Cascão Marques de Araújo, also known as Smudge in english, is one of the main protagonists of the franchise of comics and cartoons Monica's Gang. Smudge made his debut in 1961 in strips of Jimmy Five as a secondary character, but he ended up being successful and soon became one of the protagonists, earning himself a comic book series after 1982.
He's a filthy boy who has an aversion to taking baths due to an irrational fear of water. Because of this, he enjoys playing on dirt and the trash and is often commented on how much he stinks. Smudge is best friends with Jimmy Five, who often assists him on his plans against Monica, often getting the short end of the stick alongside him.
He is voiced by the late Isaura Gomes (1976–1982), Paulo Cavalcante (1983–present), and Ítalo Luiz (Monica Adventures), and is portrayed by Gabriel Moreira, in the live action movie Monica and Friends: Bonds (2019).
Physical appearance[]
Smudge wears a yellow shirt and torn red pants with a single suspender. Due to their squalid appearance, these pants are almost indiscernible from a skirt. He has black, bushy hair. His body is usually covered in a layer of dirt, hence his Portuguese name, "Cascão". The character has no toes on his feet.
After he is cleaned in The Five Magic Strands Of Hair, Smudge has a white shirt and no dirt.
Personality[]
Smudge is a dirty boy who loves dirt. He is very afraid of water, so he always avoids taking baths. He has a reputation for never having washed in his entire life and for always escaping of anyone who tries to give him a bath. He is imaginative, creative, and loves playing with his friends. He is a very good friend most of the time, despite his mischievous and arrogant personality traits, but these are constantly shaded by his wholesomeness. He always tries to help people when he sees someone in need.
When he is a teen, he is the silliest of the gang, still having a playful and child-like behavior, but acting in a very serious and mature way when needed. He is brave to fight villains and protect his friends from danger, and usually the second most uncommon member of the gang to act mean to anyone, before Maggy.
Biography[]
Background[]
Smudge is a boy that since he was born has never taken a bath in his life. He lives in the Lemon Tree district. Dirty, messy and obsessed with dirt, he has a reputation for never have touched a drop of water, because water is the thing that he is most afraid of. His best friend is Jimmy Five, a boy he knows since they were babies and lives in the same street that he does. Smudge lives with his parents Dona Lurdinha (who frequently argues with her son wanting to give him a bath) and Antenor, a goofy father who has a face identical to his son. He also has a pig as a pet, Chauvy, that enjoys dirt just like him, although many times Chauvy bathes willingly when he is disgusted by his dirty owner.
Monica's Gang[]
Smudge with stink
When he is not at home, Smudge often plays with his friends, especially with Jimmy Five. But when Jimmy makes plans to defeat Monica (Jimmy's childhood rival) Smudge is always unintentionally used as his henchman along with other boys, trough he is always afraid of Monica. In the end, as their plans almost always fail, Smudge often takes a beating from Monica along with the other boys. Smudge has a girlfriend called Dustine, initially created as a counterpart to his old stories also being dirty, but she later proves to be cleaner as she takes baths also because of the disgust of her dirty boyfriend, despite still being in love with him, and loving him the way he is.
He is the most athletic member of the gang, and often plays soccer and other sports with them. Despite the kids sometimes not wanting to play with him because of his stink, their friendship, as Smudge is one of the friendliest of the gang, almost always wins in the end, and his friends plays with him anyway. His adventures commonly are based on him playing with his fertile imagination, and confusion this playtime causes with other members of the gang, plans that he does with Jimmy Five, adventures to escape from taking a bath, and, sometimes, just casual days of him playing with Chauvy and the gang, or dating Dustine.
Smudge has such a reputation for being dirty that everyone often tries to give him a bath, not only his friends and parents, but also the villains that attempt to abduct Smudge just to give him a bath. Smudge is so haunted by these supervillains that makes him the character with more enemies in the stories of Monica's Gang, but in the end he always wins and stays dirty. Among his greatest enemies are the twin sisters named Cremilda and Clotilde, Dr. Olimpo, besides Captain Fray, a dirty and polluter supervillain similar to Smudge and that is actually his paternal uncle who went crazy and gained superpowers to control the dirt. Although Captain Fray is his rival because he wants Smudge, who is dirty as him, become his ally and pupil to rule the world alongside him, and Smudge never accepting and scaping from him, he allied with Smudge many times, usually when they are trying to escape from water.
Monica Teen[]
In this spin-off with manga style, Smudge is a 15-year-old and is still friends with Monica, Jimmy Five, Maggy and the other original characters from the classic series. Smudge studies at the Limoeiro School, is an athletic teen who loves parkour, football and other extreme sports. In this version he is now able to take a bath, even not liking it and still being messy and obsessed with dirt. He still is the best friend and partner of Jimmy Five, and he is still dating the Dustine. Often during his adventures with his friends, he acts as the most sarcastic of the gang.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Smudge cheers to the Brazilian soccer team, Corinthians.
- Smudge was based off a childhood friend of Mauricio de Sousa's brother, Marcio, who had the same nickname and an aversion to baths.
- His shirt is actually white, just became yellow because of the filth.
- In the older comics, Smudge's hair was drawn by rubbing the tip of the thumb with ink on the paper in order to give it his signature scraggly look.
- In recent comics, it's stated that the reason why his feet look the way they do is because he's constantly wearing skin-colored socks that make it look like he doesn't have any toes. It's unknown whether that also applies to Monica and Maggy, whose feet are drawn in a similar way.
- In the original comics, Smudge often had the tendency to actively play around in the trash and filth, something that was toned down as the years went by as to not influence the child readers to partake in unsanitary behavior.
External Links[]
- Smudge on the Monica's Gang Wiki
- Smudge on the Near Pure Good Wiki
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 Heroes
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