Not bad until the very end.... Well, I was a fan of The Red Balloon, and recently acquired it on 16mm, along with another title called The Merry-Go-Round Horse, both of which are very similar to this style of film-making (simple story, no dialogue, which may have been more of a marketing ploy for export than artistic license). In fact, I thought I remember seeing Balducci's name attached to Merry-Go-Round Horse, but I don't see mention of it here...maybe I'm wrong or not looking in the right place.
Anyway, THIS title isn't bad, but the ending--oh my.
The spoiler: well, at the end, you find that the boy's dog ends up with a blind man. You're not really sure if that's where the dog originated from, but at the end of the film, you see the dog leading the blind man RIGHT INTO THE MIDDLE OF TRAFFIC! To top THAT, you see that the dog is pulling the man along, as if trying to get away from him! What a shame they couldn't have cast the part of the dog with a better dog actor! The ending had me in stitches!