The Adventures of Hijitus

The Adventures of Hijitus (Spanish: Las aventuras de Hijitus) is an Argentine animated series created in 1967 by Spanish cartoonist Manuel García Ferré. It was the first animated series in Latin America that was made for television, and has been considered the most successful series in the history of Latin American cartoons.
The series first aired on 7 August 1967, on Canal 13, and was rerun throughout the day at different times. It later was compiled into a film format and screened in cinemas.
The main character of the series is Hijitus, a street child who lives in the sewers of the fictional city of Trulalá. Trulalá is ravaged by the evil actions of villains such as Professor Neurus, Pucho, Granhampa and Dedo Negro, among others. Hijitus is granted magical powers through his hat sombreritus, which allow him to transform himself into Super Hijitus, a strong superhero who can fly. He uses his power to defend his city and his friends: Oaky, Pichichus, Anteojito and Larguirucho.
Hijitus was originally created as a minor character in the comic strip The Adventures of Pi-Pio (Spanish: Las aventuras de Pi-Pío), published in September 1955 in Billiken magazine. García Ferré was a weekly collaborator at Billiken at the time, and Pio-Pio was the first serial comic strip he created. In Pio-Pio, Hijitus is depicted as a descendant of pharaohs and one of the inhabitants of Villa Leoncia, the imaginary city in which the adventures of Pi-Pío are set.
Hijitus is a street kid who lives in a sewer pipe in the city of Trulalá (the "cañitus"). He is supported by his friends, Pichichus (his dog) and Oaky.
The city of Trulalá is ravaged by the evil Professor Neurus, who the incompetent legal system, represented by a "Council of Elders", are unable to stop. One of Hijitus' friends, Larguirucho, is a naive young man who spends his time playing with Oaky and Hijitus, while also helping Professor Neurus with his evil plans.
In order to fight evil and more importantly to defend his friends, Hijitus can transform into "Super Hijitus", an indestructible superhero with incredible abilities, thanks to the power granted by his magic hat, Sombreritus. The dream of his nemesis Professor Neurus is to seize the hat, and use its power to control Trulalá. Hijitus does everything in his power to prevent this from happening.
The Hijitus series was originally broadcast by Channel 13 of Buenos Aires, between 1967 and 1974, as microprogram which was only one minute long. It was broadcast between the advertising batches from Monday to Friday, and was rerun daily. On weekends, the program was aired in full, as a summary of the microprograms, on the show La Feria de la Alegría, and later on El Club de Hijitus.
El Club de Hijitus was a program created in 1968, and broadcast on Sundays at 11:00 am by Channel 13. It was created as a result of the success of the series, and was led by animators Guillermo Lázzaro and Amalia Scaliter. The program featured the full weekly summary of the series, with the presence of Hada Patricia, the clowns Firulete, Cañito and Carlitos Scazziotta, and disguised actors representing the characters of the series, such as Hijitus, Cachavacha, Larguirucho, Neurus, The Commissioner, etc.
On 12 September 1973, the 82 minute long feature film The Adventures of Hijitus was released.
In December 2008 the first box set composed of 5 DVDs was released, a compilation of 53 episodes of the original series, including extras such as trailers, trivia, characters information, wallpapers, music clips and synopses. Another 5-set DVD compilation was later released that competed the series.