Blythe receives a phone call requesting her to go to Rio de Janeiro to help out for a Carnival parade due to the acclaim she received in Downtown City's own Big, Feathered Parade. Placed in the Samba School, her task is to design a float and costumes for seven people who will dance on that float. While she intends to re-use the designs she made for the Big, Feathered Parade, Blythe soon realizes she has to find seven people to dance on the float. Vinnie offers to dance on the float but knows he is not enough; Minka then demonstrates she has some degree of samba dancing ability and will teach it to the other pets, fulfilling the seven needed.
Blythe boards Roger's Pet Jet and finds Emma on board. Emma is convinced Blythe is going on a vacation and offers to be her tour guide, giving Blythe her itinerary, packed with things to see and places to visit, and provides five minutes for Blythe's project. At that point, Ramon pops out from the seat behind Blythe, astounded that he'll run into Blythe again. He apologizes to Blythe about plagiarizing her costume designs and introduces Blythe to Ramona, a macaw and Desi's substitute, and speaks praise of her for inspiring him enough to fill a portfolio with his original designs. Blythe and Ramon shake hands with Ramon promising some honest competition. Blythe leaves to another room, Emma returns to her studies, and Ramon takes a nap.
The Littlest Pet Shop pets have overheard the entire exchange, and Zoe still does not trust Ramon. Remembering how Desi confessed to what Ramon was up to in "The Big, Feathered Parade," Zoe barrages Ramona with questions about what Ramon intends to do, but Ramona stays absolutely still.
The plane lands in Rio, and as soon as the door opens, Ramon barges out, shoving off anyone in his way. As Blythe descends to ground level, Zoe tells Blythe that she still doesn't trust Ramon, but Blythe responds that there hasn't been enough time for him to do anything. She checks the baggage, however, and realizes her portfolio has gone missing.
At the hotel, the pets have become uneasy, but Blythe tries to calm them down, saying that the airport personnel are searching for the lost luggage and will return it as soon as possible. Blythe hears a knock on the door and opens it, finding Emma instead, who insists on taking Blythe on a tour of the Tijuca Forest
. Blythe initially refuses, but after seeing Minka's excitement, Blythe relents and takes Minka along.
With the humans gone, the other six pets sneak their way into Ramon's hotel room. Zoe finds Blythe's suitcase in Ramon's room and Ramona in front of it. Russell attempts to communicate with Ramona, again to no avail, when Vinnie notices Ramona has a cable coming out of her back that plugs into a wall. Zoe unplugs it to see what happens, and Ramona reactivates, swooping around the room to scare the pets away. They instead hide underneath the bed, which causes Ramona to become dormant again. Russell leads the pets along a path to Blythe's suitcase without Ramona seeing them and lifts up Blythe's suitcase. Ramona spots the suitcase moving, however, and watches the pets dash out with it.
Emma gets Blythe lost in the Tijuca Forest, though Minka doesn't mind, spending her time frolicking in the jungle with the other animals. Blythe takes advice from a blue butterfly, who leads them out to where Rio is visible down the hill. Blythe makes her way back to the hotel, where she finds out her suitcase had been in Ramon's room. She concludes Ramon had stolen her ideas and decides to make her own, themed on the butterfly who led her out of the jungle.
As Minka teaches the other pets (save Vinnie) how to dance, Ramon watches footage Ramona recorded of the pets making off with the suitcase. In retaliation, he tries his "Plan B," which Blythe learns the following morning at the Sambadrome consists of Ramon heading down there before Blythe and claiming all of the float materials for himself. Blythe sees the blue butterfly again and gets inspiration to, with Roger's permission, repaint the Pet Jet as a butterfly. Blythe trusts Emma with getting Roger to the parade route on time and dashes off to assist the pets in dance training.
By the time Blythe reaches the pets, they have made no progress in dancing any better, with Russell and Pepper doing most of the fumbling. Ramon takes his time to stop by Blythe, show off seven more robot birds that make up his dance team, and taunt her about not having any materials for a float. Meanwhile, Emma proves herself unable to guide Roger anywhere, and he drives the enormous Pet Jet all over the streets of the city. Roger gets frustrated wandering around every which way and, finding a long straight road with no traffic, takes off into the air.
Still unable to get the pets together as a dance team, Blythe finds the blue butterfly again—this time, she has led the animals from the Tijuca Forest to the parade, who pull a flawless coordinated dance number, allowing the Littlest Pet Shop pets to each do their own thing. Blythe receives 1st place for the dance number, and when asked about the float, Roger makes a landing on the parade route in the nick of time, which also scores 1st for the float category. Ramon, the runner-up, receives a tiny trophy, which fumes him up so much that Ramona short-circuits. For added humiliation, Roger advises Ramon to find his own way home, as he does not allow robot pets on board the Pet Jet.
This episode contains examples of (YMMV entries go here):
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Any three-quarters views of the Pet Jet, as well as its takeoff and landing with the butterfly decorations.
- Artistic License: In one shot, one can see Roger steering the Pet Jet on the streets of Rio with his hands—when on the ground, commercial jets are steered entirely with the pedals. In all other shots though, he does seem to steer with the pedals.
- Call-Back: Minka's demonstration of her samba-dancing is done in the same way and with the same background music as in "Russell Up Some Fun."
- While context is provided about why Blythe is initially angry at Ramon, his previous pet bird, Desi, is not mentioned at all. Zoe's attempts to get information out of Ramona would make more sense with knowledge that Desi spilled the beans in "The Big, Feathered Parade."
- At the end of the episode, Roger tells Ramon he isn't welcome back on the Pet Jet due to not having a pet. Viewers who haven't seen "To Paris With Zoe" may be confused why Emma is still allowed on board despite her not having a pet, as no explanation is given that she's the daughter of Roger's co-pilot Stephanie.
- Clown-Car Base: All six pets, minus Minka, hide underneath the cover for Ramon's hamburger.
- Continuity Nod: Sunil gets scared by the blue butterfly. He mentioned being scared of creatures with six or more legs in "Heart of Parkness."
- Emma was shown to be very good with finding shortcuts in Paris in "To Paris with Zoe." Averted, however, as she has no ability to get anyone anywhere in Rio de Janeiro.
- A mute insect helps a main character return somewhere, like in "What Did You Say?"
- This is the second time we see Roger behind the wheel getting frustrated.
- Drives Like Crazy: This time, Roger uses his lack of concern for rules of the road to his advantage, using an urban road as a runway.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: Averted. The Tijuca Forest plays a role in the story, but Christ the Redeemer only shows up briefly in the background during "Song of Brazil." The only other landmark of the city shown is the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí, which the bulk of Act 3 is set at, but is a necessary location for the plot.
- Electronic Eyes/Exotic Eye Designs: Ramona's eyes undergo what is a decidedly creepy transformation when she starts scanning. The pupil turns yellow with a red grid overlay, and the pink iris turns black with green concentric Tron Lines.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Ramon apparently hates having to love pets. He shudders even thinking about it. This may be why Desi was so stressed in "The Big, Feathered Parade."
- Evil Laugh: Ramon is still rather prone to it. By Act 3, he starts coughing from laughing so much.
- Forgiveness: The pets are divided on whether to trust Ramon. Russell initially forgives him, whereas Zoe and Vinnie do not. Penny is neutral on the issue.
- Funny Background Event: After Russell steps on Minka's left foot during the beginning of her training, the next time that foot is visible, there is gauze around it.
- Gilligan Cut: Blythe discusses about how hard it'll be to convince Roger to fly her to Rio. The episode does a Jump Cut to Roger agreeing to do so right away. This happens again in Act 3.
- Gratuitous Portuguese: With Emma traveling to Brazil, this had to happen. She also butchers the pronunciation, the way an aspiring tour guide would.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Emma occasionally confuses Portuguese with Spanish.
- Hammerspace: How Emma can keep her itinerary in her little bag.
- Humiliation Conga: Ramon loses to Blythe and gets 2nd place using designs he stole from her, and since his pet isn't real he's not allowed back on the Pet Jet and has to find another way home.
- Idiosyncratic Wipes: Ramona herself when attacking the pets in Ramon's room. Non-robotic macaws parallel the Ramona wipe in "Song of Brazil."
- It's All About Me: One thing that hasn't changed about Ramon. He even has a big photo of himself taped to the door of his hotel room.
- It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans: This episode uses the Rio de Janeiro equivalent, Carnival. That being said, the story does go underway because the celebration is approaching, and this episode premiered during the week the real Carnival would take place.
- Laughing Mad: By Act 3, Ramon is yelling stream-of-consciousness monologues as he's laughing, in the middle of the parade.
- Literal-Minded: Penny Ling. Zoe says that Ramona may sing as in Ramona may tell the pets if Ramon is up to something, but Penny Ling interprets it as actually singing.
- Long List: Emma's itinerary on the Pet Jet.
- No Sense of Direction: Emma leads Blythe around in circles in the Tijuca Forest. she later leads Roger in his Pet Jet all over Rio's streets, causing traffic problems wherever they go.
- Offscreen Teleportation: The pets dart off in different directions offscreen to hide from Ramon and are next seen all underneath the hamburger's cover.
- Pretty Butterfly: Blythe gets inspired by the blue butterfly and creates a costume motif around it.
- Properly Paranoid: Russell, normally skilled in judge of character, is wrong about Ramon turning a new leaf, whereas Zoe, the first one to speak out against Russell, turns out to be right. Nevertheless, Russell gives Zoe a chance to prove her point.
- The Quiet One: Ramona will speak only when Ramon prompts her to. The reason is discovered in Act 2.
- Robo Cam: In the POV shot of the pets taking Blythe's luggage out of Ramon's room.
- Robotic Reveal: Ramona.
- Running Gag: Blythe being apprehensive about using Roger's Pet Jet with Roger being incredibly accepting.
- Sequel Episode: To "The Big, Feathered Parade." There is even a Title Drop to that episode in The Teaser. Emma's role as a major character in this episode also makes it a sequel to "To Paris with Zoe" as well.
- Shout-Out: The episode title is a pun on the movie Blame It on Rio.
- The macaw feathers at the end of the first chorus in "Song of Brazil" mimics an umbrella scene in Singin' in the Rain and a wipe in The Lion King (1994).
- Blythe responds to Ramon's supposed plagiarism by making her own designs this time, taking the same approach as Rarity in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Rarity Takes Manehattan."
- Oh, and do the scenes involving a chase during Carnival remind anyone of those featured in Rio?
- Spontaneous Choreography: The specialty of the Tijuca animals.
- The Stoic: Ramona, as is befitting a robot.
- Summon Backup Dancers: The creatures in "Song of Brazil." Their ability to be called upon to sing and dance when needed allows Blythe to win the Samba School competition.
- Tron Lines: On Ramona's irises when scanning. See Exotic Eye Designs above.
- The Voiceless: The butterfly.
- Wheel of Feet: Sunil and Vinnie when Ramona tries to dive-bomb them.
