Back in 1999 I saw Kristin Chenoweth’s career making turn as Sally Brown in “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown” on Broadway and have loved her ever since. The only time I’ve been enamored of “Wicked” was the first time I saw it with Kristin as the good witch. And here in “Rio 2”, she voices the deadly to the touch Gabi, a frog with a love thang for the meanest parrot in the world, the despicable Nigel (Jemaine Clement of the Flight of the Conchords). The movies best moments is Nigels audition for the carnival with a “I Will Survive” for the ages capping a very funny scene where each amimal who auditions gets eaten by another one animal.
The rest of the movie isn’t bad either. The original “Rio” was an amusing story about a girl Linda (Leslie Mann) and her Blue Mau parrot Blu (Jesse Eisenberg), who leaves her to repopulate the blue parrot world with Jewel (Anne Hathaway). When Linda and new husband find a flock of the supposedly extinct Blue Mau in the Amazon, Blu, Jewel and children race to the Forest to take on Nigel and more deadly loggers out to destroy their natural habitat.
Colorful, musical (that’s Bruno Mars, and that’s Will I Am, and that’s Janelle Monae), it is a fun ride and even lovelier in 3D -every time you’ve got a lot of flying going on it will look nice in 3D. Ticket sales are a little stale so maybe there won’t be a Rio 3. <ore is the pity.
Grade: B
