YMMV / Rio

• Adorkable:
  • Blu, but given that he's voiced by Jesse Eisenberg, that's to be expected. Blu is a very awkward, polite, and quite clumsy character who can be quite endearing and sympathetic.
  • His owner, Linda, shares many of Blu's character traits, including this one.
  • Tulio also counts as one, including his Cloudcuckoolander tendencies.
• Adaptation Displacement: More people know about the Angry Birds crossover tie-in game than the movies.
• Angst? What Angst?: Luis does not seem to wonder where his bird friends went later on in the carnival parade (they were all captured by Nigel). All he does is dance on a float without a care in the world.
• Awesome Art: Regardless of whether you like or dislike the movie's plot and humor, there's no denying that the movie looks beautiful.
• Awesome Music:
  • DJ Dero's Batucada in the trailer is only the beginning (and is heavily sampled in the soundtrack). The first two minutes of the movie are set to Brazilian samba.
  • Jewel's solo in "Hot Wings (I Wanna Party)" is one of the most beautiful parts of the entire movie. And the preceding sequence shows a great contrast. Blu's a natural talent at the rapid motions of street-style samba; Jewel's flowing motions evoke a much more formal, classic style of samba.
  • "Fly Love" sung by Nico who was voiced by Jamie Foxx is really setting the romantic mood for Blu and Jewel. But, the romantic mood got cut off by Blu trying to tell Jewel how he feels, only to choke on a flower petal before he could tell her. If only Blu didn't choke on a flower petal, the song will continue the smooth romance vibe.
  • John Powell's score is a bit overshadowed by the songs and isn't exactly How to Train Your Dragon but it does get some moments to shine, particularly "Flying" towards the end. Of course, having famed Latin composer Sergio Mendez supervising helped immensely.
  • The film's end credits feature the song "Telling the World" by Taio Cruz. The words of the song are sung from Blu's point of view and effectively depict him declaring that he has found the girl of his dreams and has all the reason to be happy and live his life to the fullest for it, all set to an upbeat, optimistic and catchy tune. Listening to the song can certainly feel rewarding, especially when you think about all Blu went through just to win Jewel's heart, and hearing a song about what's basically him saying he can now live a happy life because of the bird he fell in love with is enough to bring a tear to your eye if you're sensitive enough.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: An animated GIF of the beach ball bouncing off a lady's enormous badonkadonk can be found around the net and for a lot of people it's the most memorable part of the movie.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Nigel's Villain Song. It comes right out of nowhere, adds absolutely nothing to the story, and is never brought up again. It at least gives some Backstory for him and explains why he's evil, but this aspect is never brought up again either, probably to keep the audience from having any sympathy for the guy when he's clearly meant to be pure evil.
• Broken Base: Among animation fans. Some see it as one of the best-animated films of 2011, others find it So Okay, It's Average, while still others find it a complete and utter Cliché Storm.
• Cliché Storm: The film is a compilation of every trope common to kids' movies in the 2000s, especially Dreamworks movies. A Last of His Kind Blue Bird is played by Jesse Eisenberg whose acting and voice are a Michael Cera stand-in. This Blue Bird doesn't know how to fly and is awkward and nerdy and tries to woo a Hot-Blooded Action Girl also Last of Her Kind bird played by Anne Hathaway. A vain, egocentric, and Faux Affably Evil bird played by an actor who is not but sounds suspiciously like Tim Curry. A Happily Married Henpecked Husband Mentor Toucan played by George Lopez. An Odd Couple romance followed by Die or Fly learning how to fly Just in Time (with the help of the Power of Love) scene is both bound to happen.
• Common Knowledge: Since the late 2010s, both among people familiar and unfamiliar with the movie, Rio has become infamous as the kid's movie based on an endangered bird that ultimately went extinct after the movie's release, to the point that one generally can't mention the movie without that fact being brought up. Except that as of yet, the Spix's macaw is not completely extinct; it's only considered extinct in the wild, as captive populations still exist. In fact, the species' situation in the movie itself (at least at the time of the first movie's release) was actually worse than the actual species' status, as only Blu, Jewel, and their offspring were alive in the wild at the end of the first movie, whereas in real life there were over a hundred in captivity.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Alice and Chloe, the two Canadian geese, are fondly remembered by fans despite appearing for less than a minute, due to their entertaining Sitcom Arch-Nemesis dynamic with Blu.
• Evil Is Cool: Nigel, whose over-the-top Card-Carrying Villain routine and catchy Villain Song makes him very entertaining to watch. They bring him back in the sequel possibly because of his popularity.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Fanfic writers love shipping Nico and Pedro. Canonically they are Heterosexual Life-Partners, so the shippers just drop the "heterosexual" part.
• First Installment Wins: The general consensus is that, for all its flaws, the first Rio is still much better than the second one. Though it helped alleviate the Inferred Holocaust of the first movie, most fans can’t stand the sequel due to it being an even worse Cliché Storm and characters acting like they learned nothing from the first film.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Angry Birds for obvious reasons.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: It's not surprising most of its box office came from overseas - even less that Rio's most profitable market outside North America was Brazil.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Spix's macaws were officially classified as an extinct species in the wild by the year 2018. Although as seen under Common Knowledge above, many people have significantly exaggerated the level of Harsher in Hindsight due to the misconception that the species is completely extinct, and the status of the species in Rio was actually significantly worse than in real life.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: For a while, it seemed Spix's macaws, the species Blu and Jewel are based on, would in fact stay extinct in the wild. In 2022, however, it was revealed that conservationists have been able to save enough macaws which have since been released back into their natural habitat, acting as a flock, and surviving. And this movie played a part in bringing them to attention. Looks like Túlio's plan worked.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Blu uses his smarts to get around his hangup of being unable to fly.
• I Am Not Shazam: People tend to make the mistake of assuming Blu's name is Rio.
• Inferred Holocaust: As pointed out in a Cracked article, one couple is never enough to restore an entire species, since Blu's offsprings would have to breed with each other making each successive generation more and more genetically damaged, so their species is pretty much already doomed anyway. The sequel resolves this by introducing a whole tribe of blue macaws (including Jewel's original family) hidden in the Amazon jungle.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Brazilians (especially casual consumers) seriously love the film and its sequel. Blue Sky Studios clearly pushed the right buttons when they made it — the movie's portrayal of the country is mostly accurate without being (particularly) offensive. Its director, Carlos Saldanha, is from Rio himself, so even if he does portray his hometown with its common stereotypes, you can see the good intentions are there.
• Mis-blamed: This film was believed to be the reason behind the cancellation of Pixar's Newt, until Ed Catmull said it was not.
• Moral Event Horizon: For Nigel, it's likely near the end when he causes a cage to fall on Jewel's wing, injuring it. His remorseless remark leads Blu to attach a fire extinguisher to his leg, and launch him out of the plane.
  Nigel: Oh Pity. Now we have two useless, flightless birds!
• Nightmare Fuel: Nigel... just Nigel. His Faux Affably Evil personality does nothing to hide what a truly nasty piece of work he is... particularly if you've attracted one of his many appetites.
  • It certainly doesn't help that he uses a Jump Scare every time he appears on screen.
  • His supposed death, too! After being launched out of the plane, he gets shredded by one of its propellors, as it's shown with a Gory Discretion Shot of his feathers flying. Luckily, he survives.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: Angry Birds Rio.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: The movie's game is just a poorly done Mario Party copy.
• She Really Can Act: Although she had sung in films before, this film really highlighted Anne Hathaway's singing voice pre-Les Misérables (2012).
• Squick: Any scene where Luiz the bulldog drools on the main characters. Although he has stated it was a medical condition.

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