A4L | Piero Tonin
Piero Tonin is a 2D animation filmmaker, cartoonist, illustrator, and arts educator based in Milan, Italy. His award-winning animated short films include Hoblio (2016) and Mooozart (2021). He maintains that his work “often explores storytelling through expressive character design and detailed world-building.”
Tonin’s many talents include the rare skill of animation celluloid restoration. As one of the few livings artists with such ability, he has restored and hand-painted cels of beloved classics, including Lady and the Tramp (1955), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and The Jungle Book (1967).
He is a visual arts historian with a vast mental depository, which he employs to educate students and the general public on the groundbreaking and inimitable pioneers of Italian animation and television, including: Gamma Film Animation Studio (1953–1990), founded by the Gavioli brothers who produced the Carosello advertising slot from 1957 to 1977, and Osvaldo Cavandoli whose brainchild, La Linea, premiered in 1971.
A master drafter resistant to popular trends, Mr. Tonin is unyielding in his dedication to developing and maintaining his own style influenced by, yet distinct from, the defined codes of his creative and cultural forebears. To engage with his work is to not only leave stimulated, entertained and inspired, but better informed.
Artist and collaborator, Stefano Guerrini, who served as Head of Collection and Archive Management at the Eugenio Battisti Museum of Industry and Labor (Brescia, Italy), offers eloquent and poignant insight into Tonin’s work and unique capacity (English translation below):
Ho conosciuto Piero Tonin grazie alla sua fama di restauratore di rodovetri per l’animazione.
Lavoravo per un museo che aveva una collezione molto vasta di questi disegni su acetato che necessitavano di un restauro conservativo, e non erano molte le persone nel mondo che si occupavano di questo ambito del restauro.
Da lì è cominciato un lungo percorso che ci ha visti protagonisti nella salvaguardia di questo materiale a livello nazionale e internazionale, potendo accedere ad istituti di ricerca e analisi che hanno aperto il campo a nuovi strumenti per la conservazione di un materiale così fragile.
Siamo poi diventati molto amici perché condividiamo la stessa passione per l’Arte e per il Cinema: ancora oggi seguo sempre i suoi consigli su cosa guardare, su qualche film più o meno conosciuto degli anni Cinquanta e Sessanta.
Tonin ha una conoscenza del mondo dell’animazione che definirei enciclopedica e la sua curiosità è vasta e famelica; tanto da farmi spesso pensare che sia egli stesso un personaggio da lui creato, senza età, con una biografia eccentrica e conoscenze cosmopolite.
Ho compreso nel tempo che Piero potrebbe creare un mediometraggio animato con il solo ausilio di uno smartphone, in piedi, in stazione a Milano. E probabilmente dimenticherebbe poi il cappello sul bancone del bar. È un artista, dobbiamo perdonargli lo smarrimento involontario del cappello.
Vorrei tornare a mettere l’accento sulla dedizione, che definirei quasi “giapponese”, con le sue notti passate a capire come inserire un fondale animato per farlo scorrere a tempo di musica, per far sì che tutto, personaggi, paesaggi, cieli stellati, si compenetrino armonicamente.
Oltre che un artista, io ho sempre immaginato Tonin come un paziente e abile artigiano dell’animazione, poiché non ha mai rigettato la metodologia dell’animazione tradizionale, quella fatta con la carta e con la penna, facendo sì che questa si inserisse senza traumi all’interno del mondo dell’animazione digitale, tanto che non mi stupirei a vederlo in una foto degli anni Cinquanta seduto a un banco per il ricalco delle veline, a fianco di Gino Gavioli o di Milt Kahl, o di Bruno Bozzetto.
▶ English Translation
I first met Piero Tonin through his reputation as a restorer of animation cels. I was working for a museum that held an extensive collection of these acetate drawings, which required conservation-focused restoration — a field with very few specialists worldwide.
From there began a long journey in which we played leading roles in the preservation of this material on both national and international levels. We were granted access to research and analysis institutes which provided new instruments for the conservation of the original, fragile material.
We eventually became close friends, united by a shared passion for art and cinema. To this day, I follow his recommendations on what to watch — films from the 1950s and 1960s — whether well-known or more obscure.
Tonin has an encyclopedic knowledge of the animation world. His curiosity is vast and insatiable. I often imagine him as a character of his own creation: ageless, with an eccentric biography and cosmopolitan knowledge.
Piero could create a medium-length animated film using nothing but a smartphone, standing in a Milan train station. And he would likely forget his hat on the bar counter afterward. He is an artist; we must forgive him for inadvertently leaving his hat behind.
I would describe his dedication as almost “Japanese” — with nights spent figuring out how to insert an animated background and make it scroll in sync with the music, ensuring that everything — characters, landscapes, starry skies — blends together harmoniously.
I have always imagined Tonin as a patient and skilled craftsman of animation. He has never rejected the methodology of traditional animation — the kind done with paper and pen — ensuring its seamless integration into the digital animation world. Indeed, I would not be surprised to see him in a photograph from the 1950s, sitting at a tracing desk working on animation cels, alongside Gino Gavioli, Milt Kahl, or Bruno Bozzetto.
Translation by Creatives duMonde
On Piero Tonin’s bookshelf . . .
Jacovitti published by Piero Dami Editore | ISBN: 2025091601262
I Fumetti in 100 Personaggi by Franco Fossati | EAN: 2566893171442
Come Realizzare Cartoni Animati by John Halas and Bob Privett | ISBN: 9788886155007
Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair | ISBN: 9781633228900
Favorite Library | Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense | Milan, Italy
Favorite Bookshop | Libreria Internazionale Ulrico Hoepli | Milan, Italy
