Long live Sandrino

Long live Sandrino Richard Scarry / Cookie Jar Entertainment, 2007

Original title: Busytown Mysteries Characters: Sandrino, Sally, Zigo-Zago, Maialino Sì and Maialino No, Cirillo Author: Richard Scarry Production: Cookie Jar Entertainment, Heli Digital Regia: Ken Cunningham, Larry Jacobs

Country: Canada Year: 2007 Broadcast in Italy: 2012 Gender: Didactic / Police Episodes: 44 Duration: 22 minutes Recommended age: Children from 0 to 5 years old

"Long live Sandrino", whose original title is "Hurray for Hunckle" is a Canadian cartoon series created in 2007 by Cookie Jar Entertainment and dedicated to preschoolers. The program was awarded the CFPTA, an important recognition that is assigned to the best programs dedicated to children.
The events narrated in the various episodes are inspired by the books in the "Busytown" series by Richard Scarry and in each episode they propose a little mystery to be solved, a mystery that the protagonist Sandrino always manages to solve with his reasoning.
This animated series has enlivened the broadcasts of Canadian TV for three seasons with a total of 195 episodes lasting about ten minutes each.
In Italy the cartoon is broadcast by Rai Yoyo.

In the Italian version the name of the city where the series is set, Busytown, has been translated with a little poetic Sgobbonia which is a place inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, there are pigs, rabbits, hippos, dogs, caterpillars and above all cats, so much so that even our Sandrino is a cat-child.
In a town with a similar name it is easy to understand that it is not a bucolic location, but rather a place very similar to the typical small communities of North America. All the inhabitants of Sgobbonia work in professions absolutely similar to human ones. There are the baker, the farmer, the policeman, the journalist, etc. and everyone has a means of transport, especially cars that, to tell the truth, sometimes have a very particular appearance, such as the four-wheeled carrot of the rabbit or the car like an apple driven by the caterpillar. But there are also motorbikes and even some flying vehicles and so the streets of the town are quite busy.

The musical part has considerable importance in the development of each episode, in fact when Sandrino and his friends find themselves in front of an event that is at first sight inexplicable and choose to investigate to solve the mystery, their decision is underlined by a passage that in the The refrain proposes the classic questions an investigator asks himself: "Who? What? How? Where? When?"
Once the solution has been found, another short musical interlude intervenes. The songs of the Italian version are sung by the same interpreters of the theme song: Renata Bertolas and Silvio Pozzoli.

Sandrino, Zigo Zago, Sally, Maialino Si and Maialino No Richard Scarry / Cookie Jar Entertainment, 2007

SANDRINO AND THE OTHERS
The protagonists of the series are all children-animals.
Sandrino, the cat-child that gives the series its name, is a white and red cat who drives a red spider and who is gifted with great reasoning skills and a remarkable spirit of observation and, thanks to these qualities, he always manages to solve the little big mysteries of Sgobbonia. To carry out his investigations, the little protagonist always follows logic by formulating hypotheses that can be gradually eliminated or corroborated based on the clues or testimonies he collects.
Sandrino, who wears strange Tyrolean-style trousers, goes around with his inseparable friend, the caterpillar Zigo Zago wearing a strange "alpine style" hat, a bow tie and often proves very hungry. To keep the two company in the investigation is always there Sally, Sandrino's sister, also a red and white cat and equally gifted with lively intelligence.
Those who do not seem to stand out for their sagacity are two other friends, Pig Yes e Pig No, who try to suggest completely unlikely and illogical solutions.
An almost fixed presence that follows Sandrino's investigations is the cricket Cirillo, a journalist always ready to give an account of the conclusions reached by the protagonist with his friends.

Long live Sandrino Richard Scarry / Cookie Jar Entertainment, 2007

THE EPISODES
To understand how the series is conceived it is good to propose the summary of some episode.

In "The mystery of the stone bread"Sandrino with his friend Zigo-Zago gives the baker rabbit some sacks of flour and is invited to come back to collect a fragrant loaf bread with which to prepare excellent French toast for lunch. In the artisan workshop there is also the mason pig that that morning is busy building a new oven to meet the high demand for bread of the citizens of Sgobbonia.
At noon Sandrino and Zigo Zago show up to collect their bread, but when they get home they realize that it cannot be cut because it is hard as concrete. At this point they decide to investigate to unravel the mystery and return to the bakery to check the preparation process. Rabbit-baker and his assistant are desperate because all the customers have brought their purchases back and don't know why the bread is inedible. Together with Sandrino they go through all the preparation phases and when they put the dough back to bake in the oven, a tantalizing smell of bread is released, but once again their product is petrified. Then here is the mystery revealed: the bags of flour and cement were confused and Maiale Masatore built the oven using flour, while the bread was mixed with cement.

Neither "The mystery of the fallen cherries"Sandrino and his friends arrive in an orchard where a perplexed farmer observes a plant that has fallen all the fruits while nothing has happened to the other neighbors. It may not have been the wind, but a strip of pink fabric appears between the branches, probably left by the culprit and the children set off in search of the owner of that piece of fabric, They discover that the baby hippo goes around with a pink kite with a very long and very resistant thread that is missing just a flap. The mystery is revealed: the kite was entangled in the branches of the cherry tree and giving a few tugs the hippopotamus caused the fruit to fall.

Sandrino and his friends, after having decided to treat themselves to an afternoon of fun bathing, find themselves investigating the disappearance of the waters of the pond where all the inhabitants of Sgobbonia go to look for some refreshment during the hot summer days. This is the subject of "The mystery of the pond"and also this time it is not difficult for the children to solve it. They note that a pipe that collects the waters starts from the small basin, it will be a little more complicated to find out what its destination is because at a certain point it ends up underground, but in the end it will be clear that the culprit is a farmer who irrigated his fields with water from the pond.

All characters and images are copyright Richard Scarry / Cookie Jar Entertainment, 2007 and their rights holders. they are used here for cognitive and informative purposes.

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