Os Cinco Fios Mágicos (lit. The Five Magic Strands Of Hair) is the title of a story originally published in Cebolinha #76 (Globo series) in April 1993. This story was later adapted into a cartoon episode in 2009. Here, Cebolinha gets some magical power that he quickly abuses after helping a woman who enchants his hair as a reward.
In the English dub the name of this episode is Five Magic Threads.
Plot[]
A old witch tries to cross the street, but ends up stumbling in a puddle. Everyone on the street (except for Jimmy Five (Cebolinha)) laughs at the witch's tumble, making her so furious that she takes her revenge by turning everyone into an animal. The witch looks at Jimmy Five and thanks him for not laughing at her and rewards him by making each of his 5 hair strands with the ability of fulfilling wishes every time they are pulled out. The old witch then turns into a child to be able to cross the street safely and leaves Jimmy Five alone.
Jimmy Five says he would not have the courage to pull his hair strands out until he has the idea that he could wish to be hairy, however, he decides to leave this to be the last wish, fearing that he could not find the other strands in case he gets hairy. Jimmy Five then decides to make his first wish: get rich.
Jimmy Five becomes rich
A lot of money appears around Jimmy Five and that catches Smudge's (Cascão) attention. Smudge asks Jimmy Five where he got so much money from and after Jimmy Five reveals he decides to want to take over Jimmy Five's money as well. Smudge get surprised to see that Jimmy Five took off one of his hair strands and thinks he is going crazy. Jimmy Five, disgusted by Smudge's stench, decides to make his second wish: that Smudge become a clean boy.
Smudge becomes a clean boy
After becoming clean, Smudge gives a huge scream that ends up being heard in China. Monica (Mónica Sousa) appears and is surprised to see Smudge clean. Smudge frightened by Jimmy Five decides to save Monica from him, before Jimmy Five sees her, but ends up not getting away. Monica laughs when she sees Jimmy Five with only 3 hair strands. Jimmy Five teases Monica and makes his third wish: become stronger than Monica.
Jimmy Five defeats Monica
Monica doesn't believe in Jimmy Five and decides to beat him, but Jimmy Five beats Monica knocking her out. Monica and Smudge then fear Jimmy Five who is about to turn them into his slaves. However Jimmy Five realizes that he still needs to improve his way of speaking and makes his fourth request: speak correctly.
Jimmy Five starts to speak the letter R
Jimmy Five starts to speak the R's without changing to another letter. Jimmy Five then plucks a light pole off the ground and threatens Monica and Smudge. He reveals that his last wish will be to have a beautiful hair, however when he is about to make his last wish Smudge pulls out the last hair strand and wishes for everything to return to normal.
Smudge becomes dirty again, the money disappears and Jimmy Five loses his super strength (making the light pole fall on his foot) and ability to speak the letter R. Monica then punishes Jimmy Five by beating him and Jimmy Five get stressed to the point of wanting to pull his hair out again.
Characters[]
- The Witch
- People on the street
- Cebolinha Cebola/Jimmy Five
- Cascão/Smudge
- Chinese people (omitted in the animation)
- Mónica Sousa/Monica
- Sansão/Samson
- Bubbly the astronaut (animation only)
Animated episode[]
Title card
| The Five Magic Strands of Hair | |
|---|---|
| Season Cine Gibi 4, Episode 4 | |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous The Day in Which Jimmy Five Quitted the Infallible Plans |
Next The New Earrings that Mom Has Bought |
In June 14, 2009 the story was adapted into a episode, this episode debuted in a new season in which the episodes first premiered on TV through Cartoon Network before the video releases (the episode was re-released in the film Cine Gibi 4 in the same year). This was the first episode of this season. This episode, like many others in this season, uses flash animation. This episode has been heavily altered, with many changes from the comics, for example:
- The witch (although she looks similar to the comic book counterpart) has a different design, with greater emphasis on the colors of the clothes that are different.
- The scene in which the witch stumbles into the puddle and takes revenge on the people who laughed at her in the street has not been adapted. Instead, Jimmy Five helps her cross the street and is rewarded for it.
- The witch is a fairy that has a tiny body and used a big body as a disguise.
- The order that Jimmy Five pulls the strands is different.
- When Jimmy Five wants to get rich, a wooden tub full of gold coins falls on him. In the comic he just get surrounded by a bunch of money bills.
- When Smudge turns into a clean boy, his yellow shirt turns white.
- The scene in which Smudge's scream is heard in China is replaced by another where his scream is heard in space to the point of disturbing the work of Bubbly who is working with a TV satellite. This ends up leading to a extra scene in which it shows Blu in a note that the channel is experiencing technical problems and will return soon.
- The English dub also makes the scream much louder, with no echo.
- When Monica meets Smudge clean she does not recognize him at first believing that he is other person.
- At the moment that Jimmy Five wants to be stronger than Monica, Jimmy Five doesn't beat Monica, just hold her up. Jimmy Five also shows that he gained elastic powers by pulling Monica off the screen.
- Jimmy Five makes a wish to speak correctly after Smudge gives this idea. In the comic Jimmy Five he has this idea on his own.
- The moment Jimmy Five makes the wish to speak correctly Jimmy Five appears wearing clothes similar to those of Elvis Presley and holding a microphone.
- When Jimmy Five reveals that he is going to make his last wish for beautiful hair, he imagines himself as a superhero with a quiff hairstyle. In the comic he imagines several hairstyles inspired by famous artists.
- After Smudge pulls out Jimmy Five's last hair strand, Jimmy Five turns into a green monster similar to the Hulk and pull out a light pole. Jimmy Five's comic doesn't transform and he pulls out the light pole before starting to imagine in the last wish.
- The end of the story was also altered with Smudge deciding to give Jimmy Five morals just like in a fable and the fairy reappearing and looking at the viewer.
Trivia[]
- When Cebolinha/Jimmy Five starts to imagine in the hair that he will wish he references the artists John Lennon, Sidney Magal and Fábio Júnior.
- It is unknown why Jimmy Five turns into a monster similar to the Hulk in the animated version since he had not wished to transform himself like this. However, this could have come with his third wish.
- The story was softened in the animated version by removing scenes considered incorrect like: the people on the street being rude when making fun of the old witch, the witch taking revenge by turning them all into animals and Jimmy Five beating Monica. The last one still happens in the animation, but off-screen.
- This is one of the few stories that show Jimmy Five defeating Monica, Smudge clean and Jimmy Five as the main villain.
- The animated version has one of the rare moments in which occur cameo crossovers from other Mauricio de Sousa characters in the cartoon, in the case: Bubbly the Astronaut.
- Blu makes a cameo appearance on the maintenance sign that appears after Smudge screams. It is also the only time so far that Blu appears in his anthropomorphic form in animation rather than as a four-foot pet dog.
- Errors:
- Sound cannot travel through a vacuum, so Bubbly should have had his work done undisturbed.