Not since The Three Caballeros has an animated film been so seemingly devoted to driving tourism to an exotic locale. Directed by Brazilian Carlos Saldanha, the film is a virtual love letter to his native land. And to his credit, he even managed to include Rio’s poverty-stricken favelas without sucking the life out of the film. The film’s palette is extraordinarily vibrant even with the normally color-draining 3D glasses. Department stores are destined to spend the next five years using this film to show off their flat screen TVs.
The film is a musical of sorts. The songs are a notch above passable, but nothing truly memorable. But the numbers are far enough apart as to be jarring; coming so infrequently that at times you might forget that this is technically a musical. Because of these lapses, the picture never really gains momentum as a true musical.
But the characters are endearing and the voice work is solid, even from animation novices like will.i.am and Jamie Foxx. And while the story amounts to little more than an extended chase scene, it moves along at a good clip with a relatively sufficient amount of laughs. Unfortunately, the movie never really manages to become anything truly original.
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being The Enchanted Tiki Room and 1 being The Birds II: Land’s End, Rio gets a 7.
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