Pantanal (telenovela)

Pantanal
Main title card
Genre	Telenovela
Created by	Benedito Ruy Barbosa
Written by	Benedito Ruy Barbosa
Directed by	Jayme Monjardim Carlos Magalhães Marcelo de Barreto and Roberto Naar
Starring	Cláudio Marzo Cristiana Oliveira Marcos Winter Jussara Freire Marcos Palmeira Paulo Gorgulho Nathália Timberg Rômulo Arantes Cássia Kiss among others
Country of origin	Brazil
No. of episodes	216
Release
Original network	Rede Manchete
Original release	March 27 – December 10, 1990

Pantanal is a Brazilian telenovela which originally aired from March 27, 1990 to December 10, 1990 at 9 P.M. on Rede Manchete.SBT recently re-aired the telenovela from June 9, 2008 to January 13, 2009. It was set on the Pantanal region.

Pantanal is one of the best known ecological or environmental telenovela, a small sub-category of the genre whose purpose is to dramatize, and hence raise audience awareness of environmental degradation. It was written by Benedito Ruy Barbosa and directed by Jayme Monjardim, Carlos Magalhães, Marcelo de Barreto, and Roberto Naar.

Pantanal brings to the screen a visually lush and enticing product in which traditional telenovela storylines and plot-devices are wed with cinematic audiovisual techniques that make the production look more like a movie than a television program. It is this visual appeal, coupled with the introduction of female frontal nudity to Brazilian prime-time television that allowed TV-Manchete to dominate the audience share in this prime-time slot for the first time, overcoming perpetual ratings leader TV-Globo.

While the unusual storyline, special effects and erotic nature of the novela certainly attracts the attention of viewers, it is the location that truly makes this production stand out in the crowded telenovela line-up. Typically, the majority of telenovela productions are filmed indoors, in order to streamline production schedules and minimize costs. For example, TV-Globo’s scripts are habitually located in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, allowing them (as is common practice throughout the industry) to use stock exterior footage of the city to complement the majority of the scenes, which are filmed in large, closed sound stages. Therefore, Pantanal, novel in its outdoor, rural setting, may be even more interesting to urban novela audiences because it introduces them to a part of their country few are familiar with – the Pantanal region of the southwestern Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul.

The Pantanal region, whose name derives from the Portuguese word “pântano” (meaning “swamp” or “marsh” ), is a wetland, or alluvial plain, that covers parts of central-western Brazil, eastern Bolivia and eastern Paraguay. Eighty per cent of the wetland’s total area is in Brazil, where it occupies more than 140,000 km². It is frequently referred to as one of the largest freshwater wetland ecosystems in the world. As part of the Paraguay floodplain, it is a depository for seasonal floodwaters from the Paraguay River and its surrounding tributaries (such as the Sao Lourenço, Cuiaba, Taquari, Miranda, Negro and Aquidauana). The region has been called “an ecological paradise” and “an unparalleled wildlife sanctuary of spectacular beauty” and has been compared to the Amazon rainforest in its density and its variety of flora and fauna. It is one of the most densely packed hydrological eco-systems in the world; home to thousands of bird, butterfly, insect, fish, plant, reptile, and mammal species. Anaconda and caiman, tapir and giant river otter, toucan and macaw, among others, all make their home in the Pantanal – as does the jaguar. It is this mysterious and beautiful world that provides the setting for Pantanal; a world that is home to river spirits who communicate with the human inhabitants and Juma Marruá, a beautiful young jaguar-woman who falls in love with Jovenito, an urbanite who returns to his birthplace to reconnect with his father and his roots in the land.

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Wikipedia