I will start right off by saying I just really enjoyed Rio –The Movie. And my enthusiastic reviewers aged 11,10 and 8, who at times can be a little blasé all gave it a roaring 4 out of 5 as soon as the credits started to roll. It may be light on story…
I will start right off by saying I just really enjoyed this movie.
And it was not just me either. My enthusiastic reviewers (three boys aged 11,10 and 8), who at times can be a little blasé about the films they get to see all gave it a roaring 4 out of 5 as soon as the credits started to roll. It may be light on story but I just thought I would put our enthusiastic cards out on the table right at the start…
Rio –The Movie comes from Blue Sky Studio, which gave us the groundbreaking Ice Age Trilogy. These films were beloved in our family as they were about dinosaurs of course. The humour was spot on and they had a great adult/child balance in how they went about the making the movies. They seem to have continued with in this new film.
Rio – The Movie is set in Brazil. The colours are just gorgeous, and the detail that has gone into all the various birds is simply breathtaking. From the very first scene in the forest with the song and dance number from all the birds, it is all rather grin-inducing. We get to meet the tiny lead character, a blue macaw, Blu, as he falls from his nest and starts his long journey to snowbound Moose Lake, Minnesota, into the arms of his new owner, Linda, the perky Leslie Mann from Knocked Up fame.
Fifteen years later the eccentric Tulio (Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro) arrives to see Linda to let her know that the domesticated and flightless Blu is one of only two remaining Blue Macaws in the world.
The other bird is Jewel (voiced by Anne Hathaway) and she is all the way away in Rio. So Linda and Blu ship themselves off to Rio for the good of the species. Right from the start things don’t go well when Jewel and Blu meet, as they are quickly kidnapped by animal smugglers – and from there they escape and try to get back to Linda.
Along the way they meet fellow birds, Pedro and Nico voiced by Will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas) and Jamie Foxx. The characters are fabulous with a great energy, as is Rafael the Toucan voiced by George Lopez. The songs are great, the baddies are excellent- jungle monkeys – which sets up a great scene with Angry Birds versus monkeys.
The king of the baddies is of course our very own Jermaine Clement playing the cockatoo Nigel. I read that someone thought he was playing it with a British accent – but it just sounded like a Kiwi one to me! Clement even got to write, and sing, a song for the movie. His character is an ‘actor’ who used to be in movies until he was upstaged by more beautiful birds. Hence he has a particular dislike for Blu and Jewel. Clements seems to have just about the most fun of everyone, though Jessie Eisenberg (from The Social Network) who voices Blu plays it all rather deadpan and has some great lines. The two with easily the best banter are Foxx and Will.i.am – it is worth the ticket price just for them alone.
This isn’t a groundbreaking film; rather it is great solid children movie that you can take all the kids too. Those of us who have children are all too aware that films are often pitched too high for our kids. They are too sophisticated, or too scary. This was well-drawn, well-voiced and had a storyline that was very simple. The 3D component was fairly seamless but it won’t mean the movie will lose too much when it is converted to 2D for DVD release. There was a great buzz in the theatre when we were there and loads of laughing out loud. Doesn’t get much better than that.
And just a last little factoid – the bossa nova for the film was written by Sergio Mendes, who was also an executive producer on the film. Those of us with long memories will remember him as the Funk Bossa Nova King.
By Anya Brighouse, 11 April 2011.
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