Rio

Back in 2002, the Simpsons visited Rio de Janeiro and the city has never forgiven them. “The Simpsons” episode “Blame it on Lisa” incorrectly portrayed Brazil in many ways but if you ask me, the show does that to every country they depict (even their home country). The point is that Rio de Janeiro hasn't gotten over that incident and after watching “Rio”, I somewhat felt that the film was a counter attack. I enjoyed the film in 3D and the cast was well chosen but the story could have been a little better. The movie also lacked humor. The focus of "Rio" was on the songs and the settings in the film. It was like Carnival with a story added to it so that it could be classified as an animated feature film. This movie isn't really worth spending money on.

As mentioned, the film appeared to be a Brazilian response to the “Blame it on Lisa” incident. Look at the portrayal of Moose Lake, Minnesota. You never see it in summer. The reason for this was to create contrast with Brazil but it also makes Rio a very appealing place as opposed to the US. Half way through watching the film, I was asking myself what the central feature of the film was. Is it Blu learning to fly? Is the Blu and Jewel’s relationship or is it Blu and Linda’s relationship? As indicated, Rio de Janeiro is the star of the movie. The name of the film, the posters and trailers all support this. The story is crafted so as to visit and portray all the best parts of the city. They also include a musical number every five minutes and these songs for the most part do not sincerely support the story. As a result, the film actually has a lack of focus. The story always comes first and when your story depends on a location and music, you are limited in creating a special film. I know I am bias to Pixar but I must mention two of their films that took place in famous locations so as to illustrate my point. “Finding Nemo” took place in Australia and “Ratatouille” took place in Paris but both films used the setting to support their stories. The beauty of Australia was a nice backdrop to the story of a father looking for his son and the romantic feelings of the City of Lights supported the story of a rat that wants to be a chef. If you want a better example, Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" had songs and was set in the musical city of New Orleans but not only were the songs all different in style but they moved the story forward in an honest way. Blu was right in that Samba songs all sound the same. Sure that it not true but the reason I bring it up is that the film did not use its songs very well. I am not saying that they were bad songs; they just were used incorrectly. Howard Ashman once said that the songs in a musical are tent poles around which to set up a story; they are not plastered on to a story. The songs in a good musical come naturally and further the story. Some of the songs in “Rio” felt unnecessary and most of them did not further the story all that well. The movie would have been much better without half of the songs in it. As wonderful as Rio de Janeiro is, director Carlos Saldanha’s focus was on his hometown and everything special about it. I wanted to see a movie about characters, not about a city. We have the Travel Channel for that. However, because of the portrayal of Rio de Janeiro, "Rio" is pretty entertaining. I particularly liked the hang-gliding scene as well as the Carnival parade during the climax. Seeing the parade in 3D was quite amazing.

A great part of the film for me was the cast. When Jesse Eisenberg recorded his voice for Blu, he was not as famous as he is now. In fact, he did his recordings on his weekends off from filming his breakout movie, "The Social Network". This is probably the reason why Anne Hathaway’s name appears before Eisenberg’s at both the beginning and at the end of the movie. Thanks to the success of “The Social Network” and Eisenberg’s subsequent Oscar nomination for Best Actor, “Rio” had something else reputable about their film upon which to gain attention. As for his actual performance, Eisenberg did quite well. I could tell it was him but at the same time, he created a very likable character that was quite different from Mark Zuckerberg. Anne Hathaway’s voice (herself now an Oscar-winning actress) was perfect for her character, Jewel. I felt that she performed the best in the movie. Hathaway's character on this film to me seems to relate to another role of hers, Agent 99, on "Get Smart". I first saw Leslie Mann in “George of the Jungle” and she was wonderful as Linda in “Rio”. I love how George Lopez was a toucan. An actor with a big head voiced a bird with a big beak.

There are other aspects of the film that were not perfect besides its focus. I wanted a lot more humor in the film because the only character that I found humorous was Blu thanks to Eisenberg. Animated talking animals usually express love realistically through touch but in “Rio”, Blu and Jewel kiss. It just felt weird to me, mostly because how can you kiss with beaks. "Chicken Run" was able to get away with this because the kiss between Rocky and Ginger couldn't be fully seen because of the camera angle. Also, the birds on that film were more human like. Another little problem I had with the film is the conclusion. The resolution at the end lacked foundation and believability. I don’t quite buy the fact that Linda moves to Brazil as easily as she does but I guess the fact that she opens a bookstore there resolves my concern a little bit. One really good part about this movie was its beginning. The relationship of Linda and Blu was well established and appealing. Their life before Rio de Janeiro seems so wonderful but this in reality was not wise in telling a story. If Linda’s life was so wonderful in Moose Lake, why would she move so easily to Rio. When you have two strong relationships in one movie, it can be quite a balancing act and that caused some other minor story problems in “Rio”. The relationship between Linda and Tulio was not developed as well as it could have been. To sum up my point, the way everyone ended up happily ever after seemed a little unrealistic. The filmmakers could have spent time setting up things throughout the movie that paid off at the end. For example, they could have portrayed Linda as a woman who secretly wants to get out of her small town but is too scared to do so. The payoff at the end would therefore have been better.

I have known one of the animators on this film since kindergarten: A.J. Conrad. He was in my high school graduating class and it was cool to see his name on the big screen. This film was good because of the cast but the story was moderate. The focus of the film was on the setting & music and that doesn’t quite work for a narrative film. The film was also lacking humor-wise. Even though I like how the song "Real in Rio" was nominated at the Oscars, it had no chance against "Man or Muppet". Back when this film came out, I had a feeling that it was subtle promotion for the city that would host the World Cup in 2014 and the Games of the 31st Olympiad in 2016. Thanks to the sequel that came out in 2014, my theory still holds up.

3.5 Stars