Street Performers

Sucky title, I know....

As I told you all recently, I saw Rio 2 at the cinema, as I loved the first one, and I wanted to see how the story would continue..... Let me just say right now - the film is a TRICKY one. It's not TERRIBLE at all, but it's just.... complicated.... Okay, let me sum up some of my initial thoughts in bullet points.

POSITIVES
There's a lot going on.
The animation is amazing.
I feel they explained quite well as to reasons why Blu and Jewel may have been thought as the LAST blue macaws.
The environmental themes actually make sense to me, as logging companies are VERY big problems in the Amazon.
The songs are great - especially Jewel's lullaby, the strange Phantom of the Opera esque Poisonous Love song Gabby sings, and the I Will Survive remix by Nigel.
I liked the idea of the football scene - Brazil, it kind of makes sense to me.
Jewel's dad isn't just another dad - I found the reasons he dislikes humans to make sense.
Luiz isn't in it that much.... phew, no over abundance of disgusting drool scenes...
I really liked many of the subplots - even Rico and Pedro get a good moment in the parts when they're auditioning for talent for Carneval.
I laughed a LOT while watching this film.
Nigel, Gabby and Charlie are GREAT as the villains - Nigel has gone crazy(crazier) and is an enjoyably over the top thespian villain - one of the villains who KNOWS he's the kind of guy who would fit a top hat and a moustache and fit it will - Gabby is a sweet ditzy thing who has a thing for Nigel - and unlike in The Wild with Bridget and Benny, this actually made me LAUGH and the characters were actually funny - and Charlie is a mute anteater who I actually found kind of cute, and he got some good laughs out of me.
I like Blu and Jewel's relationship developing in this film. 
The voice acting is good.


NEGATIVES 
There's a LOT going on.
I can see why the environmental themes may put some people off.
The three children can get a bit annoying at times....
There are some questions I'd like answered - for example, I thought Rodrigo and Jewel were actually siblings - the children call him UNCLE at one point - I thought the scene were Rodrigo panics in front of a light may hint that he was a pet at one point.
Fernando is barely in it!
The whole 'rival macaw gang' bit was a bit pointless....
The logging tycoon was forgettably bland...
This film has a LOT of clichés in it that, I will admit, did bother me at points....


So as you can tell, the positive/negative ratio is about 50:50 for the film. Some parts in it are improvements from the first film, some are steps backwards. Some bits are interesting, some are boring. Some new characters are great, some are not. When I write a review for it, the full story will become clear.

But for now, here's a piece of Rio 2 fanart for you - of hands down my favourite characters from the film. Nigel the cockatoo, Gabby the poisonous tree frog and Charlie the anteater. Nigel is doing a classic 'alas poor Yorick' thing, Gabby is entranced by his acting (seriously, that Poisonous Love song in the film is hilarious and kind of awesome ), and Charlie is tap dancing.