Father's Day: let's go to RIO

It was Father's Day (at least in the Netherlands, not so sure about other parts of the world) it was gray and there a new Pathé theater in town. Oh, and there is this film for kids in 3-D with the action going on in Brazil, that happens to be mommy's land of birth. And being a good Dutch man, daddy discovers that the 11am session is cheaper than the afternoon ones. Ha ! Let's dress up and go quick to RIO !

In Holland, Jamai is the voice of Blu.

Did I like it ? Definitely, yes ! After all the cold colours of Ice Age and the slow animals marching all the time it was quite a contrast watching a film with such frantic colours, lots of aerial views and non stop music. Even the sunlight during the sun rising and during the end of the afternoon were perfect. Light and shadows in the tropics are definitely very impacting and different from the Dutch light. Still, I think it is a movie for American audiences basically - with all the clichés Northern Americans expect to find in a location called "Rio" (by te way, the Earth globe was displayed a couple of times during the film so that everyone could be aware where Brazil is).

Brazilian director Carlos Saldanha told a Rio de Janeiro newspaper the film’s animated beachscapes had to undergo at least one change for American consumption: bigger bikini bottoms.

The replicas of buildings located downtwon in Rio were perfect: the Petrobrás building and the round cathedral, the aquaduct, the historical buildings in Santa Teresa and Lapa.... My husband liked a lot the fact that he could recognize some locations downtown and had a good time (he is a very light guy, never searching things to be criticized). But the birds could cover huge distances around the city in a couple of minutes, which I think made the movie a bit too unrealistic.

I have noticed many errors. Some of them were also pointed out in the Brazilian press. When confronted about it by the Brazilian journalists, director Carlos Saldanha justified the changes as "creative liberties" and that he had made a cartoon, "not a documentary". He also added that after living for more than 20 years in the US he doesn't consider himself a "Brazilian director with a Brazilian view of things" but a director who will make any type of movie he wants, in order to please any audience he wants to. He explains it further on the videos below:

Anyway, some of the so called errors that I can remember are (yes, I am totally a nerd like that):

1) Linda and Túlio arrive in Brazil from the US and land in the domestic airport Santos Dummont, not the international Galeão airport. Huge error;
2) The two toucans that appear during the movie are of two different specimens, thus they can not really mate;
3) Jewel and Blue are two blue macaws from Rio. But actually this type of blue macaws (Cyanopsitta spixii) is native of Bahia.
4) They have only three claws instead for four. They look like chickens, with three claws;
5) The toucans have 7 kids. Toucans can only have two, up to four kids exceptionally;
6) The thieves leave Rio from a clandestine airport, with asphalt and all. A clandestine airport in Rio ? Really ? If it was at least in the middle of the Amazon...
7) Cockatoos are Australian. Ok, in the film they do not make references to sadist and cruel cockatoo Nigel being Brazilian. But he eats a chicken leg - as much as I know cockatoos are vegetarian;
8) The streets in Santa Teresa completely empty during Carnival ? I don't think it's possible !

On the way back home while I was mentioning to my husband about the erros in the film, my son interrupted us and looked puzzled at me: "Er... mom ! It is a cartoon, birds talk and all, haha! A cartoon. What do you want ?"