Rio 2 is a 2014 American 3D computer-animated musical adventure-comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and directed by Carlos Saldanha. It is the sequel to the 2011 computer-animated film Rio and the studio's first film to have a sequel outside of their existing Ice Age franchise. The title refers to the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, where the first film was set and Rio 2 begins, though most of its plot occurs in the Amazon rainforest.
Featuring the returning voices of Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, will.i.am, Jamie Foxx, George Lopez, Tracy Morgan, Jemaine Clement, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro, and Jake T. Austin, the film was released internationally on March 20, 2014, and on April 11, 2014, in American theaters. Rio 2 was Don Rhymer's final film after he died on November 28, 2012. The film received mixed reviews, but was a box office success, earning over $493 million.
Blu and Jewel enjoy life in Rio with their 3 kids, the oldest and music-loving Carla, book smart Bia, and the youngest and mischievous Tiago. Meanwhile, Blu's former owner, Linda Gunderson and her ornithologist husband, Tulio are on an expedition in the Amazon and eventually discover a quick-flying spix's macaw that loses one of its feathers. When word gets out about this through television, Jewel believes that they should go to the Amazon to help find the blue macaws. While the kids are ecstatic, Blu is uncertain, but is pressured into going along. Rafael, Nico and Pedro decide to come along. Luiz attempts to follow, but fails. Blu brings a fanny pack full of supplies, one of which he uses mostly is a GPS, much to Jewel's displeasure.
Meanwhile, the leader of a group that is in a line of illegal logging named Big Boss, discovers Linda and Tulio's expedition to find the macaws and orders his henchmen to hunt them down to avoid disruptions to their work. Also, Blu and Jewel's old enemy, Nigel the cockatoo, has survived the plane crash from the first film, but is now unable to fly and is working as a fortune teller/con artist. When he sees Blu and his family flying overhead of him, he immediately decides to seek revenge on them. He enlists two minions to help him in his plans; a silent anteater named Charlie and a poison dart frog named Gabi, the latter of which is in love with Nigel. Blu and his family use a boat to get toward the jungle (with Nigel's first plan of revenge being inadvertently foiled by Charlie), and when they arrive, they find nothing in sight. However, they are eventually taken to a flock of blue macaws that are hiding in a secret paradise land. There, they meet Jewel's stern long lost father, Eduardo, his older sister Mimi, and Jewel's childhood friend, Roberto. Eduardo seems unimpressed with Blu's domesticated behavior.
The film starts off as usual for an animated movie these days -- the businessman is the bad guy. In this case, it is a logger who refers to the Blue's humans as "tree huggers." The good guys are trying to find evidence of an endangered species in the rain forest so that they can shut down logging operations. It seems fairly typical child environmental propaganda at first. Then it turns dark. It starts by desensitizing the kids to violence by showing some animals eaten by other animals during a song and dance sequence. The movie climaxes with a violent attack on the logging operation at the end of which the bad businessman is actually killed. I am not kidding. This movie seems to advocate violent environmental activism. It makes the movie much less entertaining -- for adults and kids.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a 2014 American 3D computer-animated action fantasy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox, loosely based on the book series of the same name by Cressida Cowell. It is the sequel to the 2010 computer-animated film How to Train Your Dragon and the second in the trilogy. The film is written and directed by Dean DeBlois, and stars the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller and Kristen Wiig with the addition of Cate Blanchett, Djimon Hounsou and Kit Harington. The film was released on June 13, 2014, and received positive reviews.
The film takes place five years after the first film, featuring Hiccup and his friends as young adults. DeBlois revealed in an interview about the story: "At the end of last film, all these Vikings who were previously somewhat landlocked are now on the backs of dragons so the entire Northern Hemisphere opens up to them. And with that Hiccup's curiosity increases, the map expands and inevitably they are going to come across new dragons, new cultures." Hiccup then "discovers a larger conflict brewing between humans and dragons and he finds himself at the center of it".
Review:
How to Train your Dragon 2 is a shining example of what both family movies and animated films are capable of. This is not the same story rehashed over again. From the characters, to the drama, to the action, to the comedy, this film does what any sequel should do by stepping up its predecessor in every way possible, and respects its audience enough not to shy away from its darker and more dramatic content, but still remain viewable and entertaining for all audiences. We are talking about a PG rated Dreamworks film after all.
From the moment the music began playing during the beginning to when the end credits began roiling, I was completely immersed in this phenomenal movie that is more than worthy to stand along side the likes of any great live-action fantasy film or the past decade. Possibly one the the best animated movies I have ever seen, this is the Empire Strikes Back of animated films.
Planes: Fire & Rescue is a 2014 American 3D computer-animated comedy-adventure film. It is a sequel to the 2013 film Planes, a spin-off of Pixar's Cars franchise. Produced by DisneyToon Studios, it was theatrically released by Walt Disney Pictures on July 18, 2014. Dane Cook reprised his role of plane Dusty Crophopper. New cast members included Julie Bowen, Ed Harris, Wes Studi, and Dale Dye. Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, Danny Mann, and Cedric the Entertainer reprised their roles of Skipper, Chug, Dottie, Sparky, and Leadbottom, respectively.
Took my 5 year old to see this fully knowing the franchise is worn out after having seen the disappointing Cars 2 and the first Planes. The plot is more interesting here as it plays out like an 80 minute episode of Rescue Heroes.
It was great to see a true kid movie that was still entertaining for adults. The movie was well geared towards young kids, with age appropriate themes, just the right amount of tension, and a solid story. A much more cohesive movie than Cars 2 and a different style story from either of the Cars movies or the 1st Planes. In truth, my kids would have loved to see another racing movie as they love cheering Dusty or Lightning McQueen on, but as the parent, it was nice to see a different story line. This is not a movie I'd seek out as an adult without young kids, but tagging along with them was a fun time for all. The tribute and dedication to actual firefighters was a nice touch as well, adding some depth to a kid fair. Some reviews have criticized the film for lack of depth, intensity, detail of animation, etc., etc. Those reviews are misplaced as the movie is not aiming to be Citizen Kane or art house fair. Its a young kids movie, plain and simple, and its a good one at that. Nothing wrong with being a good kids movie that is aiming to only please kids. My kids loved it and could care less if the frame rate matched that of Frozen or Toy Story.
