Review of Rio (2011) by Jessica P — 30 Sep 2013

Blu(Jesse Eisenberg): Oh Man, we threw down!

Jewel(Anne Hathaway): Yeah, we threw down!

Rafael(George Lopez): You guys were like fire and ice!

Nico(Jamie Foxx): Thunder and lightning!

Pedro(Will I Am): Hip and hop!

Blu(Jesse Eisenberg): Cheese and sprinkles!

[Everybody stares].

Blu(Jesse Eisenberg): It's a Minnesota thing...

This was a pretty cute movie, it really connected with the younger viewers in my family. Rio (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg) is the token, reluctant hero, while Jewel (voiced by Anne Hathaway), who is more of a bossy, no-nonsense heroine and is less the stereotypical damsel. The plot is pretty formulaic, I mean it's a kids movie, we're not really trying to achieve Lawrence of Arabia-depth here but I have to give props to the writing and directing for cleverly inserting (most of) the musical numbers more naturally throughout the film rather than the standard Disney method of spontaneously breaking out into song; it was cute and it didn't interrupt the flow of the plot. Overall, it was pretty entertaining for both young and old audiences; although, it did lack a bit of laugh-out loud humor; but then again, they can't all be Aladdin, y'know. Nevertheless, better than your average animated film, beautifully rendered and the story was engaging enough but not overly complicated to follow-- Good, wholesome family flick!