15+ Hidden details in “Turma da Mônica: Laços” that move our inner child

Many of us, if not all, grew up reading and having fun with the stories of Monica’s Gang; including the brothers Vitor and Lu Cafaggi, who paid tribute to the gang in the incredible graphic novel Turma da Mônica: Laços. The comic book was so successful that it was adapted into an exciting movie in 2019.

The question is, were we so excited watching this movie that we didn’t even notice the details and references hidden everywhere? After all, a movie made by fans of the gang and supervised by Mauricio de Sousa himself could only be full of easter eggs!

That’s why we, from awesome.club, we opened a box of tissues and made the sacrifice of watching Ties again, just to make a list with all the references and remember together with the gang!

The first easter egg of the movie is right at the beginning, when Cebolinha is explaining his new foolproof plan for Smudge. The camera shows the famous drawings of Cebolinha and, when she walks away, we see on her table a book with the title The caveman and his habits. The cape is red and the caveman in the cape wears a reddish outfit as well. This brings us back to the character Piteco, a man who lives adventures in prehistory with his girlfriend Thuga.

Cebolinha’s room has some very cool details that only the most attentive could notice. Starting with the Jotalhão plush, the well-known green elephant that, by the way, has another reference in the film.

We can also see in some scenes how much Cebolinha likes the “space” theme. He wears astronaut pajamas, has a spyglass, toy spaceships and a poster for the special Astronaut: Magnetar comic. This was the first edition of Graphics MSP, in which Brazilian artists reimagine the characters of the gang — just as the Cafaggi brothers did in Turma da Mônica: Laços.

In the scene in which Cebolinha’s hand is reading Hair’s advertisement, what stands out is the news next door: the birth of a green elephant in Africa. The news says the baby elephant was born at the local zoo, without mentioning where the location is.

Let’s look a little more at Jornal do Limoeiro, also using scenes that appear towards the end of the film. Newspapers in movies always have interesting easter eggs that are hard to notice in the movies, just pausing the movie and analyzing. And that’s what the awesome.club made for you!

The newspaper’s header says that it has been in existence since 1963. This was the year of Mônica’s creation. There is a note informing about Vaccination Day in the city’s health posts. Turminha usually works in the social education of children in health matters, and this little part of the newspaper alludes to this characteristic. On the side, another note says that “new 3D cinema arrives in the city”. In the 90s, Mauricio got excited about 3D comics, which left their mark on the history of the gang. Another custom of Turma da Mônica is to portray the characters in traditional games, such as flying kites, playing tops, playing with dolls, hopscotch and hitting breath. says something about preserving diversity in the forest.

When the animation with the movie’s logo appears on the screen, the soundtrack we hear is very familiar, especially for those who grew up watching the gang’s drawings. And this is repeated throughout practically the entire film. That’s because Fábio Góes, responsible for the soundtrack, took care to compose it on top of Monica’s original theme, the one that says “I’m Monica, I’m Monica, toothy and know-it-all”. If you listen carefully, you’ll notice that the film’s score is a slower version of Monica’s theme.

The production of the film chose to use a more classic look for Samsão, Monica’s plush bunny, although currently the bunny in the comics is cuter. Still, they didn’t go that far in the past to fetch a Samson, or he’d be stiff and orange! If you didn’t know that this was the color of the first Samson, it’s because you missed our list here, run there to see.

To play the dog Floquinho, the production bought two Lhasa Apso dogs and named them Floq and Quinho. In the movie, when Floquinho disappears, Cebolinha draws posters to try to find him. But the design is not very faithful to the breed, being much closer to the classic style used in the doggo comics, as can be seen in the strip below.

The special participation that moved the fans of decades of comics was the creator of the gang, Mauricio de Sousa. He is the owner of the newsstand and, as was to be expected, gives all the attention to the children, allowing them to stick Floquinho’s wanted poster. The curious thing is that, behind him, only Chico Bento’s comics and Papa Capim’s Graphic MSP are visible.

When Monica opens her wardrobe, what we see is a classic and super funny scene from the gang’s comics: all clothes are the same! But the main easter egg here is the only different outfit there, a pink mouse costume, which Monica quickly returns to the closet. This is a reference to a classic animation from 1982, called Um Amor de Ratinho, which is part of the feature film As Aventuras da Turma da Mônica.

In this story, Monica uses the pink mouse costume to go to a costume party, but when she gets there, Franjinha’s invention accidentally shrinks her. So she meets several real mice and helps them face a cat, as well as arousing the passion of one of the mice.

And since we’re in Monica’s room, why don’t we explore the hidden references here? Monica has two plush toys with Mauricio characters: Horacio and Penadinho. We can also see in her room, much more organized than Cebolinha’s, a poster of Romeo & Juliet, another reference to a classic story starring the gang.

We’re talking about Mônica e Cebolinha — In the World of Romeo and Juliet, a theatrical play staged in 1978, starring the gang, adapting Shakespeare’s classic play. The play by Monica’s Gang was later adapted for comics, audiodrama and feature film. The success is such that to this day the authors make references, including in the continuation of Laços, in the film Lessons, which premiered in December 2021.

Escaping from the gang on the street below, the gang ends up falling and rolling down a ravine in the middle of the forest. When they land down there, full of pain, they realize that they lost their shoes in the fall, with the exception of Cebolinha, who gives that shade to his little friends: “Oxe, you guys are peldendo the whole shoe Hola🇧🇷 Oh my, it’s here at my feet! No swell The amalar, no?”

More than a scene hooked, or rather, funny, this is a reference to one of the biggest myths of Monica’s Gang: why does only Cebolinha wear shoes? Although Mauricio himself has already explained that he stopped designing shoes to optimize time, the Cafaggi brothers chose to give this explanation which, let’s face it, is much more fun! A curiosity: in the comic book, the gang spends the rest of the story in socks, “explaining” the absence of toes.

After this confusion, the four friends go deep into the forest leaving red ribbons tied along the way so they don’t get lost on the way back. It’s a direct reference to the movie’s name, but it’s not the only one. Other ties can be identified, such as the shoelaces that keep falling down and the bond of friendship between Cebolinha and Floquinho and between their friends.

As soon as it gets dark in the forest and the gang starts to enter an old cemetery, they come across a tombstone that contains a mysterious name: Guilherme Carnaúba. Calm down, it was just a joke of the production, since that is the name of the assistant art direction of the film.

Soon after, we have another sinister participation: a skull on top of a rock, practically facing the gang. It’s impossible for fans not to remember one of the characters from Turma do Penadinho, Cranicola, a talking skull that stays on top of a rock all the time. As this skull in the movie doesn’t say anything, we can’t say it’s him, so it’s a very well placed reference.

And since we’re in a cemetery at night and we made a reference to Cranicola, why not nudge the fans again and show Penadinho himself? This must be what the production thought when playing this prank on us. In the end, it wasn’t Penadinho, or any ghost. It was just Mônica and Magali playing a trick on the “two banana trees”.

When the gang arrives at the “man with the bag” hideout, they are almost caught by the man himself, who arrives soon after. Good thing they had time to hide behind some garbage cans. Well, except for Smudge, who thought it was safer to hide inside from the can. Typical, isn’t it?

The Fool does more than a participation, he makes an event! Lived by Rodrigo Santoro, the few minutes on screen have everything that a story of the Madman in the comics has: meaningless phrases, appearances and disappearances, objects that appear out of nowhere and, of course, calling Cebolinha Cenourinha.

But the cameo that few noticed was these three at the flower stall. The seller is Sidney Gusman, the editor of Mauricio de Sousa Produções and responsible for the publications of Graphics MSP. The two clients are the brothers Lu Cafaggi and Vitor Cafaggi, the authors of the graphic novel that gave rise to the film Turma da Mônica: Laços.

In addition to these, we also have the appearances of several secondary characters from Monica’s Gang: the little friends Xaveco and his sister Xabéu, Jeremias, the boyfriends Titi and Aninha, Seu Juca, the cleaning maniac twins Cleuza and Cremilda, Magali’s boyfriend and Cascão’s girlfriend, Quinzinho and Maria Cascuda.

Watching the movie Turma da Mônica: Laços already awakens a pleasant feeling of childhood nostalgia, and we hope that this article has brought the same feeling in you. Enjoy and run to watch the sequel too, Lessons. But first, comment here that another detail we missed.