The soap opera is doubtlessly one of the greatest prides of Brazilian people when we talk about TV. Over the decades, watching soap operas has become a daily habit in the Brazilian homes.
One of the reasons for the success of Brazilian soap operas is in its format, that is, the daily exhibition, the long seasons, the long-running episodes, the script, which is adaptable to the public reaction and, finally, the intros.
As in the series, the intros of the soap operas usually carry the synthesis of the story. Thus, as an important element, the use of animation in the intros demonstrates the creative quality that the resource provides to such an important product to Brazilian culture.
Below we have five examples of Brazilian soap operas that used animation in their intros.
Uga-Uga
Uga-Uga was produced by Rede Globo and showcased at 7 pm, between the years of 2000 and 2001. It had its plot inspired by the stories of The Jungle Book, and Tarzan.
The plot is about a boy whose parents died during an expedition to the Amazon. Years later, when he was found living with a tribe, his uncle convinces him to go back to the city to find the person who most yearned for his return: his grandfather, owner of the powerful toy factory Troia, whose sole heir is the protagonist.
Besides the enormous success that the soap opera obtained, Uga-Uga was one of the first to use animation in its intro. They used the 3D technique to give the dimension of a comic book that narrates, briefly, the plot of the soap opera.
Amor à vida
Produced by Rede Globo and showcased at 9 pm, between the years of 2013 and 2014. Like Uga-Uga, Amor à vida has as a background a sibling dispute to obtain the powerful inheritance of their father.
In that year, the soap opera intro received several compliments by the general public. Through delicate and fluid features present in the composition of the scene and characters, the intro uses modern animation techniques, such as Liquid Motion, for example.
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The animation was created by the animator of “The Avengers” Ryan Woodward and inspired by his film Thought of You. In the link below he tells how he came up with the idea of this short film.
Meu Pedacinho de Chão
Meu Pedacinho de Chão was produced by Rede Globo and showcased at 6 p.m., in 2014. It has two main parts: a town dominated by an authoritarian colonel, and the friendship between two children.
The intro counts on a variety of vivid colors, on elements that refer to the playful, fantastic, spectacular and colorful world we see in the soap opera.
Cheias de Charme
Cheias de Charme was produced by Rede Globo and showcased in 2012, and it was a hit that year. It captivated Brazilian audiences with a lot of humor and music. Yes, Music. The soap opera tells the story of three housekeepers who dreamed of being singers. And it all worked out thanks to a common feat in recent years: the viral video on the internet. That’s how the « empreguetes » rose to the fame. And as a consequence also came the romance, the envy, and several twists that happened throughout the plot.
With strong colors and textures, the animation uses the 3D technique to illustrate the universe of the three protagonists.
Orgulho e Paixão
Orgulho e Paixão was produced and showcased by Rede Globo in March 2018. This soap opera takes its inspiration from Jane Austen’s novels, one of the greatest novelists in the world literature.
The plot of the story is about a woman who dreams of conquering the world, but has a problem: the society in which she lives. At that time, marriage was certainly the only future for a woman who came from a “good family.”
The richness of this animation, for example, is in the use of shadow and light in the characters, with a background that refers to pages of an old book. In addition, they widely used the frame-by-frame animation technique throughout the intro.
The increasingly recurrent use of animation in the audiovisual universe certainly makes it possible for us to realize that this feature enables us to expand our creativity and explore new artistic worlds. As seen above, each intro of these soap operas has singularity in its beauty and style.
