Rio review

Rio

*** (out of four)

Includes the voices of Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, George Lopez, Tracy Morgan, Jemaine Clement, Leslie Mann, Will.iam and Jamie Foxx. Directed by Carlos Saldanha. Approximately 96 minutes. Playing at major theaters. Rated G.

Back in June, I had seen a trailer for an upcoming animated film called ``Rio''. From what I saw of the trailer, I thought it looked pretty lame. Then, when December came around, I saw a different trailer for it. Was I satisfied? Nope. When March came around, I saw another trailer for it. Again, I was not satisfied.

When April came around, I read the reviews for ``Rio'' and they were pretty positive. The Globe and Mail had given it two and a half out of four. The Toronto Star had given it three out of four. I was okay with those reviews. I decided to give the film a try. This was sort of the case with two other animated movies I had seen in 2011. They were ``Rango'' and ``Mars Needs Moms''. In my opinion, both of them looked terrible. Yet, I still saw them. They were pretty good.

So, I should probably explain the plot of ``Rio'' to you readers. Okay, so really it's about a bird who can't fly named Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) who was born in Rio De Janeiro, but kidnapped by poachers as a baby. He's taken through Minnesota in a truck, but the crate he's in falls out of the back of the truck. He is found by a little girl named Linda (voiced as an adult by Leslie Mann) and is taken care of by her.

Fast forward 15 years later and Linda is a bookstore owner. One day, an ornithologist named Tulio comes into her shop and tells her that Blu is the last male of his kind and that in order to prevent his species from becoming extinct, he must mate with another bird of his kind named Jewel (Anne Hathaway).

So, Tulio, Linda and Blu travel to Rio De Janeiro so Blu can meet Jewel. However, along the way, Blu and Jewel are kidnapped by some poachers who have a bird companion named Nigel (Jemaine Clement).

Jewel and Blu escape from the poachers and try and find Linda. Along the way, Blu tries to learn how to fly and meets some other animals such as a Toco Toucan named Rafael (George Lopez), a Cardinal named Pedro (Will.iam), a bulldog named Luiz (Tracy Morgan) and a Canary named Nico (Jamie Foxx).

The animation in this movie, in my opinion, is beautiful. I know that Rio De Janeiro is a place with a lot of slums, but the animation in this film makes it look beautiful. There is one scene where they circle the Christ the Redeemer statue and it looks absolutely beautiful. Plus, some of the writing is pretty funny. I really enjoyed the bulldog Luiz who has a medical condition that makes him drool all the time. This is a great movie for kids and I think that adults will enjoy it, too.