A Princesa Xuxa e os Trapalhões (The Princess Xuxa and the Scatterbrains) is a 1989 Brazilian comedy film, directed by José Alvarenga Jr. It is the 35th film by the comedy group "The Tramps" and is also the fourth of the five films the group made with the TV presenter Xuxa. It also features the "Trem da Alegria", a famous Brazilian children's musical band in the 80s.
On the planet Antar, the evil Ratan (Paulo Reis) takes over after the Emperor's death, and enslaves all the children. He also raises Princess Xaron (Xuxa) apparently as his own daughter, but actually he plans to marry her when she becomes an adult. Years later, three princes named Dedeon (Dedé Santana), Mussaim (Mussum), and Zacaling (Zacarias) and the mysterious Nameless Knight (Renato Aragão) decide to overthrow Ratan and free the children. They reveal Ratan's cruelties to Princess Xaron, who decides to help them.
The film provides examples of:
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Ratan and his forces destroy the Nameless Knight's hideout in retaliation for freeing his child slaves and kidnaps the Tramps to imprison them.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: In the third act, Ratan finally reveals that he plans to marry Princess Xaron. Princess Xaron rejects him by throwing wine in his face.
- Bad Boss: Ratan tortures or kills his henchmen when they fail.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The Tramps are clumsy, but they are successful in their attempts to sabotage Ratan and convince people of his cruelties.
- But Now I Must Go: Subverted. The Nameless Knight tries to do this by rejecting Princess Xaron's invitation to live in her palace, but she then decides to leave with him to Earth.
- Darker and Edgier: This movie is particularly dark by the standards of the Tramps, showing children being enslaved and the villain Ratan forcing Xaron, whom he has known since she was a child, to marry him.
- Doomsday Device: Ratan is revealed to have a superweapon built to attack other planets. Princess Xaron tries her best to stop it after distracting the guards in charge of the CCTV station.
- Delayed Reaction: Princess Xaron punches Dedeon in the face repeatedly after he tells her to do so. He seems unfazed while Xaron holds her arm in pain, but when she leaves, he scans the place to make sure no one's around, and tries to hold back his screams of pain.
- Eye Scream: After the Nameless Knight punches him relentlessly in revenge for destroying his hideout and taking his friends prisoners, Ratan spits something into the Knight's eyes, blinding him temporarily and giving him enough time to bring his superweapon.
- Food Slap: Princess Xaron throws wine in Ratan's face to show her refusal to marry him as he proposed. In retaliation, he has his guards take her away to a cell under death penalty.
- Groin Attack:
- Ratan kicks Drake in the nethers after reporting that Princess Xaron is still missing, and then threatens the guard with leaving him to die in the desert if he fails once more.
- Xaron makes a split and punches Ratan in the groin when he tried to take advantage of her.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Princess Xaron never realizes that her clothes are provocative to the Tramps, especially Dedeon.
- Love at First Sight: The Nameless Knight and Princess Xaron fall in love with each other after the latter takes off her helmet after saving them from Ratan's forces.
- Ms. Fanservice: Princess Xaron wears a Fur Bikini during the second half of the movie.
- Mugged for Disguise: Princess Xaron steals a soldier's uniform and rides his horse after overhearing Ratan's plan to kill and torture the Tramps and then feed them to his beasts. As expected, the soldier from whom she stole runs after her in his underwear calling the thieves out.
- My Nayme Is: The letter X is usually pronounced /sh/ in Portuguese, so Princess Xaron is Princess Sharon.
- Off with His Head!: Ratan threatens his guard Drake with this when the latter announces their plan to kill the Tramps failed and they all escape.
- Parody: The sets, desert locations, costumes, and the protagonist are clearly a parody of the Mad Max franchise.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Parodied. When the Tramps try to enter Ratan's party, the guard asks for the password. As none of them know the password, the Nameless Knight simply says to his other friends: "I don't know, punch him." Mussaim misunderstands and says exactly that to the guard. Much to their surprise, this really is the password.
- Tracking Device: Drake plants a tracking device in Xaron's clothes before she could leave for the castle's east gate after buying time for the Tramps to liberate the child slaves in one of his labor camps.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: While attempting to break out of the cell where Ratan held them prisoners, Dedeon, Mussaim, and Zacaling stumbled upon the skeletal remains of a corpse in another cell, causing them to scramble around in fear.
- Product Placement:
- The movie's animated opening sequence features Galinha Azul, the Brazil-exclusive mascot for soup brand Maggi, entering the Tramps' ship in a rocket and helping them.
- Near the end of the second half of the movie, one of the child slaves liberated by the Tramps manipulates a mechanism in their ship which sproings out a can. Another one picks it up, revealing it's a can of Coca-Cola.
- This Page Will Self-Destruct: At the ballroom party in Ratan's palace, he receives a recorded message from the Tramps, much to his chagrin. Near the end, however, Zacaling announces it will self-destruct in eight seconds. Ratan dismisses it as a bluff throughout the countdown even when the guests run away screaming. True to his assumptions, it ends with Zacaling letting out a loud fart.
- Toilet Humor: The Tramps try to escape the prison through the bathroom above them. When Zacaling manages to stick his head in the toilet, one of the guards decides to use the bathroom. You can imagine the rest...
- Touch Telepathy: The Nameless Knight does this by passing his hand through his hair to charge it with Static Electricity before touching the soldier's head to extract information on how he and his platoon obtained the food in their truck. The soldier tries his best and fails to not let out the info, causing him to run and break down into begging for Ratan's forgiveness upon being let go.
- Whip of Dominance: Ratan wields an energy whip in his fight against the Nameless Knight and he is the Evil Overlord of the planet Antar.
