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''Xuxa Abracadabra'' is a 2003 Brazilian
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...
film produced by Diler Trindade and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and Globo Filmes. Directed by Moacyr Góes, it stars Xuxa Meneghel, Márcio Garcia, Cláudia Raia, Brunno Abrahão, Maria Mariana Azevedo, Heloísa Périssé, Leandro Hassum, Lúcio Mauro Filho, and Sérgio Mamberti. The film tells the story of a librarian named Sofia who agrees to babysit her friend Matheus's children. While looking after the children at Matheus's great uncle's house, they find a magical book that takes them to a fairy-tale land. The film was developed as a
children's film A children's film, or family film, is a film genre that generally relates to children in the context of home and family. Children's films are made specifically for children and not necessarily for a general audience, while family films are made f ...
focusing on
fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...
s and
folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
, a departure from the teen-focused projects Meneghel usually produced and starred in. The screenplay was written by Flávio de Souza, who added several characters from children's stories into the film. The film premiered on December 18, 2003, and grossed 11 million reais upon
wide release In the motion picture industry, a wide release (short for nationwide release) is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across a country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical release in ...
in Brazil. ''Xuxa Abracadabra'' received negative reviews from critics, but was considered an improvement in quality compared to other films involving Meneghel.


Plot

One Saturday night, children's librarian Sofia ( Xuxa Meneghel) is getting ready to go out with her best friend ( Heloísa Périssé) when she gets a phone call from Matheus ( Márcio Garcia), the widower of a cousin she was close to. Matheus asks Sofia to babysit his children, Júlia (Maria Mariana Azevedo) and Lucas (Brunno Abrahão). Sofia agrees, because not only does she adore Matheus's children, she is secretly in love with him. Sofia meets the children at Matheus's great-uncle's house. His great uncle Nicolau ( Sérgio Mamberti) is an astronomer and sorcerer who owns a magical book. Upon opening it, Sophie and the two children fall into it, landing in the Enchanted Forest where all fairy tales happen. While in the Enchanted Forest, Sofia, Júlia, and Lucas meet fairy-tale characters such as
Snow White "Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...
(Talita Castro), her stepmother the Evil Queen ( Cláudia Raia), and Prince Charming ( Cláudio Heinrich). They also meet Saci ( Toni Garrido), Little Red Riding Hood ( Debby Lagranha), and the Big Bad Wolf (Lucio Mauro Filho), among other fairy-tale characters. Because Sofia and the children are from the real world, the fairy-tale characters dislike their presence. Monsters from horror stories appear and plan to invade the Enchanted Forest, conquer it, and eventually invade the real world. The monsters attack, and Sofia saves Júlia and Lucas. The group then find their way back to the real world, to get the help of Uncle Nicolau to seal the monsters in their fairy-tale world.


Cast

* Xuxa Meneghel as Sofia * Márcio Garcia as Mateus * Cláudia Raia as the Evil Queen *Brunno Abrahão as Lucas *Maria Mariana Azevedo as Júlia * Heloísa Périssé as Patrícia * Leandro Hassum as
Bluebeard "Bluebeard" ( ) is a French Folklore, folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in . The tale is about a wealthy man in the habit of murdering his wives an ...
/
The Frog Prince "The Frog Prince; or, Iron Henry" (, literally "The Frog King or the Iron Henry") is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimms' Fairy Tales, ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 1). Traditionally, it is the fir ...
* Bruna Marquezine as Maria *Ademir Rocha as
João João is a given name of Portuguese origin. It is equivalent to the given name John. The diminutive is Joãozinho and the feminine is Joana. It is widespread in Portuguese-speaking countries. Notable people with the name are enumerated in t ...
*Talita Castro as
Snow White "Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...
* Cláudio Heinrich as Prince Charming * Debby Lagranha as Little Red Riding Hood * Kayky Brito as Puss in Boots *Lúcio Mauro Filho as Big Bad Wolf * Sérgio Mamberti as Uncle Nicolau (Uncle Nick) / Magical Merlino *Tom Cavalcante as the Storyteller * Eva Todor as the Grandmother *Cristina Pereira as Little Red Riding Hood's mother *Luís Salem as the Magic Mirror * Toni Garrido as Saci *Gustavo Pereira as
Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel, ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a poor man named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...
*Pietro Mário as Pintor *Marcelo Torreão as the Huntsman *Gustavo Ottoni as Pirata Caolho *Nilvan Santos as Pirata *Fabiricio Poilido as Zombie *Gabriel Jacques as Vampire *Robetinho Martinelli as Mummy *Rafael Senna as Frankenstein *Gaspar Filho as Cyclop * Rouge as Themselves


Production

Xuxa had found previous success with the film '' Xuxa e os Duendes,'' which was popular amongst young children, despite being targeted towards teenagers. ''Xuxa Abracadabra'' was devised to be the opposite; a film targeted at young children that still retained appeal for teenagers. Production began when producer Diler Trindade brought the screenplay from Flávio de Souza. Moacyr Góes was chosen as director, and was challenged to escape the "caricature" tone usually seen in Brazilian children's productions. Góes says that when he accepted Trindade's invitation to direct the film, he started to study cinema intensely, watching productions with a variety of tones. "In 2002, I saw about 800 films, from Eisenstein to ' Clueless'." The main characters were cast, with Heloísa Périssé (Patricia), Brunno Abrahão (Lucas), Maria Mariana Azevedo (Júlia), Debby Lagranha ( Little Red Riding Hood), Kayky Brito ( Puss in Boots) and Leandro Hassum (
Bluebeard "Bluebeard" ( ) is a French Folklore, folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in . The tale is about a wealthy man in the habit of murdering his wives an ...
/
The Frog Prince "The Frog Prince; or, Iron Henry" (, literally "The Frog King or the Iron Henry") is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimms' Fairy Tales, ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 1). Traditionally, it is the fir ...
) being brought onto the film. The character Mateus, played by Marcio Garcia, was the romantic interest of Xuxa's character in the film,
Luciano Szafir Luciano Lebelson Szafir (born 31 December 1968) is a Brazilian businessman, actor, and former model. Early life Szafir is the son of Gabriel and Betty Szafir. He has a twin sister named Priscila, an older sister named Alexandra and a younger b ...
was initially cast to play Mateus, but was dropped due to concerns that viewers would be confused; Szafir had played Xuxa's romantic interest in '' Xuxa e os Duendes 2''. Musical group Rouge made a guest appearance in the film, shown at a nightclub in one scene, filmed in Rio de Janeiro. Recording of the film began in September 2003 and lasted four weeks.


Release

The premiere of the film occurred on December 12, 2003, at the Parque Mundo Xuxa, in the SP Market Shopping Center, in the South Zone of São Paulo. Fans of Xuxa Meneghel's caused a stampede trying to see her, which left a young woman injured after she fell and was trampled upon. The young woman suffered a twist in her right knee, was rescued by the local fire department, and sent to the Pedreira hospital. The premiere 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 ...
occurred on December 15, 2003, and Xuxa did not attend. The film was released on December 19, 2003. As the film's release, Xuxa posed with the cast of the film on
Angra dos Reis Angra dos Reis (; Portuguese language, Portuguese for ''cove'' or ''bay of the Kings'') is a List of municipalities in Rio de Janeiro, municipality located in the southern part of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro (state), Rio de Janeiro. Th ...
Island, for '' Caras'' magazine. While there, Xuxa fell and injured her leg while taking pictures with fans. She was taken in her private helicopter to the hospital Copa D'Or, and received 11 stiches in her leg. Xuxa attended the '' Domingão do Faustão'' on December 14, 2003. to give a press conference about the release of the film.


Home media

The production was recorded and released on VHS and DVD, by
Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution ...
.


Reception


Critical reception

Like previous Xuxa films, ''Abracadabra'' received negative reviews from critics but was rated better than previous films. Marcelo Forlani of ''Omelete'' was critical of the production, saying that it was "once again hastily done, without any concern for pre-production. Characters are free of any three-dimensional depth, and there is a total absence of coherence". He also criticized the team responsible for makeup in ''Abracadabra,'' saying that "The beard of the pirate Bluebeard is more false than a note of R$13.50 reais, the monsters wear costumes that seem to have been rented, and worst of all, the color of the fake nose used by Claudia Raia when she becomes the Evil Queen is quite different from her skin". concluding that the "film only proves how much the Brazilian people still need to grow culturally". Writing for ''Epipoca'', Rubens Ewald Filho considered the film "less execrable than the others", and that "The film was made in a hurry, with little money and relative commitment, and the set design is very bad". He added that "The dialogue is extremely bad and bland. There are a few amusing phrases from Claudia Raia, in the role of Snow White's Stepmother, which at least has a few moments of brilliance, the rest falls in the common grave." Writing for ISTOÉ, Mariane Morisawa praised the quality of the film, writing that "The film is not good enough to be ''Shrek'', which played very cleverly with fairy-tales, but represents a breakthrough for Xuxa. It is better than '' Xuxa e os Duendes 2''". Similarly, a critic from '' Estadão'', praised the film and considered it superior in relation to Xuxa's previous one, writing that "Xuxa is more beautiful in ''Abracadabra'' than in ''Duendes 2'', the effects of the film are more carefully done". Audiences surveyed by AdoroCinema gave the film a three-star rating out of five, audiences surveyed by
IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...
gave a score of 1.8 stars to the film, and audiences surveyed for ''Filmow'' gave a score of 1.8 stars to the film, based on 2793 votes.


Box office

The budget for ''Xuxa Abracadabra'' was between R$5 and R$7 million reais, using than R$2 million reais for advertising. This made ''Xuxa Abracadabra'' Xuxa's highest-budget film. ''Xuxa Abracadabra'' was released in 300 cinemas in Brazil, and was the most watched film on its release weekend, beating Disney's
Brother Bear ''Brother Bear'' is a 2003 American animated musical fantasy comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker and produced by Chuck Williams, f ...
for top box office ranking nationally. It was watched by 161,527 people and grossed 2,193,188 Reals at the box office on its first weekend. The film grossed a total of 11,677,129 reals, and was the fourth most-watched national film in Brazil in 2004.


See also

* List of Brazilian films of the 2000s


References


External links

* {{Portalbar, Brazil, Film 2000s fantasy adventure films Warner Bros. films Brazilian fantasy adventure films Brazilian children's films Films based on fairy tales Fairy tale parody films Films shot in Rio de Janeiro (city) 2000s Portuguese-language films 2000s Brazilian films