Rio

Rio, often promoted as Rio: The Movie, is a 2011 American 3D computer-animated musical comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and directed by Carlos Saldanha. The title refers to the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, in which the film is set. The film features the voices of Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, George Lopez, Jemaine Clement and Jake T. Austin. The film tells the story of Blu (Eisenberg), a spix's macaw who is taken to Rio de Janeiro to mate with a female. He eventually falls in love with Jewel (Hathaway), a free spirited macaw, and together they have to escape from being smuggled by Nigel (Clement), a cockatoo.

Saldanha developed his first story concept of Rio in 1995, in which a penguin is washed up in Rio. However, Saldanha learned of the production of the films Happy Feet and Surf's Up, and changed the concept to involve macaws and their environments in Rio. He proposed his idea to Chris Wedge in 2006, and the project was set up at Blue Sky. The main voice actors were approached in 2009. During production, the crew visited Rio de Janeiro and also consulted with an expert on macaws at the Bronx Zoo to study their movements.

20th Century Fox released the film on March 22, 2011 in Rio de Janeiro, and was later released in the United States on April 15, 2011. The film received positive reviews from film critics. Observers praised the visuals, voice acting and music. The film was also a box office success, grossing over $445 million worldwide.

The story takes place in Rio de Janeiro. Wildlife trade is common there, and several types of exotic birds get smuggled to different countries. One such bird is Blu (Jesse Eisenberg), a young Spix's Macaw who is unable to fly. He lives in a bookstore in Moose Lake, Minnesota. Blu's owner is Linda (Leslie Mann), who adopts him as soon as he arrives in Moose Lake. One day, Linda discovers from Túlio (Rodrigo Santoro), a Brazilian ornithologist, that Blu is the last male of his species, and he needs to mate with a female to preserve it.

After Linda takes Blu to Túlio's aviary in Rio, he falls in love with Jewel (Anne Hathaway), a female Spix's Macaw who longs to escape. The aviary is raided by a group of smugglers led by Marcel (Carlos Ponce), who has Blu and Jewel chained to each other. His Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Nigel (Jemaine Clement) reveals that he was once a performer on a television program, but he was soon replaced by a parakeet. Nigel, embittered, has specialized in the capture of exotic birds. Blu and Jewel flee from the smugglers and end up in a jungle.

The next morning, Blu and Jewel meet a toucan named Rafael (George Lopez), who offers to take them to his bulldog friend Luiz (Tracy Morgan) in removing the chain. He also unsuccessfully teaches Blu how to fly. The group meets the Red-crested Cardinal Pedro (will.i.am) and his Yellow Canary friend Nico (Jamie Foxx).

Nigel hires a horde of thieving marmosets led by Mauro (Brian Baumgartner) to help capture Blu and Jewel. Linda and Túlio, along with the smugglers' young assistant Fernando (Jake T. Austin), also try to find Blu. Pedro and Nico take Blu and Jewel to a bird's samba club, where they perform a duet, but are attacked by the marmosets. Their bird friends, including a Roseate Spoonbill named Kipo (Bernardo de Paula), fend them off long enough for the five to escape. Fernando eventually leads Linda and Túlio to the smugglers' hideout. While there, Marcel reveals his plan to use the Carnaval festival to smuggle Blu and Jewel.

Meanwhile, Blu and the others meet Luiz, who uses his drool to release Blu and Jewel from the chain, much to Jewel's happiness. Just as Blu, who is too depressed to fly, part ways with Jewel, she is captured by Marcel and Nigel. Linda, Túlio, Blu, Rafael, Nico and Pedro infiltrate the festival. The humans pose as dancers there, but Marcel and Nigel capture the birds. Blu uses a fire extinguisher to free all the captive birds on Marcel's cargo plane, but Nigel confronts Blu and Jewel. Jewel ends up in a dangerous accident and Blu lures Nigel into one of the plane's propellers. As Marcel and the others jump out of the plane, Jewel falls out of the plane, but Blu jumps after her. While falling, she kisses him, finally encouraging him to fly. The duo reunites with Linda and Túlio, who tends to Jewel's injured wing.

Later, Linda and Túlio organize and run a sanctuary along with Fernando to protect a part of the jungle from smugglers. There, the humans releases Jewel and Blu into the jungle. During the credits, Blu and Jewel happily live in the jungle with their friends, and are the parents of three chicks. Nigel is shown to have survived from the plane crash, and Mauro humiliates Nigel for his loss of feathers. Meanwhile, Marcel and the smugglers are arrested.