← Monica's Gang in an Adventure in Time
Monica's Gang in an Adventure in Time poster

Monica's Gang in an Adventure in Time · reception & legacy

2007 · Mauricio de Sousa

How Monica's Gang in an Adventure in Time has been received, argued over, and remembered.

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.