tail or fetch tools from its body. The elephant is blue with yellow toenails and is smaller than the mouse. It can be characterized as curious, very strong, spontaneous and faithful. When it appears on the stage it trumpets loudly. It likes to sleep, or to laugh when the mouse has done something wrong. It appears in many of the Mouse-Spots. The duck is yellow (with orange beak and feet), smaller than the mouse but larger than the elephant, so that their relative sizes are exactly the opposite of those of their real-life counterparts. The duck is naughty; always when it appears on the stage, "chaos comes onto the stage". It is less frequently in the mouse-spots than the elephant. Introduction The show starts with its theme music, unchanged since 1971 and recognised throughout the German population. The introduction consists of a few bars of the theme and a German voice-over describing the topics in that week's show. The voice-over is then repeated in a foreign language. Initially, Turkish, Spanish and Italian were used, in order to include the children of foreign guest workers (Gastarbeiter), but now, other languages are used as well. The foreign language changes every week. After the theme music ends, the foreign language is identified. Animated interludes Between the show's segments are "mouse spots", hand-drawn cartoons of 30 to 100 seconds that feature the orange mouse and its friends, a small blue elephant and a yellow duck. None of the characters speak. Rather, sound effects and music comprise the soundtrack as the characters interact and solve problems. The animated interludes serve to separate the segments, offering young viewers a moment to relax, avoiding sensory overload from too rapid a succession of input. Educational film shorts The idea for the educational film shorts came from one of the founders of the series, who noticed that children were very aware of the advertising on television. They were very well-made with very good photography and he got the idea to make "commercials" about reality. The first production answered the question, "Where do hard rolls come from?" Some 400 letters a week arrive at the production office, and a large part of each show is used for such features, often answering questions asked by viewers. Segments have covered such topics as: How re-usable hand warmers work How the Internet works How a hot-air balloon flies How to make electricity from