Sightlines · reception

How Monica's Gang in an Adventure in Time was received

2007 · Mauricio de Sousa · Monica's Gang in an Adventure in Time on Sightlines

The arc

A genuine hit at home on release in February 2007 — over 600,000 Brazilians saw it in cinemas, critics called it one of Mauricio de Sousa's best and proof the country's animation industry was maturing — and today it survives mainly as a warm childhood memory for Brazilians who grew up in the 2000s.

Its footprint

The film itself rides on the enormous footprint of Turma da Mônica, Brazil's most beloved comics franchise — Mônica, Cebolinha, Cascão and Magali are as instantly recognizable to Brazilians as Mickey Mouse, so the movie became rewatch-forever kids'-TV comfort food.

Where it stands

A nostalgia object for Brazilian millennials and Gen-Z rather than an international cinephile pick — barely known outside Brazil, dearly held inside it.

Did you know? Creator Mauricio de Sousa, who directed this himself, had walked away from theatrical filmmaking after his 1980s Monica features because Brazil's runaway inflation made producing them ruinous — he remarked that if he had kept making movies he would have gone bankrupt, which makes this 2007 feature a decades-delayed big-screen comeback.