Chico & Rita (2011)

Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey - in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero - brings heartache and torment. [imdb]

Nominated for 1 Oscar:


Best Animated Feature

The other unusual Animated Feature selection was Chico & Rita. The nomination itself was less surprising (it was predicted based on earlier buzz), but the film itself is probably the worst of the line-up (I haven't seen Kung Fu Panda 2 yet, nor will I adventure too soon). It's a predictable, superficial "love story", so poorly constructed that it creates no emotional connection with the audience.

The film itself feels like an excuse to just to play the music - which is fine, but it could've been much more had they put some effort into the story. The animation is ok, though often enough it looked like a computer game to me. And who would've thought I'll live to see an animated woman's full frontal (breasts, pubic hair, everything) in an Oscar nominated animation film?! And in competition with something like Puss in Boots. :))

My rating for the film: 4.5/10. Too often it fails.