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Zuzubaland (Zuzubalândia, in its original language) is a Brazilian animated comedy series made by Mariana Caltabiano, on YouTube and Boomerang, later rerun on SBT on Sábado Animado. It focuses on a very young bee girl, Zuzu, who lives in a magical food-themed kingdom called Zuzubalândia.
The second season of the series has yet to be announced.
Why It's Tasteful[]
- It's good to see Zuzu and her pals again, after almost 20 years.
- It was zanier, wackier and cartoonier than the original 1998 live-action puppet series.
- The titular bee girl Zuzu is a very cute protagonist. However, since she became a tomboy, Zuzu became famous among most of these young boys.
- Zuzu has a more friendly appearance, in contrast to her 1998 version.
- This reboot features new character designs, most of which are superior to the designs from the original 1998 show.
- Zuzu's new design was much cuter, than her puppet design from the 1998 series. Also, her redesign make herself a very cute tomboy.
- Sundae, Popcorn and Marsha Mallow has designs more human-like similar to those of the book Jujubalândia, which can be considered a good tribute to the original material.
- Marsha Mallow's design looks extremely cute and adorable, when she has her ponytail, to make herself even cuter.
- Rocky Cocoa got a more humanized and friendly appearance, different from the original show where he was a giant candy monster with human head, arms and legs.
- Fast also underwent a humanized redesign similar to that of Brigadeiro, in the original he was a humanoid hamburger monster, his current design is much more creative looking like a fast-food worker.
- Green Witch also looked much more beautiful, as her old design was considered a little scary.
- Sushiroco received a much better design, since his original 1998 design was racist.
- Green Witch also looked much more beautiful, as her old design was considered a little scary.
- Fast also underwent a humanized redesign similar to that of Brigadeiro, in the original he was a humanoid hamburger monster, his current design is much more creative looking like a fast-food worker.
- Rocky Cocoa got a more humanized and friendly appearance, different from the original show where he was a giant candy monster with human head, arms and legs.
- The location of Zuzubaland is still creative.
- The characters' personality also got better (except for Pipoca), most notably Zuzu, who in the original show was a snobbish mean popular girl stereotype, while in this series Zuzu is perkier, more friendly and energetic tomboy.
- For this reboot, Zuzu became even more interested in boyish hobbies (including sports, getting dirty and playing video games). In fact, Zuzu's best friends are mostly boys, especially Hot Dog and Rocky Cocoa.
- Eventually, Zuzu have became a very joyful, fun-loving tomboy, as she gaining her more tomboyish personality, to reflect on her modern portrayals present in recent Zuzubaland media.
- For this reboot, Zuzu became even more interested in boyish hobbies (including sports, getting dirty and playing video games). In fact, Zuzu's best friends are mostly boys, especially Hot Dog and Rocky Cocoa.
- The relationship between Zuzu, Hot Dog and Rocky Cocoa are very decent.
- Tons of very good references, especially the Disney media.
- "GARFIDEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
- The animation of the series is much more vibrant and smooth, like the later episodes of Gui & Estopa. This is due to the fact that the series was co-produced with Boomerang and also the animation studio SuperToons, known for having rendered service to popular Brazilian brands such as Mônica and Friends, Senninha and Patati Patatá.
- The theme song is still catchy and very funny and superior the theme song for the 1998 puppet series.
- The soundtrack is decent and has well-composed songs.
- Great voice acting, especially for both the original Portuguese and English dubs.
- The original Brazilian dub is also a evolution over Gui & Estopa's dub, since it has a greater variety of voice actors and Mariana Caltabiano does not voice any character.
- Thanks to Bang Zoom! Entertainment, its English-dubbed version sounds a lot more impressive than the original Brazilian-dubbed version. In fact, the English translations are a lot more decent.
- The series has a decent comedy with Bob Clampett-esque slapstick and Little Audrey-esque jokes, like Gui & Estopa.
- Many food-themed puns are very funny.
- There are some special guest stars that are modeled after real celebrities, some notable examples being Brad Pizza (Brad Pitt), Adam Espaghettini (Adam Levine), Justin Zieber (Justin Bieber) and many more.
- The character animation style looks like a breed between Harvey Girls Forever! and The Loud House, and it looks very good.
- Some pop-culture celebrities make guest appearances, such as Bugs Bunny from Looney Tunes of the Warner Bros. fame in the episode “Sneeze Spell”, and Stan Lee, the creator of Marvel's iconic superheroes such as Spider-Man and Iron Man, in the episode “Spider-Bro”.
- "Giant Pumpkins" revealed that Hot Dog wearing hot dog buns as his iconic outfit.
Bad Qualities[]
- Zuzubaland has a far-fetched and confusing amount of pop culture references, with cameos of many other characters that seem out of place, for example: Bugs Bunny (the official mascot of Warner Bros.) appearing on a cameo in one of the episodes as Zuzu's music teacher for no apparent reason for him to be there.
- Despite having a decent voice acting in the original Brazilian voice acting, the voices of some characters are confused and stiff, like Brigadeiro, Laricão and Garfídea. On top of that, Zuzu's voice is too girly for male voice actors.
- Unlike the Spanish-dubbed version of Gui & Estopa, which is very done-well, its Spanish dub sounds extremely weak.
- Like the 1998 puppet show, Zuzu's singing voice is still too painful.
- Popcorn can be unlikable at times since she's pretty much an idiot, especially in the episode “Zuzu's Diet”. She also hits Hot Dog in one occasion, which could be considered animal abuse since he's a dog, even if a mostly anthropomorphic one.
- Some of the very utter uneatable episodes, including "Zuzu's Diet", "Candy Apple" and "The Egg".
- The script of the episodes can feel very weak and bland at times.
- Some of the characters’ names are pretty generic, being named after the food they are.
- Too-much gross-out humor (especially Zuzu's gross nature), as well as the overused fart humor, an infamous example being in the episode “Colorless Riding Hood” where it’s revealed that Zuzu really loves farting, in fact in "The Egg", she loves being farted in her face and smells the thicker stench. Also, Garfidea farts whenever she laughs too much.
- In "The Kiwis", it revealed that Zuzu has her gross-nature, in addition of her interest in farting.
Trivia[]
- With the English-dubbed version from Bang Zoom! Entertainment, this is the very first Mariana Caltabiano production to receive an English dub.
- The musical animated prequel feature film has yet to be announced, retelling the origin story of how Zuzu first came to Zuzubaland.
Reception[]
It received generally mixed reviews on IMDB, having a 6.8. But, was well-received by the fans of the original 1990s puppet show, as well as the 1997 book.