Rio
Year: 2011
Rating: G
Length: 96 minutes / 1.67 hours
When Rio (2011) came out, I felt it was pushed into so many aspects of popular culture that 20th Century Fox Animation was trying to make it a hit by sheer cross-branding. Heck, there was even an entire Angry Birds game made for mobile phones that was filled with plot from the movie. Re-watching this film more than a decade later made me realize how generic this movie truly is. That it had so many trope similarities to Fox Animation’s Epic (2013) which came out a few years later, shows how formulaic these movies are.
It seems every movie dealing with rare animals always has some kind of poacher as the villain. Finding Nemo (2003) did this. Madagascar 3 (2012) did this. Migration (2023) did this. Additionally, most movies set in “foreign” locales play up their cultural touchstones as a strong bit of advertising to the tourists who might watch the movie (or at least have their kids beg them to go there). Even though there aren’t a ton of movies set in Rio de Janeiro, these tropes made the whole movie feel too similar to many others.
The trick is that generic movies like this aren’t necessarily terrible. Sure, there’s the comedic relief duo, the fish-out-of-water main character, and the experienced other main character that guides them through their journey of self-discovery. But the other accoutrements give the movie its own personality. For Rio, I felt the standout part of this film was how the Blue Macaws moved. Even though there were moments of exaggerated movement (it is a kids’ film, after all), the way Blue (Jesse Eisenberg) moves with his beak and feet felt extremely realistic to how most parrots move. Certainly worth a watch if you have a parrot for a pet.
A generic kids’ movie with realistic parrot movements, I give Rio 3.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
