She's about to have some wacky slice-of-life adventure
La Pimpa is a long-running Italian comic-book series for children by Francesco Tullio Altan. The character of Pimpa ("La" being the article "the", as it's rather common in Northern Italy to use it before first names in informal conversation) was created in 1975 by Altan for his daughter, who asked him to draw her a dog. La Pimpa soon became a very popular icon whose adventures kept being published in popular Italian children magazine Il Corriere dei Piccoli until its closure. The comics were later adapted in multiple animated series, the first in the early 80s, the second in the late 90s, and another reboot in The New '10s.
This series centers on Pimpa, a white female dog with red dots all over her body, who lives with her owner/father figure Armando, a plump moustached man who treats her like a daughter. Every day Pimpa goes through new adventures wheter it's in her house's surroundings or all over the world, or even in space, meeting old friends and making newers.
A peculiar trait of the series is just how everything can interact with Pimpa. And yes, we mean everything. Plants, objects, random stuff, weather agents, food, celestial bodies... Animate Inanimate Object and Everything Talks at their purest.
Thanks to its timeless storytelling, easy-to-follow episodes, iconic characters, unique designs, and Sweet Dreams Fuel content, La Pimpa became a true Cult Classic and no Italian child who grew up from the 70s until today will deny to have watched at least a single episode of at least one of the animated adaptations or read a comic release.
La Pimpa contains examples of:
- A Dog Named "Dog": Coniglietto and Colombino (coniglio is Italian for rabbit, whereas colombino derives from colombo, which can be translated as pigeon or male dove). Ironically this doesn't apply with the show's dog protagonist.
- Affectionate Nickname: Pimpa likes to call Armando "Armandone", which is augmentative for Armando, meaning "Big Armando".
- all lowercase letters: The 1997 series episode titles are written this way.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Pimpa is a white dog with huge red dots. Coniglietto is a white rabbit with blue dots. Rosita is a blue cat, Tito is a solid darker blue doggy. Some of the other animals and one-shot characters fall under this trope too.
- Animate Inanimate Object: EVERYTHING is likely to be alive and sentient in La Pimpa's world.
- Anthropomorphic Food: Of course, food isn't an exception in La Pimpa. See Animate Inanimate Object and Everything Talks.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Sometimes Armando is skeptical about Pimpa's adventures and encounters even though he personally witnessed some of them and is aware of his doggy's daily activities. It might just be part of a game between the two of them, since it takes very little to convince him that Pimpa isn't making everything up.
- Art Evolution: You can recognize which animated adaptation you are watching only by how it looks. The 1982 series was obviously both traditionally animated and coloured. The 1997 one, thanks to technology change, received digital coloration (the difference is quite evident). The most recent incarnation (which was released as two different series, respectively in 2010 and 2015) was animated in Flash.
- Artistic License – Animal Care: Well, you don't need to be an expert to know that dogs aren't supposed eat chocolate unless you want them to die.
- Artsy Beret: A singer frog from an episode of the 2010 series wears one.
- Baby Morph Episode: See Parental Hypocrisy below.
- Big Beautiful Man: Armando is plump and sometimes Pimpa jokes on this, but he's still a very good-looking man.
- Bigger on the Inside: Armando and Pimpa's house is this, not for particular reason beside artstyle.
- Cats Are Mean: Averted with Rosita, one of Pimpa's best friends.
- The Cameo: Margherita Hack (not voiced by the actual Margherita though) appears in one episode as, of course, the owner of an observatory. She introduces herself to Pimpa just as Margherita.s closer to Pimpa.
- Cool Big Sis: Pimpa is this for Olivia.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Pimpa and Coniglietto, but only for an episode. Justified since they were playing at a game they invented, the "mad restaurant", whose point was preparing absurd dishes.
- Crappy Homemade Gift: Downplayed in one episode from the 2010 series. It's Armando's birthday and his clothes are dirty, so Pimpa tries to clean them with little success. After accidentally shrinking the clothes in the washing machine, Peppa decides to have new clothes made for Armando as a birthday present, but she has to settle for fabric of different random colours since Peppino (a spinner spider) doesn't have enough blue thread. After that, Pimpa realizes she has no buttons, so she uses draughts/checkers pieces after making holes on them helped by her woodpecker friend. The result is quiet cringey and Armando doesn't hide his initial reaction, but after learning his new outfit was made by Pimpa (actually, by Pimpa with the help of both her object and animal friends, including Tito) he shows his appreciation and thanks them.
- Cumulonemesis: A rare instance of a character beign mean with Pimpa (thus being the closest thing to a villain this series ever got) is a thunderstorm cloud who likes to spoil the fun.
- Does Not Like Spam: Pimpa dislikes spinaches, carrots and minestronenote and she doesn't hide it.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Downplayed since it only applies to the show's pilot. That episode (the pilot of the 80s animated series) stands out thanks to its slightly different artstyle, different soundtrack and different voice actors for both Pimpa and Armando.
- Everything Is an Instrument: At the end of the Christmas Special episode Colombino and Coniglietto play their presents (respectively a cup and a carrot) as instruments.
- Everything Talks
- Fear of Thunder: Pimpa was shown to have this, especially when Armando leaves her home alone during a thunderstorm.
- Free-Range Children: Pimpa counts as this considering her father-daughter relationship with Armando. She's perfectly free and allowed to do whatever she wants every day and to go wherever she wants (around the world and space included). That said, the show's premise and tone (see Vague Age below) make this trope both Downplayed and Justified.
- Friendly Neighborhood Spider: Peppino the Spider.
- Friend to All Living Things: And not just them.
- Funny Animal: Pimpa and her animal friends.
- Furry Confusion: Averted thanks to the show's premise and general vibe.
- Giant Spider: Peppino. He's the size of a dog!
- Girliness Upgrade: In one episode of the 1982 series Pimpa meets a female caterpillar named Paloma, who later turns (as you might have guessed) in a butterfly. If, as a caterpillar, she had no Tertiary Sexual Characteristics and a slightly boyish voice, after becoming a butterfly she gets a girly voice, feminine eyes, long eyelashes and full red lips. She looks so beautiful that even Pimpa is amazed.
- Good Parents: Armando certainly fits the model of a good father figure.
- Granny Classic: Pimpa's armchair usually fits this, as she acts very motherly, wears tiny round glasses and tells fairy-tales to Pimpa and her friends.
- Heavy Sleeper: Coniglietto.
- Hollywood Chameleons: Pimpa meets one while visiting the Amazon River. Of course, he turns white with round red dots when he gets closer to the protagonist.
- Informed Species: Pimpa might be this to some, mostly because her long ears and short-round tail don't make her look like any specific breed of dog. Her ears resemble those of some sort of cocker or bloodhound, and she could be a mutt. Anyway Pimpa's unusual look has became very iconic in the world of Italian cartoons.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Pimpa and most of the other characters have bluish eyes and all of them are, of course, very nice and friendly.
- I Was Having Such a Nice Dream: Pimpa says so in the beginning of an episode from the 1997 series. Armando's response? "You'll finish it tomorrow".
- Jack Frost: A variation of this appears in one episode from the 2010 series.
- Living Drawing: In one episode from the 1997 series Pimpa draws an elephant. The drawing comes to life in the very moment Pimpa makes it and the elephant introduces himself as Diego, and asks Pimpa to colour him yellow (see Amazing Technicolor Wildlife above).
- Limited Animation: The most recent series.
- The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: Pimpa likes to have some conversation with her own riflection in the bathroom's mirror.
- Man-Made House Flood: Well, more like dog-made in this case. Pimpa does this in one episode from the 1982 series by not managing to close a faucet. Armando doesn't seem to mind that too much, he even enjoys a swim with Pimpa before fixing the problem.
- Meaningful Name: Happens with some one-shot characters, such as a snake who live in Amazon from one episode of the 2010s series whose name is... Adamo note . Pimpa gives him an apple, no less!
- Nice Girl: Pimpa is very nice, friendly and upbeat.
- Parental Hypocrisy: In one episode from the 1982 series Armando keeps reprimending Pimpa for her antics and resistence towards eating her greens, taking her bath and going to bed early, and he tells her that when he was little he did all those things without questioning and enjoying them. Pimpa turns him back into a baby shortly after and... She finds out Armando was a chaotic brat! That's justified though since Armando gets turned into a baby-toddler with limited speech who doesn't seem to be very aware of what's happening.
- Proud Peacock: Pimpa meets a proud and vain peacock named Alfonso in the 1997 series.
- Running Gag: Pimpa losing her dots while running or due to some other cause (such as a strong blow of wind). The dots do eventually get back on her, sometimes after sticking on someone or something else.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Armando.
- Shrunk in the Wash: See Crappy Homemade Gift above.
- Solid Clouds: It happened more than once.
- Vague Age: Justified thanks to the show's setting and being everything alive and sentient. Pimpa is an actual child but this doesn't stop her from doing something way above her supposed age. Who needs a driving license when you can ask your car to take you wherever you wish while having a talk together, after all? Or a plane to visit Amazon in a day? You only have to ask him.
