Rio: A Must Watch for The Whole Family

Rio is fun-filled, action-packed, hilarious, adventurous and simply pure family entertainment. This energetic and cheerful animation is brought to us by 20th Century Fox Studios, who are also the creators of The Ice Age series. Rio is the movie to go out and watch with your kids. This non-stop adventure comedy is very engaging right from the very beginning. The movie does not drag or become boring during its 96 minutes of runtime.

Although the storyline is predictable yet the action sequences make it an interesting watch. You will have the kids giggling and laughing and totally captivated by the witty and charming characters.

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Genre: Animation/ Adventure/ Comedy 

Motion Picture Rating: Rated PG for mild off color humor

Release Date: 8 April 2011 (USA)

Runtime: 96 min

Director: Carlos Saldanha

Writer: Story by Carlos Saldanha, Screenplay by Don Rhymer

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Jamie Foxx, Will.i.am, Leslie Mann, Bernardo de Paula and George Lopez

Tagline: 1 out of every 8 Americans is afraid of flying. Most of them don’t have feathers.

Synopsis: This adorable comedy is about a one of a kind blue macaw named Blu, voice by Jesse Eisenberg who enjoys the domestic life with his wonderful keeper and best friend Linda, voice by Leslie Mann. Blu loves living the comfortable and routine life at a bookstore in the small town of Moose Lake in Minnesota. Although he is 15-year-old now yet he has never ever tried to fly. (How unimaginable! That’s why he calls himself a turkey!)

One day, a Brazilian Ornithologist named Tulio, voice by Rodrigo Santoro comes over to meet Linda informing her that Blu is one of the last two remaining members of his species and that the other, a female, has been found and is being kept at Tulio’s bird sanctuary in Rio de Janeiro. He desperately requests her to let him take Blu to Rio where they can mate the birds and save their species. Linda is very reluctant since she has never let Blu out of her sight.

Finally she decides to help Tulio pursue his mission and heads to beautiful and exotic Rio. There they begin the operation and Blu is situated in a beautiful habitat with his female counterpart Jewel, voice by Anne Hathaway. Blu falls in love with Jewel at first sight while Jewel ridicules him of being a silly pet birdie. Jewel is fierce and independent but unfortunately, before she can try to escape both the macaws are bird-napped by animal smugglers. Jewel tries to escape again with Blu chained to her feet but gets caught by vicious Nigel an old cockatiel, perfectly voiced by Jemaine Clement,  since Blu cant fly. So they try to break the chain and escape again. Then starts a series of fun-filled adventures hindered by the fact that they cannot escape or fly away as Nigel and the bird-nappers chase them.

In the beginning of the story they show a flashback of a little blue macaw baby being grabbed by horrible animal smugglers from his nest but luckily gets rescued from a snow drift by Linda when she was a little girl as his crate bounces off a delivery truck. Hence Blu has always been afraid to fly and leave his domestic habitat.

The adorable pair is joined by other friendly birds during their quest, that help them along the way. They help Blu find the courage to learn how to fly. There are a lot of heart warming and affectionate scenes that pull your heartstrings. Especially how one is ready to risk their life in the name of love and friendship. How you don’t abandon your friends in the time of need. How you have to learn to overcome your biggest fears. How love conquers all.

Rio is a family drama filled with humorous adventures. The dialogues are very funny especially the ones about Blu’s inability to fly. The animation is superb. The aerial views of Rio’s landscapes are breathtaking. The flight of the birds make you feel like you are also flying. The carefree birds flying over Brazil’s rainforests, the mountaintops, the beaches and the sea are simply fabulous.

The score is very catchy and infectious based on the Samba beat. The constant chase by the bird-nappers is trilling and the colorful floats shown in the parade are magnificent. Eisenberg and Hathaway have great chemistry together creating a beautiful, magical love story on screen.

I found this wonderful film to be equally entertaining along with my kids. I loved the way they show how initially Jewel is dismissive of Blu for his timidity and inability to fly, but learns to appreciate his other great talents. How in turn, Blu learns to loosen up and enjoy the life outside his cage and to take risks for the ones he loves and cares while overcoming his biggest fear.

Simply a MUST watch!!

Viewers Rating: 7.5/10

FemmeTalks Rating: *****

Rio currently tops the box office with $40 million.

You can watch Rio in 3D in selected theaters or buy the DVD from Amazon.

For more information on Rio visit The Internet Movie Database:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1436562/

Enjoy!