Trivia / Monica's Gang

• Acting for Two:
  • Marli Bortoletto voices Monica, Angel, Mrs. Liz (Monica’s mother), Mrs. Five (Jimmy Five’s mother), Tina, and Mary Angela (Jimmy Five’s little sister).
  • From the European Portuguese dub, Joana Castro voiced Monica, Jimmy Five, and Smudge's mother, Patrícia Andrade voiced Maggy, Carmen, and Monica's mother, Tiago Retrê voices Smudge, Franklin, and Monica's father, Carlos Martins voices Sunny, Junior, Mr. Five, Smudge's father, Pitheco, Bubbly, and Vanilla, Sissi Martins voices Angel, Bucky, Dustine, Ricardinho, Doreen, Mrs. Five, and Maggy's mother, and Cristina Basílio voices Denise, Marina, Fábio Boa Pinta, and Crystal.
  • Monica Ward voiced both Monica and Smudge in the Italian dub.
• Amateur Cast: All (credited) English dubs of the show utilize talent from three Miami-based dubbing studios: The Kitchen, Centauro Group, and BKS. Most of the voice actors have never done any major roles in animation, and the voice actors from the Kitchen Inc. dub were never credited.
• Bad Export for You: The English localization suffers heavily from this. English translations of the comics are very literal, so words and phrases end up being Lost in Translation. The English dub of the show has certain sections where it's obvious where the original Portuguese audio track ends and the English dub begins.
• Banned Episode: Or comic story, in this case. "O Mônico" was a comic story published in the 1990s that was never reprinted and the animated adaptation deleted from YouTube after it was discovered that one scene showed Jimmy Five's penis completely uncensored. ^note It should be worth noting that Male Frontal Nudity was not as taboo in Brazil in the 90s when the comic story was first published.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: Any Brazilian supermarket will have plenty of products with the characters on them.
• Cast the Runner-Up: From the animated series, Angélica Santos auditioned for the role of Maggy, but ended up getting Jimmy Five instead.
• Casting Gag: Happened regarding Monica's mother in both the cartoon (at a certain point, she started being voiced by Marli Bortoletto, who also does her daughter) and the Live-Action Adaptation (where she's played by actress Monica Iozzi).
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • In the VHS releases and made-for-TV movies from 1974 to 1983, Monica was voiced by Maria Amélia Costa Manso, a popular Brazilian singer at the time these films were released.
  • An Adventure in Time had actress Bianca Rinaldi as the villain.
• Channel Hop:
  • The comics have gone through three publishers. Abril published the comics from 1970 to 1986, Editora Globo handled publication of the comics from 1987 to 2006 and Panini is the present publisher as of 2007.
  • The animated TV shorts has been available on home video, 8mm film and even shown in cinemas from the 1970s to the 1990s, Globo aired the shorts from 1999-2000, and again from 2010-2014. Strangely, there are two networks currently carrying the show: Cartoon Network from 2004 onward, and TV Cultura from 2017 onward. As of 2021, episodes would appear on the LATAM versions of HBO Max.
• Creator Cameo: Mauricio de Sousa has made appearances in many adaptations, most notably two Leaning on the Fourth Wall ones in the live-action films - in Laços, he owns a newsstand; in Lições, he's a cafeteria worker, who when Maggy asks for everything asks "who created this monster?". (Lições also has a cameo for his daughter who inspired the main character, Mônica Spada e Sousa, as a librarian)
• Cross-Dressing Voices:
  • Two women have provided Jimmy Five's voice: Ivete Jayme from 1974 to 1983, and Angélica Santos from 1983 onwards. This extends to his current English voice actress, Julia Sales, and his Japanese voice actress, Haruna Miyazawa. Averted with his Centauro Group voice, Ulises Otero.
  • Originally, Smudge was voiced by a woman, Isaura Gomes. From 1983 onwards, he is voiced by Paulo Cavalcante, thus averting this trope. Played straight in the Spanish dub, where Smudge is still voiced by a woman as of 2022.
• The Danza:
  • Monica's father is "Mr. Sousa". Add that he looks just like Mauricio at the time of creation, and in some animations Mauricio himself voices him.
  • Marina Takeda Sousa voiced her namesake character she inspired for a period.
  • Monica Ward voiced the title character in the Italian dub of the series.
• Darkhorse Casting: Misumi Arimura, Monica's Japanese voice actress, has only been in a few minor roles in anime compared to her peers. Her role as Monica is her first time voicing a major protagonist.
• Dawson Casting:
  • All of the child characters are voiced by adults in the animated series.
  • Downplayed in the live-action film duology. The characters are still meant to be 6-7 years old, but they are portrayed by child actors whose age ranged from 9 to 11 years old when they were cast. The sequel plays this even straighter, where Jimmy Five’s voice is significantly deeper compared to the first movie thanks to Kevin Vechiatto hitting his teens when filming began.
• Descended Creator:
  • Before her death in 2021, Diana Pérez was the director of the Latin American Spanish dub, and she was also the voice of Jimmy Five.
  • Julia Sales and Roly Gutierrez help with translating the show into English at BKS Dubbing Studios and Centauro Group, and are also the voices of Jimmy Five and Smudge in that dub.
• Development Hell: The publishing of Maggy's graphic novel was repeatedly postponed because the writer, Lu Cafaggi, was suffering from an unspecified, but extremely debilitating illness. Her worsening health left her unable to conclude the project, which was canceled in June 2022.
• Dueling Dubs:
  • There are two versions of the English dub available on YouTube: One by The Kitchen Inc. in the mid-2000's, and the other from BKS Dubbing Studios and Centauro Group in 2018.
  • The Latin American Spanish dub overseen by Mauricio de Sousa Productions & Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and done by Candiani Dubbing Studios was done in early 2013. Mauricio de Sousa Productions and Turner LATAM also oversaw the re-dub in 2014, with Iyuno • SDI Group; Mexico (formerly known as SDI Media de México) dubbing the entirety of the animated catalogue (including the 80s theatrical shorts and the home video shorts).
  • There was a short-lived European Portuguese dub of the animated shorts that ran from 2015 to 2016 by Buggin Media. After this, Portugal just used the original Brazilian Portuguese dub.
• Fandom Life Cycle: In Brazil, the series is a solid Stage 5, with Monica and her friends being deeply ingrained in Brazilian pop culture. Outside of Brazil, the series is at a Stage 2-3 in Latin America, especially Mexico (due to there being a short-lived Spanish dub of the animated series and various crossovers with both El Chavo del ocho and El Chapulín Colorado), and a Stage 1 everywhere else. With the release of the official English dub on the Monica Plus channel, the series is slowly going to Stage X, at least in the United States. The same holds true for the Japanese dub airing on Kids Station, as more people outside Brazil discover Monica for the first time.
• Follow the Leader:
  • Mauricio admitted a few characters emerged from the desire of Brazilian versions: Peanuts = the main gang, Casper = Bug-a-boo, Alley Oop = Pitheco, Flash Gordon = Bubbly. And the Animesque teen Monica comes from the popularity of Manga (although Mauricio had been nurturing the idea for quite a while, having befriended none other than Osamu Tezuka in the latter's final years).
  • The manga spinoff itself inspired a wave of "manga-style teen spinoff" imitators in the early Tens, none of which were very successful.
• In Memoriam: In 1996, Rosana Munhoz, one of the main writers\artists at the period, died in a boating accident. Along with editorial eulogies, a whole story was written in her homage, with Chuck Billy and Rosie Lee see a star in the sky, realize it's Rosana and basically mourn that she'll never write them again.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • A few of their movies (except for the two films in the franchise that are distributed by Paramount Pictures and Buena Vista International) have never seen a DVD release (and all of the old stuff on DVD have new soundtracks and redubbed voices). Though they decided to fix this with A Princesa e o Robô, the one 1980s movie that isn't an anthology, which was uploaded to their YouTube channel.
  • The original comics have become this for some fans, especially once it became clear that when a story is reprinted, it will be altered to fit current political correctness standards.
• Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition: The manga chapters that are part of the "End of the World Saga" and the ones that feature Osamu Tezuka's characters were rereleased in a hardcover "Deluxe Edition".
• Live on Stage!: Many stage adaptations featuring Monica and her friends were played through over the decades, but the most famous stage performance is an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet titled Mônica e Cebolinha: No Mundo de Romeu e Julieta,^{Rough translation}Monica and Jimmy Five: In the World of Romeo and Juliet which was first performed in theaters across São Paulo in 1978 before being filmed Direct to Video in 1979. Unlike other stage adaptations based on the comic, this one proved to be so popular that an updated version was performed in 2013 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the franchise. This version would be played again in 2016 and 2018.
• Milestone Celebration: Every 100th issue of any title is celebratory (a few 200th too, and a 50th once◊), and the 500th overall (counting the runs in all three publishers) of Monica, Jimmy Five and Maggy earned a Continuity Porn-heavy issue. Smudge and Chuck Billy were less lucky, with an issue that just featured an acknowledgement of the 700th issue in the cover. Issues celebrating character anniversaries also happen, and starting with Mauricio 30 Anos in 1990 celebrating 30 years of the universe, at times there will be special books.
• No Export for You:
  • While the comics have been translated into many languages, many of them have never seen the light of day outside of their native Brazil and other countries in Latin America.
  • The animated series has attempted to remedy this by making the Spanish and English dubs of the show publicly available on YouTube, and the most recent translation as of March 2022 was a Japanese dub airing on Kids Station.
  • The first Live-Action Adaptation was only shown outside Brazil at the 2019 Hollywood Brazilian Film Festival. Averted by the sequel, which is on Prime Video and even has English and Spanish voice tracks.
• The Other Darrin:
  • From 1974 until 1983, Monica, Jimmy Five, Maggy and Smudge were voiced by Maria Costa Manso, Ivete Jayme, Silvia Marinho, and Isaura Gomes, respectively. In 1984, they were recast with Marli Bortoletto, Angélica Santos, Elza Gonçalves, and Paulo Cavalcante, respectively.
  • After over two decades of voicing Chuck Billy, Dirceu de Oliveira was replaced with Altieres Coelho in 2007.
  • Marina has had at least four different voice actresses portray her: Leticia Bortoletto, Marina Takeda Sousa, Samira Fernandes, and Mayra Ballabela.
  • From the Latin American Spanish dub of the show: following Diana Pérez's death in 2021, América Torres and Diego Becerril replaced her as the voice of Jimmy Five.
  • From the English dub of the show: The Kitchen Inc. dub had actors who had Uncredited Roles. The BKS/Centauro Group dub brought on a new wave of (credited) actors, like Gabriela Jensen as Monica, Julia Sales as Jimmy Five, Lissa Grossman as Maggy, and Roly Gutierrez as Smudge.
• Playing Against Type: Natsuki Aikawa, most known for playing Action Girls like Petra and Brownie, plays Maggy, a feminine Nice Girl who is also a Big Eater.
• Posthumous Credit:
  • In 2015, two scripts by the deceased Rosana Munhoz were uncovered and turned into actual comics.
  • Some episodes of the Spanish dub that had Diana Pérez's voice were aired over time following her death.
• Promoted Fangirl: Giulia Benite was a fan of the comics as a child, owning a lot of merchandise based around Monica, before she was cast as Monica herself.
• Real-Life Relative: Voice acting-wise, Monica (Marli Bortoletto) and Smudge (Paulo Cavalcante) eventually got married. And their daughter (Letícia Bortoletto), who also went into the business, eventually joined the cast as both Marina and Crystal.
• Reclusive Artist: Elza Gonçalves, Maggy's Brazilian voice actor since the 1980s, has rarely given interviews, and has no other voice acting credit other than her work on Monica's Gang.
• Recycled Script: Some strips' jokes are repeated over the many years, so it's not surprising, but some longer stories' recycling do happen. For example, a script in which a character avoided Smudge thanks to his smell, felt guilty afterwards, gets the idea of getting a cold so they could be close to Smudge and then gets repelled by Smudge himself since he doesn't want to get their cold was used twice: first with Jimmy as the main character, and later with Dustine. Amusingly enough, in Dustine's version of the story, Jimmy is the one who gives her the getting-a-cold idea by sneezing next to her (in his version, that was Monica).
• Uncredited Role:
  • Until 2015, the producers of the comics were never credited at all, with extremely rare exceptions in some 80's stories. This led people to act like Mauricio was still in charge of writing each comic. (although at times the writers put themselves in the story, or have a strong Creator Thumbprint) Since the 2015 reboot, small white boxes started being added in the first panel of each story (or the corner of the strips) listing the people who wrote, drew, and did the final art.
  • The actors who did the English and Spanish dubbing tracks for the Prime Video release of Monica and Friends: Lessons were never credited anywhere in the movie or on the site.
• Unisex Series, Gendered Merchandise: While the show and comics are aimed at a gender-neutral audience, certainly helped with the main four being a Gender-Equal Ensemble of two girls and two boys, much of the merchandise is aimed at girls, with Monica and Maggy having a majority of the merch themed around them.
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to writer Carlos Estefan, it was originally intended for The Riddler to be a major antagonist in the crossover with Batman. However, DC Comics vetoed the idea.
  • Cumulus' harassment of Maggy was going to be much worse in the original script of "Vacation at the Beach". The original idea was to have the protagonist laying naked on a bathtub, when suddenly the water morphs into the villain, who proceeds to lick her mouth. The editors thought that the scene was far too graphic and demanded it was changed so Cumulus instead stalks Maggy while she is fully dressed.
  • When Milena was first revealed to the public in an Instagram post, Mauricio stated that her main trait would be her uncanny musical talents, as hinted by her surname Sustenido, which is Portuguese for the musical sharp. However, this idea was completely dropped when Milena made her actual debut in the comics, as she doesn't display any affinity for music and is instead portrayed as an Animal Lover.
• Write Who You Know:
  • Several characters are based on Maurício's family: His daughters served as inspiration for Monica, Maggy, Marina and Mary Angela (who, interestingly enough, is Jimmy Five's baby sister), while his sons were the basis for Nick Nope, Nimbus and Spada.
  • Bugu is meant to be a friendly jab at Maurício's younger brother, Márcio. Márcio's childhood friends also served as inspiration for Jimmy Five, Smudge and Curly.
• You Sound Familiar: Bianca Alencar has voiced different characters in different adaptations of the series: Denise in the original animations and Maggy in the Teen spinoff airing on Cartoon Network.

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