Lionel's Kingdom

"Lionel's Kingdom" is a set of fictional characters created in the 1960s-70s and appearing at the "Monica's Gang" comic strips. All characters are animals, with the contact with human beings hardly happening. However, the animals are very personified, with almost all of them walking by two feet (except for Tim Turtle), most of them wearing clothes, and obviously, all of them being able to speak. Their home is a forest, presumably in Brazil, although featuring mostly African animals.

Characters

* "Thunder" "(Jotalhão)" – Although the English name of this set of characters is given after Lionel, Thunder is the true main character. He is a green elephant, with human-like hands, and one of the most beloved characters created by Mauricio de Sousa. He is very shy, calm, and a pacifist. He became famous when he appeared in a TV commercial for a tomato sauce of CICA, a defunct and now Unilever-owned Brazilian food company. [ [http://www.monica.com.br/ingles/mauricio/cronicas/elephant.htm Mauricio writes...My Unforgettable Elephant] ]
* "King Lionel" "(Rei Leonino)" - The king of the forest. This brown lion feels really pleased to be occupying the throne and to be giving orders to his vassals, although he's not a dictator or an authoritarian. He lives in his palace, which is actually a cavern, protected by monkey-guards.
* "Lou Courier" "(Ministro Luís Caxeiro)" – Lionel’s most important and loyal vassal and employee. Although he is officially the Minister of Come & Go, he serves Lionel more like a secretary. He serves as a messenger between Lionel and his kingdom, and vice-versa, making him also a spokesman. Lou is a blue hedgehog.
* "Tim Turtle" "(Tarugo)" – One of Thunder’s best friend. This green jabuti wears glasses, and has his head coming out of the middle of his carapace, instead of the front edge, as a normal jabuti. Also, he has wheels instead of feet (which unfortunately doesn’t make him walk faster).
* "Raposão" – Thunder’s best friend. A very smart fox, he loves to rest under a tree, or to “hunt” some female foxes. He’s also keen on giving advices.
* "Ant Rita" "(Rita Najura)" – A small purple ant. Her dream is to date Thunder, despite the extreme differences between them, either in size, either in species. Rita's attempts to date Thunder are almost the only subject of her strips. This situation may reminds one of Piteco and Tooga, characters of another set of characters related to Monica's Gang. Her Portuguese name is a joke on the word "tanajura" (Atta), a brazilian species of ant.
* "Coelho Caolho" – This rabbit is very clever and the glasses he wears gives him a certain intelligence-look. He lives under the ground, on a burrow filled with his uncountable children, a reference to the high rates of reproduction of rabbits.

References

* [http://www.monica.com.br/ingles/personag/t-mata.htm Lionel's Kingdom at Mônica’s Gang official website] en icon

External links

* [http://www.monica.com.br/ingles/index.htm Official Monica’s Gang website] en icon
* [http://www.monica.com.br/index.htm Official Monica’s Gang website] pt icon
* [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=G0KD7iKP-2I The famous TV commercial featuring Thunder at YouTube]