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Farm Residents
Dona Benta (Mrs. Benta)
Benta Encerrabodes de Oliveira, the owner of the ranch and grandmother to both Narizinho and Pedrinho. A kindly old lady that likes to read books to her grandchildren, often being roped into their adventures for one reason or another.
- Benevolent Boss: Her kindness extends to the people who work at her ranch, as she treats them all fairly. Nastácia and her are rarely seen apart because of this.
- Cool Old Lady: She's gentle, sweet and charming towards everyone she meets, and is always protective of her favorite children, not to mention being a great storyteller.
- Granny Classic: Likes to sew, tell stories and spends her afternoons in a rocking chair with a good book.
- Mama Bear: She's not in any condition to actively fight against things like mythological beings and characters from fairytales, but she'll still travel wherever is necessary if she feels her grandchildren are in danger, the farm itself is on the line, or if some ruffian tries to swindle her.
- Proper Lady: Carries herself ellegantly and politely as much as she can, but she's very much humble and kind.
- The Storyteller: What she prides herself in, being a lover of literature and classical novels, from historical accounts to tales of mythology, fables and fairytales, all stories that her grandchildren and their creations love to hear every time.
Tia Nastácia (Aunt Anastacia)
The farm's cowardly-but-loving maid and cook, famous for her delicious bolinhos-de-chuva (raindrop beignets). She's also the one who stitched Emília into shape the first time, and is often roped into adventures with the children.
- Adaptational Badass: Every new incarnation of the character done in live-action pushes her further away from just being the farmhouse's cook and maid. She took a more active role already in the 1977 adaptation, but this was taken the furthest in 2001 by having her be Benta's business partner in all but name, always at her side to talk about new business opportunities for the place. She's also far more willing to step up to the plate despite her cowardice and shows profound bravery against the Minotaur even when it's clear she's scared out of her mind.
- Catchphrase: Most of her exclamations are pretty famous by now in Brazil, especially her calling out to St. George for protection. Which makes it a bit hilarious when she meets him in the flesh at the Moon.
- Cowardly Lion: She's easy to scare in most situations, but that doesn't mean she won't try to defend the children or Mrs. Benta against danger should it come to them. She's also perfectly capable of showing courage even when there's no obvious way out of a situation, such as her kidnapping to Ancient Greece.
- Damsel in Distress: She gets kidnapped by the Minotaur of Crete and is forced to make food for him, forcing the kids to travel to Ancient Greece to save her. But she dealed with the Minotaur by domesticating him without the help of no one else.
- Mama Bear: Even though the children are not her kids, she is protective of them as if they were her own.
- Mammy: She was created by the books' author to fit this stereotype even if indirectly, despite being a paid worker instead of a slave, but the adaptations do their best to develop her beyond it. The 2001 TV series went the furthest by not only having her be very culturally educated and well-read, but also having her on equal footing with her boss in terms of taking care of both the farm and the children.
- Squee: Her reaction to meeting Saint George during Voyage to the Sky.
- Supreme Chef: Not only for her famous pastries, but she's known all around the farmlands as the best cook in the area. You'd be shocked just how many people come into the Yellow Woodpecker farm, human or fairy-tale alike, and leave with some of her beignets to eat on the way home.
Pedrinho (Pete)
Pedro Encerrabodes de Oliveira. Benta's grandson is a boy who lives in the big city, but will always visit his grandma and cousin Narizinho on his vacation period. Fancies himself an adventurer and won't ever back down from a fight.
- Brats with Slingshots: Carries one at all times, being exceedingly accurate with it.
- The Hero: Loves to see himself as this. He'll always be the first one to step up against a dangerous foe or to the defense of his friends and family.
- Foil: He and Narizinho are two different classical romantic character archetypes as children. Narizinho loves the stories of princesses and princes, traditional love stories and fables that inspired many a writer in Brazil's history, while Pedrinho fits closer to the archetype of the classical romantic heroes, being selfless and courageous in the face of adversity.
- Like the Saci, he likes to pull the occasional prank and have some fun in the woods, but he also knows when to call it quits and place some limits that the latter will often miss.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With the Saci, being one of his recurring victims for pranks and missing objects, but will always work with him for a plan or just to have fun.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Fears nothing except for hornets. Seeing a nest is enough to send him running away.
Narizinho (Little Nose)
Lucia Encerrabodes de Oliveira (born in 18 March 1923 or 1925, according to Serões de Dona Benta), called "Narizinho" because of her upturned nose, is Benta's granddaughter and Pedrinho's cousin. She already lives at the farm at the start of the book series, and is the one who came up with Emília.
- Damsel in Distress: During The Saci, she's turned into a rock by the Cuca and necessitates Pedrinho to venture into the night with the title character in order to save her.
- Foil:
- As previously stated, she's the romance-inspired maiden/"princess" to Pedrinho's romance-inspired hero;
- Narizinho's love for fairytales and idealistic daydreaming contrasts with her doll Emília's more cynical approach to make-belief and down-to-earth way of thinking. She's also more calm and focused, talking more clearly about things, while Emília is a motormouth that can go on and on about anything without filter.
- Interspecies Romance: Falls in love with the Scaled Prince, the fish-like ruler of the Clear Waters Kingdom, and even came very close to marrying him in her debut story.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Jabuticaba, or Brazilian grapetree fruits.
- The Heart: The History lessons, specially when dealing with murders, the Inquisition, massacres and genocide, make her very distressed to the point of being depressed ("História do Mundo para as Crianças").
- Child Prodigy: She's able to perform highly adavanced math on the top or her head in seconds.
Emília
Her 2012 cartoon appearance.
A ragdoll that was brought to life and given the ability to speak thanks to a talking pill. Sewn by Nastácia, Emília became Narizinho's best friend and part of the family once she was introduced to Mrs. Benta, but her motor mouth and anarchistic behavior can often grate on the people around her.
- Bratty Half-Pint: While she's not a real human child (her final transformation is quite ambiguos, but she does acquires human intelectual and fisical traits), she most certainly acts like one.
- Brutal Honesty: Emilia always says what is in her mind and tact is not one of her strongest suits; for example, she wastes no time in pointing out to the recently-widowed and grieving Snow White that her deceased husband preferred to spend his time hunting than to be with his wife. But with time, she develops an emotional control and is able to filter herself.
- Foil:
- As stated above, she's the cynic to Narizinho's wide-eye idealism, being more grounded and forward with her words than her creator. Narizinho also loves the stories of romance and princesses of literature but never actually lords it over others, while Emília will never let you forget she's the "Marchioness of Short-Tail", until she turns tired of being "married" with a pig and describes herself as "Former-Marchioness".
- Of the two talking dolls living in the farm, Emília is a case of Book Dumb with a smart mouth opposite to the Viscount's genius status and tendency to ramble on and on about certain topics. Due to her bossy nature, she also tends to reduce the poor corncob doll to a Beleaguered Assistant, especially during "Emília's Memoirs" and "Reforming Nature". In other way, Emília, instead of being a "book dumb", she is well read (as we see in the opening of "O Picapau Amarelo") and has an attration towards literature, even if she is, at first (since she's a child), looking for illustrations (as in the opening of "Dom Quixote das Crianças").
- For Science!: While the "science" part applies mostly to the Viscount, Emília does tend to do some things and go off on wild plans just because she wants to see where it leads. A big part of the events of "Reforming Nature" boils down to her thinking nature could be different if she changed things she thinks are nonsense around with her make-belief, resulting in pumpkins growing on trees and oranges already peeled on their branches.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Emilia is bossy, immature, egotistical and bratty, but she cares about her friends and is a nice kid deep down. Like, reaaaaally deep down. In "Voyage to Heaven", the second book in the main series, she's ready to sacrifice herself to save her friends against the possible danger of martians. In "The Girl with a Turnedup Nose
" (the 1920 short story), a "proto-Emília" was able to risk her life to fight an puncture the giant Scorpio eyes just because she wanted to save Narizinho. - Little Miss Badass: Being made of rags doesn't stop her from coming up with all sorts of plans to get herself and her friends out of a jam.
- Living Toys: A ragdoll brought to life.
- Malaproper: Guilty of this often in the adaptations due to her not being as smart as Narizinho. She's a great talker most of the time, but she also fumbles words and creates idioms on the fly without really thinking about it. But, while it may have been real in the early stories, she becames, with time, extremely smart, with advanced diction as has a proto-Macgyver adaptation capacity.
- Series Mascot: Pretty much The Face for the book series and all its subsequent adaptations, where she's often the most popular character.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Downplayed with her "make-belief" ability, which she can use to make simple tasks more creative and change things around her, but it only works with what's already in front of her. Actually creating something from nothing is way too difficult.
- This difficulty is downplayed in "The Size Switch" and in the books in general: when she tought about the "House of Switchs", it wasn't something that already existed in that world, but the result of her logical train-of-thinking. She started to treat this place as an physical location and then, it became reality. In "O Poço do Visconde" she develops a highly complex oil drilling operation; in the 12 Labours she, Pedrinho and Visconde builds the "Temple of Avia", using solely the stuff from her "Make-Believe Shops"; and in "Geografia de Dona Benta", her make believe creates a ship to travel accross all the continents.
Visconde de Sabugosa (Viscount of Corncob)
A male doll made out of a corn comb that spontaneously gained life and will of its own. Once it took to the books, he became a sage on his own right, and is now the farm's resident genius, despite his small size.
- Bookworm: The very first thing he did upon gaining life was reading Mrs. Benta's whole library. His small size lets him actually go inside books to fully take in their contents.
- Butt-Monkey: He's a doll even smaller than Emilia and very often gets bullied by her into helping her schemes (its implied in the first book he may have a crush on her, but its made clear from all the rest of the series he is afraid of being torn apart).
- Fake Aristocrat: Despite his "title", he's not truly a viscount nor a nobleman for any matter.
- For Science!: Sometimes tends to go off on experiments just because he can or thinks he could. It's part of the reason for his attempt to change hormonal glands in "Reforming Nature", so he could creature giant test subjects out of bugs he collected, including an earthworm he stuck a centipede's four legs onto just to see if it would walk on them.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": He literally has no other name due to being just a doll.
- Mr. Fixit: He's quite the inventor and knows how to use machines effectively, as well as being able to create new formulas on a whim.
- Nerd Glasses: He wears a pair of circular glasses.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Living in the Farm's library and being the resident's scientist has this effect on him.
- The Smart Guy: For the farm and its inhabitants, sharing this role with the Councillor.
Tio Barnabé (Uncle Barnaby)
Barnabé Semicúpio da Silva, an old man who lives in the Woodpecker farmgrounds with Benta's permission. Besides helping with the farm duties, he himself is a profficient storyteller and kind soul who loves children. Has a fierce rivalry with the Saci.
- Arch-Enemy: The Saci loves to steal his smoking pipe and destroy his manual work on the farm grounds. As a result, Barnabé will often try to catch him.
- Butt-Monkey: Not to the same extent as the Viscount, but Tio Barnabé is the favorite target of the Saci's pranks.
- Magical Negro: Like with Nastácia, Barnabé was originally written to be nothing but a stereotype to be put down, in this case an "Uncle Remus" stand-in for the children to talk to. The later adaptations greatly change this by giving him more responsibilities in the farm, as well as actually giving him things to do with the other characters. He may impart wisdom to the main white characters (or pardo/moreno characters, as Emília, Narizinho and Pedrinho are described in the books), but he's just as much an active force in the story as they are.
Marquês de Rabicó (Marquis of Short-Tail)
Narizinho's pet pig who inexplicably talks naturally, and fancies himself a marquis on top of that. Thinks of nothing but food all day, and has a big fear of becoming the next day's lunch himself.
- Fake Aristocrat: He carries the title of "Marquis" despite not really being one.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Often shown wearing a fancy blue suit.
- Gluttonous Pig: He thinks and talks about nothing else but eating, non-stop. He'll turn over trash cans and steal food from Nastácia's kitchen when she's not looking, all because he can't keep his stomach from rumbling.
- The Millstone: If he's with the children in some adventure, expect him to be this most of the time; he complains about being hungry and often gets in the way of their plans, sometimes even needing to be rescued.
- Pig Man: Represented this way in the live-action adaptations, played by real actors in pig suits, even though he's supposedly a normal pig.
- Sham Wedding: Between him and Emília by Narizinho, who tricked her into thinking he was actually a handsome prince from a foreign land cursed into being a pig for his entire life. She wasn't happy with the reveal that it was a joke, but still kept the "title" of Marchioness ultil the later part of the series.
Quindim (Custard)
A rhinoceros who ran away from the circus after years of abuse, taking refuge at the Yellow Woodpecker farm and being quickly taken in by the residents as one of their own, becoming the place's watchman.
- The Big Guy: He serves as gatekeeper to the ranch and is the strongest character around by virtue of being a rhino.
- Gentle Giant: Quindim is a rhinoceros, but he is incapable of harming anyone even of his own volition.
- Gratuitous English: Averted. He actually does speak English really well, and apparently teaches it to the kids sometimes. During "The Viscount's Well", a zap from a generator makes him speak only in English until he gets another shock later.
- Meaningful Name: He's named after a popular Brazilian dessert to further show how sweet he is.
- Shown Their Work: Rhinos aren't aggressive by nature, and only become so when defending their territories and next of kin. Quindim being the farm's "guard" makes perfect sense.
- Depression: in some works, Quindim shows evidence of being depressed due being outside his natural habitat.
Conselheiro/Burro Falante (Councillor/Talking Donkey)
A resident from the Land of Fables, he was saved from execution at the King Lion's hands by the kids during their visit. He's as smart as the Viscount, and is also welcomed into the farm afterwards, nicknamed the "Councillor" by Emília due to his sagely advices.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Wears an undershirt, suit pants and glasses, which all help show him off as eloquent and well-read.
- Irony: He still technically lives the simple life of a "pauper" the animals tried to kill him over, but now without fear of reprisal.
- Public Domain Character: He's the donkey of one of Jean de La Fontaine's lesser known fables, "The Animals Sick of the Plague", where the original story ends with the donkey sacrificed as a "pauper" to please the elitist court led by the King Lion. Here, the Farm's kids step in to save him at the last second and invite him to live at the ranch.
- The Scapegoat: As per the fable he belongs to, the talking donkey was used by the King Lion as a sacrifice due to his status as a poor citizen compared to the rest of the animals at the court, hoping his death would stop the plague afflicting them. Unlike the original text, he's spared.
- The Smart Guy: Of the farm's talking animals, he's easily the smartest and most resourceful.
- Spared by the Adaptation: The original fable he belonged to ended with him dying to the court of animals as a sacrifice to get rid of the Plague afflicting their kingdom, as An Aesop on how the mighty exploit the less fortunate through unfair laws to uphold their own brand of "peace". Here, he's saved from his sacrifice and taken back to the Yellow Woodpecker where he gets to live a much happier life.
Brazilian Folklore
Saci Pererê
The trickster of Brazilian folklore, a one-legged black boy with a magical red cap and red overalls who can turn himself into a dust devil to travel around. His favorite thing to do is to pull pranks on the farm residents, when he's not being forced into doing the Cuca's bidding.
- Achilles' Heel: His red cap is the source of his magical powers. Take it off his head and he'll be defenseless.
- Blow You Away: Moves himself around using dust devils he can conjure up on a whim.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Pranks are only pranks to him if nobody gets injured and no major harm is caused. Seeing what the scarecrow the Cuca gave life to did to Nastácia's kitchen, making her faint, sets him off something fierce, and he even helps the poor lady back up and gives her some water.
- He'll often carry out one of the Cuca's plans, but once his duty's over, it's free game. Especially if it means he can do something to fix it.
- The trope above are only for the TV shows.
- The Fair Folk: He is a Brazilian fairy-like creature that isn't exactly hostile like most depictions of this trope, yet still acts antagonistic on occasion due to being a prankster.
- Iconic Outfit: At least among Brazilian audiences, anyone can identify a one-legged black / mulatto boy in a red jumpsuit and cap as the Saci (although some adaptations forgo the jumpsuit in exchange for shorts).
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: An incorrigible prankster, he befriends Pedrinho and helps him save his cousin from the Cuca. The two will often hang out and have fun together, too.
- Poke the Poodle: The kinds of pranks he pulls cause no major harm, but there is no little harm that he won't do. He hides children's toys, sets farm animals loose, teases dogs and curses chicken eggs, preventing them from hatching. In the kitchen, the Saci spills salt, sours the milk, burns the bean stew, and drops flies into the soup.
- Red Right Hand: He has only one leg.
- The Trickster: The Ur-Example in Brazilian folklore. He'll help out the Cuca out of familiarity and fondness for her, but once his job is done with, he'll sabotage her plans right away. He's friends with the children from the farm, but will also take away their toys and mess with the farm animals. He's not evil, but don't expect him to be your friend without there being some catch to it.
The Cuca
A witch of Brazilian folklore. Essentially the Brazilian equivalent of the Bogeyman, she lives in a cave deep within the woods near the farm, often spying on the residents in order to cast her evil spells and hex them. The main antagonist of one of the books and its subsequent adaptations.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Zig-zagged. In the books she is only described as an old witch with an alligator face (it's not clear if the "alligator face" is meant to be literal or metaphorical), so her appearance is the one that varies the most between adaptations.
- In the 1953 film, she simply has the appearance of an old lady.
- The 1977 TV series, she is an anthropormophic alligator like most of the animal characters. She has blond, messy hair and very ugly design.
- In the 2001 TV series, she is still an anthropormophic alligator, but gets a Girliness Upgrade with a slinky red dress, long eyelashes, and a fashionable hairstyle. In the 2003 season she becomes even "prettier" with longer hair and a more modern dress, but then in the 2005 season she gets an uglier appearance based on the 1977 version.
- The series goes through a soft reboot in the 2007 season, and Cuca gets a more humanoid look◊ veering into Cute Monster Girl territory.
- The 2012 cartoon is inspired by the 1977/2005 appearance.
- Arch-Enemy: Narizinho, by virtue of her youth and good nature, both of which the Cuca despises. She also becomes this for Pedrinho and, sure enough, the entire farm.
- Big Bad: In The Saci and most of the books' adaptations, particularly for most of the 2001 series.
- Breakout Villain: She was the Big Bad in only one entry in the source material and never appeared again beyond that point, but she gets promoted to a recurring antagonist in the TV shows, specifically the 2001 series where she shows up as an enemy from time to time.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Evil witch as she may be, she's still an inhabitant of nature, and therefore will defend it should the need arise. Between the main children being tied up in ropes completely defenseless and the poachers that tied them up to begin with, she'll prioritize the poachers without a second thought (although it helps she fell for one of their traps beforehand and was very angry about it).
- Evil Is Petty: Like you wouldn't believe; She once cursed Aunt Nastácia by making the characters of her tales come to life on the farm grounds just because the maid didn't tell the Cuca's own story first.
- Girliness Upgrade: Not just her design, but her personality in the 2001 series got this treatment as well, making her a stuck-up "diva" type who loves treating herself to vacation time and make-up sessions, as well as calling her fellow witches to the cave for what's essentially "girls' night" during "Voyage to the Sky".
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: She is a Wicked Witch with an alligator face.
- Spared by the Adaptation: The Cuca dies at the end of the book she's introduced (and in the lamest way possible, too; see Undignified Death), but in the TV series adaptations and the cartoon, she lives through the arc that adapts the story and becomes a recurring antagonist.
- Solitary Sorceress: Lives alone in her creepy cave and very much prefers it this way, the occasional visit from the Saci non-whitstanding.
- Undignified Death: In the books, she is tied up and lied down with water drops falling on her forehead until she dies. Really.
- Is not clear if she dies in the final canonical text. She only promisses not to against the Sítio characters anymore.
Iara
A water nymph encountered by Pedrinho during the events of The Saci. Brazil's most famous mermaid, she's beautiful enough to make humans stand still simply by having them look at her.
- The Fair Folk: Like the Saci, she's a character from Brazilian folklore.
- Fairy Sexy: She's the Brazilian equivalent of a naiad from Greek mythology, and she's very beautiful and alluring.
- Hypnotic Eyes: Exaggerated; it's not just her eyes, it's her entire beautiful self that traps men's gazes and makes them stare at her, completely frozen and bewitched. To say nothing of her singing, her being a mermaid and all.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Often depicted as a mermaid singing her song in creeks and riverbanks, the book and its adaptations being no exception.
- Our Sirens Are Different: Iara is a water nymph who can lure men down her lake with her beautiful singing.
