Rio

Release Date: April 15, 2011

Watch Date: May 10, 2025

“This comedy-adventure centers on Blu, a flightless rare macaw who acts more human than bird. His world is turned upside down when he discovers he must travel all the way to Rio to save his species. There, he meets the wildly independent Jewel and a menagerie of vivid characters who all embark on a journey and help Blu fulfills his destiny and learn to fly.”

---

Before I was born, my parents owned a parrot. One of those really fancy ones, an African Grey. They had decided to adopt it, as they had been trying for a baby for five years and had no success. They taught it to say water, and enjoyed their parrot, for two months. Then they found they were pregnant and, worried that the parrot and I might not be exactly compatible, they rehomed it. They’ve never attempted to own a parrot again.

Maybe it’s because of this close call for being my parents’ first born, but I’ve never seen the appeal of a parrot as a pet. And I’m not really picky when it comes to pets. We have dogs, cats, too many fish, two lizards, and a hamster. I like having pets. But birds? They feel like they should be wild animals. They’re meant to fly! If you have to trim their flight feathers, are you really giving them their best life?

No judgement on bird owners. If you can give your pet a quality life, that’s all I ask, I just don’t feel like I could do so in good conscience.

To be totally upfront though I do have a murder of crows I feed. But having an entire wild murder that occasionally gives you gifts feels less like I own the crows and more like they’ve trained me. But you try saying no to Gerald Johnson (this is what happens when you let six-year-olds name crows.)

All of this to say, that I kind of love the theme of this movie. You’ve got a woman who does love birds, who did provide her flightless bird the best home that she possibly could, but who is also willing to understand that birds are wild animals, and to some degree, they have to be free. Flight is a gift humans have pursued for most of their existence, if not pursued envied, and you can’t hold something that’s meant to be in the sky.

I also think the characters are fantastic, there’s a great balance between time spent with the human characters and the avian. The music fits the setting extremely well, and that could have been a miss really easily. The villains feel like they inhabit both characters worlds, and the villain song – an extremely important part of any musical – is very well done.

All this to say something that I think very people need to be told, Rio is a good movie. It’s well paced, it’s colourful, characters grow and change. Just be careful who you watch it with, because despite your personal desire to never own a bird, your kids might not be so easily convinced on the subject.