
The site eventually became popular enough to remain active for many years, even after the animations were slowly moving to YouTube in the late 2000s. Although the title Sapo Brothers is used to indicate the two titular characters, it also serves as an umbrella title for all of Dourado's works which are also published on the Sapo Brothers website and YouTube channel although it is shown a few times that the characters from all series coexist in the same universe. Currently, the series has focused more on producing children's animations for YouTube, mostly following the style of Content Farms featuring many crossovers with popular media stuff.
Some of the website's series include:
- Almofada: A spin-off of the Sapo Brothers, focusing on comic strips with their dogs as protagonists and being able to speak to each other unlike in their interactions with their owners. The website also lists strips of another dog called Lica/Lilica alongside the Almofada and Hans strips, but she has no relation to the other two characters.
- Dani & Claudia: It focuses on the daily lives of two dumb 20-year-old human women who are friends and are often getting into trouble. The series served as the second main flagship in the early years only after Sapo Brothers having had some flash games and animations at the beginning of the site. The series was discontinued sometime after 2003.
- A.P.S.C.A.: A spin-off of Dani & Claudia focusing on an aid agency founded by Claudia under the name A.P.S.C.A. (Agência Prestação de Socorro Claudia e Associados, literally: Claudia and Associates Aid Agency) where she, Dani and Fabíola work.
- Sócrates: Focuses in the misadventures of an Australian kangaroo living in Brazil.
- Raul: Focus on a dumb and unlucky 22-year-old human guy named Raul who works at a computer company with his coworkers Iza and Celo.
- Turma: It focuses on a group of different female human characters whose stories are in some way interconnected. The title means Gang in Portuguese.
- Dragão: Focuses on a big, fat and clumsy dragon character as protagonist. The series emerged as a spin-off of Dani & Claudia.
- Raposo: It focuses on the daily life of a perverted fox character named Raposo.
- Sauro Brothers: A series starring anthropomorphic dinosaur characters, serving as a prehistoric equivalent to the Sapo Brothers. The series premiered in 2016 with an animated series on the YouTube channel, later receiving several more episodes and getting comic strips until 2019.
Sapo Brothers provide examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Many of the episodes in the late 2000s made a massive use of CGI with 3D backgrounds and vehicles while the characters continued to be animated in 2D. This gets ridiculous in some episodes, especially in the episode about Rafael Dourado's girlfriend's birthday when Dourado leaves in the car with his girlfriend and you can see Minja and Jones being literally paper-thin.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Unlike his brother, Minja can't find a girlfriend, and he even tried to have a relationship with Martinha's friend Fabinha without success. This is likely due to the fact that Minja is fat unlike Jones.
- Aerith and Bob: While Jones is not a very common name, Minja is a practically non-existent name and it is mentioned that the character received this name because of an infamous pun by their father.
- Art Evolution: The series has changed its art style a lot over the decades, with the protagonists notably having flattened heads until the early 2010s and currently having cuter designs with huge and rounded heads. In 2020s they began to have even more childish designs with bigger heads and Conjoined Eyes eyes.
- Author Avatar: Dourado has appeared on a few occasions interacting with his characters in both animations and comics.
- Big Eater: Minja, this isn't really surprising considering he's the fat one of the two brothers.
- Black Comedy: Although very infrequently this occurred in some old comics and animations, to the point of even showing blood and and a few deaths.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Hans, although it is explained that he behaves this way because he is just a puppy. He has a habit of constantly making messes and making annoying barks, much to Almofada's dismay.
- Butt-Monkey: Minja is often mocked for his appearance and tends to get into trouble more often than his brother who sometimes also makes fun of him sarcastically.
- Cannot Tell a Joke: This even became a running gag in some comic strips, with some of the jokes being considered so unfunny, even with the characters themselves being aware of this.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: All other characters created by Rafael B. Dourado in the first years of the website unrelated with the Sapo Brothers like Dani or Raul ended up being discontinued and forgotten over time, especially around the late 2000s. This is most likely due to the fact that Dourado began to focus more on producing more and more animations with the Sapo Brothers for his YouTube channel, making the website obsolete over time, in addition to him having started to focus more and more on a child audience, since his early characters were mostly adult humans.
- In the early years there were appearances of the character Fabinha, Martinha's human friend, as well as Martinha's younger brother who appeared in two strips, however both disappeared in the early 2000s. Fabinha returned in the early 2010s after several years of absence, but ended up no longer appearing again over time.
- Hans also had a girlfriend named Cadelinha who stopped appearing over time.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Martinha tends to show jealousy and even paranoia about Jones being with other women.
- Continuity: Many of the comic strips published on the website have continuity with some arcs. The webcartoon also has some continuity, with characters remembering events that occurred in previous cartoons.
- Cousin Oliver: In the 2010s, the characters Begofredo and his little sister Begonia were introduced, who are coincidentally cousins of Minja and Jones.
- Crossover: The series does this so hard, especially since the late 2010s when the focus shifted to children with constant animations featuring crossovers with famous characters from films, cartoons, series and games, although of course, these crossovers are made using the characters in an unlicensed way.
- Since the 2000s, the characters have appeared in constant crossovers with characters from other Brazilian webcomics and currently with other Brazilian children's cartoons on YouTube such as Mongo e Drongo or Avenida Cartum.
- Demoted to Extra: Martinha was a character who appeared quite frequently in the early years, but starting in the late 2000s her appearances were drastically reduced, with years in which she didn't even appear, much of this is due to the fact that the series began to focus more and more on just Minja and Jones. The same also goes for Almofada, Hans and Júnior who have had their appearances drastically reduced despite them being the dogs and the younger brother who live with them in their house.
- Doorstop Baby: It is mentioned that the baby frog Júnior was abandoned on Minja and Jones' doorstep, causing the two to take care of him as their adopted little brother.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: For those who are used to current animations the classic content made between the 90s and 2000s can cause a certain weirdness due to the art style being massively different and the fact it focused more on everyday themes without the excessive use of pop references and crossovers, besides the series had a more mature vibe in the beginning as opposed to now which has become more childish.
- Fat and Skinny: Minja and Jones.
- Funny Animal: The protagonists Minja and Jones, as well as some other characters from Dourado such as Raposo.
- Furry Confusion: Many of the animal characters, including Minja and Jones, behave like humans, but there are non-anthropomorphized animals like their pet dogs Almofada and Hans and even non-antropomorphic frogs.
- Iconic Outfit: The yellow bandanas around Minja and Jones's eyes (and Junior by extension) along with Minja's yellow shirt and Jones's red shirt. They are rarely seen in other clothes.
- Ironic Name: Almofada, whose name means cushion in Portuguese, is supposed to be a cute name, but he is a very ugly dog. It is mentioned that he was given this name because he used to be cute as a puppy, which led the frog brothers to name their new puppy (who is the same breed as Almofada) Hans because they thought this name would suit a dog with Almofada's appearance after he grew older.
- Jerkass: Almofada is often seen being abusive and cruel to other characters, especially animals smaller than him including even Hans and he is never punished for it.
- Just One More Level!: Jones has an obsession with video games.
- Gonk: A recurring running gag in the early comic strips involved some human women being terrified of the two protagonists, especially Minja, because they're frogs. This is ironic considering Jones has a human girlfriend.
- Grumpy Old Man: Almofada. He is an old dog who tends to be quite rude and grumpy, having a hatred towards rats and also towards Hans for finding him an annoying puppy.
- Interspecies Romance: Jones is a frog and dates Martinha who is a human.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: The two protagonists are frogs living in a world where is overwhelmingly populated by humans with a few talking animals coexisting with the humans.
- Lighter and Softer: Starting in the late 2000s, the series began to tone down the content avoiding the adult vibe it had in the early years, with this becoming more evident in the following decade, with the characters adopting cute designs, addition of new characters such as Begofredo and Begonia, and most episodes focusing on crossovers with pop content from cartoons and games to attract children's attention. This contrasts with the old animations and comics, especially the ones published in the 90s to early 2000s, although they were also aimed at a children's audience, there were some black comedy jokes sometimes, at a point where there have been comic strips
making fun of September 11 attacks!- An example of this is that in one of the strips published between 2009 and 2010, Minja is prevented from consuming alcoholic beverages when Jones reminds him that they are part of a children's series and he drinks soda instead, but in one of the first strips they both see themselves drinking beer.
- Long Runner: The series has notably been produced uninterruptedly since the 90s with both new comics and animations being made every year, in addition to being the only Dourado characters to continue to be produced.
- My Future Self and Me: This is the focus of one of the comics' arcs, Minja encounters not only a version of himself from the future, but also versions of himself from other eras in the past.
- Plot Armor: Minja and Jones have survived through several slapstick comedy moments, some of which can even be considered fatal, like Minja being electrocuted when falling onto a pole wire at the end of one of the Super Sapo Brothers episodes and apparently dying.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Minja tends to be lazy, ignorant, eats too much fatty food and is immature at times while Jones is more serious, mature, intelligent and responsible.
- Product Placement: There have been some comics promoting things like the cartoon series Gemini 8, the Insectron series from Recreio magazine, and the film Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return. One of the 2020 YouTube animations also served as an official crossover (instead of another unlicensed crossover animation) with the Asian game Fate Fantasy to promote the game. A DVD with an independent animation produced by Dourado based on Noah's Ark released in the late 2000s was also released in one of the comic strips.
- Punny Name: The protagonists' mother is called Rãberta, which is a pun between Rã (another Portuguese word for frog) and Roberta, while his father is called Sapo Pemba in reference to the Sapopemba district in the city of São Paulo.
- Shout-Out: The protagonists are green animals that have yellow bandanas tied around their eyes in a very similar way to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, although this is intentional, as they were inspired by these characters. Furthermore, the characters' car has a design reminiscent of Donald Duck's car.
- Spin-Off Babies: The "Sapopecas" comic strip arc, published in 2008, is essentially this, featuring child versions of the characters. This version was reused again in some animated shorts in the late 2010s, but with these shorts they received a redesign.
- Superhero Episode: Around 2008, some comic strips and animations featuring Minja and Jones as superheroes began to appear with some frequency.
-
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: As mentioned above in Black Comedy and Early-Installment Weirdness, the series, despite being aimed at children, had some moments that made it seem more focused for adults than children. But as mentioned above in Lighter and Softer, the series has reduced its adult vibe over the years.
Tropes in Dani & Claudia and A.P.S.C.A.
- Abhorrent Admirer: In two strips a cockroach appears showing passion for Dani, despite her being repulsed by cockroaches.
- Black Comedy: It happens sometimes.
- Born Unlucky: Dani is the perfect example of this.
- Breakout Character: Apparently Dani was supposed to be the main protagonist and Claudia was her sidekick (the comic strips are even listed on the website address with just the name Dani), but Claudia ended up sharing so much spotlight with her to the point of creating an aid agency where the two of them started working together.
- Canon Foreigner: Fabíola was introduced to be Claudia's secretary when she founded A.P.S.C.A.. This can be subverted due to the fact that the A.P.S.C.A. stories serve only as an extension to the Dani & Claudia series, but considering that the A.P.S.C.A. comic strips have their own page on the Sapo Brothers website it can be considered a spin-off.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: A talking mouse was seen appearing in the first strips, but he ended up disappearing over time.
- Crossover: Among Rafael B. Dourado's characters, the duo was the one that appeared most in crossovers with the Sapo Brothers, such as in the flash game Sapo Park or in the miniseries Não Belisque.
-
Demographically Inappropriate Humour: There have been jokes like Dani accidentally getting naked in the middle of the audience or the characters going to provide aid services in Iraq in the middle of the war! - The Ditz: The titular protagonists. They get into a lot of trouble because of their lack of intelligence. Claudia is even blonde, however, on some occasions this is subverted with only Dani being the dumb character and Claudia being annoyed by her stupidity.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Both characters became known for working in their own aid agency A.P.S.C.A. in their last appearances, but before the creation of this agency they worked in an office with computers.
- Fat and Skinny: The titular protagonists. Despite Dani isn't actually fat, but compared to other thin women like Claudia and Fabiola, and because she's short, she appears a bit overweight.
- Girls Like Musicians: Claudia's boyfriend is a handsome man named Gui who plays the guitar.
- The One Guy: Gui, who is introduced a few years after the series had only Dani and Claudia as regular characters.
- Only Sane Man: Fabíola begins to serve this role at the moment when Claudia founds A.P.S.C.A.. Before that, Claudia sometimes played this role, putting up with Dani's stupidity.
- Plot Armor: The titular characters survive several absurd things like being crushed by a safe, thrown against a wall or falling off a cliff.
- Ridiculously Successful Future Self: In a flash comic miniseries showing the fate of some of the characters 20 years in the future, it is mentioned that A.P.S.C.A. has become the greatest aid agency in the world in the meantime.
- Superhero Episode: Dani appeared in two comic strips assuming the superhero alter ego Super Dani.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Dani is terrified of cockroaches.
Tropes in Sócrates
- Boxing Kangaroo: Subverted, as Sócrates reveals that he is terrible at fighting in this sport.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Sócrates demonstrates a strong attraction to women.
- Crossover: He has appeared in a few crossovers with other characters, the most notable being in the game Sapo Park.
- Friend to All Children: Sócrates has some human boys like Toninho or Tonho as his friends.
- Funny Animal: The titular protagonist, ofc.
- Interspecies Romance: The protagonist is a kangaroo who tries to enter into relationships with human women.
- Jerkass: Tonho, Sócrates' friend in the character's one-shot comic, is shown to be somewhat rude and greedy towards the kangaroo.
Tropes in Raul
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Iza had dark brown hair, but it turned black in her last appearances.
- Born Unlucky: The titular character, he even tends to be the main Butt-Monkey too.
- Breakout Character: A gang of four guys known as "Os Terminadores", composed by Binsky, Brocó, Parmeso and Pedra, first appeared in a Raul comic strip, but they were used more often by Dourado in his productions in the site's early years.
- Crossover: Raul has already appeared in some crossovers with the Sapo Brothers and Dani & Claudia, such as in the miniseries Não Belisque.
- The Ditz: The titular character.
- Jerkass: Iza. This is much more evident in the crossover miniseries Casa dos Cartoons where she plays an antagonistic role.
- Only Sane Man: Inverted, because both Iza and Celo have this role in most comics opposing Raul who is the eccentric one in most of the strips.
- Two Guys and a Girl: Raul, Celo and Iza.
Tropes in Turma
- Aerith and Bob: We have characters with weird names (Quel and Minduim) interacting with characters with common names (Núria, Malu and Renata)
- Bookworm: Núria.
- Crossover: The characters appeared in the miniseries Casa dos Cartoons.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Quel is always walking around carrying a teddy bear.
- Improbably Female Cast: Practically all the comic strips feature female characters as protagonists.
- Rotating Protagonist: The series does not have a specific protagonist, although Núria is the character who appears the most.
Tropes in Dragão
- Breakout Character: The protagonist originally appeared as a supporting character to Dani in her strips, but after 4 strips he began to star in comics alone.
- Crossover: He has appeared in a few crossovers with the other characters over time.
- Demoted to Extra: The character continued to appear a few more times after his strips were discontinued, but only when a dragon was needed for a joke.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: The protagonist sometimes causes problems because he is a huge strong dragon that breathes fire to the point of even crushing others unintentionally.
- A Dog Named "Dog": The character is referred to only as Dragão (Dragon in Portuguese)
- Funny Animal: The titular protagonist.
- Interspecies Friendship: He has Dani as his best friend.
- Pear-Shaped Gentle Giant: Dragão is shaped like this, despite his behavior sometimes being that of a Jerkass.
-
Sequel Gap: The character's last strip was published in 2013 and judging by the art style compared to the previous strips it is believed that the previous strips before this one were published in the early 2000s.
Tropes in Raposo
- Chivalrous Pervert: The protagonist acts like this in some strips.
- Crossover: He also has appeared in a few crossovers with the other characters.
- Funny Animal: The titular protagonist.
- Furry Confusion: The protagonist is anthropomorphic, but has been seen interacting with non-anthropomorphic chickens and dogs.
- Humanoid Female Animal: With the exception of Fox's sister, all the other female foxes have almost human faces and hair.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": The protagonist's name refers to the name of his species "raposa" which means fox in Portuguese.
-
Sequel Gap: Just like what happened with Dragão, the character's last strip apparently came in the early 2010s, judging by the art style compared to previous strips.
