Rio Movie Review

Animated flick starring Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway is enjoyable enough
It may be considered infantile by some, and can be held to a lower standard than its alternative, but in general, the animated movie is hard to hate or resist. Like the appeal of fantasy and science fiction is providing a magical world more intriguing than the mundane one, animation can, for an hour or two, replace worries of politics and finance with ecstatic images of intelligent animals and unknown creatures. Even the weaker ones can have a touch of liveliness and colour.
Rio, released on the 8th April 2011, may not be a fantastic film, with its tendency to plop annoying clichés onto its script and a lack of interesting characters, but it still manages to entertain and has its heart in the right place.
Prepare for Carnivale
Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) is a blue macaw that has spent a blissful life with the bookish Linda (Leslie Mann), but thanks to bird scientist Tulio (Rodrigo Santaro), he learns he is the last male of his kind and thus must go to Rio to mate with the female macaw Jewel (Anne Hathaway). The two birds have little in common but are forced to bond when captured by poachers and chained together. They plan to escape and reunite Blu with Linda, but this is complicated by the fact Blu cannot fly.
It is an interesting enough story, if not somewhat similar to Alpha and Omega, but there are certainly hiccups along the way. There are some of the more annoying clichés of children’s movies – the streetwise orphan who wants a family, the bungling thieves who pose no real threat, the comic relief characters playing matchmaker toward the protagonists – and common pitfalls of latter-day animation, with a few jokes about posteriors, and monkey henchmen as annoyingly faux-adorable as Despicable Me’s minions, though not as prominent. Some moments even result in being embarrassing, most of them revolving around Tulio and Linda’s relationship; the pair spend a good part of the finale in flamboyant bird costumes, which lessens the emotional impact of Blu’s reunion.
Even with the script’s flaws, the story is still told with an abundance of energy and joy. It rarely takes itself seriously, instead opting to have fun with its setting. Blu flying is a predictable and rather contrived element, but that scene still manages to uplift. Rio’s biggest success is in being a ‘feel-good film’ with certain scenes reminding of a great family holiday, or even an especially good night at the pub with friends. One scene in particular is one set in a club for birds – with its fast-paced music and brightly-lit action, it may make the audience want to dance along with the characters.
Sadly, the main weakness of Rio is with its main character, who is barely sympathetic. He begins the movie delivering sarcastic remarks like an avian Garfield and is whiny and annoying when chained to Jewel. Like the title character of last month’s Rango, he is a pet forced to face the wider world but lacks Rango’s more endearing qualities. Rango may very well be Rio’s evil twin, exchanging bright beaches for depressing deserts and cute critters for curmudgeonly creatures. Rio may succeed in being more joyful and heartwarming than Rango, but it lacks the bonuses for adults that earlier release had.
Welcome to Brazil
The world of the film is beautifully realised and is worth watching at the cinema for the visuals alone. Rio de Janeiro itself is the film’s standout character, its cities and jungles brought to life with meticulous detail. The aforementioned club is bathed in a wide palette that accentuates its heart, and the Carnivale near the end is filled with spectacle.
The performances are generally average. Eisenberg does his best, but the neurotic voice he bestows Blu makes the character less endearing. Hathaway, however, craftily creates a fierce and independent character that still has some compassion. The poachers may be moronic villains of the Home Alone variety, but Jemaine Clement’s malicious cockatoo Nigel, aiming to be as sinisterly sophisticated as Disney’s Scar, is a decent antagonist.
http://www.suite101.com/content/rio-review-a364769