And we finally get to one of the more expected animation movies of the year. Phew!!! That was one long wait. Over 4 months since I saw the trailer for the first time, Rio hit screens in India last weekend (pardon me for the delay in putting up the review but it has seriously been super hectic). And I almost lost all hope that it would get there in the first place. I mean, what is with production houses that release the trailer some 6 months before the movie and then keep you waiting for time immemorial. After a while it gets to your nerves a bit too much and does nothing to build up the excitement in anyways. I would hazard a guess that anything more than 3 months and it gets to be really boring. Trailer Life Cycle hypothesis is what I would like to call it.
Lets move onto the more relevant point of discussion - the 7th release in the Animation genre from movie power house Twentieth Century Fox (TCF). That they have released only 7 to date should give TCF a good enough indication that they are not really cut out best to play around much in this genre. Other than the Ice Age series, the rest of the lot have been quite average and in fact not worth mentioning. Rio probably makes it to the list that can just about claim to have made the cut with nothing terribly brilliant about it nor was it horrendously made to say it wasn’t worth a dekko. TCFs favourite animation director would have to be Carlos Saldanah who has given them their most successful franchise to date. But somehow the namesake of the Jackal isn’t able to re-create the magic of Ice Age. One may argue that it is unfair to compare previous works and treat this in isolation. On both counts, Rio falls just that tad bit short of being a superb animation movie in the league of Up or Finding Nemo or for that matter even Cars. Pixar needn’t quite worry for now with the quality of work that they are giving us.
Rio is the story of Blue (Jesse Eisenberg) who finds himself caught by a trapper in the jungles right outside the famed Samba City and then traded as an exotic species of bird – the Blue Macaw. And that too when the poor baby is just about excited about the concept of flying. Pretty soon he finds himself in the other hemisphere in the extremely cold state of Milwaukee. By chance, he is found by Linda (Leslie Mann) who takes care of him like her best friend. A few years later, Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) arrives at Linda’s doorstep and gives her the news that Blue is the last of its species (do macaws live upto 15-20 years coz that’s the amount of time that seems to have passed between Linda finding Blue and today). Now here’s a nerdy girl who has probably not been on a date and a Macaw who doesn’t know how to fly and find themselves travelling to Rio where their little adventure sees Blue trying to make an impression on Jewel (Anne Hathaway). In between all of that is an avian villain, a parakeet who goes by the name of Nigel (Jemaine Clement) and some avian friends – a Toucan called Rafael (George Lopez). Keeping them company are Pedro (Will i Am ) and Nico (Jamie Foxx). A reasonable adventure but a bit short of being really good. The Animation is not outstanding in anyways. 3D and the music are quite weak with nothing to get too excited about. The voice overs are quite well done though. Overall a 6 on 10. The kids will definitely love it. But not meant for all ages.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi470260249/
Lets move onto the more relevant point of discussion - the 7th release in the Animation genre from movie power house Twentieth Century Fox (TCF). That they have released only 7 to date should give TCF a good enough indication that they are not really cut out best to play around much in this genre. Other than the Ice Age series, the rest of the lot have been quite average and in fact not worth mentioning. Rio probably makes it to the list that can just about claim to have made the cut with nothing terribly brilliant about it nor was it horrendously made to say it wasn’t worth a dekko. TCFs favourite animation director would have to be Carlos Saldanah who has given them their most successful franchise to date. But somehow the namesake of the Jackal isn’t able to re-create the magic of Ice Age. One may argue that it is unfair to compare previous works and treat this in isolation. On both counts, Rio falls just that tad bit short of being a superb animation movie in the league of Up or Finding Nemo or for that matter even Cars. Pixar needn’t quite worry for now with the quality of work that they are giving us.
Rio is the story of Blue (Jesse Eisenberg) who finds himself caught by a trapper in the jungles right outside the famed Samba City and then traded as an exotic species of bird – the Blue Macaw. And that too when the poor baby is just about excited about the concept of flying. Pretty soon he finds himself in the other hemisphere in the extremely cold state of Milwaukee. By chance, he is found by Linda (Leslie Mann) who takes care of him like her best friend. A few years later, Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) arrives at Linda’s doorstep and gives her the news that Blue is the last of its species (do macaws live upto 15-20 years coz that’s the amount of time that seems to have passed between Linda finding Blue and today). Now here’s a nerdy girl who has probably not been on a date and a Macaw who doesn’t know how to fly and find themselves travelling to Rio where their little adventure sees Blue trying to make an impression on Jewel (Anne Hathaway). In between all of that is an avian villain, a parakeet who goes by the name of Nigel (Jemaine Clement) and some avian friends – a Toucan called Rafael (George Lopez). Keeping them company are Pedro (Will i Am ) and Nico (Jamie Foxx). A reasonable adventure but a bit short of being really good. The Animation is not outstanding in anyways. 3D and the music are quite weak with nothing to get too excited about. The voice overs are quite well done though. Overall a 6 on 10. The kids will definitely love it. But not meant for all ages.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi470260249/
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