Plot

Meneghel plays a singer/TV star, who starts a campaign all over Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 for children to color old, ugly walls, in an effort to make the world happier. But her plans are ruined by Baixo Astral, an evil demon that lives under the city of Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

 and uses bad children as slaves.

Baixo Astral kidnaps Xuxa's dog, Xuxo, expecting she'll go after him. She travels the magic world of Alto Astral searching for her dog, helped by the lizard Xixa.

Production

The film was directed by Anna Pennido. David Sonneschein worked as co-director, but was later unbilled. Pennido also wrote the script

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

, with the help of fellow TV-writer Antonio Calmon. The movie is accused of being based on Jim Henson

Jim Henson

James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...

's Labyrinth

Labyrinth (film)

Labyrinth is a 1986 British/American fantasy film directed by Jim Henson, produced by George Lucas, and designed by Brian Froud. Henson collaborated on the screenwriting with children's author Dennis Lee, Terry Jones from Monty Python, and Elaine May .The film stars David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin...

, released two years before.

Response

The film opened during the winter break in 1988, and received great response by audiences. It was the third most watched movie in 1988, and the most watched Brazilian movie that year. Critical response was mixed: some praised its creativity, some said it abused merchandising and had a weak plot. The movie cost US$1 million to make. Over 3 million people paid to watch it when it opened.

International release

After Lua de Cristal (Crystal Moon), another film starring Xuxa, in 1990, had achieved a huge success both in Brazil (it was the most watched Brazilian movie until 2001) and other Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

n countries, the movie was released in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 as Super Xuxa Vs. Bajo Astral, with some success. It's available in the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in non-authorized copies as Super Xuxa Vs. Satan.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack includes songs by Xuxa herself, and other popular Brazilian artists from the 1980s. The soundtrack album was a huge success and won a Grammy.

DVD

In 2001 the film was released in DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 by Som Livre. The extras include a making-of featurette, a special karaoke

Karaoke

is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...

 soundtrack for the songs and subtitles in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

. But the DVD was criticised for having bad sound and video quality.