Carlos Saldanha has been itching to make Rio for a long time. One of the founders of Blue Sky studios, he's been the director behind the vast majority of their biggest hits, namely every installment of the Ice Age
series. But Rio is something special and personal for the Brazilian filmmaker. He wanted to make a movie that was unique to his birthplace, full of bright colors, exotic animals, and spicy Samba rhythms. Rio is a shining example of how adding a personal touch can make a film so much more than the sum of it's parts. The film kicks off with a spirited, energetic opening number set in the jungles near Rio de Janeiro. Blu(Jesse Eisenberg) is a rare breed of blue macaw who never learns to fly before being taken away by smugglers. When the truck he's traveling in crashes in the middle of Minnesota, he's found by Linda(Leslie Mann) and raised as her pet and loyal companion for years. She makes Blu hot chocolate with just the right amount of marshmallows. Blu is so domesticated there's no way he could survive out in the wild. But Blu's species is on the verge of extinction, and at the behest of an eager scientist, Blu is taken back to his birthplace to procreate with one of the last of his species. Let's just say Blu's first "encounter" with the beautiful, stubborn Jewel(Anne Hathaway) does not go as planned. She wants to escape so she can fly out in the open sky again, while Blu just wants the comfort of his cage. Any hope of propagating the species is slim.
The two are soon kidnapped by yet more smugglers, this one a bumbling trio with a terrifying pet cockatoo named Nigel(Jemaine Clement). Nigel is a heavyweight where other birds in town are featherweights. An ex showbird with his own TV show, Nigel has grown old, ugly, and evil to the core. Nigel is so terrible he even gets his own musical number to emphasize the point. It's the highlight of the film for me.
There's not a lot of story to Rio, to be honest, but there's so much going on that it doesn't really matter. Saldanha's rendition of his native land is absolutely breathtaking, and the flying scenes are as gorgeous and freeing as last year's How to Train Your Dragon. The bulk of the film is a chase sequence, which sees Jewel and the grounded(literally) Blu navigating the city streets during Carnivale to make their escape. Brilliantly lavish parade floats and garish costumes are splash every corner of the screen. There's so much life and energy in every single moment. The favela funk beats are the movie's life blood.
Jamie Foxx, George Lopez, and Tracy Morgan as a slobbering bulldog round out a near pitch-perfect supporting voice cast. Rio is such a gorgeous, florid film that you'll want to grab your passport and hop the soonest flight.
