Film snobs love to cite the explosive, musical, colorful and exciting opening to Marcel Camus' 1959 masterpiece Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) as one of cinema's best celebrations of sight and sound. Should the child audiences of today go to film school tomorrow, there may be lingering images from a different story set atop the villages overlooking Rio De Janeiro ready to give Camus a run for its centavos.
The opening sequence of Rio, the forthcoming animated feature from Blue Sky Studios, opens with an absolutely gorgeous and adorable samba-themed "Busby Berkeley in the sky" number by way of Crayola. It is wild, it is bright, it will charm the pants off of anyone with a pulse.
It's here where we see Macaws and other tropical birds in their natural element. (You know, dancing and singing.) Sadly, trappers arrive and cage some of our feathered friends, including a baby blue Macaw too young to fly (and just learning how to shake his tail feather.)
He finds himself sold to a loving and caring, albeit shy and (ewwww) be-speckled bookseller in Minnesota. Voiced by Leslie Mann, she and "Blue" grow to become best bookish friends. Circumstance (in the form of a crazy ornithologist) takes the pair to Rio for a prepared "mating" and comedy takes flight from there.
From the few sequences that were screened during this week's "sneak beak," some things were perfectly clear. In fairness, there wasn't a feather in Rio's story that could be accused of being original. The characters and plot point are all paint by numbers. However, what fantastic, bright paint!
Rio looks like some of the best, most delightful 3D animation in a feature film. . .ever?
I don't want to get carried away. . .but these damned birds are SOOO FREAKING CUTE!
Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway voice the pair of to-be-mated rare Macaws as they zip through not-too-scary adventures, but I'm sure watching this picture on mute would still be a blast.
There's the tubby, friendly Toucan, the deformed, evil Cockatiel and a slobbery bulldog. And lots of other birds with big smiles and bright colors.
Blue Sky mainstay Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age, Robots) actually hails from Rio De Janeiro, so this is very much a passion project for him. His intention is a love letter to the music, the beaches, the mountains, the people of Rio. Unintentionally, perhaps, is the kidnapping subplot that our hero birds fall into, but I'm not cynical enough to look for any subversive commentary there. I'll focus more on the music of Jorge Ben, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sergio Mendes and today's young whippersnappers Will.I.Am and Jaime Foxx. And Blue's first moments of flight that, despite this being a movie for kids, literally gave me chills of excitement.
I spoke to Saldanha a bit after the footage was screened, who told me he took extra pains to ensure this film is BRIGHT.
Rio, like all kids' films, is being released in 3D. He and Blue Sky worked hard to fight the darkening effect of the glasses. Essentially, the 3D version of the film will have its brightness pumped up a few stops to match the experience of the 2D version. I also learned that this isn't as easy as just "turning it to 11," as Dolby 3D screens are white and RealD screens are gray. Yeah, sure seems like a lot of extra work for an effect you forget about ten minutes after the movie starts. But that's a different argument.
I'm going to conclude by embedding one of my favorite Sergio Mendes sambas, and if picturing talking googly-eyed bright birds with fuzzy tummies dancing to this doesn't make you happy, well, you may as well start drinking yourself into an early grave now.
