Rio

What’s it about?

A little blue bird born in the South American rainforest gets kidnapped by bird smugglers and taken to Minnesota in the USA. There he falls off a truck and is found by a young girl called Linda. Linda takes great care of the little bird and the two grow up to be best of friends.

As an adult, Linda owns a bookshop where she works every day and Blu is her constant companion. One day Dr Barbosa comes into the shop looking for Blu. It seems he is the only male blue macaw left alive and he has a female one in a rescue centre in Rio. Linda reluctantly agrees to take Blu to Rio to see if the two birds can have babies. Things don’t go to plan though when both birds are kidnapped and another adventure begins.

What to look out for

There are some scenes in this movie that could scare younger kids such as:

• Nigel the parrot is a really mean bird who frightens the other birds by snapping at them and pushing their cages. Nigel also bullies the monkeys and makes them do what he wants by hanging them upside down from a great height and threatening to drop them.
• Blu is often in danger and as a baby he is very scared when he falls out of his tree and is left alone.
• The smugglers are always hitting each other and the leader is quite scary.

Moral of the Story

The message of the story is to never give up on those you love and that we need to take care of our precious birds and wildlife.