An overall enjoyable film.

Rating: 7/10 (16 February 2012)

Normally I'm getting fed up with animated movies with animals in it, that look like real animals but yet behave like humans. But I simply enjoyed "Rio" for what it was and it didn't ever angered or annoyed me in any way. Instead it entertained me, even though this movie still has plenty of flaws to it.
A thing that the movie most definitely has going for it are its locations. It makes you wonder why there aren't more animated movies set in Rio de Janeiro. It's bright, cheerful and very colorful (well, depending on where you go in Rio de Janeiro of course), just like basically every computer animated movie! In other words, it's a perfect combination. Besides, it provides the movie with plenty of excuses to feature lots of singing and dancing and jumping around in it, which most modern animated movies seem to love to do.
And just like most of the other animated movies as well, this movie its humor has its hits and misses in it. But luckily it's all getting done and told in such a fast way that you can forgive it for its misses, since chances are that 5 seconds later something good and funny will still happen. And the movie still really has some big hits in it as well. This movie will make you laugh at least two or three times, guaranteed.
But there still is plenty wrong with this movie as well. First of all, its story is being far too simplistic and straightforward, even for an animated movie for kids. There really are no good side-plots and the main story itself is about as simple and generic as it could get, about a parrot getting lost in Rio de Janeiro, trying to get back to its owner, while his owner is also looking for him. But come to think of it, throughout the movie he is actually hardly looking for his owner at all. He is far too busy with his new girlfriend and learning to fly.
Another serious issue I had with this movie was the fact that it kept introducing new characters, basically throughout the entire movie. Did we really need 4 villains and 5 different comical reliefs? Really, every time you start to think; 'this character is going to be important!' a new character pops up and the other characters are getting pushed to the background again. The movie does this a bit too often but maybe they thought they would sell more merchandise if they introduced dozens of characters in it.
Visually there is nothing wrong with the movie. Like I said before, its perfectly colorful and cheerful and Rio de Janeiro looks truly superb in this movie. I also really liked the character's animation. Picking a parrot for the main lead doesn't sound like the most likely choice but it does work out really well for the movie. But the design for basically every animal or human character in this movie is just great. Seriously, sometimes just the look of a character was enough to make me laugh.
Despite the plenty of problems I had with this movie, I could still really enjoy and appreciate it for what it was.
7/10
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