Photo by: thewallpapers.org
“Rio” is the first kid-safe movie of the year that targets both a youthful elementary school crowd while still entertaining an older crowd looking to relive the magic and music of youth.
By doing so, it has produced the most successful opening weekend of the year, making approximately $40 million and breaking out of the box office profit slump, which started last December.
The film goes right back to the basics with a straightforward and generic story structure. While this may be a detriment to many animated films, “Rio” stays on one path, avoiding the creation of dramatic plot tangents to fill up space.
Instead, it combines vibrant color, song and a high profile voice cast to keep things fresh.
Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”) voices a domesticated blue Macaw, named Blu, who was taken as a baby from the wild jungles of Rio de Janeiro by bird snatchers.
However, he luckily escapes, ending up in Moose Lake, Minn., where he becomes best friends with a female named Linda (Leslie Mann, “Funny People”). After many years, Blu and Linda are approached by a scientist named Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro, “300”) who tells them that in order to save his species, he needs to return to Rio de Janeiro and mate with the last female of his kind.
While in Rio, Blu meets his other half, Jewel (Anne Hathaway, “Love and Other Drugs”), and makes friends with animals voiced by an all-star supporting cast, including Will.I.Am, Jamie Foxx, Tracy Morgan and George Lopez. Together the cast rocks the rhythm of Brazil as they evade capture from smugglers striving to sell them for enormous sums of money.
During all of the havoc, two subtle love stories form between Blu and Jewel, and Linda and Tulio.
While being very cliché, the writers do not destroy the movie’s integrity by completely relying on their development.
Ultimately, “Rio” successfully fulfills expectations staying true to youthful entertainment, while keeping contained the boredom of adults unlike less successful G-movie releases this year such as “Hop.”
