The World, As We Don’t Know It

The 21st century has resolutely arrived in our cinematic solar system. But are we better off for it? The newly rechristened Cinerom Digital Entertainment Center in Torrington showed off its wares last Saturday with a 3D opening of the animated picture “Rio.” They couldn’t have picked a more appropriate debut film for the occasion. Made by Connecticut-based Blue Sky Studios, with the same team that gave us the “Ice Age” movies, “Rio” is colorful, kinetic family fare. It may not be quite the head trip of “Avatar,” or quite as original as “Happy Feet” or “Finding Nemo” — two films with which it has much in common — but “Rio” has plenty of eye-popping effects and swirling, saturated colors, as well as a soundtrack that rocked the new surround-sound system. It’s a harmless story of a pet blue macaw named Blu (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg of “The Social Network”) who belongs to a bookstore owner, Linda (Leslie Mann), in Minnesota. An ornithologist (Rodrigo Santoro) convinces Linda to bring Blu to Brazil to be mated with a captive female, Jewel (Anne Hathaway), because they are “the last of their species.” A band of bird smugglers spoils the plan by stealing the feathered duo, resulting in the predictable series of escapades, chases, and amorous adventures populated by the usual cast of characters and leading to the inevitable happy ending. Most delightful to my eye and ear were the set music and dance productions that framed the movie and were also interspersed throughout it. They gave free reign to the artistic armies behind the animation. My children preferred the action scenes. They are of a certain age. Eisenberg and Hathaway are fine in their avatar bodies, and among the hordes of semi-stereotypical supporting characters, Tracy Morgan (“30 Rock”) stands out as a bulldog named Luis; Jemaine Clement (“Flight of the Conchords”) makes a suitably evil cockatoo; and will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas is excellent as a hip-hop cardinal. The humor in “Rio” is fresher and less derivative or cloying than in many of its peer movies. So, “Rio” was enjoyable, but will digital movies and 3D extravaganzas improve the cinematic experience? At the risk of sounding like an old fuddy-duddy, there was a nagging thought in my mind that the virtual sensations of 3D are almost more real than reality, a kind of hyper-reality. It’s a credit to our technological wizardry that we can produce such spectacle, but it’s not exactly the world as we normally sense it; if anything, it’s more vivid and intense — as (I imagine) an acid trip might be. And it is increasingly used to depict the real world; many scenes in “Rio” are stunningly detailed computer-generated images of that city and even its slums. Are we in danger of losing ourselves in the virtual world at the expense of the human and the natural? Have we already? Films like “Rio” and “Avatar” have also glamorously depicted worlds teeming with wildlife, but the reality for endangered species such as the real blue macaws (the Hyacinth and Lear’s macaws) is far from rosy. Enjoyable as these films may be, there is a creeping sameness and soullessness to them that worries me. Finally, the jury is out for me until I attend more 2D films in digital to see if the change from the fast-receding days of projection is a noticeable one, and whether it is for the better or for the worse. Whichever it is, digital is here to stay. Robert and Carol Sadlon, owners of the Cinerom and The Moviehouse in Millerton, NY, assured me that the latter will be switched over before the year is out. “Rio” is playing in 2D and 3D at the Cinerom Digital Entertainment Center in Torrington. It is rated PG for mild off-color humor.