Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oróz

Overview

The regular cast of Os Trapalhões—Renato Aragão, Dedé Santana, Antônio Carlos Gomes, and Mauro Gonçalves—appears here with Xuxa Meneghel, José Dumont, Joffre Soares, and Arnaud Rodrigues, who also composed the songs. Santana takes the role of the Cowardly Lion, a sheriff, while Gonçalves, known as Zacarias, plays the Scarecrow, and Gomes, called Mussum, portrays Vat, a version of the Tin Woodman filled with cachaça. Xuxa plays Aninha, the sheriff’s girlfriend, and Aragão reprises his usual character, Didi Mocó.

Soares, famous for his Cinema Novo work, acts as a judge who locks up the tramps Soró (Rodrigues) and Tatu (Dumont) for stealing bread, while the sheriff keeps Didi, the Scarecrow, and Vat busy searching for water. The townspeople believe strange sertanejos will arrive to save them, and these travelers match that description, giving the town a reason to send them away along with the cowardly sheriff. All the local water sits on Colonel Ferreira’s wealthy estate; he rations it and fails in his attempts to seduce Aninha.

The Wizard of Oróz, played by Dary Reis, orders the group to find a water-spitting monster, which turns out to be a giant faucet used by washerwomen in Rio de Janeiro. The film spoofs the opening of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and features Tony Tornado in a cameo as the leader of vultures, which replace crows due to the drought. Aragão’s Christian faith appears when he kisses the feet of a Jesus Christ statue in Rio, though he intended to kiss the hand, and the movie includes Bia Seidl as the Virgin Mary riding a donkey to Bethlehem.