| Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oróz | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Dedé Santana Vitor Lustosa |
| Starring | Renato Aragão Mussum |
| Release date(s) | 1984 |
| Country |  Brazil |
| Language | Portuguese |
Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oróz is the 1984 entry in the Brazilian comedy film series Os Trapalhões. This is a parody of The Wizard of Oz (1939). It was directed by Dedé Santana and Vitor Lustosa. It injects elements and actors of Cinema Novo into family film to direct attention to the ongoing drought in the Northeast, an issue that remains unresolved. In addition to the regular members of Os Trapalhões, Renato Aragão, Dedé Santana, Mussum, and Zacarias, Xuxa Meneghel, José Dumont, Jofre Soares, and Arnaud Rodrigues, who wrote the songs, also appeared. Santana played the Cowardly Lion, a sheriff, Zacarias played the Scarecrow, and Mussum played Vat, a cachaça-filled variation on the Tin Woodman. Xuxa plays Sheriff Lion's girlfriend, Aninha. Aragão plays his regular protagonist, Didi Mocó. Soares, best known for his work in Cinema Novo, plays a judge who sentences Didi's fellow tramps Soró (Rodrigues) and Tatu (Dumont) to jail for stealing bread, while the Sheriff keeps Didi, the Scarecrow, and Vat in his charge to find water for the town. It is said that certain unusual sertanejos will come to the town and save them, and the travellers fit the bill, at least as an excuse to get rid of them and the cowardly sheriff. All of the town's water is on the lush estate of Colonel Ferreira, who rations it, and tries to seduce Aninha with no success. The Wizard of Oróz (Dary Reis) sends them to retrieve a water-spitting monster, in fact a giant faucet, that washerwomen in Rio de Janeiro utilize. The film is also noted for its parody of the opening scene of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and for the cameo appearance of Tony Tornado as the leader of the vultures (deliberately replacing crows in the drought context) that terrorize the Scarecrow until they are eaten by the Tramps. Also, it shows Aragão's religious side--in the film, he kisses the feet of the statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, though he wanted to kiss the hand, and the film also depicts scenes of the Virgin Mary, played by Bia Seidl, riding upon a donkey to Bethlehem.
