And the L.A. Times makes its prognostication:
... Rio, with feathered protagonists voiced by Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway, is expected to gross between $35 million and $40 million in its first weekend, according to people who have seen pre-release audience surveys. ...
The New York Times loves the movie ... ... Maybe it was because this animated feature effort is a significant step forward from the studio’s “Ice Age” films, in the richness of its cast, the exuberance of its music and the vibrance of its palette. Or maybe it was because the director, Carlos Saldanha, ... brings a wealth of affection to it. Whichever. It works ... The New York Post, not so much. ... [O]lder audience members will, like me, be getting restless during this celebrity-voice-driven, generically plotted variation on "Madagascar." It's a mild disappointment coming from Blue Sky, the animation studio that's had enormous success in the entertaining middle ground between Pixar's masterpieces and the increasingly crass 'toons from DreamWorks. ... (So okay. The feature borrows from the horrid DreamWorks, but its studio occupies a niche above DWA yet below Pixar. Got it.) Meanwhile, Rotten Tomatoes gives Rio a mid-seventies rating. Guess we'll have to go see it and make up our own minds.
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7 comments:
What an odd review from the NY Post. "Increasingly crass"? Dreamworks' film have been very steadily decreasingly crass, from Panda to Dragon to Megamind(yeah, Megamind-a character-driven comedy). Someone at the Post is stuck in 2004.
Panda was fun, Dragon was strong emotionally (what counts), if fairly by the numbers. But no way, no how, was megamind "character driven." Sitcom driven, maybe, and certainly crass. And derivative. And boring.
Rio is a fun, although VERY slight movie. Nothing wrong with that. Who knows how it'll do. I have a feeling pretty well.
I know a lot of people want to dismiss Megamind as a MvA clone, but it was a much stronger movie, and was definitely character driven. My friends and I were surprised by how much we enjoyed it. But hey, haters got to hate.
And Rio, which I've seen, might be a little on the 'slight' side, but it's much heftier than Robots or Horton or most of the Ice Age stuff. I think it's Blue Sky's best, and one of the best animated CG films ever.
I completely agree with Anon #1.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: THANK GOD FOR CELEBRITY VOICES!!! They add just so much to these movies. THANK YOU, CELEBRITIES! THANK YOU!
"certainly crass"...
Did you not see Megamind, or do you not know what crass is?
He didn't see it and doesn't have any idea what "sitcom-driven" means either.
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