Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.5

Chico & Rita Blu-ray Movie Review

Sway.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 19, 2012

There’s a seductive allure to a lot of Latin music which is almost genetic in nature: it insinuates itself into the bloodstream, becoming almost a life force, a sonic pulse which reverberates through the soul and makes holding still virtually impossible. I’ve had an almost life long love affair with all sorts of Latin music which was fostered at a very early age when my eldest sister, who is quite a bit older than I am, brought home some Sergio Mendes albums from college and I was instantly hooked by the cool jazz chords and incredible percussion. Though Mendes’ albums were obviously geared toward a mainstream audience, they almost always included some fantastic compositions from the likes of Edu Lobo or Milton Nascimento or (later) Ivan Lins, and being the inveterate credits reader that I am, that in turn opened up a whole new world of “south of the border” artists with whom I became unabashedly enamored. Slowly my interest in other Latin music grew, and one of my prime fascinations became Cuban music, especially the Afro-Cuban hybrids that started to inform American jazz shortly after World War II. Imagine my delight, then, in sitting down to watch Chico and Rita, an amazingly beautiful animated film which recounts this very period in Cuba’s musical history from the standpoint of two characters who are integrally involved. Chico and Rita received a 2012 Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Film (it lost to Rango), a nomination it most certainly deserved. This is an “adult” animated feature (replete with sexuality and some copious nudity) that is not just beautifully animated, but perhaps just as importantly beautifully told. The fact that it also includes one of the most gorgeous soundtracks in recent memory is simply icing on the virtual cake.

For all the ebullience of Latin music, there’s also an inherent sadness, a quality Brasileiros call saudade, a sort of wistful nostalgia that borders on melancholy. That same emotional tenor hangs over great swaths of Chico and Rita. It’s part and parcel of most star-crossed lovers stories, but in this film it’s also built up out of various elements including racism, philandering, the machinations of those behind the scenes of great artists, and a long, long delayed happy ending. The film starts in contemporary times in Cuba, when we meet Chico, an elderly shoe shine man. He shuffles on home to his lonely flat, pours himself a stiff drink, and then dissolves into memory when the radio starts playing “a hit from 60 years ago,” which of course turns out to be one of Chico’s own tunes.

That takes us back to the gist of the story within the story, starting in a rousing 1948 post-War Cuba. Chico is one of the hottest pianists on the island, and he meets sultry chanteuse Rita at a nightclub one evening. It’s not exactly love at first sight, and in fact the tempestuous relationship between the two main characters is fraught with discord and misunderstandings for virtually the entire length of the film. Those problems notwithstanding, Chico and Rita reach a certain degree of professional détente in order to win a local talent contest, something that sets them out on the beginnings of a successful career. However, when a kind of smarmy talent agent catches their act and decides he can build Rita into an American star, things start to go badly rather quickly, something exacerbated by Chico’s drunkenness and rekindling of a relationship with a former girlfriend whom Rita has already had a messy conflict.

The rest of Chico and Rita is a course in both American and Cuban musical history spanning the course of several years. Rita goes on to become an immense singing and acting sensation (perhaps slightly modeled on figures like Dorothy Dandridge), while Chico, due to the machinations of his agent Ramón, is sent on a world tour backing Dizzy Gillespie. The film is quite notable (no pun intended) for rather smartly working in a bevy of “real life” characters in a number of well integrated ways. Early in the film, Chico finds himself desperately trying to sight read Igor Stravinsky’s “Ebony Concerto”, written for Woody Herman’s band, when Chico is asked to fill in for Herman’s ailing pianist. Later, in New York, Chico and Ramón find themselves dealing with legendary Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo, and a major plot point keeping Chico and Rita apart is wound up with the real fate of Pozo.

Chico and Rita is one of the most distinctively gorgeous animated films in recent memory, something a world away from what a lot of American audiences may be expecting. Designed and co-directed by Javier Mariscal, one of the most renowned contemporary Spanish artists, the film is a vibrant collage of bright colors and expressive designs. Though it doesn’t appear actual motion capture was utilized, the animators took the old Disney technique of reviewing live action versions of what they would ultimately draw, and the Making of featurette included on the Blu-ray as a supplement shows some of them actually tracing over the live action footage to craft their drawings. But this isn’t mere “reproduction”, it’s Art on its own very personal terms. Aiding and abetting the gorgeous visuals is the equally impressive soundtrack by the legendary Bebo Valdés, a character on whom Chico is at least partially based. The music runs the gamut of Cuban styles, and also ably recreates the then nascent bebop movement of the late forties. Rarely have sight and sound been so intricately and artfully combined. Chico and Rita is a joyous, heartbreaking, thought provoking and celebratory film that manages to capture not just the panoply of Cuban music, but of life itself.

Chico & Rita Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Chico and Rita is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of NewVideo with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. There's little more that you need to know about this transfer than it is practically perfect in every way. The animation is incredibly distinctive (as mentioned above in the main body of the review), with a lot of quasi-3D effects that seem to have come at least in part from elements of the image having been rotoscoped. (It's obvious that backgrounds were rendered in 3D some of the time, as well.) Line detail is incredibly sharp and well detailed, and colors are exceptionally vivid and lushly saturated. Character design is very distinctive and individually differentiated, but it's probably the settings that will most capture the viewer's interest, at least on first viewing. Everything from Havana's teeming harbors to the iconic Tropicana to New York and Las Vegas are rendered with incredible complexity and beauty. If you don't think an animated film can be a piece of Art, you really need to check out Chico and Rita.

Chico & Rita Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Chico and Rita's original (mostly) Spanish language track is presented via an exceptionally effective DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. While surround activity is brilliant in the film's many unbelievably exciting musical sequences, it's also rather smartly used in a number of the urban settings which dot the film, as well as some of the crowded club scenes where Chico and Rita forge their careers. Dialogue is very cleanly and clearly presented. Perhaps surprisingly, the film has a blast or two of LFE (prepare yourself for the release of steam when Rita's boat is leaving Cuba), and dynamic range is extremely wide. Fidelity is absolutely spot on in both the spoken and musical elements of the film.

Chico & Rita Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making of Chico & Rita (HD; 28:19) is a really interesting look at the long gestational period and production of the film, with interviews with most of the principal cast and crew and lots of great footage of the animation being slowly rendered from Javier Mariscal's designs. There's also a nice extended segment on the film's incredible music.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 1:48)


• Directors' Commentary features Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, both of whom start out by stating their English is not exactly fluent. Some of this commentary is frankly the "now we're seeing. . ." type, but Trueba does get into some of the history of Cuba and the musical elements, while Mariscal talks about the film's astounding design aesthetic.

Chico & Rita Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Chico and Rita is fabulous tour through some of the most exciting music of the mid-twentieth century, wrapped around two intriguing characters who live the sea changes that were happening not just in the Arts, but in society and, with regard to Cuba, politics as well. This is a one of a kind film that deserves huge recognition for its innovative design aesthetic as well as its invigorating soundtrack. This is not a "kiddie" cartoon, so parents should be aware there's overt sexuality and several scenes featuring nudity. But for adults who want a sobering story which includes some of the most exciting music to grace a film in many years, there's no beating Chico and Rita. This Blu-ray's supplements are a little on the slim side (though a soundtrack CD is also included), but the video and audio are simply reference quality. Highly recommended.