''The New Adventures of Monica and Friends'' is a 1986 Brazilian animated compilation film directed by

Mauricio de Sousa Mauricio Araújo de Sousa (; born October 27, 1935), known artistically as Mauricio de Sousa or mononymously just as Mauricio, is a Brazilian cartoonist and businessman who has created over 200 characters for his popular series of children's co ...

. It is the third film based on the ''

Turma da Mônica ''Monica and Friends'' (), previously published as ''Monica's Gang'' in Anglophone territories and as ''Frizz and Friends'' in London, is a Brazilian comic book series and media franchise created by Mauricio de Sousa. The series originated in a c ...

'' comic book series, of which Mauricio is the creator. Like his first film, '' The Adventures of Monica and Friends'', it is divided into stories, as Mauricio wanted these to be shown later on television. It was released for the first time on September 20, 1986. The film was successful in theaters and received a positive reception from the public. It was later shown at the

Gramado Gramado is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is located in the Serra Gaúcha region. The city was originally settled by Azorean descendants and later received a contingent of German and Italian immigrants. Gramado is ...

and Brasilia Film Festivals and re-released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

Synopsis

''The New Adventures of Monica and Friends'' is divided into eight stories of between two and eight minutes, all interconnected by the appearance of Thunder (Jotalhão). The film begins with the story "Oh What a Day''!''", showing a clumsy Jimmy Five. Then, in "A Well-Trained Dog", the character trains his dog Fluffy (Floquinho) to defend himself against Monica's attacks, which doesn't work. In "The Vampire", Monica (Mônica) and

Jimmy Five Jameson Flynn "Jimmy Five" Morrison Jr., known as Cebolinha in Portuguese, is one of ''Monica and Friends'' main characters. He was created in 1960, at first as a support character for Franklin and Blu who the following year became the protagon ...

(Cebolinha) interact with a vampire who, in despair at Monica's actions, "decides to go back to the grave and sleep for another 100 years". Next, in "The Fountain of Youth", Jimmy Five's friends drink water from the wrong fountain, becoming increasingly childish. In "Last Wish", Monica surprises Smudge (Cascão) by obeying all of Jimmy's Five orders but gets her revenge in the end. "The Monster of the Lake" shows Chuck Billy (Chico Bento) defending an aquatic creature attacked by the population. "Smudge in the Tap Country" shows the character in a place full of water - an element of which Smudge is afraid. The last story is "The Big Show", featuring Monica, Jimmy Five, and Smudge in a performance.

Cast

The voice actors for ''The New Adventures of Monica and Friends'' are presented below: * Marli Bortoletto - Monica * Angélica Santos -

* Paulo Camargo - Smudge * Elza Gonçalves - Maggy * Dirceu de Oliveira - Chuck Billy * Orlando Vigiani Filho - Franklin * Jordão de Camargo Thunder * Nelson Batista - Blu * Nelson Batista Filho - Vampire

Background and release

The first two feature films based on '' Monica and Friends (Turma da Mônica)'' by Mauricio de Sousa — 1982's '' The Adventures of Monica and Friends'' (Brazil: ''As Aventuras da Turma da Mônica'') and 1984's ''The princess and the robot'' (Brazil: ''A Princesa e o Robô'') — were relatively successful. The former was divided into stories and the latter contained just one story. Mauricio ended up preferring the movie format divided into stories since they could gradually be shown on television. He then followed this model for ''The New Adventures of Monica and Friends''. The artistic direction and planning of the film are by Airon Barreto ("The Fountain of Youth"), Alcídio da Quinta ("The Monster of the Lake"), Canton ("The Vampire"), Kiko ("Smudge in the Tap country") and Mário Lantana and Paulo José ("The Big Show", "A Well-Trained Dog", "Oh What a Day!" and "Last Wish"). The music is by Silvia Goés, Eduardo Leão Waismann and Vinicius Pastana. There are two statements about the cost of the film. ''A Tribuna'' says that "the national release ost3 million

cruzados The Cruzados were a 1980s rock band from Los Angeles, California. History The Cruzados were formed in 1983 by the members of The Plugz, featuring members Tito Larriva, Tony Marsico, Steven Hufsteter, Chalo Quintana, The band's self-titled a ...

", while '' Folha de S.Paulo'' says that "to make the eight short films ..9 million cruzados were spent". The release marked the debut of the band formed by the musicians who participated in the movie's soundtrack. At the same time, it was also announced that production would begin on a series of episodes for television. The film had a preview at the Palladium cinema in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

on September 17, 1986.7 In that city, its official release took place three days later. In Rio de Janeiro, it was released on December 6. In total, the film was released in 120 cities. The release was co-sponsored by Danone. In São Paulo, the film was shown in "Zig-Zag sessions", only on Sunday mornings. The studio intended to release new films in this format, restructuring it. ''Monica and Friends New Adventures'' was released on VHS in January 1987 by Transvídeo and later at the end of 1998 by ''

Publifolha Created in 1995, Publifolha, Grupo Folha's book-publishing division, has released more than 1,000 titles and currently has 600 books in print. Its first book was “Primeira Página”, a collection of front pages from newspapers '' Folha da Manh ...

'', as part of the ''Monica and Friends Classics'' (Brazil: ''Clássicos da Turma da Mônica'') collection. In 1987, it was shown at the Gramado Movie Festival and the Brasília Movie Festival.

Reception

''The New Adventures of Monica and Friends'' had a positive reception from the public, and was a success in theaters. In its first eight weeks in São Paulo, the film was at 60% capacity on Saturdays and sold out on Sundays, something that was similarly seen in other locations. In four cinemas in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, on the "Art" circuit, the film had an audience of 4,482 children. Jornal do Brasil noted the film's success in cinemas, but criticized "the anxiety of the children's participation, who during the screening wanted to interact with their old friends." ''Diário do Pará'' gave it a "reasonable" rating, without further comment.

References

External links