Blog:As Aventuras de Gui & Estopa

Note: this is a Archived Version of the Page that was Deleted in this WIki due to The Show have 8.6/10 Ratings on IMDB.

As Aventuras de Gui & Estopa is a Brazilian animated series created by Mariana Caltabiano in 2008.

The series and characters are derived from a 2000 children's website known as Iguinho (a website belonging to iG, a Brazilian Internet service provider), also created by Caltabiano. The site contained games and flash animations, mostly focused on the site’s mascot, also called Iguinho (currently known as Gui, who at first was a cute Westie puppy); over the years, the animations with the mascot developed until they became more and more similar to American cartoons that Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon used to have during the 90s and 2000s, until in 2008 Caltabiano decided to take her characters to television starting with a film that was a compilation of several episodes that later went to by Cartoon Network (channel from which she used to have a strong partnership with iG during the 2000s).

The series has five seasons, the first in 2008, the second in 2009, the third in 2011-2012, the fourth in 2016 and the fifth in 2020.

= Bad Qualities =


 * 1) To get the elephant out of the room, there was an immense flanderization in the characters' personalities; notably, Gui became a generic stupid protagonist of some Nickelodeon cartoon, Piti moved from a bully character to a butt-monkey, Cróquete stopped being Gui's love interest and she also became more stupid and a butt-monkey (although not as much as Gui and Piti)...
 * 2) Just like Newbie and the Disasternauts, the entire show makes MASSIVE and unnecessary use of references to pop culture at a point that the producers seem to want to focus more on making references than creating decent stories for the show. Many of the references even consist of forced (and unauthorized) cameo crossovers of characters from other cartoons, most of them even being from Cartoon Network shows which makes the series look more like a channel advertisement.
 * 3) * For example: one episode, Justin Bibelo makes a terrible reference to the singer Justin Bieber. The episode Tchu Tcha refers to a dated song made by Brazilian singers João Lucas & Marcelo.
 * 4) Awful voice acting with many of the voices sounding annoying and forced (the worst example being the voice of Gui's mother) looking like a amateur dub. This is due to the fact that the show has only three voice actors for all the characters, one of them being the creator of the show, Mariana Caltabiano, who is far from being a professional voice actress (this show is the only one she dubs). Many of the voices don't even match the characters, for example: Estopa and Piti are supposed to be children, but have the voices of middle-aged adults.
 * 5) The characters are very stereotyped and one-dimensional:
 * 6) * Gui is a typical dumb character and the main butt-monkey.
 * 7) * Estopa is a stereotype of a fat guy who only thinks about food.
 * 8) * Cróquete is a total Mary Sue (while being likeable in Season 1-2) and from season 3 onwards she starts to act aggressive and rude.
 * 9) * Róquete is a rich and snobbish girl that only cares about fashion.
 * 10) * Piti (while being likable) is a butt-monkey character who would be supposed to be an antagonistic bully, but he is rarely seen doing anything mean and is friends with the main characters.
 * 11) * Professora Jararaca is just a mean teacher who likes to torture her students.
 * 12) Some gross-out moments can be pretty disgusting. (especially O Aparelho)
 * 13) The writing of most episodes ranges from very weak, poorly written, or just very stupid. In fact, almost all the episodes are written only by Mariana Caltabiano (who is also the general director of all the episodes).
 * 14) From the third season onwards the show started to make excessive use of a scream stock sound, which is unbearable.
 * 15) Stiff limited animation for its early episodes. Although this point can be redeemed by the fact that the production of cartoons is something recent in Brazil, having only started to gain prominence in the 2010s, the animation has not shown any signs of evolution since its first season, (which debuted in 2008) and also because of the fact that Mariana Caltabiano has been working with animation since the early 2000s.
 * 16) The art style has been declining since the third season, with all the characters not only having permanent sclera instead of dot eyes but having huge eyes practically glued and very thin bodies. It gets to the point that the characters sometimes look the same: https://s2.dmcdn.net/v/JdzOn1VbAJppWJzaf/x1080
 * 17) Characters who used to be part of the main cast since the first animations of the Iguinho site like Fifivelinha and Riba ended up having their roles reduced drastically.
 * 18) The end of some episodes are quite rushed; for example: "Gui a Cabo", the episode is supposed to focus on Gui losing his sanity and trying to imitate TV shows at school, after the problem is solved the episode ends with a joke unrelated to the theme of the episode focusing on the teacher (in a clown outfit) chattering and Gui saying that this was the reason why there are people who are afraid of clowns.
 * 19) Season 5 adds a opening to the series that consists only of a narrator saying the name of the series and the names of the characters and random scenes from episodes of previous seasons. The narrator's voice is just awful.
 * 20) The show makes an excessive use of stereotypes to define people, countries or cultures. The most offensive cases being the episodes "Japão" (who interprets the Japanese people as weeaboos who walk the streets in cosplaying anime characters) and "Barba Girl" (that shows a racist stereotype that every Mexican has mustaches, even women).
 * 21) Many of the episodes have mean-spirited moments and bad morals such as:
 * 22) * O Gordo e o Magro: Gui starts the episode eating a lot of fatty food for no reason, and later shows that exercising makes you look like an idiot.
 * 23) * Estopa o Lutador: shows immaturity on the part of Cróquete who forces Estopa to fight a bigger guy than him only to recover the rubber platypus that WANS'T HERS.
 * 24) * Total Vaca: Fifivelinha forces Gui to work as a model and make him dress like a cow against his will.
 * 25) * Professora Jararaca: It only shows Professora Jararaca cruelly torturing her students.
 * 26) * A Espinha: Gui is sexist about the pink color of Piti's hat. The episode also teaches that pimples make you look attractive and helps to win over girls.
 * 27) * O Aparelho: Gui picks up a braces (which didn't belong to him) to use at school and acts like a jerk for Piti. The episode still portrays children who wear braces being disgusting.
 * 28) * Amor e Músculos: The episode start by showing a sexist moral that men need muscle to win girls and cannot be sensitive. In the end Cróquete is rude to Gui and Piti after the effort they made to get muscular.
 * 29) * Nerdson: Gui acts like a jerk to his mother at the beginning of the episode wanting her to treat him like a baby. Furthermore, Nerdson invades Gui's privacy and manipulates him into accompanying him to a costume ball against his will.
 * 30) * Tchú Tchá: teaches that classical music by composers like Beethoven, Mozart and Bach are not good and inferior to contemporary bubblegum music.
 * 31) * Queridinha: Cróquete shows hatred and envy against Ligia for not wanting her to be the most popular girl in the school. In addition, the episode shows more meanspiritess of Professora Jararaca.
 * 32) * Cubo Mágico: Gui lies and cheats to solve a rubik's cube just to show off.
 * 33) * Gatada Rosa: Croquete abuses everyone with violence and bullying to want respect and is not punished for it.
 * 34) * Joga Comigo: Gui's mother cheats in the video game.
 * 35) * Bolo Monstro: The episode supposedly tries to teach children that eating artificial food and chemical compounds is not good, but it makes this kind of food look cool since they can give powers, abilities or make the person shape-shift temporarily without any danger.
 * 36) Several bad/mediocre episodes like:
 * 37) * O Gordo e o Magro
 * 38) * A Espinha
 * 39) * O Aparelho
 * 40) * Nerdson
 * 41) * A Colméia
 * 42) * Tchú Tchá
 * 43) * Escola Em Casa
 * 44) * Estopa o Lutador
 * 45) * Gatada Rosa
 * 46) * Vaca Total
 * 47) * Cubo Mágico!
 * 48) * Queridinha
 * 49) * Zuzubalândia
 * 50) * Garotos
 * 51) * Comgás
 * 52) * Japão
 * 53) * (infamously) Justin Bibelo
 * 54) * Barba Girl
 * 55) * Bolo Monstro (depending of your view)
 * 56) * Amor é Musculos
 * 57) * Professora Jararaca
 * 58) * Cuecas Conforto
 * 59) * Curling
 * 60) Misleading title: Despite the show's title, As Aventuras de Gui & Estopa (lit. The Adventures of Gui & Estopa), none of the episodes show the characters in real adventures, being just a slice-of-life with nonsense comedy. Besides the fact that Estopa is a character that does not have much importance in the series, normally appearing only as a supporting character for Gui in most episodes, Cróquete and Piti have more prominence than Estopa.

Good Qualities
Please DO NOT ADD that the voice acting is good, because it's not and this is practically contradicting one of the reasons the show is not good and neither that it has "MANY" good episodes or comparisons with Video Brinquedo (both have no connection with each other).


 * 1) The second season is educational and pretty decent and even explains about the Brazilian fauna and the marine fauna.
 * 2) Some characters are likeable like Piti and Cróquete (in the first two seasons).
 * 3) * Ironically, Piti was originally supposed to be an unlikeable bully antagonist. However, due to the fact that he is the main butt-monkey of the show he is unintentionally a sympathetic character.
 * 4) The title cards look so good.
 * 5) The animation, for its later episodes, are smoother, compared to its early episodes.
 * 6) There are some good/decent episodes like:
 * 7) * Maiô de Bolinhas
 * 8) * A Luva de Três Listras
 * 9) * A Rampa de Skate
 * 10) * The Dogs in Concert
 * 11) * Prima Esnobe (depending of your view)
 * 12) * Irmãozinho
 * 13) * Mãe Maneira
 * 14) * Bisa
 * 15) It has a well-composed soundtrack, and so as the catchy songs.
 * 16) Some of the references are decent (when they are not forced).
 * 17) It had many funny moments.
 * 18) * It has some slapstick comedy moments, especially in the first season.
 * 19) Starting in season four the length of episodes began to increase lasting up to 5 minutes instead of just 2 or 3.

Episodes With Their Own Pages

 * O Gordo e o Magro
 * A Espinha
 * O Aparelho
 * Nerdson
 * A Colméia
 * Tchú Tchá
 * Escola em Casa
 * Estopa o Lutador
 * Gatada Rosa
 * Total Vaca
 * Cubo Mágico!
 * Queridinha
 * Zuzubalândia
 * Garotos
 * Comgás
 * Justin Bibelo

Trivia

 * In 2008, there was a compilation movie, with a few episodes of the first season of this show, hosted by Stress and Relax, two dogs with different personalities that eventually became stars of their own movie, Brasil Animado. You can watch it here.