Movie Review: Rio (2011)
An average film lacking an identity
Photo: 20th Century Fox
Ice Age franchise helmer Carlos Saldanha has teamed with Big Momma's House 2 and Deck the Halls scripter Don Rhymer to essentially take Pixar's Finding Nemo and mash it up with Dreamworks' Madagascar and call it Rio. Fascinating enough, mathematically it all works out. You take Nemo, which was a ten, and Madagascar, which was a four, add those up for 14, divide by two and you get Rio, which is a seven. It really is all about the math.
The voice cast includes Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Jamie Foxx, will.i.am, Tracy Morgan, George Lopez, Jane Lynch, Wanda Sykes, Jemaine Clement and Rodrigo Santoro. For more information on this film including pictures, trailers and a detailed synopsis choose from the following menu.
Review
"Rio" is a 20th Century Fox release, directed by Carlos Saldanha and is rated G The running time is 1 hour 36 minutes.
The intended romantic connection between Jewel and Blu aside, the story finds additional narrative in familiar details. Just as Nemo wasn't a fast swimmer and just as the animals in Madagascar weren't familiar with life outside of their comfortable zoo confines, Blu can't fly and he's too domesticated for the wilds of Rio as his father Marlin, excuse me, his owner Linda (Leslie Mann) searches for him.
As Jewel and Blu rush around, the inevitable side characters pop up. They run into a Hornbill voiced by George Lopez (because Lopez has to voice a character in every animated film that takes place south of the border), a hip-hop pair of birds voiced by Jamie Foxx and will.i.am and the most entertaining of the bunch, a drooling bulldog voiced by Tracy Morgan.
All of this is presented in 3D, which really adds very little to the feature if anything. I can't honestly remember a moment where I was particularly wowed by the visuals, but I did notice they managed to fit in several shots of the "Christ the Redeemer" statue, which is probably a prerequisite for setting your story in Rio.
Other aspects of the film are similarly mundane, such as the songs, none of which particularly strike a chord or raise your eyebrows. The animation also felt extremely ordinary and when it came to Jewel's owner Tulio (voiced by Rodrigo Santoro), his appearance down to his elongated head reminded me only of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. To that effect, the relationship that forms between Linda and Tulio is strikingly similar to the one found between the two leads in Cloudy. Yeah, the similarities to previous films are abundant, which is to say Rio is seriously lacking inventiveness.
But I don't want to sound like I'm coming down too hard on this film. It's a perfectly decent family film. It's colorful, has a few comedic characters, the line "Birds versus monkeys!" is a definite winner, a sinister cockatoo named Nigel voiced by the consistently entertaining Jemaine Clement ("The Flight of the Conchords") is spot on and I was thankful the story continued to move and never stagnates. However, it's just too simple and without much risk. Eisenberg and Hathaway don't necessarily bring much to their characters. Eisenberg especially is too lifeless and one-note to ever give his character much verve.
Families should be perfectly satisfied with Rio and I know there was at least one woman in my audience cackling over my right shoulder as if she was watching the funniest movie she'd ever seen. Personally it just didn't move me the same way. It lacks an identity as comparisons to other animated films are far too noticeable and frequent and when it does make an attempt to differentiate itself it only achieves middling results.
Links from Other Sites You May Like
Showing 6 Comments
~ PLEASE NOTE ~
If, in any way, your comment is an attack on the author of this post or a previous commenter, your comment will be deleted without question.
Add a New Comment |
Click to Read Our Commenting Rules & Guidelines
Yeah, the movie had its moments, but it wasn't funny all the time…
Maybe it's funnier for us brazilians. I had a good time watching it. The characters were charming (I thought Eisenberg did a great job with Blu), and the bulldog is a delight.
I enjoyed the fact that the movie didn't try too hard to change the ugly things about Rio (the favelas/slums, the fatherless child, the criminals). It was more faithful to reality than I was expecting.
And the carnival sequences were a feast for the eyes, just like the real thing.
I was pleasantly surprised with Rio. Granted, Jesse Eisenberg is rather one dimensional as Blu, but everyone else was spot on. I especially loved Jamie Foxx and will.i.am. They (along with Jemaine Clement) made the movie. There were a lot of kids laughing throughout, and though it may not entertain us adults at the same level, it was worth it for the kids.
Very underwhelming film. Nothing special at all. Not bad but not great either. Nigel was great but i didn't care about the lead birds one bit.
I truly enjoyed ' Rio ', and I was entertained. I can't say that about ' Scream 4 '. Brad, you are losing it, when you are praising ' Scream 4 ' and slamming this charming film. ' Scream 4 ' is a major letdown on every level .
I agree with you 100%. This movie was just average. Not only does this movie borrow plot elements from "Finding Nemo" and "Madagascar", but it also borrows plot elements from countless films in the past including "Homeward Bound", Sony Pictures Animation's "Open Season", Dreamworks Animation/ Aardman's "Flushed Away", Warner Brothers' animated film "Happy Feet", Johnny Depp's vastly superior animated film "Rango", "Alpha and Omega, which is an animated film featuring wolves, and Disney's computer animated films "Bolt" and "The Wild". It's your generic "domesticated animal afraid in his natural habitat", "journey home", "hate becomes love", "chase/ search party type" storyline. What makes even worse is that we don't really emotionally connect with or care much about the characters. Even the animation doesn't look as good as Disney/ Pixar and Dreamworks' animation is. Don't get me wrong, the animation isn't bad, it just that it doesn't look that great. With animated movies like "How to Train Your Dragon", "Toy Story" , "Up", "Shrek", "Kung Fu Panda 2", "Rango", and other Pixar films you really emotionally connect with and root for the characters. In "Rio", that doesn't happen here. The only positive things I can say about this movie is that the soundtrack is fine, and the only characters I liked are Nigel, the evil cockatoo, Luiz, the drooling bulldog, Raphael, the toucan, Nico, the canary and the orphaned litle boy named Fernando. And next time, don't ever cast Jesse Eisenberg, Leslie Mann, and Will I Am in an animated film ever again.