YMMV / Rio 2

• Abandon Shipping: Strangely, not the movie itself, but a deleted scene that became popular in 2024 where Blu points out Jewel's uncaring attitude towards him and for making the adrupt decision to stay in the Amazon, this led to the movie getting a Newbie Boom of people who ended up agreeing with him after revisiting it, leading to a lot of people who were either supportive or uncaring of the Blu/Jewel pairing in the first movie to start to disown it feeling they don't deserve one another.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Virtually every main character fall victim to this.
  • Blu: A mere bird version of Greg Focker who is too dependent on human tech and too weak to man up when he needs to, or a sympathetic and loving Good Father and husband who only wants to make his family happy.
  • Jewel: A loving wife and mother who only wants what's best for the family, or a nagging Control Freak who's basically a younger, female version of her dad. In addition, was her intention always to find the flock of wild macaws and have the family live with them, even before learning it was her own lost flock?
    • Should Blu have even bothered staying with Jewel and the family?
    • When the loggers move on to cut down the Spix macaws' trees and Blu is missing, is Jewel genuinely remorseful for supposedly driving Blu away after their argument, or is she just worried for his safety?
  • Roberto: Handsome and suave, yet genuinely Nice Guy who respects Blu and Jewel's relationship and is actually one of the few characters in the whole film that treats Blu well, or a Casanova Showoff who tries to wreak havoc on Blu and Jewel's marriage.
  • Eduardo: a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who only has the best interests of his family and tribe at heart, despite his aggressive behavior, or a domineering, testosterone-fueled Jerkass who likes controlling people and tries to drive Blu out of the tribe by making his life miserable.
• Anvilicious: Save the Rainforest!
• Awesome Music:
  • Now the sequel has Bruno Mars featured in it! And he really gets his chance to shine with his introduction song, "Welcome Back", a sweet sounding serenade dedicated to Jewel's return to the Amazon.
  • With Kristin Chenoweth in the film, an awesome song is kind of to be expected. And she doesn't disappoint.
  • Beautiful Creatures certainly lives up to its name, and is often considered the main musical highlight of the movie.
• Base-Breaking Character: Jewel this time around. Her dad acts like one of the most blatant Obnoxious In-Laws but it's not until near the end of the movie that she finally directly stands up for Blu. This led to quite a vocal debate over whether Jewel was actually a good wife. One person even pointed out how pointless the first movie was if there was no need to repopulate blue macaws.
• Cliché Storm: A father-in-law that deeply dislikes his new son-in-law (though he eventually warms up towards him in the end); a (kind of) ex that is suaver and better-looking than Jewel's current partner Blu; three children who are a smart bookworm, a reckless thrillseeker, and an aloof teenager respectfully; the return of a former villain who has gone through Badass Decay and is seeking revenge...Whether or not they are used well is up to contention, but many things in this film have been done many times before.
• Contested Sequel: Pretty much has fans split down the middle. An unnecessary sequel? Or a fun one and worth watching?
• Dry Docking: It has become a popular theme in certain sectors to have Blu breaking up with Jewel just so he can return with Linda or be with their OC's. Worth noting that unlike other examples of Dry Docking, this is not because most audiences have sexual fantasies about Blu but because they don't think Jewel is a good wife for him, and given there's no more options in the movies to ship him with, they prefer to have him single or dating a new character.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Gabi is pretty popular for the small role she has in the film.
  • The rapping sloth.
• Fandom-Specific Plot: Among Jewel's detractors, stories about Blu breaking up with her (more often that not with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech) and finding someone else, are quite common.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: Many detractors of the film wished that the deleted alternate version of Blu and Jewel's conversation after the football match, as unlike in the final version, Blu calls out Jewel's selfishness over her decision to force everyone to permanently move to the jungle and leaving her when she lashes at him, but not before stating that he thinks that their relationship only lasted because he was supposedly the last male of their kind, thus was her only option at the time of the first film.
• Genius Bonus: A potentially glorious one in that Gabi is a poison dart frog whose crush on her villainous boss recalls a little bit of Harley Quinn's infamous crush on the Joker. While pink poison dart frogs aren't really a thing (and she ultimately turns out to be a mimic poison frog), her coloration and thin black stripes give her a fairly close resemblance to Oophaga histrionica.◊ Common name? The harlequin poison frog.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The whole hidden tribe of Spix's macaws seems like an environmentalist fantasy, when it turned out the Spix's macaws were officially saved from extinction by worldwide efforts from the Ministry of the Environment of Brazil as of 2022.
• He Really Can Act: Bruno Mars is primarily a singer, not an actor, but he displays remarkable acting skills as Roberto, particularly in the scene where Roberto is trying to convince Blu that humans are dangerous. He sounds genuinely terrified.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Kristin Chenoweth is voicing Gabi the Poisonous Tree frog... Who has a bad case of Mad Love, can't touch the object of her affection without killing them, and specifically mentions pie in her song describing her current situation. Sounds like Olive finally gets a chance to understand Chuck's situation with Ned "The Pie Maker".
  • The movie establishes the fact that while the Spix's Macaw was formerly thought to be extinct in the wild, they still actually do survive in the Brazilian wilderness. Just a little plot point for the movie, but then in 2016, a wild Spix's Macaw was actually sighted in Brazil, despite being formerly classified as "extinct in the wild". It turned out that Brazil had been taking efforts to repopulate the species, officially made public as of 2022.
• Ho Yay: Nico and Pedro once again. They're actually the only duo/couple in the movie whose relationship appears to be problem free.
• Karmic Overkill: While Nigel's still done and attempted to do some terrible things, some can't help but feel pity for him due to having trauma from his Near-Death Experience from the ending of the first film, losing his ability to fly, being mistreated in a sideshow for who knows how long in between films, having an Abhorrent Admirer who's affections he does not return in the slightest, and by the end of the climax gets dragged off by said admirer who does goodness knows what to him while no-one even attempts to help him, and is stuck with her due to Tulio thinking he and Gabi have "bonded". He may be a villain, but that all seems like an awful lot for him to go through.
• Memetic Mutation: In early May of 2024 nearly a month after the second film's tenth anniversary, the Spanish community for Rio made their own characters to be paired with Blu for him be much content and better off with and leave Jewel behind as a result after how she treated him through the events of the second film.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Gabi may be silly, but the threat of her poison killing herself and others hangs over much of the film, at least until it's revealed she isn't actually poisonous.
  • Big Boss meets his end at the hands of a hungry anaconda, and the last we see of him is the anaconda bloated by the shape of Big Boss's corpse in its belly, with the anaconda sporting a relaxed, satisfied smile.
• One-Scene Wonder: Most of the performers in the Terrible Interviewees Montage, but special mention goes to the rapping sloth.
• Squick: Gabi, the presumably young frog being a Fangirl with a crush on Nigel, who is not just a parrot but a nasty, murderous, significantly older parrot is either Crosses the Line Twice funny or just plain gross.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Fans were disappointed by how much Fernando, a major supporting character in the original film was Demoted to Extra and not on the expedition with Linda and Tulio. Also, what's the point of Jake T. Austin reprising his role for only one single line?
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: The subplot involving Nico, Pedro, and Rafael trying to find talent in the Amazon can definitely come off as this. While it can initially be seen as essential towards Nigel's quest to get revenge on Blu, that tie-in wears off when Nigel is only able to confront Blu during the climactic battle, ultimately reducing the subplot to little more than a Terrible Interviewees Montage and a song from Nigel.
• Trailer Joke Decay: While Nigel's cover of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" is an awesome Villain Song, as to be expected of Jemaine Clement, some fans felt that the song ended up losing its charm due to how much it was played on repeated in trailers leading up to the film's release.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Jewel is presented in the film as wanting to stay in the jungle with her long-lost father and clan because she and her children are happy and safe there. Her lashing out at Blu for not wanting to stay is treated as her rightfully doing so because Blu is being selfish. However, Blu has never felt welcome since he first arrived in the jungle, due in part to his critical father-in-law (who Jewel hardly ever stands up to until The Climax) and the dangers within it. The two agreed that they would be returning home before they left, yet Jewel's unilateral decision that they would all stay is presented as the "right" choice.
• Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: In May of 2024, a deleted scene of Jewel shouting at Blu to go back to Rio without her or the kids made the rounds and revived interest in the movie, with everyone rushing to design new spouses for Blu to be much happier with than to remain with Jewel.
• The Woobie:
  • Blu makes repeated sacrifices for his family, doing his best to fit in with Jewel's family and adapt to jungle life, and suffers at pretty much every turn because of it. He's even prepared to give up Linda, one of the most important people in his life.
  • Charlie could also count due to being bossed around by Nigel throughout the film. At least until the ending, where he dances with the other animals after Nigel is taken away.

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