Set Visit
Far from Hollywood and nestled in rural Greenwich, CT is Blue Sky Studios, the creative team behind the hugely successful Ice Age franchise. Behind these walls, they are hard at work creating another modern animation classic for Twentieth Century Fox, Rio, and we were invited to take a sneak peek behind the scenes…
Rio is a new 3-D computer-animated film, starring Jesse Eisenberg as Blu, a rare species of macaw living a sheltered life in Minnesota, where it’s believed he is the last of his kind. When he learns that another macaw, Jewel, has been spotted in South America, and that the macaw in question is in fact female, he sets off in earnest to Rio de Janeiro to meet her. Upon meeting her (Anne Hathaway), Blu has to learn to confront his fear of flying in order to win her heart.
Directed by Carlos Saldanha and written by Don Rhymer, the film’s voice talent also comprises Jamie Foxx, Tracy Morgan, George Lopez, Leslie Mann and Jemaine Clement.
We began our visit with John Donkin, the film’s producer, who guided us through the various scenes that we were about to watch. “While there’s a demand for 3-D with animated films, we chose to focus on the story, the music and the animation. The 3-D was an added element.”
The first scene we saw involved Jewel and Rafael (George Lopez) trying to teach Blu how to fly, beginning with the three birds perched on a cliff, overlooking the beauty of Rio. A rare bird thief has chained Blu and Jewel together, but that doesn’t stop her urging her reluctant companion to fly. Jewel pushes him forward and they tumble through the sky, treating the audience to stunning views of some of Rio’s most famous sites: the cliffs, the statue of Christ the Redeemer, the beaches and the bikini-clad women; all the while feeling Blu’s fear of flying. Eventually they land on the back of a hang glider, causing it to crash on the beach.
Next, we were shown a selection of behind-the-scenes footage of the musicians and artists who recorded the songs to be featured in the film. “Music’s going to take this movie to a new level”, explains Jamie Foxx. Foxx sang a ballad in the film and also voiced one of the characters. Will.i.am who plays his sidekick, also contributed to the music soundtrack, which marks their first ever collaboration. (All of the songs will be translated for local markets.)
The final scene we watched takes place during Rio’s notorious Carnival, the world’s most famous party. This is the climax of the film and the most difficult scene for the filmmakers to create. It features thousands of people dancing, elaborate floats parading down the street and hundreds of extravagant costumes. “The scope is magnificent”, says Donkin.
We then grabbed the opportunity to sit down with director Carlos Saldanha, who also helmed the movies Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), and co-directed Ice Age (2002) and Robots (2005).
Q: How personal is this movie to you?rnIt’s very personal in the sense that I always wanted to make a story about my country, my hometown, my culture, but living here, I had to make something that was for everybody. I took that as a goal that I wanted to tell a story that I felt proud of and that I felt that I could share with everybody. Also, every time I go to Brazil I become a tourist a bit so that foreign eye interests me.
Q: Is it more of a challenge when you compare this to Ice Age? Is it scary?
It’s exciting. I’ve been a part of all the Ice Age films and I love them, but I was ready for a new challenge. Part of my growth as a director is to branch out. I had the idea for the film, [wrote] the story and the studio loved it.
Q: Is there an ecological message to the movie?
I love nature so part of the message is to enjoy nature; don’t destroy it. Watch it; don’t capture it. I wanted to convey that with birds.
Q: How has the process changed since you started?
It’s getting harder because the schedules are getting more compressed. You want to make movies faster but you want to make them better, so the challenges are great. Also, creatively there are so many people making movies right now so you have to create a story that is unique. When I had this idea a few years back, I knew that it was something that had never been done before – an animated movie with birds set in Rio with a hybrid of music and story. I really believed that I had something.
Q: The music seems like a very big part of the film.
From the start, I wanted to create a movie that had music embedded very naturally into the story. I wanted to capture all the styles of Brazilian music, which is why I gathered this brain trust of musicians like Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown.
Q: Are we seeing the real Rio in the film? How did you re-create an entire city?
I went to Rio with a group of six people: art directors, story- board artists, animators and writers. We went during Carnival, which is the craziest week. We absorbed everything. We even had costumes and went to a parade. I was dressed as a pink and gold gladiator. I have pictures!
Q: What made Jesse [Eisenberg] and Anne [Hathaway] good for the leads?
Jesse because I felt he had an awkwardness and hesitation that felt right for Blu. With Anne, I see her as a high-energy actress. She has a great way of delivering emotion and I needed that contrast. Also, she can sing very well.
Q: What was a big challenge with making this movie?
The scale of it: building a city is quite complex and the crowds in the Carnival scene. We had to build a carnival with floats and people in costume that had to be dancing and moving.
Q: How long did that take?
We had to start that sequence a lot earlier so we have been working on it from the beginning, almost three years.
Q: Did you already write additional stories? Is there going to be a trilogy?
On no, I was barely trying to finish this one!
We also met with Jerod Chirico, a storyboard artist. One of the scenes that he was responsible for was Blu’s learning-to-fly scene described above. He revealed that this scene took him three months to complete.
His process began with a pitch to the director and producer of how he envisioned the scene, then, after receiving critiques and feedback, he drew for four days solid. Afterwards, it was back to the director and producer to show them his work. Another round of critique and feedback followed, taking him literally back to the drawing board, and the process continues. By the end, he estimates he has drawings in the thousands!
We then met with Lluis Llobera, one of the character-lead animators responsible for bringing the character Nigel (Jemaine Clement) to life. Lluis is a trained actor, which is key to his craft as an animator. The animators even have their own “acting rooms” where they are encouraged to act out their characters. Whilst preparing to animate Nigel, Llobera studied footage of Jemaine Clement taken while he voiced the role, and revealed to us that since Nigel is a villain, he used Anthony Hopkins as his inspiration.
One of the major challenges for Llobera was that each and every feather on Nigel had to be considered, with different feathers moving in different ways with each of the bird’s movements. To achieve this, Llobera studied cockatoos to understand more about how they move. The level of detail that has gone into the making of this film is nothing short of meticulous.
At the end of the day, we revisited Blu’s flying scene, but this time in 3-D. With 3-D glasses on, the scene came to life even further as we were drawn into Blu’s flying adventure, experiencing every dip and turn right along with Blu and his feathered friends.
Rio flies into theaters on April 8, 2011.
For more details make a visit at
http://www.facebook.com/RioMovie
By Ami Goldwasser