Good movie, but full of issues

Rating: 6/10 (21 April 2020)

I really enjoyed this film. It is the story of a Sphinx Blue Macaw that is the last known male, aptly named Blu. He and his owner are flown to Rio to see if Blu might mate with a female in an effort to "save the species". There are of course the obligatory bad guys that steal the pair of birds with a mind to sell them for a profit. We end up with a family friendly tale of love and devotion and how great people can be. There are a lot of vivid colors and great songs to keep the attention of kids, and enough over the head jokes to keep the adults amused.
Now for the issues. This movie touches on but does not address the terrible thing that happens at the opening of the movie, how parrots are stolen from the wild and the sold as pets. Contrary to popular belief, parrots are not domesticated and should not be kept as pets. These are animals that are still wild at heart and they are also highly intelligent, so this act is akin to an advanced alien race kidnapping your children and keeping them as pets. Sure, the kids might eventually bond with their captor, but it is far from the ideal situation for them. Also they show Blu drinking hot chocolate and eating what looks like chocolate chip cookies, both poisonous to parrots. This is a gross misrepresentation of how to care for a parrot, and one day one of the people that saw this and thought how great a pet a parrot might make will kill their bird through ignorance. I do not mean to climb up on a soapbox here in the review section, but if you are going to put out a movie that so terribly represents how to care for a pet like this, then the issue needs to be addressed.
In closing, this is a great family movie that anyone who does not have a parrot in their care would love and even those that do will enjoy it to a certain point.