Rio 2 Reviews

Initial Thought: I thought the first one was funny but average. I planned to check this out whenever I could get a hold of it for cheap or borrow it. So now that I have I'm going to see what it has to offer. It may even end up being more enjoyable than the first. You never know.

Characters/Acting: We of course have several of the actors who returned to reprise their roles as well as many new additions. The bottle cap bird is my favorite of the group. I also like Gabi the frog. Other than that the acting is pretty decent. The characters are cute as usual.

Story: It's a jungle out there for Blu, Jewel and their three kids after they're hurtled from Rio de Janeiro to the wilds of the Amazon. As Blu tries to fit in, he goes beak-to-beak with the vengeful Nigel, and meets his father-in-law. Honestly most cartoon sequels end up feeling awkward. This is one of those kinds of sequels. It does have good moments though like the audition montage. It just doesn't feel like an actual movie. Some of the humor here is actually pretty dark, but since kids are watching they make it look pretty comical. Near the end it started to feel like a film which was good.

Directing/Writing: Carlos Saldanha brought us the Ice Age series and started the Rio films as well. It's good to see a director who continues to work on what he started. He has only written the 2 Rio films. Everything else he only directs. I haven't seen any of Jenny Bicks' films, but I have heard of them. This is Carlos Kotkin's first film. Don Rhymer isn't known for making particularly good films. He was the writer of the first Rio though. So there's that. Yoni Brenner has done work in the Ice Age series besides this. I don't know why they need so many writers. Especially seeing as most of them aren't particularly known or very good.

Final Thought: It's not that bad actually. At first it felt more like something on television, but it improved. It was a bit cliche to be honest. I think for the kids it will be enjoyable. As for watching it by yourself probably not as much. At least it wasn't a complete waste of time.

The first movie was a silent hit. One of the best animations on that year. Usually successful movies make comeback in sequels and I expected the 'Rio 2', but was not sure. 'Ice Age' series were the massive hit from the Blue Sky Studios. Other movies did not look like coming back in sequels. So 'Rio' gave them a chance to go on with a sequel. After this movie's success, now you can count on the 3rd as well. If it doesn't come then it will be a disappointment.

Nowadays the animation industry is not targeting only the children, but adults as well. So the contents, including the story must benefit all age groups. This movie series were excellent, good story with messages in it. Especially this second movie talks about wildlife conservation like the movie 'Happy Feet'. Showing to the kids would be an educational. What a cute way to learn something valuable.



Blu and Jewel with three kids enjoying the life. Jewel is an ideal mother who wants her kids to learn everything that birds can do naturally. But Blu who was once a human companion is not made for those. This is the issue wanted to be solved after all they are the last of their kind on the planet. One day they get a news that the explorer sighted a whole flock of blue macaw on the Amazon wilderness. Blu and Jewel decides to go and find them and let their kids to connect with their roots. So this adventure is our great entertainment. Lots of fun and even more than that. Just like in the 'Madagascar' movie, who discovers where they originally belong to.

Birds of blue feathers...
Have to stick together.

The songs were really good and my favorite track is 'let's come together (beautiful creatures)'. Beautiful jungle beats, it is the latest addition to my free time listening list. There was nothing special in digital 3D, but definitely not bad. I saw the first movie in the regular version, but I enjoyed watching this in 3D. The story was not great, but humors were. The human characters were avoided until it gets into a crucial stage. The expansion of characters was exceptional. The original sidekicks from the first movie set aside to make their own fun which partially detached from mainstream story. The newer ones opened another dimension of the family and friend related drama, with happiness found and the jealousy kind of stuffs. Overall, a good animation, hard to leave behind unseen and not to suggest others. So if you like animations then don't listen to anybody, just go for it.

7.5/10

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The original Rio was a surprisingly effective family film, but this sequel is a different story. For one thing, it's simply one of those half-hearted, sloppy sequels that does nothing to justify its existence. But it also has way too much going on: half a dozen wrestling plotlines that seem like they're there just to pad the movie out. We have Blu trying to fit in with Jewel's family, Nigel seeking revenge, a talent show audition subplot that goes absolutely nowhere, a turf war, and a completely unnecessary second villain in the poachers. Plus, one of the great things about the first Rio was that there were very few song and dance sequences, but this one is just one step away from a full-blown musical. On top of all that, it throws in that tired old in-your-face "save the rainforest" message that people complained about with Avatar – complete with the corny "this is our land" motivational speech; that moment was where I lost all faith in this movie! In conclusion, I went in expecting an unnecessary sequel, but this actually turned out to be a little worse than that: unfunny, hackneyed and overly cluttered.

My rating: 40%

3 years ago I already saw the first installment in the movie theater and even though it did look gorgeous, I thought the plot was rather pedestrian but, for some reasons, Nick, my step-son, was really obsessing about this flick and saw it twice again in the theater, dowloaded the movie and even bought the dvd! So, of course, we had to see this sequel and, this time, his little sister came along so we had a really nice day out. Basically, it gave me the same feeling as ‘Rio’. Indeed, once again, it looked gorgeous, there was even a very nice musical number involving many of those blue birds but, still, I was rather bored by the whole thing. I mean, there were some pretty neat supporting characters (my favorite was above all the poisonous frog) but the plot was still rather weak in my opinion. I think it is above all meant for young kids but, afterwards, I found out that my daughter wasn't really able to follow the whole thing (for example, she didn’t get that Blu actually scored in his own goal. I mean, at least, she is Dutch, she is familiar with football/soccer, can you imagine all these American kids who will watch this movie and have no clue about soccer rules?). Still, even though it was nothing amazing, it remains a decent animated feature and it is worth a look, especially if you want to watch something with your kids.