Luckily, Enzo d'Alò's production, which is what really counts, comes up dry, funny and fun, and is often done tongue-in-cheek. (Hats off to the voice work, in the Italian version, of Dario Fo as Scarafoni and Lella Costa as Befana.) It is brought off with the help of Paolo Cardoni's extraordinarily original drawings and production design; an illustrator whose trademarks are the two-dimensional aspect of color and the simplicity of his drawings, Cardoni adapts quite well to the requirements of filmic narrative.

Francesco, La Befana and Giocattoli in La Freccia Azzurra by Enzo d'Alò.

An Act of Courage
An animated feature presented by a country undergoing a serious production crisis (a crisis which is even more endemic in animation) released in Italy in direct competition with Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame is certainly an act of courage. It is an act which is important not only for the challenge it presents to the current crisis and its powerful overseas rival, but more importantly for its chosen format. The Blue Arrow is, in fact, a genuinely original and autonomous project in the field of animation for children.

Neither Disneyish or anti-Disney, neither an overstated caricature or realistic, neither science-fictional or belligerent, neither tear-jerking (although there is a slight hint of philo-poverty inherited from the Italian leftist cinema of yore), it is a film which tells a fairy tale that is neither canonical or well known, but better yet one that is modern: one in which the fantastic is combined with the realistic, describing, almost stereotypically, the average Italian town (the writers used the Tuscan town of Orbetello as their model). This is a film which tends to shy away from the norm and go its own unique way; and it does so without the least bit of hesitation and with a great deal of perfectionism, professionalism and attention to detail (the film took more than four years to make). As a matter of fact, The Blue Arrow will probably be enjoyed by adults, who will appreciate its "deja vu" feel, apparently put in for those who have acquired a taste for modernism (of the 30s, implied though not openly stated). Paolo Conte's characteristically strong and elegant music helps evoke this atmosphere.

La Freccia Azzurra by Enzo d'Alò.

Taking Pride
Even in its pronounced Italianism, The Blue Arrow takes pride in being a European production; the first example, in Italy, of a frame-by-frame feature film conceived, grown and nurtured by the major European Community's organizations which promote member co-productions. The Italian companies La Lanterna Magica and Eta Beta joined foreign co-producers such as Switzerland's Fama Film and Luxembourg's Monipoly, while artists in places such as Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Denmark (400 in all) were used (the unity of style was accomplished by the rigorous supervision of the Turin-based director of animation, Silvio Pautasso).

There is no doubt that the film's mood and style are tied to the traditions of European auteur animation, while there is a complete absence of the usual Hollywood or Broadway influence. All of this, under the umbrella of Gianni Rodari, who wrote the original story and is one of Europe's greatest writers of children's literature, made it all possible--though the reaction of various European audiences (the film has already been released in Germany and Switzerland) seems to indicate that it has honed in to the wavelengths of both adolescents and children.