation, the duo founded the Belokapi company in 1968, in association with Michel Karlof and Nicole Pichon, which produced, notably, many sequences for the show. children’s island (Alberto and Barnabas, Lineetc.).
“A tireless inventor, retired, Italo Bettiol continued to tinker with extraordinary machines in his workshop in Aniane, near Montpellier,” the press release specifies.
Source: BFM TV
