As aventuras de Poliana

**"As Aventuras de Poliana"** is a Brazilian children's telenovela written by Iris Abravanel for SBT. It's an adaptation of a 1913 children's novel 'Pollyanna' by Eleanor H. Porter. 'Poliana' started airing on May 16, 2018 as a replacement for 'Carinha de anjo'. The main stars are Sophia Valverde, Milena Toscano, Thaís Melchior and Murilo Cézar.

## Synopsis

Poliana is an extroverted and kind 11 year old girl who traveled all around Brazil with her parents, Lorenzo and Alice, in the theater troupe 'Vagalume'. However, after the death of her mother and her bedridden father, she sees her world completely changed by having to go and live with her aunt Luisa in São Paulo. Luisa is a rich and severe woman, whom Poliana did not know and who did not want to take care of her niece. However, she feels it's her obligation as a memory to her deceased sister Alice.

Despite her aunt's strict attitudes - such as imposing numerous rules and preventing her artistic gifts - Poliana finds true friendship in a maid, Nancy and a gardener, Antonio. Little by little the girl begins to know her neighbors: Mr. Pendleton is a mysterious man and nobody knows his past; Branca who keeps complaining about her life; Gleyce and Arlete who live on the warpath, although their husbands, Cyrus and Lindomar, are good friends; desired by all women, Afonso is really in love with Luisa, but has never been reciprocated by her coldness. What Poliana can't imagine is that the baker in the neighborhood, Durval, is her uncle, rejected by Luisa for not behaving in a noble way when he married a poor woman.

Poliana goes to study at the school of Miss Ruth and is immediately forms a friendship with Luigi and Kessya, although she has to deal with the evilness of Filipa, Éric and Hugo, Afonso's nephew, and professor Debora, who hates children. In the school, a club is formed by Mário and twin brothers Gael and Benício, who investigate the curious cases of the neighborhood. Lorena and Yasmim's biggest desire is to join the group.

In the big city, Poliana will be reunited with João, a friend she made on her last trip with the theater troupe and who left his town for the city of São Paulo in search of realizing his dreams as well. Among the teenagers is Mirela, who dreams of being famous at any cost, and has to face the wrath of Brenda, the most popular girl in school who isn't willing to lose her position. In addition, her friendship with Rachel is shaken when the two fall in love with Guilherme - who hides from all that he is rich - although she will be disputed by the arrogant youtuber Luca.

There are still other stories, such as Sérgio and Joana, Mario and Luigi's parents, who spent their lives hiding that they are married, since the company they work for does not allow internal relationships. Gloria is chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee, which organizes charity events at the school, being Marcelo's and Roger's mother, two siblings with different personalities - the first one is a kind teacher and boyfriend of the poisonous Deborah, while the latter is unscrupulous and thirsty of power, married to the futile Veronica.

Having to face all the dilemmas of a new life in the big city, which she never imagined existed, Poliana decided to apply the "game of contentment", taught by her parents, which consists of having a positive view of everything, even in moments of difficulty. This game will be essential when, at a given moment in history, the girl undergoes a terrible accident that will prevent her from walking, counting on all those enlightened by her positivity to help her.

## Trivia

* Mel Lisboa and Igor Rickli were considered for the roles of Luisa and Afonso, however they didn't achieve the financial deal with SBT and were replaced with Milena Toscano and Victor Pecoraro.
* Walderez de Barros was offered the role of Ruth, but decided to continue on Rede Globo, so Myrian Rios accepted the role instead.
* Before Maria Gal, Maria Ceiça was invited to star as Gleyce, but refused the role due to other commitments.
* In March of 2018, Milena Toscano discovered that she was pregnant amidst the advance filming of the telenovela and had to leave the cast, compromising the future of her character, who was part of the central story. Originally the direction planned to advance the scenes of Milena as much as possible and to explain the absence of the character at a certain moment like a business trip, however the actress discarded the possibility of returning to the filming weeks after the end of her maternity leave, so she decided to conclude her participation on the show. The idea of ​​re-writing all of Milena's scenes was also discarded, since a lot of her material was already ready to air and this would generate a break in the show's budget. Shortly before the debut of the telenovela, it was decided to keep all of Milena's recorded scenes and replace the actress by another one in the same character without further explanations, using the same resource of Globo's telenovela 'Império', when Marjorie Estiano replaced Drica Moraes after her illness. On May 19, 2018 it was decided that Thaís Melchior would replace Milena in the role of Luísa.
* Kiara Sasso and Lázaro Menezes, who played Poliana's parents in the first episodes of the telenovela, are married in real life.