Rio

Rio is an animated film by Blue Sky Studios released in 2011. It's about a Blue Macaw (Blu) who never learned to fly. He is taken to Rio de Janeiro as part of a breeding program (as the Blue Macaws are an endangered species) to mate with a female named Jewel. They get into trouble with a smuggling group and have to escape Nigel, a Cockatoo.



This is a fantastic movie, I loved every minute of it when I went to see it. I was recently reminded of it when I saw an advertisement for it on my Xbox.

I remember being very impressed with the animation of the bird characters. The vibrant colours and catchy music made for a really 'feel good' experience.
I wrote a post about the 2005 animated film Valiant a while ago, stating that I wasn't very impressed with not only the animation but the film in general. I thought a lot of things could have been done better but it may have been because of the technology at the time and the budget. In Rio, you can really see the improvement of the animation of bird characters. Blu does a lot of things that are considered human-like due to how he had been raised but he looks natural doing them. The rig was modelled with obviously better knowledge of how birds work and it had been taken into account that the animators would have to 'humanise' him in some way.

I was really inspired when I went to see this movie and I desperately want to see it again. If I ever have to animate a bird character, this film is a prime example of how it should be done! I recommend it!