An amiable outing

Rating: 5/10 (24 April 2011)

"Rio" is not terrible like more recent Dreamworks movies where the animated movies always have to depend on star power and pop culture references for laughs, but their stories aren't as convincing as those of Pixar movies. Like most spring movies, "Rio" is fine for an outing, but it is not the kind of movie I would put in my DVD collection.
The best thing about Rio is the colors, the realistic animated backgrounds of the South American tourist city which also includes the slums as well as the beaches we love to see ourselves at, and a few good musical numbers, including the song that goes "I Want to Party, I Want to Samba," by Jamie Foxx and Will I Am, who play two birds held in captivity who entertain the other birds. Otherwise, I would say that the story is formulaic and predictable, and we've seen many of these movies before.
The story goes that Blu (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg from the brilliant "The Social Network") a nerdy domesticated macaw dropped off in Minnesota from a truck on the streets, enjoys his companionship with his owner Linda (voiced by Leslie Mann), and has never learned to fly. A Brazilian ornithologist named Tulio (voiced by Rodrigo Santoro) comes to town and wants to bring Blu back to Brazil to mate with the other remaining macaw from the country, the independent Jewel (voiced by Anne Hathaway). They get down there during Carnaval season, Blu meets Jewel, but sure enough, they are kidnapped by nasty bird smugglers, but make escapes to various parts of the city. It always appears that villains steal the show in otherwise middle-of-the-road movies, and that villain is the smugglers' cockatoo pet Nigel (voiced by Jemaine Clement, who does the best work), who gets more into the action and smuggling than the humans themselves.
Linda and Blu are separated from two-thirds of the movie. She and Tulio are looking for Blu, who is now with the smugglers and Jewel. During the adventures, there are friends who aid in returning Blu to his owner, such as a funny bulldog named Luis (voiced by comedian Tracy Morgan), a wisecracking toucan named Rafael (voiced by comedian George Lopez), and two rapping birds played by Will I Am and Jamie Foxx. Recently they performed that party/samba number on "American Idol," and they did better on that show than in the movie. Then there are ugly, thieving monkeys who Nigel enlists the aid of to find Blu and Jewel in their escapes.
As stated earlier the story follows the formula of most animated movies. Couple meets cute. Couple gets into danger. Then then male bird returns to its owner, and marries the female, producing their own birds. Villains lose and get locked up. Note that Rodrigo, a poor kid, reluctantly works for the smugglers, and would rather be with Linda and Tulio, as he searches back for the macaws. He just kidnaps the macaws just for the money, but the smugglers won't let him get away with that.
In my years of seeing animated movies, I have to say that the Pixar movies are by far the best. They don't depend on clichés and formulas, like Rio. Even the first Ice Age Movie, made by the makers of "Rio" didn't depend on these elements. They don't look for star power and pop culture, like Dreamworks does all of the time in recent years. However, "Rio" goes slightly above Dreamworks, but still falls into the predictability cliché department. The backgrounds and colors make up the most for the movie, but the plot and character development is just about everything we have seen before as well. Fine for an outing, but not one of the best movies I have seen.