Rio 2 2014

Wesley Morris, Grantland: Rio 2 has a childish, delicious-looking beauty. It's like watching a box of Froot Loops explode just beyond the tip of your nose. Bring milk. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: "Rio 2" is not what I would call Amazon prime, but it's got enough silly songs and daffy critters to keep the little ones happy. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Even when it's coarse and calculating, this is an eager entertainment machine that will keep the kids satisfied. Just don't tell them that the Rio movies are musical comedies about an avian genocide. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Finally proves more exhausting than exhilarating as it lectures you about respecting Mother Nature one minute, knocks you over with a Gloria Gaynor cover the next, and squeezes in a lot of questionable comic relief in between. Read more

Kevin McFarland, AV Club: Despite the attempts at broadening the secondary ideological themes, this is another familiar father-in-crisis tale, dotted with musical interludes for Chenoweth and Clement, and dressed in brighter plumage. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: An agreeable song-and-dance movie, a laugh here, a laugh there, pleasant but overly busy, for seemingly no real reason other than to throw a few more set pieces at the wall to see what sticks. Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: The story flows, but not always freely, thanks to its manufactured feel. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The movie's an acceptable, if tiring, baby sitter. Read more

Justin Lowe, Hollywood Reporter: There's plenty here to attract both kids and adults alike in Saldanha's colorful imagining of the Amazonian rainforest's avian communities. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Wonderfully animated and well-voiced, "Rio 2" is nevertheless too much. Too much plot, too many issues, too many characters. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The movie has one goal: to amuse the most children with the least amount of effort. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: We're grading on a sliding scale here. But if "Rio 2" is hardly Pixar quality, it's certainly better than the average animated sequel. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: The cinematic equivalent of attack by kaleidoscope, "Rio 2" sucks you in and whirls you around before spitting you out, exhausted. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: [A] ramshackle, riotously beautiful sequel to the smash 2011 musical-comedy. Read more

Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: It'll keep the kids content for a couple of hours, though it's likely to bore the grown-ups. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: It's like the last "Hobbit" movie - so much time passes between side plots that you have to jog the memory when a minor character appears again. Who's that toucan again? Is he a bad guy? Read more

Jessica Herndon, Associated Press: With so much going on, it's a wonder this kids' movie is only five minutes longer than the original. But for the music and brilliantly picturesque look, it's worth the 3-D ticket. Read more

Bill Zwecker, Chicago Sun-Times: It's as good as the first one and sure to please both the kiddies and adults with its two-tiered humor. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Where the film excels ... in an even more pronounced way than the first film, is in the choreographed animation for the musical numbers. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Those who enjoyed the adventures of Blu and Jewel and company in the first Rio are going to find the sequel an equally pleasing diversion. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: The musical moments, on the whole, stand out as the highlights of the film; Rio 2 becomes watchable when the flat characters shut up and sing. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: There are problems here ... but the characterisation is feisty and memorable, the song-and-dance sequences intricate and colourful, and it'll charm the socks off little people. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Rio 2 teems with colorful animated splendor and elaborate musical numbers, but its rambling, hectic, if good-hearted, story is for the birds. Read more

Chris Packham, Village Voice: Rio 2 feels like biting down on a golf-ball-size bolus of Skittles while a youth counselor sitting backward in a chair fist-bumps you and shouts, "The environment is cool, brah!" Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: All in all, though, the movie feels at once too busy and too derivative. That's no easy feat, but it's also one sequel-makers probably shouldn't aspire to. Read more