The year was 1941. Walt Disney visited Rio de Janeiro and other South American countries as a source of research for upcoming content from The Walt Disney Company. The trip inspired him to create a Brazilian character, Zé Carioca.
Zé Carioca officially debuted on August 24, 1942 in Rio de Janeiro, at the first worldwide screening of the film “Alô Amigos”. The plot presents Zé Carioca receiving Donald Duck during his trip to Brazil and walking with him through Latin America presenting the cultures of the places.
Inspired by the Brazilian people, the character is cheerful, creative, fun, hospitable and hardworking, and – despite having returned to the movie screens in two other classic feature films “Você Já Foi à Bahia?” (The Three Caballeros, 1944) and “Tempo de Melodia” (Melody Time, 1948) – his adventures had continuity and success even in the comics, which appeared living in the hills of Rio de Janeiro, eating feijoada and playing football, in addition to telling also with new characters, different plots and relatives from other regions of the country.
In October 1942, the character ended up in American newspapers, which published his stories over 104 color Sunday pages. The adventures of Zé Carioca also began to appear in Brazil from the children’s comic book O Globo Juvenil nº 878 (O Globo, February 2, 1943) and later began to be published by Editora Abril.
The growing popularity of the character over the years even made Abril decide that, as of January 1961, all odd editions of ‘O Donald Duck’, until then a weekly publication, would be renamed ‘Zé From Rio’. Of the vast production of Disney comics by Editora Abril, almost a third had the parrot present. There were more than two thousand stories and gags. And, since 2020, the stories of Zé Carioca are created, produced and published by Editora Culturama.
Celebrating 80 years of Zé Carioca
To mark this special date, the Disney will celebrate Zé Carioca’s 80th birthday over the next 12 months, with various actions and activations. The first is the release of a song in honor of the character, scheduled for the beginning of September, authored by Leandro Lehart and sung by sambista Xande de Pilares with a dedicated video clip. The song was composed based on the attributes of Zé Carioca, which are also characteristics that represent the Brazilian people very well, therefore receiving the title of “Os Zés do Brasil”.
In the coming months, thematic collections of licensed products from major brands such as Água de Coco, Renner, FARM, Colorama, Pernambucanas, Havaianas, Vivara, Regina Festas, Fun with character plush, PHX with musical instruments, Go Case with cell phone and other accessories, among others. From August to December, the Emiliano Rio hotel will be themed by Zé Carioca in homage to the creation of the character idealized in the city of Rio de Janeiro (RJ).
Special content, filters and stickers will also be available on Disney Brazil’s Social Networks from August and, of course, new comics will be released, such as the book “O essential do Zé Carioca: celebrating the 80th anniversary of its debut”, already available on the market, and “Zé Carioca tells the history of Brazil”, by the writer Eduardo Bueno, scheduled for release in October. In addition, in the regular monthly publications of Editora Culturama, there will be a new story “A young man called Zé” in the Grande Almanac Disney, in November 2022.
Want to know more about the news? Don’t forget to follow ADNEWS on social media and stay on top of everything!
The post Disney celebrates Zé Carioca’s 80th birthday in 2022 appeared first on DNEWS.
