Casa da Mônica on Airbnb is just like the one in the comics and is in SP – 10/09/2023 – Folhinha

Have you ever imagined spending a weekend inside the Turma da Mônica comics? There is a place close to São Paulo where this is possible, even if for a short time. The Little Leaf was invited to visit the space, and I, who have always been a fan of the group, was lucky enough to be chosen for the report.

Mônica’s real-life house is not in the Limoeiro neighborhood, but in São Pedro, in the interior of the state. It is a creation of Airbnb, one of the sites that adults use to choose homes to spend their holidays and stay at for different periods of time.

The journey there, leaving the center of São Paulo, takes around two and a half hours. When you arrive at the house, there is a wooden gate with paper stuck to it, showing Mônica much chubbier and toothier than she really is — not that this is a problem, but it is something that looks like Cebolinha’s art, which It must have passed through there and left its mark.

Crossing the gate, you quickly feel like you’re in a comic book. This house was already available for rent on Airbnb, and was adapted to become Casa da Mônica.

The company has already done similar actions, such as Barbie’s house, in the United States, and Shrek’s swamp house, in Scotland. Casa da Mônica is the first initiative of its kind in Latin America, and is part of the celebrations of the character’s 60th birthday.

As with other houses of its kind, Mônica’s will be available for a very limited time. Only three people (who can even bring a pet along) will have the chance to stay there, and only during the 20th, 21st and 22nd of October.

Reservations can be requested on the website airbnb.com/turmadamonica from 2pm on October 12th. The daily rate costs R$260.

In the house, references to the Turma da Mônica universe are everywhere. Right at the entrance, for example, there is the Monicão dog house. The living room is integrated with the kitchen, the sofa is the same shade of blue as Sansão, the kitchen furniture is red, the television has an old look — it shows animations of the gang.

Next to it, you can see a hollow wooden “brick” painted like a comic book remote control, which holds the real remote control inside. When you look up from the kitchen, you can see the room where Mônica keeps her stuffed bunnies, with the appropriate warning: “Attention! Area subject to rabbits!”.

The room is in shades of pink and blue, highlighted by the red bed. The covers have a print inspired by Samsão. Wooden dice with letters in low relief form the name Mônica, but that wouldn’t even be necessary to recognize who the owner of the house is: when opening the wardrobe, we see that there are only little red dresses, this timeless and universal look that is your trademark.

The color, in fact, is spread across several objects at Casa da Mônica, including a very red bicycle.

The bathroom is pink and has accessibility features. It is worth mentioning that the entire house is suitable for receiving people with disabilities. How every place should be, right?

The outside is cute. That’s where Mônica’s Club is located, a small wooden building that brings together various elements for games. You can take a photo reproducing the “ATA” meme on a computer, perfect for recordings on social media. A retractable screen, along with comfortable bean bags on the lawn, allows you to watch movies under the moonlight.

Even within the children’s universe, there are many references that will fascinate older people who grew up reading comics. Mônica’s first comic strip, published in Sheet in March 1963, it is framed there. A Estrelinha Mágica, a hit among children in the 1980s, also makes its appearance.

I’m not Smudge to be afraid of water, but when it started to rain, I ran inside the house. There, together with other journalists, I was able to talk a little with Mônica Sousa, executive director of Mauricio de Sousa Produções, Mauricio’s real daughter and inspiration for the character.

(She wasn’t wearing a red dress or carrying a bunny, and she was very attentive answering our questions.)

“Who made this [criar a personagem] It was my father, who, instead of taking me to a psychologist or something like that, wrote a little story”, he said, making everyone laugh. She was quarrelsome, but that soon passed. “When my father created Mônica das stories, I was 3 years old. The child can be aggressive, but then it gets better”, she joked.

I asked which objects she liked most in the house and which ones reminded her of her childhood. “The clay filter. The refrigerator, my mother had one just like it, only yellow. The old telephone, too. There’s every detail here…”.

Nostalgia, the name that older people give to this delightful nostalgia for times gone by, is a common feeling when we talk about Turma da Mônica. These characters exist not only in stories, but are part of the history of many Brazilians. What makes this place special, then, is allowing everyone to become a child again — I, at least, had a blast.

The journalist visited the house at the invitation of Airbnb