Life couldn't be better on the Yellow Woodpecker farm: Pedrinho (Livio
Nanni), Narizinho (Aristéia Paula de Souza) and Emilia (Olga Maria) are
looked after by their loving grandma (Maria Rosa Ribeiro) and her loving
maid (Benedita Rodrigues), they have no care in the world, are allowed to
play outside all day, and things like war or poverty don't touch their
private little paradise - but Pedrinho wants adventure, so he decides to
catch a Saci (a pipe-smoking one-legged black wood faun full of mischief),
which is said to be the most dangerous creature of the forest, but once he
has captured the Saci (Paulo Matozinho), he quickly makes friends with
him. Narizinho on the other hand refused to go Saci-hunting with her
brother, instead picked some flowers until she ran across witch Cuca (M.
Meneghelli), who made her smell her special flower - which somehow runed
her into a solid block of ice. Saci learns of this, so he and Pedrinho go
and capture Cuca in her sleep, tie her up and torture her with drops of
water on her forehead until she gives away the formula to free Narizinho -
which involves the hair of a mermaid (Iara von Tressler) by the way,
retrieving which almost blinds Pedrinho. Of course the whole thing ends
happily, but even though the Saci has made good friends with Pedrinho and
Narizinho, he decides to part ways with them in the end because he enjoys
his absolute freedom even more. And what about Emilia you mentioned at
the beginning you might ask (but probably not)? For some reason, she was
taken out of the story early on, and only reintroduced for the very
ending. What can I say? A kiddie movie based on Brazilian
folklore made on a rather low budget - but somehow the film tells its
fantasy story without the lack of funds showing too much. That said, the
film isn't really worthwhile even as a children's movie, it just lacks
proper build-up and suspense the story would have needed to properly come
across (and believe me, there are plenty of moments that offer themselves
to suspense), and despite the story being adventurous as it is, there is
never an actual feeling of danger. Also, the film is rather low on
atmosphere, which is something else the story suggests almost naturally. Well,
not a total trainwreck, but a missed opportunity.
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