'Rio' no turkey
A domesticated Minnesota macaw is returned to Brazil to propagate his
species in this colourful animated family feature. Blu, voiced by "The
Social Network's" Jesse Eisenberg, is perfectly content living alone
with Linda (Leslie Mann), who is an endangered species herself: an
independent bookseller.
The last thing he wants or needs is an all-expenses-paid trip to Rio
de Janeiro, where bird doctor Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) has the last
female blue macaw in captivity. Jewel (Anne Hathaway) is not too pleased
either, especially when she finds out this North American nerd bird ca
not even fly, putting a significant crimp in the escape plan she's
hatching.
I guess you would have to call this a pet project for writer-director
Carlos Saldanha, who was born in Rio himself. The movie shies away from
local colour the way Carmen Miranda shied from a banana. The opening
number is a Vegas-in-the-rainforest routine, a tropical cavalcade of
all-singing, all-dancing parrots, hornbills and toucans, and save for a
brief interlude in the frigid North, the samba beat rarely lets up for
long.
Which is absolutely fine. After his self-imposed exile in three "Ice
Ages," you can't blame Saldanha for embracing the tropical heat.
His Copa runneth over with soccer, fruit cocktails and carnival. Look
closely, you'll see Linda even gets a touch of sunburn. That kind of
attention to detail distinguishes the images even when the story itself
feels less than inspired.
Saldanha doesn't ignore the city's grim poverty and horrendous crime
rate, either. In classic Disney fashion, Blu and Jewel are snatched by
bungling bird-smugglers, but there's also an orphaned street kid
involved who might have stepped out of "City of God."
Eisenberg's geek with a beak is a typical movie klutz, a permanently
flustered, blustering homebody who resembles Woody Allen with wings.
Blu's fear of flying is the movie's most consistent running gag and,
naturally, its guiding metaphor. Hathaway's feisty Jewel and Mann's
determined Linda give the story a mildly feminist undercurrent.
Among a crowded menagerie of comical support, neither Jamie Foxx nor
Will.i.am get anything interesting to do, but Tracy Morgan is fun as a
slobbery bulldog and Jemaine Clement (from "Flight of the Conchords")
contributes his own song as the villainous cockatoo, Nigel.
It is bizarre that a movie boasting no less than four songs by
Tropicalia legend Sergio Mendes and half a dozen more by Bahia
percussionist Carlinhos Brown should lean over backward to name-check
Alabama's own Lionel Richie - presumably someone at Twentieth Century
Fox thought that was a great idea. But why complain when there is so
much good samba to savor?
Presented in 3-D, "Rio" makes the most of the spectacular city
backdrop, especially in the swooping aerial sequences and a climactic
chase among the carnival floats. The storytelling is too formulaic to
put this up among the top tier, but families will come out swinging
their hips and shaking their tail-feathers.
- CNN |