Trapito (film)

Trapito is a 1975 Argentine animated film directed by Manuel García Ferré.

During a stormy night, the sparrow Salapin is about to drown in a mud pool due to exhaustion. Next to the mud pool hangs Trapito, a scarecrow, on his frame. Trapito is a living scarecrow. He picks up Salapin and puts him in his inside pocket where it is dry and warm. The next morning, Trapito admits he is lonely and confused. Salapin takes him to see the Patriarch of the Birds (a wise old owl), who deduces that Trapito lacks imagination since he has been standing in a field all his life. The Patriarch advises him and Salapin to see the world.

They meet Larguirucho, an friendly but clumsy farmer mouse with many happy animals including Jacinto the horse and Chancha & Chanchito, the mother & son pigs. They go into town where Larguirucho sells his cheeses and treats them to a meal, but an sailor crow, named Ataúlfo, steals his money. The innkeeper gives them (Larguirucho, Trapito, Salapin, and Chanchito) a week to pay for the meal or he will butcher Chancha. Larguirucho can’t find a job until he is hired as an assistant carpenter. A pirate orders a peg leg for his Captain Mala Pata, a black-bearded ruffian, but Larguirucho delivers a ham by mistake, and Mala Pata orders his sailors, including first mate Ataúlfo, to shanghai Larguirucho and use Trapito as their figurehead. Mala Pata sails for a tropical island where a map shows that valuable crystal tears are to be found. A mutiny for the tears, is accidentally foiled by Larguirucho, Salapin, and Chanchito. Mala Pata makes Larguirucho first mate and frees Trapito.

At the island, Larguirucho and Trapito are ordered to dive and search the sea bottom for the crystal tears. They learn the tears are being wept by a mermaid, Espumita. She and all the fish were happy until they were attacked by Cruel Pulpo, a pirate-hatted giant octopus, and his army of crabs and swordfishes. Espumita’s boyfriend, Caballito del Mar, becomes the good sea creatures’ general, and they are defeating Pulpo until Caballito del Mar is captured. Larguirucho and Trapito rescle him, and are rewarded by one of Espumita’s crystal tears. They return to the pirate ship, where Mala Pata and Ataúlfo dive into the sea after more tears and are chased into the distance by Pulpo. Larguirucho, now the captain, sails back to town where he uses the crystal tear to pay the innkeeper. Larguirucho and the pigs return to the farm, but Salapin meets an female sparrow, and falls in love with her, and they fly off, abandoning Trapito. The lonely scarecrow returns to his field, but Salapin and his mate return the next year with their chicks, and Trapito and the chicks become playmates.

Some versions of the movie starts with an introduction of Petete, an puppet penguin similar to Topo Gigio, and one of the director's most famous characters, telling about the creation of the scarecrow.