FUN AND SONGS IN THE SUN AS AUTUMN COMES - GO TO : "RIO"

Now to be fair to my boyfriend though, he doesn’t always provide me film advice complete with spoilers. In fact, more than once and open mouthed at my ignorance on the matter, he has sat me down in front of a film and insists I watch it. Rio was one of these films. And credit where it’s due, this film more than hit the spot on many different levels. It’s an animation for starters and I ALWAYS have room in my heart for those fellas, as you will have noticed. Secondly, this is definitely one of the better examples of the afore-mentioned genre, complete with songs, dance numbers (well, sort of) and LOADS of fun. Plus quite a worthy message hidden in there too.

Now, as you can guess Rio and Brazil feature a lot in this story. Not surprising as our story begins in the rainforests of Brazil. Blue (as he will later be known) is a baby blue macaw whose peaceful existence is interrupted by poachers who seize him and take him away to far off lands, far from his family. It’s terribly sad of course but it sort of works out. Chance means that Blue finds a very loving owner who takes care of him well and with whom he grows up. And he has a very peaceful life, that involves hot chocolate, marshmallows a peaceful life in a book shop and no flying. At all. Not that Blue really needs to fly, but anyway. But then, quite suddenly, into this peaceful existence erupts a scientist who explains to his owner that Blue’s breed has been hunted and exported almost to extinction and he is the last remaining male blue macaw of his kind. And the thing is, the last remaining female, Jewel, lives in Brazil. As you can imagine, the scientist is pretty eager they should meet. Now Blue’s owner is quite attached to her routine (as is Blue) but in the face of this great duty, off they go to Brazil. Here Blue will come back together with his roots. Find love. And spread his wings a bit – literally and metaphorically.

Well, topic wise, as you can see, it is pretty much a typical Hollywood animation film. Obstacles overcome, love discovered, family unit restored, and personal growth achieved. But we have said it often enough here. It is not, what you say in cases like these. It’s the way you say them. And this film says all of that with a lot of gusto. And a LOT of talent.  I mean, seriously, films don’t just randomly get nominated for Oscars for best song you know.  Besides, we have Ann Hathaway lending her voice to Jewel – and she does such a spectacular job. There’s a reason she’s one of my favourite actresses, seriously. And Blue has the voice of the equally talented Jesse Eisenberg of whom I have written on these pages more than once. In short, this is one of those really, really fun animations that you can watch with the smaller members of the family with the greatest of ease, and yet really enjoy yourself as well… And as the little ones (and some of the big ones) watch, hopefully messages on animal smuggling and illegal trafficking will be picked up too. Oh don’t worry, it’s all very subtly done. Not in your face or anything. You can’t really avoid it either though, and it is, you have to admit, a rather worthy lesson to be learnt by us all.  And what more you could want from a film, I honestly cannot imagine.