Cascão Porker

Cascão Porker (also mentioned as Cascão Porker e a Pedra Distracional, in English: Smudge Porker and the Distracting Stone) is a Brazilian comic book parodying the movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, made by Brazilian company Mauricio de Sousa Produções. It features the famous Monica's Gang characters as Harry Potter characters, making a mixture of these two. It was published by Panini Comics in August 2009, as number 15 of Monica's Gang special series Clássicos do Cinema (Classic movies).

Plot

The plot begins in the Rua dos Trouxas (Street of Muggles, parody of the Privet Drive), where Cascão Porker (mixture of Smudge and Harry Potter), is left in the house of his uncles, the Dudursleis (a mixture of Junior and Dursleys) by Magaligonagal (mixture of Maggy and Minerva McGonagall), Hagridão (mixture of Thunder and Rubeus Hagrid) and Dunimbusdore (mixture of Nimbus and Albus Dumbledore), because he was an orphan, since the disappearance of his parents. The years passed and Cascão lives happily with his uncles. However, he sleeps in a cupboard under the stairs, because his uncles and his cousin can not stand his smell. He continued living there until one fateful day, when Hagridão encounters Smudge, and tells him it's time to go to Hográtis School of Magic (parody of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry). In the beginning, Smudge does not believe that Hagridão really does magic, but after Hagridão make a "flying donkey" balloon, he comes to believe. Then, Cascão and Hagridão go to the Beco Poligonal (Poligonal Alley, a parody to the Diagon Alley) to buy a wand. Cascão buys a magic wand with feather of vulture, and he discovers that a long time ago, "Aquele-Que-Não-Se-Deve-Mencionar-Nem-Em-Piada" (He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Not-Even-In-a-Joke), bought a identic wand. After he leaves the wand shop, he finds Hagridão with a gift for him. Hagridão bought three winged piglets (Pablo, Pierre and Sebastian, a mixture of the Leleala trio and Hedwig) to Cascão. After this, they go to the Gringões bank (parody of Gringotts Bank), and Hagridão withdraws something in the bank. Soon after, Cascão and Hagridão decide to take some juice. During the meal, Hagridão tells Cascão what really happened to his parents: When he was a baby he always fled from his bath; when one night he found the dark wizard: Feiodemorte (a mixture of Captain Frey and Lord Voldemort). Feiodemorte went to Cascão's home to give him a bath and then become the world's dirtiest wizard. However, Cascão knocked him over the tub. Amid the confusion, a drop of water poured on Cascão's forehead, which created a scar in this location. Before disappearing, Feiodemorte locked Cascão's parents into another dimension.

After leaving beco Poligonal, Cascão goes to platform Nove e Pouco (Nine and Something), to catch the train to Hográtis. Inside the train, he meets Cebolony Uéslei (mixture of Jimmy Five and Ron Weasley) and Hermônica Granja (a mixture of Monica and Hermione Granger). After talking and socializing, they become friends. After arriving in Hográtis, they discover that there are four houses: Grifedória (Gryffindor), Sonseverina (Slytherin), Ufa-Ufa (Hufflepuff) and Discovinil (Ravenclaw). They also meets Xavecus Malboy (a mixture of Sunny and Draco Malfoy, a Sonseverina student. Throughout the book, we see several concepts of the original film mixed with typical Monica's Gang jokes: We see the Chapéu Mágico (Magic Hat, a parody of the Sorting Hat) and we find that he is a fan of Tauó (a Monica's Gang parody of Star Wars), like Cascão. Going forward, we see the first Potions class with Professor Ex-Neipe (mixture of Nick Nope and Severus Snape), who loves to take points from Grifedória. Soon after this class, Cascão and his friends face with the Rúfius de Três Cabeças (Three-Headed Rúfius, a parody of Fluffy). When the three arrive at the Common Room, Cascão says that he saw a trap door under Rúfius, and he comments about a possible relationship with this and Hagridão's package. Then he is gifted with a flying broom named Cúmulos 2000 (parody of Nimbus 2000) and after this he is invited to join Grifedória's Quadrinhobol (parody of Quidditch) team.

In the game, Cascão captures the Sono de Ouro (Golden Sleep, a parody of Golden Snitch), a ball that makes anyone who gets close sleepy, to win the match. After it, Cascão tries to discover what Rúfius is guarding. He convinces Hagridão to tell the secret, after offering chocolate to him. He says the dog is guarding a secret that only he and Dunimbusdore know. The trio then go to the ultra-forbidden sector of the library to find something about it with an invisibility cloak that Cascão bought in the Bruxanet (a wizard's internet). After searching, they discover that Rúfius, the three-headed dog is a Canis Tres Caput Capitis, that does not stand music. Soon after this, they return to Rúfius, and Hermônica materializes a radio playing funk carioca (a Brazilian street music style). Then, they manage to pass through Rúfius. After climbing down the trapdoor, they find a giant chessboard. While Cebolony and Hermônica play, Cascão crosses the board.

After climbing down a little, he finds Professor Quinzel (a mixture of Quinzinho and Professor Quirrel), that was hiding Feiodemorte in his turban. Cascão discovers that Hagridão was hiding a red stone called the Pedra Distracional (Distracting Stone), that distracts anyone who sees it. Then, Cascão's Piglets appear and throw water on Feiodemorte, causing them to disappear and losing the battle. After being defeated, Feiodemorte says they will see him again in the future, because there are seven movies. After that, Grifedória gets 50 house points, and while Cascão initally wants to stay in Hográtis during the vacation, he eventually runs away in fear after discovering about the water sports recreations.

Characters

• Cascão (Smudge) as Cascão Porker (Harry Potter)
• Cebolinha (Jimmy Five) as Cebolony Uéslei (Ron Weasley)
• Mônica (Monica) as Hermônica Granja (Hermione Granger)
• Nimbus as Dunimbusdore (Albus Dumbledore)
• Magali (Maggy) as Magaligonagal (Minerva McGonagall)
• Jotalhão (Thunder) as Hagridão (Rubeus Hagrid)
• Do Contra (Nick Nope) as Professor Ex-Neipe (Severus Snape)
• Leleala (Pablo, Pierre e Sebastian) as Cascão's winged piglets (Hedwig)
• Capitão Feio (Captain Frey) as Feidodemorte (Lord Voldemort)
• Xaveco as Xavecus Malboy (Draco Malfoy)
• Doutor Olimpo as Varolimpo (Garrick Ollivander)
• Quinzinho as Professor Quinzel (Quirinus Quirrell)
• Jeremias as Quadrinhobol speaker (Lee Jordan)
• Seu Antenor Araújo (Cascão's father) as Sr. Porker (James Potter)
• Dona Lurdinha (Cascão's mother) as Sra. Porker (Lily Potter)
• Rúfius as Rúfius de três cabeças (Fluffy)
• Dudu as Dudu Dudursley (Dudley Dursley)
• Dona Cecilia (Dudu's mother) as Sra. Dudursley (Petunia Dursley)
• Seu Durva (Dudu's father) as Sr. Dudusrsley (Vernon Dursley)
• Frank as Frank (Filch)
• Cranicola as Cranic Só A Cabeça (Cranic Only The Head, a parody of Nearly Headless Nick)
• Tia Nena as Food Troller Lady

Trivia

Problems with Monica's Gang and English readers

For those unfamiliar with Monica's Gang is a little hard to understand the concepts in Cascão Porker. We must consider several things:

• Cascão does not like to bathe. In the comics, he never washed his hands or had any direct contact with water. It is a frequent joke in the comics. In the English version, he is called Smudge.
• Monica's Gang is a children's series. So there is no death, injury, torture or any other inappropriate material. And always use the comic jokes and humour.
• Magali (Maggy in the English version) is greedy and loves eating.
• Cebolinha (Jimmy Five in the English version) has trouble speaking the letter R, always swapping it with L in the portuguese version and with W in the english version and has only 5 strands of hair.
• Monica often hits Cebolinha with her stuffed blue rabbit in the comics because he likes to tease her.
• The word "Porker" is a mixture of "Potter" with "porco" (pig). In Portuguese, the word pig is used for dirty and ill-bred people. Cascão is often called "porco".
• "Quadrinhobol" is a mixture of "Quadribol" (Portuguese translation for Quidditch) and quadrinho (Portuguese for comics).
• In the Portuguese version of Harry Potter series, Ron is referred as Rony. That explains the name "Cebolony".

Major differences between the original and parody

• In the original, the Dursleys are rude and do not care about Harry. In this parody, the Dudursleys just seem to be averse to the Cascão's smell. And yet, they say goodbye when he leaves the house with Hagridão; different from the original version where Dursleys are forcibly ridiculed by Hagrid.
• In the original Harry's parents are murdered by Lord Voldemort. In this parody, Smudge's parents are locked in another dimension.
• The scene of the Forbidden Forest does not appear in the parody.
• There's no Devil's Snare in the parody. Cascão, Cebolony and Hermônica pass directly from the three-headed dog to the chessboard.

Easter eggs

• When Cascão and Hagridão enter in Beco Poligonal, you can see various characters related to magic. Among them Cosmo and Wanda de The Fairly Odd Parents, Panoramix from Asterix, the Masked Magician and many others.
• Even in Beco Poligonal, you can see several times a caricature of Mauricio de Sousa (Monica's Gang creator and designer) as a wizard walking in the alley, with Yen Sid.

External links

• Cascão Porker article in Turma da Mônica wiki (in Portuguese)
• Monica's Gang official page in English
• Cascão Porker download (comics in Portuguese to CDisplay)
• CDisplay download (required to load the file above)