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RIO 2
US, 2014, 99 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Andy Garcia, Jermaine Clement, Jamie Foxx, Will I. am, Rita Marino, Kristin Chenoweth, Rodrigo Santoro, Tracy Morgan, George Lopez.
Directed by Carlos Saldhana.
Rio was a very happy film, happy characters (allowing for the villain, Nigel). Rio 2 is also a very happy film, happy characters – and Nigel turning up again.
The film comes from the studios which produced the Ice Age films, so with these and the Rio films, a very good record for producing entertaining animation, popular with audiences. The animation style is very vivid, very bright colours, cheerful in themselves, well delineated characters, mostly birds, with some other eccentric animals and a range of humans, the sympathetic conservationists Linda and Tulio and the big boss and his squad of loggers with their heavy machines, sawing and dragging down the trees in the Amazon.
In fact, very little of the action takes place in Rio. Rather, we are mostly in the Amazon, not only with Blu, Jewel and their offspring but with a huge flock of blue birds – and some rival bright red birds on the opposite side of the gorge, all territorial, because of the scarcity of Brazil nuts. While the birds generally get on well together, their rivalry is tested in a battle, a kind of aerial soccer match, a kind of Brazil-nut Quidditch action game. This confrontation, along with an amassed attack by blue birds on loggers and drivers, with the red birds joining in the action, are the main adventurous parts of the plot.
The film pokes fun at the urbanisation of Blu and his family, the children knowing how to open a Brazil nut by opening the can, relying on their television and their iPads. It is obviously time that they went back to their roots and found other blue birds, which they did not know existed, and discover their true selves. It is not difficult for Jewel who discovers her father, Eduardo, the patriarch of the blue birds. The children settle into the outdoor life. But, it is rather hellish for Blu, still relying on his GPS, and who is dismissed disdainfully as “a human pet”. Unwittingly, he contravenes the boundaries - which sets up the need for the competitive aerial battle – and, even then, as he goes to the rescue, he makes a mistake putting him even further on the outer.
Nigel is in pursuit of Blu, but with a new assistant enamoured of him, Gabi, a rather sassy frog. They stumble upon auditions for a concert and the film pauses for some minutes while Nigel is invited to sing and he does a show-stopping version of I Will Survive. Nigel and Gabi eventually get tangled in the bird-attack on the loggers.
Characters from the first film are back again, all with entertaining supporting roles.
It is the voice cast which is very good. Jesse Eisenberg was Blu in the first film and he is very much at the centre of this one. Eisenberg has one of the most distinctive ways of delivering lines in films at the moment, a kind of stammering, hesitant, gawky, which has served him well for many roles, even for Mark Zuckerberg and the establishing of Facebook. He is perfect as Blue. Anne Hathaway is more generic as Jewel but Andy Garcia obviously relishes the opportunity to be the stern patriarch, Eduardo. Leslie Mann and Rodrigo Santoro are Linda and Tulio. Jamie Fox and Will I.am are the two friends, and Miguel Ferrer is the voice of the Big Boss.
Rio to is as entertaining as its original. (Except for a warning that logging warriors in, say, Tasmania, might feel under siege from these birds.)
1. The popularity of the original film? The atmosphere in Brazil, the city of Rio, the birds, the niceness, the characters – and Nigel, the villain?
2. The popular sequel, meeting everyone again, some new characters, adventures? In the Amazon rather than in the city?
3. The colour photography, the colour design, bright? Rio, the locations, the tropics, the statue of Christ? Copacobana, the beach? The shift to the Amazon, the design of the forests? The trees and the birds, the logging and the destruction? Adventures? Blu and Jewel and their family? The action sequences, the battle of the Brazil nuts? The logging? The confrontation between birds and loggers?
4. The musical score, the popular songs, Nigel and his version of I Will Survive?
5. The strength of the voice cast, Jesse Eisenberg and his other roles, his intonations, perfect for Blu? Jermaine Clement and his sinister voice as Nigel, Andy Garcia and his solemnity as the patriarch macaw?
6. Life in Rio, the family, their becoming very much city birds, the children and their ignorance of the Amazon and their origins, relying on all the technology? Their friends, Nico and Pedro, the Bulldog and its slavering, Nigel and his wanting to pursue Blu? The friendship with Linda and Tulio? The decision to go to the Amazon after seeing them on television? Jewel and her enthusiasm, the reluctant children, Blu and his still hanging on to his iPad, not familiar with life in the Amazon?
7. The focus on Linda and Tulio, on the river, setting the bird free, the bird trying to warn them about the waterfalls, going over the falls, the greater falls, surviving? The headquarters in the Amazon, the encounter with the loggers, Linda and her defiance, the threats, their both being captured, tied to the tree, trying to get loose? Blu and his intervention? The logging situation? Blu rounding up the birds, their massing for an attack, the defiance of the boss, the drivers in their machines, pulling down the trees, the attack of the birds, the devices for upsetting the loggers, the red birds joining in on the attack? Stopping the logging? A film for conservationists?
8. Life in the Amazon, Eduardo as the patriarch, looking down on Blu, considering him a human pet? His favouring Roberto? The great flock of blue birds? Jewel and her enjoying the Amazon? Trying to persuade Blu? The children and their adapting and enjoying it? Life with the blue birds? The rivalry of the red birds, the division of the gorge, for Brazil nuts, the lack of nuts and need for food?
9. The preparation for the concert, Nico and Pedro, the auditions, the humour of the recitations, the singing of Midnight? Nigel, his being caught, his vanity, assisted by Gabi, his rendition of I Will Survive, the variations with other songs, the performance and his pride?
10. Nigel, the villain from the first film, pursuit of Blu, his schemes, disguise, his getting caught up in the battle, hanging with Blu, his plans with Gabi to attack Blu, firing, his being hit himself – thinking he was dead, that he would survive, getting up to fight another day?
11. Blu, trying to help, pursuing the Brazil nut for Jewel, going to the wrong side of the gorge, the need for battle, intervening in the aerial battle for the Brazil nuts, his expertise, his being deceived, failure? His discovery of Linda and Tulio, organising the attack, his leadership, accepted by the birds and Eduardo calling him Blu instead of pet?
12. Cheery adventures in the Amazon, happy birdlife, and the conservationist message against logging and the protection of life in the Amazon?