Resumen

This article analyzes the animated feature film City of Pirates as a case of verbal-visual adaptation based on the comic strips and cartoons of Laerte Coutinho. The study investigates how the adaptation from static drawing to animated image preserves and reconfigures the mocking, critical, and political dimensions of Laerte’s work through the expressive possibilities of animation. Focusing primarily on the character Azevedo — constructed as a synthesis of recurring male figures from Laerte’s strips — the article examines how themes such as authoritarianism, homophobia, violence and lack of empathy are translated from comics into audiovisual language. Grounded in adaptation theory and intermedial studies, particularly through reflections by Robert Stam, Linda Hutcheon, Marshall McLuhan, Tzvetan Todorov and Laurent Jullier, the analysis examines a corpus of comic strips produced between 2011 and 2018 alongside sequences from the film. The study argues that animation does not merely reproduce the original comics, but critically reinvents them by integrating movement, sound, performance, and cinematic framing into the narrative structure. While comics depend on the reader’s active participation to infer movement, sound, and emotional tone, animation materializes these elements audiovisually, intensifying the dramatic and symbolic dimensions of the characters and conflicts. The article concludes that the graphic affinity between comics and animation allows the preservation of visual identity, while the animated medium expands narrative complexity and sensory perception. In this process, the film maintains the satirical essence and socio-political critique characteristic of Laerte’s work while transforming its static insinuations into fully realized audiovisual experiences.