Topo Gigio
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Topo Gigio was the lead character of a children's puppet show on Italian television, in the early 1960s. It was created by artist Maria Perego in 1958 and has been customarily voiced by actor Peppino Mazzullo. The name can be translated into English as "Johnny Mouse".
Topo Gigio, a soft foam mouse with dreamy eyes and childish personality, was very popular in Italy for many years — not only on TV but also in children magazines, such as the classical Corriere dei Piccoli, animated cartoons, movies, and merchandising. Its popularity spread to the world after being featured on Ed Sullivan's weekly TV show. Today Topo Gigio still has a cohort of faithful fans, and has become an icon of Italian pop culture. He performs regulary at Zecchino d'Oro festival and other programmes created by Antoniano and RAI.
The endearing puppet has made appearances and has a fan base in many other countries — including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Venezuela, and Perú.
In Japan, Topo Gigio was the protagonist of a 1988 cartoon produced by Nippon Animation.
In Mexico he had a daily TV show in the 80s, widely remembered even now, and had several LPs with songs sung by the voice actor recorded. He made a come back for the 2006 Germany World Cup, in short segments of a sports show.
A mention of Topo Gigio was made in the 1999 film Being John Malkovich. In the film Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) is in control of John Horatio Malkovich (John Malkovich); in instructing a class of puppetry, he angrily corrects a student's poor perfomance of the marionettes, stating "without emotion, it is just Topo Gigio."
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