The music had to be embedded into the story to give the scene authenticity – a mixture of Brazilian and other rhythms. “We’d never dealt with music so intimately connected with a project. Saldanha explained that relying so heavily on music posed some key challenges. The soundtrack features a stellar musical cast led by will.i.am (of The Black Eyed Peas), Jamie Foxx, Bebel Gilberto, Taio Cruz, Ester Dean, Siedah Garrett, Jemaine Clement, and famed Brazilian percussionist Carlinhos Brown, along with film composer John Powell – all performing under the guidance of executive music producer, Sergio Mendes – one of the most successful Brazilian musical artists of all time. In fact, the film relies heavily on music to tell the story – with a combination of Brazilian sounds and contemporary American music. “Once we got the script down pat, we started to storyboard the sequences, and when we hit the musical moments where the scene depended on the music – where we needed to get the music done first – we put placeholders and temp music in there.” Saldanha explained that it took a team of 350 artists at New York-based Blue Sky Studios almost three years to bring Rio from preproduction to the big screen. Plus, the film called for animated characters that included humans, birds and even marmosets. That included creating Rio’s famous Carnival parade, with some 40,000 people dancing in the bleachers and riding on elaborate floats. I wanted to be fairly true to the city and the landscapes that I wanted to present.” So it’s not like we’re creating the ice age where we could take a lot of liberties. “We had to build the city in CG and it’s a preexisting place. “Of all of the movies we’ve made, this one was probably the most difficult because of the scale of the elements,” said Saldanha. He explained that authenticity was one of his key objectives and that “the most nerve-wracking moment for me was the premier in Rio with a bunch of Brazilians around me, seeing how they would perceive the movie.” “That’s how it all started as a personal wish to come up with a story that took place in Rio, and would use Rio as its vibe,” he added. Then when I got into animation, I started seeing all these other movies being set in exotic locations, and I thought, ‘Nobody has ever really explored Rio in animation.’” “But I never knew exactly how I would do that. I always wanted to find some way to share some of that culture from the place where I grew up,” said Saldanha. “I’m originally from Rio and I’ve been living abroad for 20 years now. In addition, he was nominated for an Oscar for the 2002 short film Gone Nutty. Rio is Saldanha’s fifth animated feature after directing or co-directing Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), Robots (2005) and Ice Age (2002). The film, which was released in April, is one of 18 animated feature films vying for an Oscar nomination this year. Rio, from Blue Sky Studios and Twentieth Century Fox Animation, is the biggest, most ambitious animated film for the studios. Blu and Linda think he’s the last of his kind, but when they learn about another macaw who lives in Rio de Janeiro, they head to the faraway and exotic land to find Jewel, Blu’s soul mate. Carlos Saldanha Carlos Saldanha’s charming animated film Rio tells the story of Blu – a domesticated Macaw who never learned to fly, enjoying a sheltered life with his owner Linda in Minnesota.
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