Review: Rio 3D

Animated films, aren't you sick of them? Great as Toy Story 3, Tangled, Rango and the like are, we're fed up of writing rave reviews for animation.

This week there are two animations out, neither of which will require me raiding my meagre stash of superlatives.

Poor old Mars Needs Moms (the other release) has opened so disastrously it is already considered a monumental flop, so much so that producer Robert Zemeckis has had his proposed Yellow Submarine remake axed.

Rio however is the latest from the team behind the remarkably profitable Ice Age trio of films.

They may not be Pixar and they're certainly not innovators, but they are competent. the funny bits aren't that funny, the magical bits aren't that magical but they are funny and magical enough to satisfy an audience.

As you watch you almost see the bits of plot clunking together in front of you, but it comes across as satisfyingly familiar.

Jesse Eisenberg gets to do his nerdy, uptight stuff voicing Blu, a blue macaw who is so domesticated and devoted to his owner Linda (Leslie Mann) that he can't even fly.

Sent to Rio to mate with the last female of the species (Anne Hathaway) he ends up getting stolen by smugglers while being taught to loosen up by the samba loving locals.

Rio 3D (U)

Director: Carlos Saldanha

With: voices of Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg, Leslie Mann, Jermaine Clement, George Lopez,

Tracy Morgan.

Length: 96 mins

***