RIO : archive from 9th April 2011.

I took my young lad to see 'RIO' in eye popping all colourful 3D this afternoon with a bunch of mates on his Birthday. This animated feature film was made for US$90M and grossed US$484M worldwide and naturally gave rise to a sequel in 2014 called aptly 'Rio 2' which cost US$103M and brought home US$500M and was Written and Directed by the same guy on both occasions - Carlos Saldanha. The film scored an Oscar nomination and won three awards all up and was nominated a further 28 times.

Our story here centres around a baby Macaw, Blu (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg) who is captured from his jungle home close to Rio de Janeiro and smuggled out of the country to be sold in the US. Whilst en route to some new bird cage Stateside and travelling though Moose Lake, Minnesota, Blu gets dropped out of the truck transporting him, accidentally. A passing little girl, Linda (Leslie Mann) finds the macaw, takes him in, cares for him and brings him up over the next 15 years or so.

Linda is now all grown up and owns a book store and Blu is her domesticated, intelligent and faithful loving loyal, and flightless, companion. By chance the bookshop is visited by Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro), a Brazilian Ornithologist who claims that Blu is the last male of his species, and that back home in Rio de Janiero he has a female named Jewel (Anne Hathaway) ready to boogie!

Along the way Blu meets up with Red-crested Cardinal named Pedro (Will.I.Am) and a Yellow Canary called Nico (Jamie Foxx). Not before long though the two Macaws are captured by smugglers ready to sell Blu & Jewel on the black market. What follows is a game of hide & seek as Blu & Jewel get locked up, get rescued, escape, fall in love, thwart another bird napping at the hands of a horde of pesky villainous Marmosets, escape again, get into a heated argument and go their separate ways, release a bunch of other captured birds, take down a plane, learn to fly and live happily ever after!

This is amusing, bright & colourful, has great animation, catchy tunes, is fast paced and fun. It is one for the kids for sure but enjoyable fluff for the Mums & Dads too, and kids of all ages. If you missed this when it first came out, catch both 'Rio' and 'Rio 2' now on DVD or download and watch them back to back on a cold wet weekend with the kids camped out on the sofa! Good fun!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-