movie review
Rio
Cute characters, snappy songs, and sweet settings highlight this family flick
Buy on Amazon.com
Watch the Trailer
Comments
Need family movie and/or TV content for your publication? Email Jane Boursaw, .
When I heard that Sergio Mendes was a music consultant for ‘Rio,’ I thought, that’s very cool, they didn’t scrimp on anything here. They went straight to the master! The leader of Brasil ’66 was not only born in Rio, but he’s basically been the face of Brazilian music since the 1960s. And the movie’s soundtrack doesn’t disappoint, with tunes by not only Mendes, but also Will.i.Am, Jemaine Clement, Jamie Foxx, Taio Cruz and Carlinhos Brown.
But the music is just one thing I love about ‘Rio,’ which is a colorful, heartfelt, warm and funny movie. The story begins with a flight-challenged baby Blue Macaw (more specifically, the highly endangered Spix’s Macaw) getting caged by smugglers in Rio and taken to Moose Lake, Minnesota, where his box is accidentally left on the street and found by a girl named Linda (Leslie Mann).
Flash forward 15 years and Linda now owns and lives in a bookstore with Blu (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg). When a Brazilian scientist named Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) shows up and tells Linda that Blu is the last male of his species and he needs to take him back to Rio to mate with a female to preserve the species, Linda is skeptical. Blu has led a sheltered life, after all, and he still can’t fly. But for the sake of all bird-kind, Linda agrees to do it and they set off for Rio.
Here’s where things get interesting. Blu does indeed meet Jewel (voiced by Anne Hathaway), the female bird he’s supposed to mate with, but things take a turn for the worse when smugglers capture the exotic birds and plan on shipping them off to parts unknown. Blu and Jewel are chained together, but somehow manage to escape into the jungle – still chained together.
With their distinctive voices, Eisenberg and Hathaway play off each other really well. It’s as if Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan were catapulted out of 1949’s ‘I Was a Male War Bride’ and landed smack in the middle of this animated movie.
In the jungle and on the streets of Rio, the birds encounter a variety of colorful characters, including Nigel (Jemaine Clement), the head smuggler’s nasty right-hand-cockatoo; Fernando (Jake T. Austin), a poor orphan who only helps the smugglers to earn money; Rafael (George Lopez), a good-hearted toucan who tries to teach Blu to fly; Pedro (Will.i.Am), a Red-Crested Cardinal; Nico (Jamie Foxx), Pedro’s canary friend; Luiz (Tracy Morgan), a gruff bulldog; and assorted other marmosets, birds and humans celebrating at Rio Carnival, the festival held before Easter every year.
‘Rio’ is a great family movie for all ages. Little kids will like the cute characters and colorful settings, and grownups will like the snappy music, cultural references, strong female characters, and environmental message about saving endangered species and stopping smugglers. There’s also a subtle note about karma, because Blu was bird-napped by smugglers as a youngster but instrumental in stopping them later in life.
If I have one complaint about ‘Rio’ – which is showing in 2D and 3D—it’s that the animation is really similar to a lot of other family movies. The director, Carlos Saldanha, also helmed the ‘Ice Age’ movies, and both that franchise and ‘Rio’ are from Blue Sky Studios. Still, I love that the non-human characters in these movies have big personalities but aren’t afraid to show their softer side during quiet moments. I’d be happy to see a ‘Rio’ sequel.
Oh, and don’t miss the short at the beginning of ‘Rio’ – ‘Scrat’s Continental Crack-Up.’ That crazy saber-toothed squirrel is still chasing after that elusive acorn.
Comments on Rio
Post a Comment