After falling in love and starting a family in the first film, Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) and Jewel (Anne Hathaway), macaw parrots currently living in Rio, decide to go to the Amazon when their human friends, Linda and Tulio, discover an entire flock of macaws living there.
A city bird by nature, Blu has trouble adapting to living off the land, relying on his GPS system, missing his homemade pancakes and learning to eat bugs, but he can understand the value of teaching his children to live a natural bird’s life. However, Blu will have even bigger problems dealing with his newly found father in law Eduardo (Andy Garcia) and the suave lover-bird Roberto (Bruno Mars). Then there’s the evil duo of the Cockatoo who can’t fly, Nigel (Jemaine Clement), and his infatuated poisonous frog friend Gabi (Kristen Chenoweth), who wish only to poop on their party. Ultimately, all these relationship issues fall by the wayside when loggers threaten to destroy the entire macaw habitat, then birds of a feather must flock together.
We say, “Let this one migrate to DVD.”
TAYLOR: I can’t say that this film is any better or worse than the first installment, luckily I didn’t see it. I thought this film was perpetually dull. Sure it’s bright and colourful, but in terms of character, story and pure fun, this film fails to impress.
HOWE: Having a young child, I have been forced to view the original Rio, numerous times. The first one was a bit of a novelty with its bright colours, samba music and a few funnies. This time out it felt old. I don’t recall laughing once, the songs (and there are a lot of them) seem to drone on and on.
TAYLOR: I was entertained a bit by the relationship between the antagonist cockatoo Nigel and his sycophantic love interest Gabi. They provided the few light moments, high points in a story awash in mediocrity. It’s not that there’s anything particularly bad in the film, it’s certainly suitable enough for very young kids, the problem is that the kids (and I) didn’t seem to give two hoots.
Consider this: The filmmakers decided to bring back Luiz, the slobbery dog from the original film, voiced by Tracey Morgan, presumably so that they could say “the whole gang is back.” Luiz appears for a few seconds at the beginning of the film and a few more seconds at the end. He does nearly nothing except makes a quip when someone slips in his slobber trail, “Walk it off, buddy.” It seems to me like this is an exercise in making money, rather than entertaining kids. The two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, this film is just lazy.
FENIN: I loved Nigel (aka Bob) and his frog, they wanted to poop on the party, very funny. But other than that it wasn’t very good. Oh look dad, I got the Luiz figure on the top of my cup.
HOWE: Well I think that just sums up the movie. Fenin is more interested in his cup figurine than the movie itself. All I can say is I hope the filmmakers realize that this franchise isn’t as profitable as some of their others and won’t make me sit painfully through a third encounter with these fowl duds.
– Taylor gives Rio 2 rotten eggs out of 5.
— Howe gives it 2 Yorick skulls out of 5
– Fenin gives it 4 Nigels out of 5.
– Brian Taylor and Peter Howe are film reviewers based in Vernon, B.C. Their column, Reel Reviews, appears in The Morning Star Friday and Sunday.
