CARLOS SALDANHA, director of the phenomenally successful Ice Age films, ventures to sunnier climes for this joyous computer-animated romantic comedy.

Set to intoxicating Brazilian rhythms and bursting with colour, Rio introduces us to a menagerie of wacky and neurotic critters, whose fates rest in the balance.

Don Rhymer peppers his script with a few one-liners for parents, but Rio is skewed predominantly towards a younger audience, keeping the first flutterings of romance off-screen.

Blu (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg) is a domesticated blue macaw who lives in relative luxury in the sleepy community of Moose Lake, Minnesota.

The bird doesn’t want for anything, his hot chocolate made to perfection with six mini marshmallows by his doting owner and best friend Linda (Leslie Mann).

Brazilian conservationist Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) arrives in Moose Lake to ask Linda to bring Blu to Rio de Janeiro, so the rare bird can mate with the only known female blue macaw, Jewel (Anne Hathaway). Eventually, Linda agrees and she and Blu head to South America, which is in the grip of carnival season.

No sooner has Blu met Jewel than the birds are kidnapped by greedy animal smugglers led by the nefarious Marcel (Carlos Ponce).