Western Animation / I Cartoni dello Zecchino d'Oro

The title screen of the 2001-2005 version.

I Cartoni dello Zecchino d'Oro is a series consisted of Animated Adaptations of the Zecchino d'Oro festival's songs, produced by Italian animation studio De Mas & Partners, Antoniano Production and Rai Fiction. The series airs on Rai 1 and Rai Yoyo, while the home distribution rights belong to Warner Home Video.

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I Cartoni dello Zecchino d'Oro contains examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer: In "Ho Visto un Re", the king runs away from the Seven card that replaces the queen in horror, as she chases behind him.
• Abled in the Adaptation: The chick in "Il Pulcino Ballerino" seems to be hopping on one foot rather than limping, and his mother doesn't seem to be lame either.
• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal:
  • The gnat in "Il Valzer del Moscerino" seems to be wearing orange gloves and shoes.
  • The crocodile in "Il Coccodrillo Come Fa?" wears a green bowtie, tuxedo bib and collar.
  • The rooster dance teachers, father rooster and one background chicken in "Il Pulcino Ballerino" wear glasses.
  • As with the original song, the sparrow in "La Giacca Rotta" wears a red bowtie. His girlfriend also wears a blue bow.
  • The former half of "Cocco e Drilli" wears a collar, purple tie and top hat.
  • The titular protagonist of "Il Pinguino Belisario" wears a bowtie, and one of the walruses wears glasses.
  • The wolf in "La Slitta Vagabonda" ends up wearing a fur hat.
• Accidental Hero: In "L'Astronave di Capitan Rottame", despite the titular captain not wanting any part in his robot's plans, he ends up taking credit for getting rid of the pollution.
• Adaptational Heroism: The cat in "Il Valzer del Moscerino" isn't mentioned after scratching Beppone in the nose. The video makes the cat appear at the end of the video, dancing along with the titular gnat.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • All the predators in "E l'Arca Navigava" are earnestly on good terms with their prey aboard the Ark ^note the lion attempts to eat a goat before boarding, but Noah stops him anyway, only resuming their predatory insticts when the flood stops. On the video, it's all a ruse to end up eating the latter.
  • According to the lyrics of "L'Astronave di Capitan Rottame", the titular captain is the one behind his spaceship's contributions to the ecological improvements. In the video, he's a greedy scientist who makes the spaceship (now a robot) in order to turn trees into gold.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: In "Ciribiricoccola", the boy's older brother gives him one.
• Alcohol Hic: "Coriolano, l'Allegro Caimano" ends with the titular caiman hiccuping after downing his wine, then coverig his mouth and giggling in embarrassment.
• All Just a Dream: In "La Sveglia Birichina", there's a scene where the alarm clock forces the boy to wake up and get ready for school way too early, and kicks him out. After that, the boy wakes up to realize he was having a nightmare.
• The Alleged Car: The car in "Dagli una Spinta" is shown with one headlight hanging from its cable, and eventually goes up in smoke, before being destroyed by a steamroller.
• Amazing Technicolor Population:
  • The sheriff in "Il Lungo, il Corto e il Pacioccone" has orange skin, while the bandits are drawn with sickly green skin instead.
  • The black chess pieces in "Scacco Matto" have blue skin. Justified since they're just humanoid figures.
  • Scipio in "Annibale" is drawn as a purple-skinned person.
  • In "E Ciunfete... nel Pozzo", Cirilo's father is orange and his mother is yellow.
• In "La Guerra dei Mutandoni", Guidobaldo of Baldoni is yellow, Passepartout of Champignon is green, and the rest of the people have a green tint.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife:
  • The crocodile in "Il Coccodrillo Come Fa?" is purple with a green belly. Earlier in the video, a pink-purple striped cat is shown.
  • "Il Pulcino Ballerino" shows green, blue and purple chickens and a blue dog.
  • The horse in "Ho Visto un Re" is light blue with a blue mane.
  • Even though we don't know much about the colors of real dinosaurs, the dinosaurs in "Gugù, Bambino dell'Età della Pietra" are still rather brightly-colored. A pink mammoth is also shown in the beginning.
  • The cat in "Non lo Faccio Più" is purple and green, which makes the fact that its tail was painted with red and blue enamel funnier.
  • The sparrow in "La Giacca Rotta" is drawn with a cerulean plumage, and his girlfriend is pink.
  • The latter half of "Cocco e Drilli" is colored pink.
  • The three backup elephants in "Annibale" are blue, lavender and pink, while Hannibal's elephant is blue as well.
  • In "E Ciunfete... nel Pozzo", Cirilo's dog is blue.
  • A blue dog appears in "Il Cane Capellone".
  • Coriolano in "Coriolano, l'Allegro Caimano" is a blue caiman. Actual blue crocodilians can only be blue due to a mutation.
• Amusing Injuries: All over the place, from characters crashing head-on with a haystack while biking to tumbling down their house's exit.
• Anachronism Stew:
  • In "Gugù, Bambino dell'Età della Pietra", a dinosaur briefly wears an Instant Wrist Watch. The same video also shows the titular caveboy limp with crutches and a casted leg.
  • "Coriolano, l'Allegro Caimano" briefly shows three modern people taking pictures in a decidedly Ancient Egyptian setting.
• Animal Species Accent: The duck in "Il Pulcino Ballerino" speaks gibberish in a quack-like manner, while the dog has a gruff voice like a growl.
• Animate Inanimate Object:
  • In "Il Caffè della Peppina", the ingredients Peppina uses which are not from animals are not only sentient, but even similar to animals (e.g. the chocolate jar is a dog, the jelly jar is a bear, the onions are gorillas etc.).
  • The bass drum in "La Batterista" is shown to be sentient and even holds the other drums. A sentient piano also appears later in the song.
  • The alarm clock from "La Sveglia Birichina" is sentient enough to help the boy get ready for school.
  • Some sentient matryoshkas appear in certain scenes of "Balalaika Magica".
• Animated Actors: "Annibale" starts off with showing that Hannibal is acually an actor on a movie studio.
• Antenna Adjusting: "Il Ramarro con Tre Erre" briefly shows the father trying to fix the TV by doing this, but failing when a fly distracts him.
• Anti-Villain: The two wine vendors in "Coriolano, l'Allegro Caimano" are the antagonists of the song, but are just trying to do their job.
• Anthropomorphic Animal Adaptation: The original "Popoff" song never specifies the cossacks' species, but they're more likely humans. The song's video makes them all dogs.
  • The school teacher from "Scuola Rap" is supposedly a human in the song, but the video turns her into the protagonist's plush rabbit that comes to life.
• Appliance Defenestration: "Per un Ditino nel Telefono" ends with the father, exasperated from all the trouble he and his wife got from their baby's constant phone calls, throwing the phone out the window.
• Art Shift:
  • While the characters of "Volevo un Gatto Nero" are in a Disneyesque style, the titular black cat is always drawn in the crayon drawing-like style used for the backgrounds.
  • CGI and stop-motion videos have been included in the series since the 2004 season.
• Aside Glance:
  • The bull from "Torero Camomillo" looks at the audience in confusion while the titular bullfighter yawns in his face.
  • Popoff looks at the audience quite often, mostly in confusion, but also in sorrow when he's lost and tired.
  • A scene in "La Tartaruga Sprint" has the turtle stare at the viewer, displeased over a stop sign in front of him.
• Balloon Belly: The crocodile in "Il Coccodrillo Come Fa?" gets one after eating a piece of cake.
• Banana in the Tailpipe: The boy in "Monta in Mountain-bike" clogs a car's exhaust pipe with a cork to prevent the pollution of the air.
• Banister Slide: The dog in "Il Cane Capellone" does this to get down the stairs.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal:
  • Two chickens in "Il Pulcino Ballerino" wear jumpsuits.
  • As with the short where most of the animation comes from, all the characters in "Quarantaquattro Gatti" wear shoeless but otherwise complete outfits.
  • The mother sheep in "È Fuggito l'Agnellino" wears a red and purple dress.
• Belly Flop Crushing: In "Il Caffè della Peppina", the titular character has a scene where she skates with a chick and turkey, suddenly jumps, and crushes the turkey.
• Big Beautiful Woman: The mother in "Coccole!" is depicted as one.
• Big Eater:
  • The crocodile in "Il Coccodrillo Come Fa?" is shown eating an entire banquet in one scene of the song, and another shows him having a piece of cake and gaining a Balloon Belly.
  • The Three of Spades in "Ho Visto un Re" has a scene where he eats a club, a diamond and a horse on a table, before taking the cloche of a plate to reveal the king. The scene is later repeated, but the king is replaced by the joker.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti:
  • The latter briefly appears in "Dagli una Spinta", pushing Aunt Felicità and getting her unstuck from the snow.
  • A specimen of the latter also appears in "Annibale", harboring a grudge for the titular protagonist that starts when he accidentally breaks his TV.
• Big Honking Traffic Jam: "L'Astronave di Capitan Rottame" starts with the sounds of one.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: The cavemen in "Gugù, Bambino dell'Età della Pietra" all have these.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio:
  • The titular trio of "Il Lungo, Il Corto e il Pacioccone" are thin, short and big respectively.
  • The three backup elephants in "Annibale": one is of middle height and build, the second tall and lanky, and the third is short.
• Big Word Shout:
  • The constant "OLE'" shouts from "Torero Camomillo" are further illustrated by the appearance of the word. The apostrophe then transforms into an object included in the next scene.
  • Similarly, "Metti la Canottiera" shows the word "NO!" when it is called out.
• Bitch Slap: In "Ho Visto un Re", the princess slaps the jack after he whispers "Come away with me!" to her.
• Blank Book: The boy in "Il Coccodrillo Come Fa?" is shown reading a newspaper that's blank, emphasizing on how he seems unable to find the sound a crocodile makes.
• Blowing a Raspberry: "Quarantaquattro Gatti" ends with the four kittens doing this.
• Bound and Gagged:
  • The alarm clock in "La Sveglia Birichina" is briefly gagged before shaking the gag off.
  • Gonzales the Cat is shown holding Maria hostage this way in "Il Topo Zorro".
  • In "Le Api del Convento", the Pope ties a bee to a chair to prevent him from eating too much.
• Brainy Baby/Obfuscating Stupidity: "Per un Ditino nel Telefono" implies the baby knew how to use the phone and his cluelessness was false, as it winks at the viewers in the end.
• Brats with Slingshots: The grandfather in "Nonno Superman" turns into his boy form and uses a slingshot to distract his "sister's" mother in order to get two lollipops for the two of them.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": Two chickens wearing jumpsuits with the numbers "1" and "2" respectively briefly appear in "Il Pulcino Ballerino".
• Bubblegum Popping: The boy in "Ciribiricoccola" uses bubblegum to stick a Thumbtack on the Chair to get back at his sister.
• Bullet Seed: A scene in "Il Cuoco Pasticcione" shows overcooked peas rapidly shooting out of a pan.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • The king in "Ho Visto un Re" loses his clothes exposing his Goofy Print Underwear, is served to the Three of Spades, gets beaten by six clubs, and even when he stands by his queen, she disappears and is replaced by a Seven card whose affection he fears.
  • The titular penguin in "Il Pinguino Belisario" not only fails to be sent to the moon by the polar bears, but is also made fun of by them and some seals, is sprayed on the face by a fish, has a Milky Way milk bottle thrown at his face, and finally gets a Rump Roast courtesy of the sun.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: The cat and dog in "Cane e Gatto" start the video by taking turns displaying their eyes as they make each other's sounds in the dark.
• Cel Shading: "La Guerra dei Mutandoni" seems to be done in this style.
• Chew-Out Fake-Out: In "La mia Bidella Candida", there's a scene where the janitor looks at the boy in disapproval over a Broken Glass Penalty, but joyfully kicks the ball away after that.
• Chewing the Scenery: "Il Batterista" starts with a voice yelling the song's title at the top of their lungs.
• Chromatic Arrangement: In "Il Lungo, il Corto e il Pacioccone", the tall cowboy wears red, the short one wears blue, and the easygoing one wears green.
• Circling Birdies:
  • In "Torero Camomillo", when the bullfighter takes a note to the head, stars emerge from it and transition to the next scene. The bull gets these as well when he rams onto the arena wall.
  • Both the jack and king in "Ho Visto un Re" get these: the former both times he falls off his horse and the latter when he's beaten by the six clubs.
  • Occurs several times in "Annibale", the last being when one of the backup elephants holds her note for too long and is hit by the other two for it.
• Close-Call Haircut: The titular protagonist of "Samurai" ends up doing this to a delinquent with his katana.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: While inanimate, the toys in "La Zanzara" are various shades of blue, getting their full colors when they become animate.
• Comically Inept Healing: In "Le Api del Convento", a bee with the front part of his foot bandaged visits a bee nurse. The bee screams in pain after entering and leaves with both of his feet bandaged all over, as the nurse looks on in confusion.
• Confused Question Mark: "Torero Camomillo" shows a scene where each of the bull's horns takes the shape of a question mark to show how confused he is to not see the bullfighter come.
• Conspicuously Light Patch: In "Le Api del Convento", Father Raffaelle's nose is briefly shown among a bunch of tomatoes, which are drawn in a crayon style instead of the normal fully-colored style used for him.
• Convection, Schmonvection: At the end of "Il Pinguino Belisario", the titular penguin collides with the sun, only getting a Rump Roast.
• Convenient Escape Boat: Popoff, while in a snowball, ends up falling in a boat in the Don river.
• Court Jester: The joker in "Ho Visto un Re" is, as usual, portrayed as a jester, complete with a Happy Harlequin Hat.
• Cranial Eruption: The boy in "La Barchetta di Carta" imagines flying over a Giant Squid with his boat, making its anchor hit the cephalopod in the head and giving it this.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While Popoff is The Runt at the End and a bit clumsy, he still manages to find the Don River, while the other Cossacks get lost in the snow.
• Crowded-Cast Shot: "Volevo un Gatto Nero" ends with a crowd of animals singing the final "La la la la la la!".
• Cute Kitten: Both cats in "Volevo un Gatto Nero" are this.
• Dances and Balls: "Balalaika Magica"'s video takes place during a ball in a cottage near the Don river.
• Defeat Equals Friendship:
  • In "Torero Camomillo", the bull is defeated by the bullfighter when the latter falls asleep and the former rams on the wall. After that, the bullfighter pats the bull's head in sympathy and lies on him like a mattress, as they both sleep together.
  • The wolf in "La Slitta Vagabonda" seems to be chasing after the boy and bear, but ends up befriending the two when he fails.
• Deliberately Monochrome:
  • The scenes where the children from foreign countries appear in "Batti Cinque (4/4 Quarti di Silenzio)" are initially in black and white to convey their misery.
  • The backgrounds of "Le Tagliatelle di Nonna Pina" are mostly black and white.
  • "Marcobaleno" starts out as this before the titular character's arrival makes everything in color.
• Delinquents: The titular protagonist of "Samurai" confronts two delinquents in the modern day at the end of the video.
• Depraved Dentist: The dentist alligator in "La Gallina Brasiliana" is a subversion: while he seems to be a lunatic and scares the hen, he's shown to be quite affable.
• Discreet Drink Disposal: In "Il Caffè della Peppina", the kids who have the misfortune to taste the titular coffee pour it away.
• Disneyesque: Very common among videos. For example, the white cat in "Volevo un Gatto Nero" resembles a white Oliver from Oliver & Company.
• Disney Acid Sequence:
  • "Lo Stelliere" has some really trippy animation in comparison with other videos, since the song's lyrics revolve around the titular star man creating dreams.
  • Similarly, much of "Il mio Dentino Dondola" takes place inside a girl's dream, and is appropriately psychedelic.
• Dodgy Toupee: The king in "Ho Visto un Re" is revealed to be wearing a powdered wig when his hair disappears along with the rest of his garb.
• Dramatic Wind: "Il Ramarro con Tre Erre" ends with the girl looking at the ocean as the wind blows, before she jumps in the sea.
• Dream Sequence:
  • In "Torero Camomillo", the titular bullfighter dreams that he takes on the bull and snaps his fingers, turning him into a pillow.
  • In "Il Valzer del Moscerino", Beppone dreams of himself dancing with a feather and a snowflake, a rose petal falling, himself bouncing on flowers, and dancing with the gnat.
  • A big part of the "Il mio Dentino Dondola" video is a dream the girl's having.
  • "Le Tagliatelle di Nonna Pina" starts with the girl dreaming of how her day would be if she had more free time with her parents and grandmother.
• Drunken Glow: The boy in "Per un Bicchier di Vino" ends up having a red nose after getting drunk.
• Drives Like Crazy:
  • The grandfather in "Nonno Superman" seems to drive his motorcycle like this.
  • In "Le Api del Convento", a bee driving a motorcycle is briefly shown. He ends up crashing on the Pope by accident.
• Dual Age Modes: During much of "Nonno Superman", the grandfather alternates between an old man and a child that passes off as his granddaughter's little brother.
• Egomaniac Hunter: The hunter in "Cocco e Drilli" is portrayed as this.
• Eiffel Tower Effect: The boy and bear pass by Saint Basil's Cathedral in "La Slitta Vagabonda".
• Everything Is an Instrument: "La Tartaruga Sprint" starts with a monkey playing a banana like a flute.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows: The titular character of "Marcobaleno" uses a prism to color the word around him and spread love and peace to other people.
• Exorcist Head: In some scenes of "Ciribiricoccola", the boy spins his head around in frustration. In the last scene, he stops himself in order to befriend his sister again.
• Extreme Omnivore:
  • In "Le Api del Convento", a chef bee tries to feed the queen honey, but she ends up eating the tip of the spoon as well.
  • A turtle in "La Gallina Brasiliana" is forced to eat his pan when the hen is on vacation and he can't retrieve eggs from her.
• Eye Awaken: The baby in "Per un Ditino nel Telefono" does this when the phone wakes him up.
• Eye Glasses:
  • The rooster dance teachers from "Il Pulcino Ballerino" wear these, setting them apart from the other characters' Sphere Eyes.
  • The boy's older brother in "Ciribiricoccola" only has his pupils visible behind his glasses.
• Eye-Obscuring Hat: Popoff's hat briefly falls over his eyes, and he ends up becoming a Dog Snowball.
• The Faceless: All the human characters in "Cane e Gatto", "Il Topo con gli Occhiali" and "Il Cane Capellone" are portrayed like this.
• The Face of the Sun:
  • "Popoff" ends with the sun smiling at the titular Cossack.
  • A smiling sun is prominently featured in "La Gallina Brasiliana"
• Face Palm: The king lion in "La Tartaruga Sprint" puts his paw over his eyes as the lizards stumble while trying to hammer in a stop sign.
• Facial Dialogue: While most characters in the songs communicate by Speaking Simlish (or, more rarely, coherent Italian), those that don't employ this.
• Fake Muscles: A variant occurs in "Annibale", where the titular protagonist is shown lifting weights, only for his elephant to pop the dumbbells, which were actually balloons.
• False Teeth Tomfoolery: In "Volevo un Gatto Nero", as the crocodile is luring the white cat into his mouth, he's pulled away by the tail, causing his dentures to come out.
• Fat and Skinny: The two wine vendors in "Coriolano, l'Allegro Caimano" are a tall, thin one and a short and stout one.
• Fat Comic Relief:
  • The easygoing cowboy in "Il Lungo, il Corto e il Pacioccone" ends up making a hole in the wooden floor of the stage he tries to dance on.
  • Aunt Felicità in "Dagli una Spinta" is drawn as rotund, and ends up sinking in the snow while skiing.
• Fireman's Safety Net: The boy in "Metti la Canottiera" is shown hesitating to jump in one because it looks like the undershirt he doesn't want to wear in one scene.
• Fish Eyes: Characters in Gregory Panaccione's videos are often drawn this way.
• Fishing for Sole: "Le Api del Convento" shows a bee fishing, only to catch a diver instead.
• Flashback Effects:
  • In "Corri Topolino", the mouse's dream opens with a ripple effect.
  • A similar ripple ends the imagination scenes in "La Barchetta di Carta".
• Flipping the Table: The boy's sister in "Ciribiricoccola" kicks a table over in one scene, angrily warning him he's not supposed to be playing there.
• Flowers of Romance: One of the boy's older sisters in "Ciribiricoccola" is given flowers from her husband-to-be.
• Flying Books: Some scenes in the first occurence of the refrain of "Il Topo con gli Occhiali" shows the mouse flying on books, once even as a rocket.
• Flying Broomstick: The janitor in "La mia Bidella Candida" is shown flying with her broom in one scene.
• Food Porn: "Il Cuoco Pasticcione" starts out as this, before the food eventually gets overcooked.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Used Depending on the Artist (Pierluigi de Mas, Riccardo Mazzoli and Maurizio Forestieri are among those who mostly use these).
• Framing Device: A version of the show is hosted by four sentient instruments (Drumy, Guity, Saxy and Tasty), who open each song by talking about its subject.
• Frantic Object Concealment: In a scene of "Le Tagliatelle di Nonna Pina", the girl gets to her English class holding a volleyball, which she promptly hides behind her back.
• Freeze Sneeze: In "Popoff", the titular protagonist sneezes twice before starting to walk again.
• Friend to Bugs: Beppone in "Il Valzer del Moscerino" is made to be one, to the point where his shock over his nose being scratched is followed by elation when he sees the gnat again.
• Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal:
  • The Cossacks in "Popoff" wear a full Cossack outfit.
  • Every race snail in "Lumacher" wears a snail-shaped Formula One driver outfit.
• Funny Background Event: In "Il Caffè della Peppina", a framed image of a pig's head with a bowtie is clearly visible in her kitchen.
• Gender Flip: Some songs (including "La Sveglia Birichina") have the character portrayed in a different gender in the video than in the lyrics.
• Gentle Giant: The star man in "Lo Stelliere" is portrayed as a giant and benevolent being who creates dreams for children.
• Giant Squid: One imagination scene of "La Barchetta di Carta" shows the boy as a captain going toe to toe with one.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: A scene in "Per un Ditino nel Telefono" implies that the mother took very badly to being locked in the mental ward, as she's shown screaming and sobbing hysterically when she's shown there.
• Gratuitous German: Lumy the snail in "Lumacher" sometimes announces "Eins, zwei!" ("One, two!" in German), referencing his namesake's German descent.
• Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: The father in "Il Ramarro con Tre Erre" ends up slipping on the roof and falling on his ladder, yet it stays tilted when his daughter sees him. He ends up falling offscreen, as he's shown with a bandaid after that.
• Green Around the Gills:
  • The unwell girl in "La mia Bidella Candida" is drawn with green skin and yellow eyes.
  • Grandpa Asdrubale in "Dagli una Spinta" is green, most likely to emulate this effect because he's dying and bedridden.
  • The boy in "Non lo Faccio Più" gets both green skin and yellow eyes after eating all the bonbons, and later becomes blue while he lays in bed.
• Gonk: Cirilo in "E Ciunfete... nel Pozzo" has a very long nose (just like in the original song), crooked teeth, only three portions of hair and three fingers on each hand.
• Goofy Print Underwear:
  • The king in "Ho Visto un Re" has his clothes disappear with the lyric "Che re non è", leaving him in his vertically striped boxers (blue in the beginning of the video, red at the end).
  • The hunter in "Cocco e Drilli" has part of his pants bitten off by a crocodile, revealing blue underwear with yellow dots.
  • Gonzales the cat in "Il Topo Zorro" is stripped of his clothes by Zorro the mouse's sword, revealing green boxers with pink "Z"s. The scene is repeated a while later, with a picture of Zorro the mouse on the crotch area.
  • The titular protagonist of "Samurai" slashes a delinquent's clothes with a katana, exposing his white boxers with red hearts.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal:
  • The latter half of "Cocco e Drilli" wears a blue bow, pearl necklace and white skirt.
  • The mouse in "Il Topo con gli Occhiali" wears a yellow and white vest and a pink/green polka dot bowtie.
  • In "È Fuggito l'Agnellino", the lamb wears a blue jacket and the wolf wears a pair of pants.
  • The lizard detective in "Un Giallo in una Mano" wears a deerstalker cap and trenchcoat.
• Hand-or-Object Underwear: In "Ho Visto un Re", when the king's clothes disappear, he initially covers his (already covered by his underwear) crotch with his hands, then reaches behind his card and grabs an Ace, which he uses to hide himself with.
• Happily Married: "Barabà, Ciccì e Coccò" ends with Ciccì and the polar bear marrying.
• Harmless Freezing:
  • While the boy in "Metti la Canottiera" briefly freezes solid and shatters into pieces, he's shown fine in the next scene.
  • Similarly, "Annibale" has a scene where Hannibal is accidentally shoved in a chunk of ice by his elephant, but he's shown fine after a couple of scenes.
• He's Back!: After Popoff gets lost and lies on the snow in exhaustion, he gets a determined face and starts sliding on his belly to get to the Don river faster.
• A Head at Each End: A dinosaur briefly shown in "Gugù, Bambino dell'Età della Pietra" has this, and both heads seem to dislike sharing a body.
• Heart Symbol: Occurs in "Barabà, Ciccì e Coccò" when Ciccì falls in love with a polar bear. Uniquely, they're treated as physical objects, with Coccò being distracted by one and colliding with the seal.
• Hollywood Chameleon: A chameleon appears in "Mio Fratello", changing its color from green to pink without trouble.
• Human Snowball: Popoff does this twice: once accidentally, and once voluntarily to get to Don faster.
• Humongous Mecha: The titular spaceship in "L'Astronave di Capitan Rottame" is made a giant robot with a dome-like torso.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: At the end of "E l'Arca Navigava", the wolf, cat and hawk that attempted to eat the lamb, mouse and bird are hunted by them, the former two with their own devices.
• I Kiss Your Hand:
  • The jack in "Ho Visto un Re" does this to the princess when he meets her.
  • The boy in "Non lo Faccio Più" does this to his mother while apologizing to her.
• Idea Bulb: The turtle in "La Tartaruga Sprint" gets one twice: once when he gets the idea to have a motor fitted to him and once when he decides it's more trouble than it's worth.
• Improbable Use of a Weapon: The titular protagonist of "Samurai" uses his katana to cut a fish for lunch, help a statue who's struggling to hold up a temple, and make origami for his wife.
• Informed Species: In "La Zanzara", the titular mosquito looks more like a fairy with antennae and a curved nose like that of a rhinoceros beetle, while the toy raccoon resembles a bear with a striped tail due to his bulky body type (justified in the latter's case, since he's a toy).
• Instant Costume Change: The boy in "Monta in Mountain-bike" changes from his pyjamas to his clothes after jumping from his bed and landing to the floor in the beginning of the video.
• Instant Wristwatch: A dinosaur briefly wears one in "Gugù, Bambino dell'Età della Pietra".
• Interspecies Romance: In "Barabà, Ciccì e Coccò", Barabà and Ciccì are both owls, and the former forms a couple-like relationship with a seal and the latter falls for, and eventually marries, a polar bear.
• It's Raining Men: Towards the end of "Per un Ditino nel Telefono", several paratroopers parachute their way to the house, using battering rams to get in.
• Jump Scare: In "Coriolano, l'Allegro Caimano", one of the wine vendors is scared by the titular reptile sudenly coming out of the Nile.
• Kids Driving Cars: "Le Tagliatelle di Nonna Pina" shows the girl being able to drive the car after eating the titular pasta, to her parents' surprise.
• Kinda Busy Here: With the baby in "Per un Ditino nel Telefono" calling people at night, some of the people that receive a call are ready to sleep or in the middle of a job.
• Lilliputians: The cook in "Il Cuoco Pasticcione" is portrayed as one.
• Living Toys:
  • A band consisting of a toy pig, crocodile, raccoon and chick helps the titular protagonist of "La Zanzara" play a serenade.
  • "Il Singhiozzo" shows the boy being helped to overcome his hiccups by his toys ^note a stuffed Kermit, stuffed cat, stuffed snake and robot, who are even capable of holding him by his legs.
  • The teacher from "Scuola Rap" is a living stuffed rabbit.
• Luminescent Blush: The boy in "Il Singhiozzo" blushes when a girl smiles at him, offering him a lollipop.
• Mad Eye: The joker in "Ho Visto un Re", who seems to be a Cloudcuckoolander, has a small pupil on one eye and a blue iris on the other.
• The Man in the Moon: In "La Gallina Brasiliana", a smiling moon replaces the sun in nighttime scenes.
• Man-Made House Flood: The baby's home in "Per un Ditino nel Telefono" is flooded by the firemen, to his obliviousness but his parents' horror.
• Match Cut:
  • When the father in "Per un Ditino nel Telefono" is put behind bars, the scene twirls and fades to the baby holding his cot bars and laughing the same way.
  • In "Scacco Matto", this happens in two scenes: once when the pawn soldiers hold hands and fade to a paper doll chain, and once when an image of soldiers fades to an image of people holding checkerboards.
• Metaphoric Metamorphosis: The boy in "Metti la Canottiera" briefly grows donkey ears to symbolize he's being overlooked in his team (in Italian, "asino" can mean "dunce").
• Mistaken for Prank Call: Many people who are called by the baby in "Per un Ditino nel Telefono" are show to think they were prank called, with an army general even breaking his phone in anger.
• Monochrome Past: "Il Pulcino Ballerino" shows the chick hatching and the events after that in sepia, which turns into full color as he learns to dance the hully gully.
• Mouse Hole: The mouse in "Il Topo con gli Occhiali" lives in one.
• Mushroom Man: Sentient mushrooms "sing" the story of "Lumacher".
• Music Is Eighth Notes: In "Torero Camomillo", the bagpipe-sounding alarm clock releases several eighth notes, one of which hits the bullfighter on his head.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The cymbal pig from "La Zanzara", which is animated by Simona Bursi^note the creator of The Bee-Bees, makes a cameo in her later production "Barabà, Ciccì e Coccò".
  • The Kermit doll from "Il Singhiozzo" makes a cameo in Simona Cornacchia's next video, "Mio Fratello".
• Neck Lift: One of the polar bears in "Il Pinguino Belisario" grabs Belisario by the neck to take him to the cannon.
• Non-Human Sidekick: The titular protagonist of "Gugù, Bambino dell'Età della Pietra" is followed around by a small dinosaur.
• Non-Ironic Clown: The janitor in "La mia Bidella Candida" is briefly shown in a clown costume, highlighting her perky and friendly nature.
• Non-Mammalian Hair:
  • At least two chickens in "Il Pulcino Ballerino" have hair instead of combs.
  • The latter half of "Cocco e Drilli" is drawn with blonde pigtail-like tufts of hair.
• Non-Standard Character Design: While most of the characters in Pierluigi de Mas' videos are drawn in a cartoony style, the actors in a love movie briefly shown in "Ciribiricoccola" are drawn more realistically.
• Oblivious to Love: The polar bear in "Barabà, Ciccì e Coccò" initially doesn't realize Ciccì loves him, but ends up realizing it when one of her hearts comes to him.
• Ocular Gushers:
  • The crocodile from "Il Coccodrillo Come Fa?" lets these out when he accidentally bites his fingers and when he tests his teeth to see how sharp they are.
  • In "Cocco e Drilli", after the latter is kidnapped, the former cries so much he floods the landscape around him.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Popoff reacts this way when he sinks in the snow.
  • In "Il Valzer del Moscerino", Beppone wakes up in shock once he's scratched by the cat.
  • In "Il Lungo, il Corto e il Pacioccone", the thieves react like this when they see the titular cowboys come by and before making a run for it.
  • Cocco and Drilli jump in shock when they see the hunter come, while the hunter himself reacts similarly when he sees the crocodiles ready to intimidate him.
  • In "Per un Ditino nel Telefono", the parents react in horror to the police and psychiatrists coming to their home, as well as when realizing the fire station have flooded it.
  • In "Il Topo con gli Occhiali", the mouse initially can only react in horror as the librarian finds him at the library.
• Orbital Shot: "Metti la Canottiera" has a scene where the boy's preparing to kick the ball, the whole scene rotating to represent the anticipation.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The dragon that briefly appears on "Samurai" is a white Oriental dragon with mammalian ears.
• Our Goblins Are Different: The goblin in "Balalaika Magica" is drawn as a little man with Pointy Ears, a long nose and an ushanka on his head.
• Pain-Powered Leap: The titular protagonist of "Gugù, Bambino dell'Età della Pietra" does this when his notebook breaks and falls on his foot.
• Palatial Sandcastle: In "La Barchetta di Carta", two children are shown building a sand castle that, while rather simple, seems larger than them.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In "Coriolano, l'Allegro Caimano", Coriolano manages to fool his adversaries by dressing up as a market vendor.
• Percussive Maintenance: The mother in "Il Ramarro con Tre Erre" tries using this to fix the TV, but fails.
• Photo Montage: Used at the end of "Coriolano, l'Allegro Caimano" to show off Coriolano, the wine vendors, and even the modern-day people shown earlier.
• Pink Elephants: The boy in "Per un Bicchier di Vino" has hallucinations of himself as a superhero and his cat as a panther.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy:
  • The sparrows most prominently featured in "La Giacca Rotta" are a pink female and a blue male.
  • In "Cocco e Drilli", while Cocco is green instead of blue, his girlfriend Drilli is pink.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: A pterodactyl is shown lifting a mammoth without much struggle in "Gugù, Bambino dell'Età della Pietra".
• Pirate Parrot: In "La Barchetta di Carta", one of the boy's captain imagination scenes shows him hanging out with a parrot on his boat.
• Portal Book: The "Corri Topolino" video shows the titular story being part of a book a boy's reading. The boy is shown inside the story, and the mouse and cat both end up coming out of the book at the end.
• Portal Picture: "Il Cane Capellone" shows the titular dog retrieving a guitar from a framed picture, to the shock of the guitarist in the image.
• Powder Keg Crowd: In "Torero Camomillo", the entire crowd starts off as an angry, yelling mess due to the bullfighter being absent.
• Produce Pelting: "Torero al Pomodoro" shows the bullfighter get tomatoes (and even an oversized can of tomatoes) thrown at him when he becomes friends with the bull. The father also throws one at his wife, son and bull.
• Promoted to Love Interest: The original "Barabà, Ciccì e Coccò" song only mentions the seal and polar bear characters. In the video, however, the seal and Barabà live as a couple, while Ciccì falls in love with the bear and marries him at the end of the video.
• Race Lift: The original "Mio Fratello" song was sung by an Italian girl, so it's safe to assume its setting is Italian. Its video takes place in a Latin American setting, probably due to the music style.
• Rainbow Lite:
  • A rainbow in "E l'Arca Navigava" has pink, yellow, red, green and blue stripes.
  • The colors used for the rainbows in "Marcobaleno" are almost always red, orange, yellow, green, blue and pink.
• Reclaimed by Nature: After the robot in "L'Astronave di Capitan Rottame" disposes of the garbage and pollution, a big portion of the city is filled with plants.
• Recycled Animation: Often found in videos. Seeing as many of the songs, being songs, have repeated lines and most are short in duration, Tropes Are Tools.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The bull from "Torero Camomillo" is a subversion, as he starts out as an unruly, Brutish Bull, but becomes friends with the bullfighter at the end.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Most animals in the videos are this, but special mention goes to the kittens from "Quarantaquattro Gatti", the cats from "Volevo un Gatto Nero", the sparrows from "La Giacca Rotta", and the mice from "Corri Topolino" and "Il Topo con gli Occhiali".
• Rod And Reel Repurposed: The boy in "Non lo Faccio Più" uses this to snatch his aunt's wig.
• Rump Roast: The titular penguin in "Il Pinguino Belisario" ends up colliding with the sun and gets this, before putting it out in the water.
• The Runt at the End: The titular protagonist of "Popoff" is shorter than the other Cossacks, and at the end of the line.
• Sapient Steed: The horses in "La Slitta Vagabonda" have at least a nearly normal level of sentience, even joining in riding the sled at the end.
• Savage Wolves: The wolf in "La Slitta Vagabonda" is a subversion, hunting the boy and bear, but befriending them after he fails.
• Scooby-Dooby Doors: A scene in "Coriolano, l'Allegro Caimano" shows the titular caiman and the wine vendors run through the pillars of a temple in this manner.
• Seasonal Baggage:
  • "Popoff" ends with the titular Cossack rowing through the Don river, as the winter landscape converts to spring, with the sun smiling at him.
  • "La Sveglia Birichina" similarly has a scene where the train travels from a winter landscape to spring and winter again.
• Sentient Vehicle: "Monta in Mountain-bike" begins with cars with fangs zooming through the city streets.
• Seriously Scruffy: "Per un Ditino nel Telefono" ends with both parents looking really disheveled from the lack of sleep and trouble they received due to their baby son's phone-calling spree.
• Shout-Out:
  • The crocodile and cat from "Il Coccodrillo Come Fa?" seem to be colored after Barney and the Cheshire Cat respectively.
  • "Nonno Superman" starts with the titular grandfather entering a phone booth and emerging in an outfit with a stunning resemblance to that of Superman, complete with an "S" badge on the chest.
  • In "Il Topo con gli Occhiali", the mouse is shown flying on a book past Charles d'Artagnan, The Little Match Girl, Snow White, Long John Silver, Pinocchio, the Fox and Cat, and Merlin.
  • A scene of "Ciribiricoccola" where the boy and his sister go to the cinema shows off posters of a pastiche of Benito Jacovitti's Cocco Bill^note which had an Animated Adaptation directed by this cartoon's director Pierluigi de Mas and Top & Terry.
  • "Annibale" briefly shows an image of Woody Allen in the titular protagonist's dressing room.
  • Kermit the Frog and Gromit appear as toys in "Il Singhiozzo".
  • "È Fuggito l'Agnellino", due to featuring a wolf who attempts to eat the lamb, prominently features characters from The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood and Peter and the Wolf.
  • The character design of the father in "Mio Fratello" is inspired by David from Lilo & Stitch.
• Characters resembling Mickey Mouse, Superman and Batman briefly appear in "Marcobaleno".
• Shrug Take:
  • The bull from "Torero Camomillo" does this in bewilderment after his horns revert from their question mark shape.
  • The crocodile from "Il Coccodrillo Come Fa?" sometimes does this while the lyrics mention that nobody knows its sound.
• Single Malt Vision: "Per un Bicchier di Vino" shows the child drinking wine and seeing two (then twenty-four, then fourty-eight) bottles in front of him instead of one. He then sees the cat the same way, and finally himself.
• Slower Than a Snail/Speedy Snail: In "La Tartaruga Sprint", a snail is portrayed to be able to zoom past the turtle. When the turtle starts ignoring his gloating, it's revealed he is moving at a rapid pace.
• Snow Means Cold: "Popoff" starts off with the grey sky being overcast due to the temperature hitting -40 degrees, then the clouds become snow that covers the steppe landscape.
• Soft Water: Despite taking what seems to be a long fall, Cirilo in "E Ciunfete... nel Pozzo" isn't injured by the water in the well.
• Spared by the Adaptation: The song "Il Valzer del Moscerino" implies that the cat hit and killed the gnat. In the video, on the other hand, the gnat escapes before the cat kills it and the two animals even seem to become friends.
• Speaking Simlish: Most of the characters in the animation speak like this, probably to not distract from the song.
• Sphere Eyes:
  • The titular gnat in "Il Valzer del Moscerino" has these.
  • Some characters in Maurizio Forestieri's videos, including the chickens, duck and crickets in "Il Pulcino Ballerino" and some dinosaurs, including Gugù's sidekick, in "Gugù, Bambino dell'Età della Pietra", have these.
• Spinning Paper:
  • "Un Giallo in una Mano" starts off with a newspaper spinning in.
  • One of these is used in the ending of "L'Astronave di Capitan Rottame" as well.
• Splash of Color: In "Le Tagliatelle di Nonna Pina", while the backgrounds and most objects are in black and white, other objects and the characters are in full color.
• Staircase Tumble: The bullfighter in "Torero al Pomodoro" gets downstairs by tumbling.
• Stock Animal Diet:
  • The boy in "La Giacca Rotta" is able to lure some sparrows towards him with some bread.
  • The bear in "La Slitta Vagabonda" is introduced lamenting having eaten all of his honey pots.
• Stock Footage: The "Quarantaquattro Gatti" video is essentially clips from animator Guido Manuli's (now partially lost) 1982 animation La Banda dei Cuccioli, with removed/redubbed sound effects/dialogue and some new animation here and there.
• Super-Speed: The titular camel in "Il Katalicammello" is portrayed as this, rather than just fast as in the song.
• Tan Lines: The father in "Il Ramarro con Tre Erre" is portrayed with one in the shape of a T-shirt.
• Team Hand-Stack: The children in "Batti Cinque (4/4 Quarti di Silenzio)" end the song by doing this.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics:
  • In "La Giacca Rotta", the male sparrow is blue and wears a red bowtie, while his girlfriend has a pink plumage and eyelashes, and wears a blue bow.
  • The protagonists of "Cocco e Drilli" are a green male crocodile with male accessories and a pink female one with eyelashes and girly accessories.
• Tick Tock Tune:
  • The "Torero Camomillo" video incorporates clock sounds into the music during the scenes where clocks appear.
  • "La Sveglia Birichina"'s melody, being about a clock and all, has clock sounds among the music.
• Towering Flower: True to the original song, "Corri Topolino" shows one.
• Travel Montage: "Barabà, Ciccì e Coccò" has one when the titular owls are flying from Italy to the North Pole.
• Turned Against Their Masters: The robot in "L'Astronave di Capitan Rottame" initially goes through with his master's plan to convert trees to gold, but spits out the tree and starts eating the garbage, smog and an oil spill in the city.
• Twinkle in the Eye: In "Annibale", as Scipio stares Hannibal down before shooting at him with his laser, his eye twinkles.
• Twinkle in the Sky: "Lo Stelliere" ends with the boy's dreams ascending to the sky, touching and disappearing with a twinkle.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: The titular protagonist of "Samurai" is a stout, short, cartoony man, while his wife is a tall, thin, pretty lady who's even thinner than his entire head.
• Uncatty Resemblance:
  • The bandits in "Il Lungo, il Corto e il Pacioccone" ride on three horses who wear the same mask as them.
  • The samurai's horse in "Samurai" shares his Samurai Topknot.
• Unmoving Plaid: In "Samurai", the samurai's wife's kimono has a pattern that stays the same no matter her position.
• Very False Advertising: "Barabà, Ciccì e Coccò" shows the three protagonists get to a hotel, which is shown as just an igloo in the pamphlet. It turns out to be just a sign on the top of a hotel.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • The titular captain in "L'Astronave di Capitan Rottame" doesn't take it well when his robot goes against his plans, throwing a tantrum as he watches it.
  • The kings in "La Guerra dei Mutandoni" get furious when their war isn't waged, but the soldiers stay in peace.
• Visions of Another Self: "Gugù, Bambino dell'Età della Pietra" ends with a 20th Century boy who looks similar to the titular caveboy taking his books to school and eventually coming upon him and his dinosaur companion.
• Visual Pun:
  • In "Il Pinguino Belisario", the Milky Way is shown in one scene, comprised of multiple milk bottles. The North Star even throws one to Belisario's head in order for him not to collide with her.
  • In "Scacco Matto", the lyric "Sei fritto!"^note Figuratively "You're toast", literally "You're fried" in the refrain is represented by the loser of the chess match being tossed upwards by a giant frying pan.
• Vocal Dissonance:
  • One hen in "Il Pulcino Ballerino" talks in the father rooster's voice in one scene.
  • One of the first scenes of "Quarantaquattro Gatti" has the fat orange kitten speak in a voice that's way too deep for him. The other scenes he's in have him speak in a more fitting Simpleton Voice.
• Watch Out for That Tree!: The wolf in "La Slitta Vagabonda" collides with a tree while chasing the boy and bear.
• Water Guns and Balloons: In "La Barchetta di Carta", as the boy imagines he's a ship captain, he imagines firing a water balloon from a cannon at his enemies.
• Wheel o' Feet: The camel in "Il Katalicammello" briefly gets these as he runs.
• Wingding Eyes:
  • In "Il Valzer del Moscerino", the gnat is briefly shown with heart eyes.
  • In "Ho Visto un Re", the jack has dollar signs in his eyes as he takes out his money sack and ogles his money.
  • In "La Giacca Rotta", the sparrow's irises briefly become buttons to show how much he desires the boy's button.
  • In "Il Topo Zorro", Zorro the mouse gets heart eyes as he's having ice cream with his girlfriend Maria.
  • In "La Barchetta di Carta", the boy gets paper boat irises as he's enjoying his paper boat.
  • In "Le Tagliatelle di Nonna Pina", the girl gets crosses for eyes when hit by a volleyball.
• Workout Fanservice: Ciccì in "Barabà, Ciccì e Coccò" meets her polar bear fiancé while he's lifting weights.
• Worst News Judgement Ever: At the end of "Per un Ditino nel Telefono", newspapers reporting the baby's phone-calling hijinks on the front page are shown.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: The samurai's wife in "Samurai" is a tall, thin, pretty lady in a kimono. She also takes his katana and waves it around, causing a bit of a stir to the other villagers.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: In "Il Pinguino Belisario", the titular penguin is almost sent to the moon... but ends up getting a Rump Roast after the sun rises in the moon's place.