Underplayed Gems

Les Oraliens (1969)

Les Oraliens poster
Genre
sci-fi & fantasy, family
Country
Canada
Length
1 season, 125 episodes
Rating
8.0 of 10 from 1 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This French language children's series from Quebec features two alien visitors named Calinelle and Picabo who befriend a human boy named Francolin. The aliens use special powers to help kids learn proper pronunciation by repeating sentences aloud.

educationalgentleplayfulwhimsicalslow-pacedquirkyretroinnocent

What happens

Les Oraliens is a French language children's television show made in Québec from 1969 to 1972; it was the first television program produced by the newly formed Radio-Québec, known today as Télé-Québec. Its stories revolved around aliens Calinelle (played by Lisette Anfousse) and Picabo (played by Hubert Gagnon), who both wore matching orange suits which included a mask and a mushroom-shaped headdress. The pair befriended the human Francolin upon arrival on earth. Other characters included the talking bird Couac (a puppet voiced by Gaétane Laniel) and the mechanical dog Millimagino. The show's foremost purpose was language acquisition, which was conveyed by the way the aliens used their superpowers: in order to magically accomplish difficult or impossible tasks, they would state a sentence to be repeated and then silently mouthed it while children at home were supposed to say it. Les Oraliens, unlike a contemporary children's program with a similar premise, Les 100 tours de Centour, was more about proper pronunciation than sentence construction. The show's purpose was also conveyed by the recurring bad guy, le Furotte (played by André Cartier), who always mumbled incoherently. There have been a few commentators over the years who have perceived in his speech pattern a parody of rural and working-class Quebec French, and have criticized the show as an effort to stigmatize some aspects of Québec French. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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