Today marks the 5th anniversary of Zuzubaland, also known as Zuzubalândía in Brazil. For context, Zuzubaland is a Brazilian animated series created by Mariana Caltabiano. The series was based on the book Jujubalândía, published in 1997, and serves as a reboot of the children's live-action series of the same name, which premiered on April 13, 1998, making that series 25 at the time of this post. The show revolves around Zuzu, a cute little bee girl who lives in the titular world of Zuzubaland/Zuzubâlandía (in the original book, it was called Jujubalândía) along with all her friends and dreams about being a famous singer in spite of her ear-grating voice. Zuzubaland is a kingdom ruled by King Appetite where everything is made out of food, right down to the character names being puns of the food they represent (e.g. Marsha Mallow is a pun on "marshmallow"). The main antagonist is the Green Witch (or Anorexic Witch in some sources, but I would prefer to call her "Greenhilda" - a portmanteau on "green" (her skin color) and the name "Brunhilda"), who hates food, joy and Zuzu's singing and wants to destroy Zuzubaland. But the only way to break the magic of the grandmothers that protects the kingdom is to get the magic crown that King Appetite keeps under a lock and key. Garfedia is her assistant, but she isn't really malicious as she's somewhat ineffectual but kind; she has a doll she keeps every day called Kellen. She also has a bad habit of farting (albeit unintentionally) when she laughs a lot. (source: Wikipedia PT)
Funnily enough is that this wouldn't be the first time we would see Zuzu and friends in animated form: Gui e Estopa was another animated series created by Mariana Caltabiano originally launched in 2000 as a children's website called Iguinho, with the mascot being a puppy of the same name (at least initially). He is best friends with Estopa (a dog), is in love with Croquette the beautiful, and has a rivarly with Pitiburro. A series of films were made before finally becoming a cartoon in 2009 that aired on Cartoon Network. They even have an official YouTube channel. (source: Wikipedia PT)
A crossover episode simply titled "Zuzubalândia" was released on July 20, 2016, two years before Zuzubaland premiered. Unfortunately its only available in Portuguese without subtitles (or at least the English subtitles) and I don't know much about the episode's plot other than it being a proposed pilot for Zuzubaland. But if I want to summarize this plot, it's basically Gui having a dream about going to Zuzubaland alongside Estopa. I also forgot to mention that it also had a musical in 2013, though I could only find one image of that one.
While this show, and by extension franchise, is hardly well-known in the West, it didn't stop Zuzubaland from having it's own YouTube Channel AND official English dub by none other than Bang Zoom! Entertaiment!
The English dub is not only easily my favorite EN dubs of Brazilian cartoons next to Ba Da Bean (both recorded by the same studio), but it also introduced me to the series. The cast includes Dino Andrade as Zuzu, Aleks Le as Sundae, Amber Connor as Popcorn, Zeno Robinson as Rocky, Joe J. Thomas as Hot Dog, Ryan Bartley as Marsha, and Jason Marnocha as King Appetite, but I think the best performance hands down would have to be Wendee Lee (the titular character from Haruhi Suzumiya, Konata Izumi from Lucky Star, Faye Valetine from Cowboy Bebop, Blanc/White Heart from Hyperdimension Neptunia, and Lyn and Veronica from Fire Emblem) as The Green Witch, whose loud-mouth, nasally Wicked Witch-esque voice perfectly suits her character. In fact, I first noticed this while looking at Lee's BTVA page. I was honestly shocked knowing that she has the same voice actors as Blanc and Faye. And for the cherry on top, it has an official website (albeit in Portuguese). The website includes characters pages, video clips, games, comic strips, art, online books, music etc., so at least isn't completely obscure online unlike other South American cartoons (*cough* Underdogs United *cough*). Mariana Caltabiano also has her own official website deticated to herself and her cartoons.
In conclusion, Zuzubaland is and forever will be my favorite Brazilian cartoon of the 2010s and my favorite Brazilian cartoon of all time (Ba Da Bean is a close second). Thank you for reading this post, and if you are a fan of Brazilian cartoons, did you watch it (in English or its original Portuguese language) and whats your opinion of this underrated foreign cartoon.
