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 The film, a follow up to 2011's successful animated film
"Rio," picks up where the first one left off, with hip-shaking
rhythms and Tropicalia styles along Rio de Janeiro's famous
beaches.
But this time around, the movie about a family of the rare
Spix's macaw birds shows off the South American county's diverse
musical heritage, branching off from the signature bossa nova
and Carnival music of the Atlantic Coast and venturing into the
rhythms of the Amazon region.
"It's hard to think about Rio or Brazil without thinking about
music," said director Carlos Saldanha, a Rio native.
In the 3D animated film, which will be released by 20th Century
Fox in U.S. and Canadian theaters on Friday, music works as a
vehicle to help illustrate the melting pot of Brazilian culture,
the 49-year-old director said.
"This was always the kind of stuff that came to my head when I
was making this movie," he added. "It has to have a very
integrated musical component to it because I wanted to be able
to explore different rhythms, different styles and vibes."
The film begins with the vibrantly blue family of macaws, headed
by the father Blu, as voiced by Jesse Eisenberg, and mother
Jewel (Anne Hathaway), who leave their bird refuge in Rio for a
trip to the Amazon to find a possible colony of their critically
endangered brothers and sisters.
But first, the movie aims to draw in audiences with its biggest
hope for a radio hit: R&B singer Janelle Monae's song "What Is
Love," a Brazilian-influenced dance track that is supposed to
evoke Rio's roaring New Year's Eve parties.
"What Is Love," which was delivered to radio stations two weeks
ago, features the drums of marching bands and whistles familiar
to Carnival music. Monae said she wanted the song to serve as an
overture to the film's score.
"I gathered sounds from street performers; I recorded the
ocean," the singer said. "I've always thought cinematically ...
We (Saldanha and I) said, 'How can we make all these Brazilian
colors come through in the music?'"
Although the soundtrack to "Rio 2" is not expected to duplicate
the runaway success of Disney's "Frozen," which has sold nearly
2 million copies with the hit song "Let It Go," the movie
coincides with global attention being focused on Brazil, the
host of this year's World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016
Summer Olympics.
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"CAN'T HELP BUT SHAKE"
The movie's journey into the depths of the Amazon lets Saldanha and
the film's executive music producer, bossa nova legend Sergio
Mendes, tap into Brazil's interior through artists like body
percussion group Barbatuques and Uakti, a group that uses homemade
instruments.
Mendes, 73, who broke out in 1966 with the international hit "Mas
Que Nada," a jazzy samba he performed with his group Brasil '66,
said regional rhythms of musicians like Carlinhos Brown from the
northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, reflected the cultural
melange of European colonization and slaves from Africa.
"Samba came from Africa, so if you listen to a samba in Rio there's
a different kind of beat," Mendes said. "When you go to Bahia, they
have a different kind of beat for samba as well, different
instruments. It's still samba, but they have their own accent, which
makes it very interesting."
Saldanha and Mendes worked again with film composer John Powell on
the score. Mendes and Powell earned an Oscar nod for "Real in Rio,"
their original song from the first film, composed with Brown and
others.
"Naturally, Brazilian rhythms are very strong," Saldanha said. "Even
if you can't understand the rhythm, you can't help but shake your
body. ... We really tried to tap into (that)."
"Rio 2" has already grossed $55 million in Europe and elsewhere
after it was released last week. The film is expected to gross $39
million in its opening weekend in North America, according to
Boxoffice.com, which is in line with the first "Rio" movie, and it
should earn the bulk of its ticket sales from abroad, much like the
first.
Saldanha said his hope is that the music and film will complement
each other, drawing in audiences on both fronts. For him, the film
had a strong personal resonance.
"I did the movie because I wanted to write a love letter to my
county," he said. "I wanted to write something that I felt connected
to myself."
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; editing by G. Crosse)
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