It may not achieve Pixar levels of animated charm, but “Rio” is a thoroughly fun new offering from the Twentieth Century Fox animation division. What gives this outing an extra edge is the setting: the warm, tropical backdrop of Brazil.
That’s where a baby blue macaw is captured in the openin
g sequence. Exported to America, he grows up comfy and flightless in a cage in a Minnesota home.
When a Brazilian ornithologist (voiced by Rodrigo Santoro) tracks down the owner (Leslie Mann) and persuades her to bring the endangered bird to Rio de Janeiro to mate with another ultra-rare blue
macaw, our hero is going to experience culture shock.
Of course, the birds talk. As Blu, the sheltered expatriate, “Social Network” star Jesse Eisenberg gives a fluttery vocal performance that conjures up the jittery memory of Don Knotts in his heyday. Anne Hathaway provides the duties for Jewel, the more confident female blue macaw.
Some poachers meddle in the arranged marriage; their henchman (splendid Jemaine Clement) is a sinister cockatoo. And, of course, the story has to happen on the eve of Rio’s carnival, the world’s biggest, most colorful street party.
The film is directed by a Rio native, Carlos Saldanha (he worked on the “Ice Age” pictures), which might account for the loving treatment of the city. Saldanha shows the flash of carnival — but not too much, since it’s still a PG film — as well as the slums that ring Rio, and he’s got a wonderful eye for getting the “magic hour” of sunset into a cartoon landscape.
The slapstick is wacky, a handful of flying sequences are super-cool and there’s a bit of crooning aboard an elevated train that has a real romance to it. Plus, the music is produced by Sergio Mendes, the guy who made Brasil 66 into a Top 40 ensemble in the 1960s.
I saw the movie in 3-D, which neither adds nor detracts to the experience overall (although it does give a boost to the short that precedes the feature, a funny little reminder of how continental drift works starring the “Ice Age” rodent, Scrat).
Kids will like the antics of the streetsmart birds voiced by Jamie Foxx and will i. am, to say nothing of the slobbering bulldog (Tracy Morgan). “Rio” is clever enough that adults will enjoy this stuff, too.
If the charmless “Hop” can be the No. 1 movie in Hollywood’s current box-office doldrums, then “Rio” ought to clean up. After a slow start, it really finds a fun samba beat.
“Rio” (3½ stars)
Animated adventures of a couple of rare blue macaws (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway) on the loose in Brazil during Rio’s carnival. A genuinely fun movie that does nicely with the warm tropical backdrop of Rio.
Rated: PG for violence.
Showing: Alderwood, Cinebarre, Edmonds, Everett Stadium, Galaxy Monroe, Marysville, Olympic, Stanwood, Meridian, Metro, Oak Tree, Woodinville, Blue Fox, Cascade Mall, Oak Harbor.
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