''Boy and the World'' ( pt, O Menino e o Mundo) is a 2013 Brazilian

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

adventure film written and directed by

Alê Abreu Alê Abreu (born March 6, 1971) is a Brazilian film director and screenwriter. ''Sírius'', his first short film, debuted at the 1993 Anima Mundi as the only Brazilian animation that year. It won the Best Film Award at the Festival de Cine para N ...

. It was nominated at the

88th Academy Awards The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015 and took place on February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, 5:30 p.m. PST. Dur ...

for Best Animated Feature. The film was created using a mix of both drawing and painting and digital animation.

Plot

Cuca lives a very simple and blissful life with his parents. He spends his days playing in the forest, interacting with the animals, and listening to various sounds (represented by glowing balls of light). One day, Cuca's father leaves by

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often ...

to find work, saddening Cuca with the nostalgia of playing with his mom and dad. Feeling that he will never be happy again, Cuca leaves with a large suitcase that contains only a picture of him and his parents. While waiting for the train, a sudden gust of wind lifts him up and carries him far away to a world that appears to have two moons. Cuca is rescued by an old man and his pet dog, who promptly take him to work alongside them in the

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

fields. While there, Cuca hears the music of a traveling parade led by a young man in a rainbow

poncho A poncho (; qu, punchu; arn, pontro; "blanket", "woolen fabric") is an outer garment designed to keep the body warm. A rain poncho is made from a watertight material designed to keep the body dry from the rain. Ponchos have been used by the ...

. The foreman of the cotton fields goes over his workers, and fires those who are unable due to advanced age or sickness. Cuca, the old man, and the dog travel many nights through the countryside before stopping under a large pink-leaved tree. In the distance, Cuca spots his father traveling on the back of a truck. He leaves the suitcase to the old man and follows the main road. He arrives at a

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...

where the workers churn the cotton into

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not th ...

in robotic unison. At the end of the day, Cuca takes a bus into a grimy city and ends up staying with a young factory worker who is later revealed to be the rainbow poncho-wearing leader of the parade. In the morning, Cuca and the young man arrive at the market where the young man busks as a street musician to earn more money. While playing with a

kaleidoscope A kaleidoscope () is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces (or mirrors) tilted to each other at an angle, so that one or more (parts of) objects on one end of these mirrors are shown as a regular symmetrical pattern when v ...

, Cuca ends up on a

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

where he learns that the fabrics are taken to a futuristic utopian city floating above the ocean. The fabrics are turned into clothing and repackaged out of sight in the city's dark underbelly, before being shipped back and sold in the grimy city. He reunites with the young man and the two sneak into the factory where the young man makes a rainbow

. They witness the factory's manager make a deal with a strange business man to replace the workers with a large automated machine. The young man and the rest of the workers are fired but a truck arrives to take them to work in the cotton fields. While making their way back to the city, Cuca and the young man are stopped in traffic by the parade. Cuca suddenly spots the train his father came on and, using the young man's bike, arrives at the station to greet his father. However, Cuca is shocked to see multiple fathers who all look the same and all came to the city for a similar purpose. The parade is forcefully stopped by the city's army (represented by a giant, rainbow bird being defeated in combat by a militaristic black bird) and parts of the city lie in ruin. Cuca witnesses young children in the slums arming themselves with primitive weapons and preparing to start a rebellion. The young man looks on from a hill made of trash. Cuca runs back home where he witnesses various machines taking over the countryside (inter-cut with

live-action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...

footage of

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...

s and heavy

carbon dioxide emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and la ...

). He arrives back at the pink-leaved tree where it is revealed that the old man is actually an older Cuca and that the tree is outside his now dilapidated childhood home. In a flashback, the young man, who is also Cuca, is seen leaving home and saying goodbye to his mother while seeing a pink-leaved sapling. Old Cuca pins the photo of him and his family to a wall and dons the rainbow poncho. He looks out and finds that his abandoned childhood home is surrounded by newer houses and farmers whose children continue to play and sing songs. The movie ends with one final flashback of Cuca and his parents planting the seed that will become the pink-leaved tree as the screen fades to white.

Cast

* Vinicius Garcia as Cuca (''Menino'') * Felipe Zilse as Young Man (''Jovem'') / Additional voices *

as Old Man (''Velho'') * Lu Horta as Cuca's mother (''Mãe'') * Marco Aurélio Campos as Cuca's father (''Pai'') * Cassius Romero as Dog (''Cachorro'')

Reception

''Boy and the World'' received critical acclaim. The film holds a 93% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

with a 7.8/10 average rating based on 57 reviews. The consensus reads, "''Boy and the World''s distinctive animation is visually thrilling – and it's backed up with a daring, refreshingly different storyline that should enthrall younger viewers while resonating deeply with adults."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 80/100 based on 18 critics." The film's worldwide premiere occurred at the

Ottawa International Animation Festival The Ottawa International Animation Festival is an annual animated film and media festival that takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The OIAF was founded in 1975, with the first festival held from August 10 to 15 in 1976. Initially organized by ...

where it won an Honourable Mention for Best Animated Feature "Because it was full of some of the most beautiful images we've ever seen". It also earned an honorable mention at the

Festival do Rio The Festival do Rio is an international film festival in Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-mo ...

and won the Youth Award at the Mostra de Cinema de São Paulo. At the Festival de Cinema de Animação de Lisboa, it won the Best Film Award. At the

Annecy International Animated Film Festival The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (french: Festival international du film d'animation d'Annecy, officially abbreviated in English as the Annecy Festival, or simply Annecy) was created in 1960 and takes place at the beginning of J ...

, it won the Cristal Award for Best Feature Film, and was voted the favorite film by the audience. In 2015, at

Animafest Zagreb World Festival of Animated Film Zagreb ( hr, Svjetski festival animiranog filma), also known as Animafest Zagreb, is a film festival entirely dedicated to animated film held annually in Zagreb, Croatia. Initiated by the International Animated Fi ...

, the film won the Grand Prix for feature film. The jury stated that they have awarded the film because it uses innovative artwork, combines both political and emotional feelings, that took them on a colorful trip. In 2016, ''Boy and the World'' won the

43rd Annie Awards The 43rd Annual Annie Awards honoring excellence in the field of animation of 2015 was held on February 6, 2016, at the University of California, Los Angeles's Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California, presenting in 36 categories. This year, a new c ...

for Best Animated Feature-Independent.

Television series

In 2016, it was announced that a spin-off series titled ''Menino and the Children of the World'' had entered development. The educational series combines animation with live action footage and features the character of Cuca and his dog traveling to various countries of the world and learning about their culture through the eyes of children. As of 2022, there is no planned release date.

References

External links