Chuck Billy and the Marvelous Guava Tree

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.

The third live action film of characters from Maurício de Souza has good educational and environmental elements for kids and may also amuse them. The script has nice dialogue moments and thenorigin story for the guava tree was nice. The most remarkable perhaps is how much Isaac Amendoim is a skilled child actor, quite impressive. Anyway, something that happened in the two previous movies (Mônica's gang: Bonds, and Mônica's gang: Lessons) and that bored me was the lack of compromise in portraying the characters the most similar to the cartoon possible. It repeated here (not in the same level of Cascão in the other two movies; Isaac Amendoim would have been a better cast, by the way), but Zé Lelé's actor is not very similar (although the clothes and hairstyle reduce the problem a little), and Chico Bento, besides using shoes (why?! He is always barefoot in the cartoon!), looks completely different in the movie (although, as I said, the actor's performance was excellent). Adult characters were also nice, particularly Nhô Lau and Colonel Agripino. To resume, the film is cute enough, with a praiseworthy social engagement (what does not happen often in Maurício de Souza's projects, by the way), and has good performances, but is tepid sometimes and not as true to original source as I would like.

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.

I can't help but comment that I really liked it. Everything about Monica's Gang and Mauricio de Souza is good... because it has a very strong history with Brazilians, everything is done in a special way and is enjoyable to follow.

The script is simply fantastic. Based on the comics, it has a balanced and sensational script. Another important point is the message it conveys about being a person who speaks more often than not.

I really liked the entire filming area; truly beautiful locations, and a clear message to take care of nature and show that everyone has a role.

The cast is very good overall, very natural and not forced. The graphics are good, and the camera angles were really interesting. I'm looking forward to watching everything about Monica's Gang, and it's really cool. Everything is really good.

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)