![]() ![]() And even if he doesn’t totally fit in now that he’s mostly cut ties with his former owner Linda (Leslie Mann), he’s making a good show of it, celebrating a traditional New Year’s Eve high above one of Rio’s iconic beaches where local residents congregate. ![]() Opening with one of the movie’s frequent musical numbers, Rio 2 finds Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) settled down with mate Jewel (Anne Hathaway) in Rio de Janeiro, raising a brood of three young blue macaws in the heart of the city. Although the significance of some of the musical and visual references may not register with the youngest viewers, there’s plenty here to attract both kids and adults alike in Saldanha’s colorful imagining of the Amazon rain forest’s avian communities. Rio’s impressive voice cast returns for the second outing largely intact, augmented by some notable additions, including Andy Garcia as a patriarchal parrot and singer-songwriter Bruno Mars in a tunefully comedic role. As Fox continues to roll out its international release following the film’s March 27 opening in Brazil, it can aspire to notch in the neighborhood of the original’s $486 million tally, although a larger share of Rio 2’s total take can probably be expected from home-entertainment formats. Despite recent uneven response to family-friendly animated fare from an over-saturated demographic, the sequel stands to capitalize on strong franchise recognition and association with the studio’s hugely popular Ice Age movies, also directed by Rio 2’s Carlos Saldanha. But it’s the sort of relentless juggling act that finally proves more exhausting than exhilarating as it lectures you about respecting Mother Nature one minute, knocks you over with a Gloria Gaynor cover the next, and squeezes in a lot of questionable comic relief in between.Īgain pegging its 3D Rio series to an April release date, 20th Century Fox Animation looks set to benefit from the final weeks of the spring break holiday period as vacations draw to a close. Mining an unwieldy number of domestic and ecological dramas from the continuing saga of a rare Brazilian blue macaw, here venturing with his new family into the perilous Amazon rainforest, this hyperactive toon extravaganza has color, flair and energy to burn. A rather misleading title is just one reason to be slightly suspicious of “Rio 2” an eye-popping, ear-tickling animated sequel that labors to fold a cheeky family sitcom, an earnest environmental primer, an exotic jungle tour, a broad survey of popular music and an avian remake of “Meet the Parents” into one bright and noisy package. ![]()
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