One of the best known and loved heroes of Greek mythology, whose astonishing adventures have, on several occasions, been turned into successful movies and TV serials (such as the unforgettable Rai production in 1968 starring Irene Papas), returns to the small screen for the first time in the form of an animated series.
“Ulysses” will be the protagonist of a cartoon of the same name by Animation Band and Rai Fiction, which is currently in production. However, the scriptwriters did not draw their inspiration using just the Odyssey as their literary base.
“The idea for the series came from a book by Luciano De Crescenzo “Nessuno. L’Odissea raccontata ai lettori d’oggi”, published by Mondadori”, explains Marco Marcolini, the Animation Band producer, “although the stories were then developed autonomously.
This isn’t a transposition of the book.
We couldn’t make it into a 26 episode series for kids due to the many philosophical references.
However, the result is a tale which is coherent with the story of Ulysses, even though it has been expanded to include new adventures and characters which are not featured in the books by Homer or De Crescenzo, making it a more epic-adventurous version with respect to the original story”.
Filò, who is around 12 years old, and Leo, who is a bit older than her, the youngest member of Ulysses’ crew, are the two invented characters introduced into the story which will be told chronologically in order to make it more comprehensible to the target audience (5-12 years).
Instead of the long flashback where Ulysses tells the king of the Feaci about his adventures, the events will run from the end of the Trojan war until Ulysses’ return to Ithaca.
In the cartoon, Ulysses is portrayed as a type of Robin Hood-pirate figure with a histrionic character, a romantic adventurer with good intentions.
The Homeric texts lack a strong antagonist to Ulysses.
Proteus, the sea creature with humanoid features who is able to assume a perfect human appearance, takes on this role.
When the anger of Poseidon, whose son Polyphemus has been blinded by Ulysses, rains down on Odysseus, the god of the sea finds the ideal ally in Proteus who tries to thwart Ulysses throughout his perilous return to Ithaca.
The official presentation of “Ulisse “” Il mio nome è Nessuno” will take place at the next edition of Mipcom, when a new project inspired by a series of books will also be launched.
The new titles being premiered by Animation Band include “Stellina”, an Italian- French series consisting of 26 x 30′ episodes, which has just been completed, and “LMN’S”, an Italian-Spanish 52 x 13′ episode series, to be broadcast soon by the Rai, which co-produced both series.
