'Rio 2' a Mild Entertaining Fare

BANGALORE: In the last one year, after "Zambezia" and "Free Birds", we once again have animated talking birds in "Rio 2". But unlike the previous two films, this one is a musical which meanders at its own pace with avian antics and foot-tapping music. A sequel to its 2011 released franchise, with macaws, a cockatoo, a poisonous frog, a toucan, a pit-bull and more from the Amazon, "Rio 2" takes off from where it left in "Rio'.

This one is a comparatively mild fare. The film opens with vibrant New Year's Eve celebrations in the music-filled iconic beach of Rio de Janeiro, with the crowd singing, "It's a crazy party" and punctuated by fireworks bursting above Christ the Redeemer statue.

Blu (Jesse Eisenberg), the rare macaw who is now well-settled with his mate Jewel (Anne Hathaway) and his brood of three young ones;the bookish little bird Bia (Amandla Stenberg), the mischievous Tiago (Pierce Gagnon) and aloof older teen Carla (Rachel Crow) are in the heart of the city. With flipping pancakes and listening to iPods and not normal activities of wild blue macaws, they are content being city bred and bask in the knowledge of being the last of their rare species. But a chance spotting on national TV suggests that on an expedition to the Amazon, Blu's ex-guardian, the ornithologist Tulio (Rodigo Santoro) and wife-cum-assistant Linda (Leslie Mann) discover the existence of a surviving group of the endangered blue macaws.

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