Rio 2: Movie Review

2011’s animated feature “Rio” was a major hit and rightfully so. It was a great deal of fun for children and adults alike.  Director Carlos Saldanha has returned to helm “Rio 2” and unfortunately, the filmmaker has somehow removed everything that worked in the first film and replaced it with lame jokes and a “Meet the Parents’ rip-off of a story. Saldanha has a talent for taking good films like “Ice Age”, “Rio” and creating hollow sequels to them.   Sure, the animation is stunning, but that is about the only nice thing I can say about the truly awful “Rio 2”

Blu and Jewel (Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway  respectively) and their three kids head off to the Amazon where they discover, they are no longer the last of their kind, when they discover a whole colony of blue macaws.  It turns out that the leader, Eduardo (Andy Garcia) is Jewel’s long lost father.  All though Blu would like nothing more than to head back to the comforts of his home in Rio de Janeiro, he remains by Jewel’s side to keep her happy.  As hard as Blu tries though, he is unable to win over Eduardo, who sees Blu as a city bird who does not fit in.

There are so many things that don’t work in “Rio 2”, but one of the biggest issues is that they felt a need to shoehorn the villain Nigel (Jemaine Clement) into the story.  He has no need to be here and his scenes feel more like a distraction than part of the actual story.  Even worse is that none of the musical numbers are the least bit memorable.  As soon as I walked out of the film I could not remember a single song sung. Not a good sign for an animated musical.  The jokes are tired and the only ones I can see getting any enjoyment out of “Rio 2” are the children so young that they are unable to comprehend how much it sucks.  I am sure “Rio 2” is going to make enough money to green light a “Rio 3” and if that’s the case, I implore the studio to but some fresh talent behind it this time.

By: Marc Ferman