The puppet of three generations · Children's TV · Italia 1 · 2004–2005

Topo Gigio Show.

For the programme that brought back to TV the foam-rubber little mouse by Maria Perego — the "Caro Topo Gigio" of three generations of Italian children — we built two different sets: the mushroom village of the cartoon forest and then Gigioland, the red-and-white striped tent of the circus of dreams.

Story

Act one

The Mediaset
debut.

Topo Gigio was born in 1959 from the hands of Maria Perego: a foam-rubber puppet twenty-five centimetres tall, animated in plain sight by three puppeteers in black leotards against a backdrop of the same colour — the scenic trick of "black art" that made him magically suspended in mid-air. For the voice, Peppino Mazzullo: the "Eh, ma cosa mi combini?" that entered the emotional memory of three generations of Italian children.

In autumn 2004 Topo Gigio arrived for the first time on Italia 1: his Mediaset debut, the children's Saturday afternoon. The programme — the Topo Gigio Show, on air from 11 October 2004 to 27 August 2005 — was entrusted to the comic duo Fichi d'India, directed by Lorenzo Lorenzini, with set design by Patrizia Ambrosini, produced by RTI. The voice of the little mouse, for this occasion, passed to Davide Garbolino; Mazzullo stayed to sing the theme tune.

We were asked for a festive, saturated, immediately recognisable set: a world where everything is a cartoon in three dimensions, readable at a glance by the children in the studio and at home. Two seasons, two distinct scenographic ideas — the forest with the giant mushroom for the opening and then Gigioland, the tent-village of the circus of dreams.

Topo Gigio Show set, 2004 season: large giant mushroom with red polka-dot cap, oval window and chimney like a house, beside it an oversize daisy-flower with orange and fuchsia petals, green dewdrops and a giant leaf on the ground, cartoon foliage painted on the studio walls, dated 22 September 2004 — **2004 season.** The mushroom-house of the cartoon forest, construction photo from September 2004

View of the fairy-tale set with a giant mushroom with red polka-dot cap, tall cartoon green grass painted on the walls, tropical leaves, an oversize daisy-flower on the right with orange and fuchsia petals, a small cage with a bird, a yellow spiral staircase on the left — **The cartoon forest.** Tall grass, tropical leaves, oversize daisy-flower and a small cage with a bird — cartoon saturation

Side view of the same set: giant mushroom with red polka-dot cap, another smaller mushroom behind it, tall cartoon green grasses on either side, painted landscape in the background, cartoon carpet floor — **Side view.** Three planes of depth — large and small mushrooms, painted landscape on the backdrop

Act two

Gigioland,
the tent-village.

Under a large red tent with white stripes — a direct reference to the circus — opens a balcony-stage with the illuminated sign "GIGIOLAND" in three-dimensional yellow letters with light bulbs, red drapes in garlands, rose decorations and niches with carved little animals: a swan, a duck, a small knight in armour.

Beneath the stage, a multicoloured staircase with rainbow stripes acts as the main backdrop, with railings of round beads and pink hearts. The hosts use it as a mobile stage: sitting on the steps, they come down to the studio to speak with the puppet and with the children guests.

All practicable architecture, in expanded polystyrene carved by hand, stiffened with fibreglass on the contact surfaces and finished with cartoon colours saturated in broad brushstrokes — the durability and safety required by a television set with multiple recordings and a children's audience in the studio. Opening titles and sketches of the show keep framing the set from different angles: the viewer reads it as a real place where Topo Gigio lives.

'Gigioland' set of the Topo Gigio Show: large red tent with white stripes in the centre, illuminated three-dimensional yellow 'GIGIOLAND' sign above it, central balcony with red drapes in garlands, white little animals (duck, swan, small knight) on the side niches, multicoloured rainbow staircase at the bottom, railings of beads and pink hearts — **Gigioland.** Front view of the set, circus tent with illuminated sign at the centre

Another view of the Gigioland set: detail of the tent, illuminated sign, rose decorations and drapes — **Side view.** The tent in perspective with the rose decorations

Detail of the balcony with the little animals and the decorations of the Gigioland set — **The balcony.** Carved little animals in the side niches and red garland drapes

Behind the scenes

Building a cartoon
in three dimensions.

A children's TV set has three constraints that talk to each other: maximum-saturation readability on a wide shot, absolute safety with a minor audience in the studio and resistance to three months of repeated recordings under the studio lights. These are the three threads we keep together in the workshop.

Gigioland set in the studio during recording, with Fichi d'India on the central balcony — **Set in recording.** The cartoon proportions of the balcony support the hosts like a real stage

Polystyrene carving

The round and bulging shapes — the tent dome, the mushroom caps, the rose-decorated frames — start from blocks of high-density expanded polystyrene rough-cut with a hot wire and then finished by hand with floats and sandpaper. It is the material that allows working on volume in television-set timeframes (weeks, not months) while staying very light to move during scene changes.

The rigid fibreglass skin

All contact surfaces — the staircase handrails, the edges of the balcony, the bases of the practicable mushrooms — are wrapped in fibreglass with glass mat and polyester resin. Beneath the hand-painted cartoon film there is a rigid shell that withstands impacts, hosts leaning on it and accidental contact from the audience without marking the polystyrene.

Colours saturated in broad brushstrokes

The finish is chosen to exist under the lights: acrylics in broad fields of tent-red, sign-yellow, fuchsia-flower, orange-petal, cartoon meadow-greens. No realistic shading: colour must be laid flat as in a comic panel, because that is how the camera reads it even when the shot is wide and the studio light flattens everything.

different scenographic sets across the two seasons

~46

30-minute episodes, Saturday afternoon

25 cm

Topo Gigio's height — the set is calibrated to his scale

Gigioland set — another view — **Another angle.** The rainbow staircase works as the main backdrop of the studio

Detail of the Gigioland set — **Detail.** The round beads and pink hearts on the railings — cartoon finish in broad brushstrokes

Second life

Sixty-five years and counting.

The Topo Gigio Show closed its doors in August 2005 after the summer season. The two sets were dismantled at the end of recording — TV scenography is ephemeral by nature, built for the duration of the broadcast.

Topo Gigio, on the other hand, kept going: new international animated series, appearances at the Zecchino d'Oro in the following years, a return to Mediaset with other programmes and finally the film Topo Gigio e il segreto della famiglia in 2024 — the sixty-fifth birthday of Maria Perego's foam-rubber little mouse celebrated at the cinema. The audience changes, the puppet does not.

For us, the Topo Gigio Show remains one of the purest children's TV programmes we have worked on: no concession to adult cynicism, maximum saturation, a palette of cartoon-in-three-dimensions. The same coordinates — carved polystyrene, fibreglass stiffening, saturated cartoon finish — came in useful again on other entertainment sets (see Ciao Darwin and Chi ha incastrato Peter Pan).

Tech sheet

All production data

Type: Scenographic set for children's TV programme · Italia 1
Programme: Topo Gigio Show
Broadcast: From 11 October 2004 to 27 August 2005, Saturday afternoon · 30-minute episodes
Hosts: Comic duo Fichi d'India (Bruno Arena and Max Cavallari)
Director: Lorenzo Lorenzini
Set design: Patrizia Ambrosini
Writers: Barbara Cappi · Guido Clericetti · Sergio Cosentino
Costumes: Rossella Bentivoglio
Cinematography: Massimiliano Cavenaghi
Producer: Oreste Sabatino · Executive producer Roberto Ebale
Production: RTI · Reti Televisive Italiane (Mediaset)
Voices: Davide Garbolino (voice of Topo Gigio in the programme) · Peppino Mazzullo (theme tune — historic voice of the little mouse since 1959)
Character creator: Maria Perego (1959)
Sets built: 2004 season — cartoon-forest set: giant mushroom-house with red polka-dot cap, oversize daisy-flower, tropical leaves, small cage with bird, yellow spiral staircase, painted backdrop with cartoon foliage

Gigioland — the tent-village: large red circus tent with white stripes, three-dimensional illuminated "GIGIOLAND" sign in yellow with light bulbs, balcony with red drapes and rose decorations, niches with carved little animals (duck, swan, small knight), multicoloured rainbow staircase with railings of beads and pink hearts
Techniques: Hand-carved expanded polystyrene · surface stiffening in fibreglass · finish in saturated acrylics with broad fields, cartoon style · illuminated sign with integrated light bulbs
Our role: Full construction of both scenographic sets of the programme
Character legacy: Topo Gigio has been on stage since 1959 · film Topo Gigio e il segreto della famiglia in cinemas in 2024 for the sixty-fifth anniversary

Other children's TV and entertainment programmes

Chi ha incastrato Peter Pan — Bonolis's children's variety show
Ciao Darwin — the Genodrome portal
Braccio e la Mente — RAI game show
Cristina Parodi Live — the biomorphic LED sculpture on LA7