Rio

Rio is the latest family animation from the Dreamworks team. Traditionally Dreamworks animations are not as well received as Pixar animations, and I know that I usually compare the two whenever a movie comes out. Pixar has a kind of magic that Dreamworks sometimes lacks, so I wasn’t sure about what I expected from Rio.

The story is of a domesticated, and therefore flightless, blue macaw (Blu) who is the last male of his species and needs to be flown to Rio de Janeiro to mate with the last female (Jewel). Unfortunately a band of bird smugglers want to get their hands on the pair, and the movie follows Blu and Jewel as they try to escape the smugglers and get back to Blu’s owner, Linda.

My favourite element of the movie was Jemaine Clement’s voice acting as Nigel, the evil cockatoo aiding the smugglers. Nigel was so funny, and EVIL, and easily the best thing about the movie:

The other voice actors were good I guess, apart from Anne Hathaway as Jewel. I love Anne Hathaway but I think you need to be able to see her to get the full impact of her acting. Her voice just wasn’t as interesting as the others. She’s definitely a live-action kind of girl.

I wasn’t actually aware that Rio was a musical, even though I’d seen the ad. And in fact the music seemed to take a back seat, which I found really odd. If you want a musical film, make a musical film, not a film with songs in funny places. There just didn’t seem to be a lot of effort put in and I wanted it to be, well, more.

The animation itself was fantastic and colourful, and the story was heartwarming, but it didn’t strike me as magical. Pixar has set the bar so high with animated pictures that anything that doesn’t have that same magic seems lacking.

Rio was enjoyable in the moment, and certainly a fun holiday film for the family, but I don’t have a lot more to say about it than what I’ve already said. It wasn’t striking or memorable, and I think in the long run it will probably fade into the background of animated films rather that stand out with the likes of something like Wall-E or Toy Story.

But it was a laugh and a good thing to see on an otherwise dull Tuesday afternoon, so I have to give it 3/5 stars.

xx
Za