Aren’t animation studios lucky that kids are so easy to please? It seems that aside of Pixar, other animation studios just slap a story to go along with eye-catching animation, rather than have the animation accompany a good story. Rio, the story of a rare Macaw, over-domesticated to a point he is afraid of flying, needs, in the course of this film, to overcome his fear of flying while winning the heart of a female Macaw (in order to save their species.) If this is not enough, he needs to do all this while escaping crewel bird smugglers, aided by a nasty parrot, on the backdrop of Rio, eve of its famous carnival. A lot packed into a story, that is ultimately corny and none daring. Quite like its blue Macaw character, this film is afraid to fly and by the time it decides to take off, the movie is over.
Still, my kids loved it and gave it five stars, I am giving it three.