Chico Bento e a Goiabeira Maraviosa

The sweetest child's movie I've seen in recent years. It's particularly special to me due to my childhood experience with the universe of Mauricio de Souza and his comic books. For Brazilians, guava also tastes like childhood, and I suspect that's what makes this movie so delightful: The kid that plays the main character is a child star with an amazing performance for his age. The creative solutions for producing a live action from a comic strip universe presented in the movie have a breath of innovation and innocence that lightens the heart. Great job with maintaining the original references from the books, and use of cartoons for the dive in dream works was simply beautiful, well done and of geniality. Great job!

I admit I cried a little here, the whole rhythm of the story and its characters reminded me so much of my childhood.

I learned how to read with these little stories and seeing the respect with which they were treated fills my heart with joy and pride. Simply beautiful, simply the part where I feel proud of being a country boy and being Brazilian. And this is what this movie is... Simple and pure... The characters made they work perfectly, showing one of the most beautiful parts of our land, they are the simple folk of Brasil, like my grandma, my uncles, my parents, myself... I never feel so represented like this, from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.

Adapting comic books is quite a challenge, especially for an iconic character like Chico Bento, present in the childhood of millions of Brazilians. Those responsible knew this and took extra care, preferring to be faithful to the work rather than risk doing something "modern", at the pace of today's world: it is in simplicity that depth is found. Chico Bento is a defender of nature and its roots in confronting such savage progress, but he doesn't know how to act. Together with his classmates at Vila Abobrinha, he learns, by force, what his role is. Director Fernando Fraiha has the delicacy to talk about important topics lightly, with good humor, without didacticism or moral lessons. The round script creates an interesting and inventive arc. The animated scenes are one of the best I've seen in Brazilian cinema, they alone are worth going to the cinema, and all the secondary characters are authentic, well constructed, not just the main one. I confess that in some scenes I didn't understand the caipirês, yet another reason to watch it again and appreciate the film better. Critics have been generous, with lots of praise, let's see if the general public will enjoy it. It's not often that, in this world full of violence and disagreements, we can go back to childhood, be naive for an hour and a half.

Mauricio de Souza is the best children comics writer alive. Turma da Mônica (Monica's gang) stories accompanied and inspired the childhood of most children in Brazil from the 70s until nowadays. Chico Bento is one of his most loved characters.

Unfortunately, this movie didn't make him justice at all. It was also disappointing to see that one of the writers of the great humor show Choque de Cultura (Raul Checker) couldn't save this script.

Dialogues were bad, a lot of jokes that didn't land (not even the kids in the theater laughed, very cringing), characters very inconsistent which seemed to belong to different movies. Things that didn't even make sense: how can a entrepreneur who owns a speedboat have such an old truck and be so happy dressed?

A very simple story with not much going on. Some mild social criticism which wasn't able to make the movie worth a watch.

Chico Bento character was very charismatic but of course couldn't hold up the movie.

But the worst for me was the fake "caipira" accent, which was butchered by the cast from Rio de Janeiro. Aren't there actors in Goiás or Minas Gerais which could be casted?

Gave it a 5 because Chico Bento actor was really lovable (although he could only do so much with those silly lines they gave him)

Adapting stories is always a mountain to climb, imagine when that story is one of the greatest comic books in the world and one of the most beloved characters in a country, that thousands of children have connected with because of its adventurous soul and heart open to love and surprise.

The film shows a very beautiful affection and awareness of the importance of the character, I understand what makes him special and with an enviable focus, it focuses on transporting you to your memories with that boy when he was just a drawing on sheets of paper.

This simple understanding of Chico Bento brings a beautiful depth to the film, showing us his almost druid spirit towards nature and his anguish with modernization and the abandonment of life in simplicity.

With his colleagues from Vila Abobrinha, we see Chico grow and understand the world more clearly, treating with kindness the lessons in this adventure and Chico's personality that makes him special in the world of Turma da Mônica and in the hearts of so many children, now adults.

With a wraparound arch. Chico proves to be a children's character capable of being translated to the new generation, reviving his exploratory spirit, with touching animated scenes and a group of well-written secondary characters that don't look out of place alongside the beloved Chico.

In a cynical and blasé world, perhaps Chico is a dose of the medicine we need to remember to take it easy and embrace what's left of our purity during the film.