I'm Heading to Rio!!

Growing up as a child, we had some pretty good feature length animated movies. Films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and TheLion King appealed to family audiences around the world, and received recognition for their musical scores and their art design. Disney sure knew how to pack a punch in the animation arena. Thanks to our local library, my youngest son can see some of the cartoons and animated films that I grew up watching as a child. To my surprise, after watching some of my old cartoon favorites, he’d memorized the theme song and was able to hum and sing it without an auto-tune feature. It’s always amazing to see how something that was created years ago can still appeal to younger audiences today.

These days, I find myself humming and singing the songs from the animated movies that my son watches. Just when I thought that there was no other rhythmically outstanding movie than the original Rio animated feature, Rio 2 lands on the scene. Just when I had made peace with the songs from the original movie playing in my head, Rio 2 flies into the theater. Unbelievable music. It was fantastic! Uh!! I tried to keep my hips from moving, but…Uh… Oh yeah…that has also proved pointless. Even now I’m twitching in my seat. With Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg as the voice of Jewel and Blue, Rio 2 takes the lovable couple and their family and friends on an adventure to the Amazon rain forest. 

Leaving the comfort of their home in Rio, the group heads to unknown territory in the Amazon. Typically, sequels don’t deliver more than the original, but Rio 2 brought with it more color, more adventure, and more music. The animation is amazing, but more spectacular is how the animals in the movie all become the music. Even with the volume turned off, I can still feel the pulsing drums just from watching the choreography playing on the screen. Rio 2 took music and made it colorful; it took music and put it into motion. So obviously, there is a dilemma in the Council household: My youngest son is singing old school and I’m singing what is fresh. Once a man; twice a child? Who cares, as long as there is rhythm.