Abstract

The essayistic aspect and the non-univocal narrative are some of the features that stand out when we analyze the Brazilian animation “O Menino e o Mundo” [The Boy and the World]. Produced by Alê Abreu and released in 2013, this movie is part of an authorial tradition that, within the specific niche of animations conceived in Brazil, has been consolidating since the 1970s, and is characterized by a type of almost artisanal production. Our goal in this paper is to discuss the way in which such aspects permeate the structure of the movie and transit through the experience of the audience, promoting the critical formation associated with a kind of aesthetic experience that privileges the imaginative exercise and fantasy. Such formation grows in power when associated with the school environment – the classroom, specifically –, since the movement of collective, cooperative and pedagogically mediated elaboration can expand the experience in question. Taking as a reference the exhibition of “O Menino e o Mundo” for children from a school in the interior of the State of São Paulo – Brazil, we defend the argument that the narrative and formal structure of this movie of Alê Abreu may lead to the reconstruction of the movie in the classroom, bringing a kind of involvement that allows the sharing of emotions and feelings through an active positioning, different from that offered by movies aimed exclusively at thoughtless entertainment.