De Sousa reveals how to beat Disney

“The Bathroom Scenery,” Brazilian cartoonist Mauricio de Sousa’s version of prominent Korean painter Shin Yun-bok’s “Scenery on Dano Day,” is on display at the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province through Aug. 23. Courtesy of the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art

• Published May 31, 2015 4:42 PM KST
• Updated May 31, 2015 4:42 PM KST

By Baek Byung-yeul

When it comes to cartoon, the first name that comes to mind is Walt Disney. However, in Brazil, there is a more familiar fictional character for children than Mickey Mouse.

Created by Mauricio de Sousa, “Monica’s Gang,” a comic book series featuring four seven-year-old children in Sao Paulo, has been popular for decades in Brazil, selling more than 1 billion copies and earning a huge fan base with its animated version.

When the cartoonist founded his own animation studio Mauricio de Sousa Productions in 1970, more than 90 percent of animation was occupied by Disney features. After decades, however, his studio now commands over an 80 percent share of the Brazilian market.

De Sousa has been drawing “Monica’s Gang” since the 1960s. The famous protagonist Monica, who always wears a red dress and holds a blue-colored bunny shaped doll, was inspired by de Sousa’s own daughter Monica.

The 79-year-old master cartoonist recently visited Korea together with his daughter to attend a solo exhibition titled “Masterpieces with Monica: From Louvre to Metropolitan,” featuring 51 artworks he copied from prominent paintings such as Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” at the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art through August.

For his fans here, De Sousa painted his own versions of three famous Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) paintings -- Kim Hong-do’s “Seodang,” Shin Yun-bok’s “Portrait of a Beauty” and “Scenery on Dano Day.”

Telling his success story in animation to The Korea Times, De Sousa said “creating characters that everyone can agree on is the most important.”

“When making an animated feature, you have to make sure it has good quality. But you are also required to create amiable characters to attract more people to the animation,” the cartoonist said at the Seoul Animation Center in Seoul, Thursday.

As well as putting the spotlight on the characters, he also stressed the importance of a well-organized plot.

“I loved drawing and painting in my childhood as my father was a painter. Before I began serializing my cartoon work in a newspaper, I worked as a crime reporter at Folha de S. Paulo, a daily newspaper in Sao Paulo for few years and that really helped me to compose tightly plotted stories.

“When writing crime reports, I was required to write stories based on the facts in a concise way. That could be also applied to drawing cartoons as every situation should be described as simple as newspaper articles,” he said.

De Sousa rated Korean animation highly for its unique characters.

“I saw various kinds of indigenous Korean animation characters while visiting here. Though they are new to me, I could see Korean animation’s high potential while staying here in the Seoul Animation Center,” he said.

Giving advice to Korea-based studios, de Sousa also emphasized learning American studios’ advanced animation making system.

“We also had a fierce competition with the U.S. animation studios and could learn a lot while competing together.

“I know that many Korean animation studios are working as subcontractors of U.S. studios as it is still hard for them to screen their original feature. But I guess working with those studios that have advanced systems will be helpful for Korean studios in the long term,” he said.

Using Monica to educate children

De Sousa has been drawing cartoons not only to provide enjoyment to children, but also to utilize his characters as an education tool.

“I have been reinterpreting world’s famous paintings, using my character Monica in a bid to give a chance to children to get closer to those precious artworks,” he said.

De Sousa chose Kim and Shin’s works as three that are good examples showing Korea’s indigenous character to the world.

“I felt hard when regenerating Korean paintings as they are different from Western paintings which I used to draw. But overall, I am satisfied with the result,” he said, adding he will produce an original painting adopting his characters and the unique atmosphere of Korean paintings.

The exhibition of the Brazilian cartoonist runs through Aug. 23 at the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.

For more information, call (031) 481-7048 or visit www.monicainkorea.co.kr.