What Happy-Feet is to penguin poaching; Rio 'ISN'T' for Exotic Birds poaching.

Rating: 6/10 (21 April 2011)

We had enough dose of animation and 3D movies (combined and in isolation) in the past 3-4 years; so RIO-"3D" should not "the" USP of the film; which makes us ask.. "What was?" If you ask this to yourself, you wont get a convincing answer, and that is what sums up the entire experience. The animation part was fairly good (ice age for me was better though) but not up-to the level set by recent competitors like Tangled and How to Train Your Dragon; and very pale compared to Cars / Happy feet.
It was not an "Ok" movie, BUT a "Good" movie, BUT definitively could have been a 'Great' one. This movie came from the makers of ice age and that was written all over the entire 2 hour slot of viewing experience. Isn't that good?.. If course it is but when the Ice age type 'fun' epic is twisted to include a 'message' (bird conservation) oriented story ; it somewhat is not able to do justice to either. Happy feet on the other end could be a direct comparison where the confluence was superb. Rio on that count, sorry to say, wasn't.
On the positive side, it has the inherent carnival vibrancy with pulsating, colorful, exuberant, locales. The details of the city are all there, but so is the big picture (you know, everything that really matters, along with wide panoramas of Rio by night, of a crowded beach, of a sunset). Jesse (facebook) Eisenberg has done a great voice-over job.
This is where Disney / Pixar scores over others as they have sure plots but with a touch of maturity. Rio has the energy but lacks the ripeness. The movie ride is somewhat bumpy without the "Wow!" factor so prevalent in Disney / Pixar movies. In terms of colors and animation (ONLY), it's a spectacle
6/10..