Chico & Rita

Too much has been made of the animated films that DIDN'T get an Oscar nod ("Cars 2" Really? REALLY?) and not enough attention has been paid to the two foreign films that DID earn a nod - "A Cat in Paris" and "Chico & Rita." I reviewed "A Cat in Paris" after screening it at last year's San Francisco International Film Festival, and was pleasantly surprised to see it on the list. Check out my review and you'll see I think it deserves its spot.

Having just screened "Chico & Rita," I can tell you that the Academy did right by this film as well. Not quite computer animation and not quite rotoscoping, the process of animating this film is too damn complicated for me to explain.

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The title characters are Cuban artists. He's a musician/composer, she's a sultry singer. They both are chasing dreams - artistic and human. Their journey begins in Havana and makes stops in New York, Paris, and, ultimately, Las Vegas. It's a journey worth taking.

"Chico & Rita" has a unique look, with vibrant colors that compliment a terrific soundtrack of jazz greats. The voice work is spot-on, and the voice artists have the advantage of having a solid - though, to be honest, a wee bit clichéd - story to tell about adults for adults.

I hesitate to write that, as the first thing that comes to mind when you link "adult" and "animation" is Ralph Bakshi / "Fritz the Cat." This film does have sexual content, but it is not exploitative in any way. It is truly an animated film for the adult mind.

What a nice surprise (and a well deserved one,) if either of the two foreign film entrants in this category were to hear their names called from an Oscar envelope. "Puss in Boots?" Really? REALLY?

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The second foreign nominee for the Academy Awards' Best Animated Feature in 2011, there has actually been buzz about this one since last year's Oscars (it debuted at Telluride in 2010 and also played at Toronto, but is not seeing a commercial release in the U.S. until February of 2012; it already saw a release in most European countries in late 2010 or 2011). That buzz is, thankfully, quite deserved, because this one is just wonderful. A simple story, sure, but a touching one about a young man and woman in Havana who begin a romance in 1948. They are musicians and get together through their art, but unfortunately petty jealousies keep getting in the way of their love. After initial success, Rita is swept off to New York City to become famous without Chico. He follows a few years later and finds his own fame, but the two seem destined to remain separate. The animation, like the story, is quite simple but really beautiful. It kind of reminds me of Waltz with Bashir, although it's not rotoscoped - at least not as extensively as Waltz with Bashir was. Rita, I must say, is the sexiest animated character since Jessica Rabbit - and she's not nearly so shy. It's kind of funny, but on account of this film, the Best Animated Feature category has far more nudity in it than all nine of the Best Picture nominees. Of course, as the characters are Cuban musicians, there's a ton of wonderful music throughout. I found the film deeply touching, and it brought me to tears at the end. This is far and away the best film among the four I've seen in its Oscar category this year (and I somehow doubt that Puss in Boots will eventually blow it out of the water!). Highly recommended.

Chico & Rita is a sublime and highly original animated film. It is a very adult film with some animated adult situations. Set in Cuba just before and the years after the revolution, it tells the story of Chico, a talented jazz pianist and Rita, a beautiful singer. Through the story of this couple's turbulent love affair over these years, where Rita finds fame and fortune in US and Chico goes through some hard times, we also get a brief history of both Cuba and jazz music. The animation is wonderfully evocative and colorful and as for the music; well if you are a fan of jazz or Latin American music you are going to fall in love with this movie. Highly recommended.

The new animated romance Chico and Rita follows the relationship of two young Cuban musicians: Chico is a gifted piano player looking to bring the sound of Havana to New York; Rita is a beautiful singer who treads the precarious path between Latin musicians and white investors looking to cash in on the popularity of this new music. Like all star crossed lovers, their journey is not an easy one – their musical and romantic tribulations will continue over 60 years against the striking backdrops of Havana, New York, Paris, Hollywood and Las Vegas.

The real strength of the film is its ability to portray a classic love story in both an innovative, sensual and sensitive way. The syncopated grace of Cuban Jazz combines with a disarmingly child-like animation to create a sparkling tribute to 1940s and 50s Havana culture.

The film exudes real passion for both the music of the period and the locations of the film, beautifully re-crafted within the animated landscape. The Cuban sound is brought to life with a truly uplifting assortment of records, including classics from Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie and Thelonius Monk. Like the heady improvisation of a be-bop trumpeter, this film bounces between soft melody and excited fragmentation, always bursting to give the audience something new and exciting.

Yet this does not mean that the film is purely for Jazz aficionados – the affection that directors Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba bring to their work ensures that this film doesn't become simply a musical tribute aimed at a conceited minority. The scale of the narrative will leave you breathless, and yet the story is all told through the seemingly innocent hand of traditional cartoon animation. In a post-Pixar world, this kind of hand-drawn animation has gained a retro charm all of its own. Chico and Rita is a delicate reminder that genuine action and emotion can still be expressed without the pixellated glossiness of CGI.

Chico and Rita really succeeds in bringing the colour and vibrancy of early 50s Havana back to life – from the delightfully evocative soundtrack, to the re-telling of a classic love story through the medium of hand-drawn animation, the film is a fitting expression of the vision and compassion of its creators.

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Chico & Rita follows Chico, an old and retired Cuban pianist, as he remembers his impossible love with a jazz singer called Rita and his rise and fall as a music performer. Having taken four years to make, Chico & Rita is first and foremost visually mind-blowing. Its animation is as nothing you have seen before and the cinematography, the lights, the angles, the music, just everything related to the technical aspect of this film is absolutely perfect.

But what's best and most refreshing about this film is its old-fashioned love story. In a time where all romantic films try to be as realistic as possible, it seems unthinkable to watch a relationship like this unfold on screen. Following a bolero-like structure, the main characters fall in love as easily as they fall apart, but they never forget each other, having an outdated loyalty that is deserving of such all-time classics as Casablanca or Gone With The Wind, and ending in the brilliant and moving bittersweet final scene.

Jazz music plays a main role in the film and gets to be the third character in what we could call a love triangle between the jazz, Chico and Rita. The two title characters are extremely talented musicians that are sometimes in the position of having to choose between their lover or their musical success and fame. Real jazz performers, such as Charlie Parker or Tito Puente get enjoyable cameos in the film and, practically, all the performances in the film are very delightful and entertaining.

Although the film has some minor elements that prevents it from being a masterpiece, like the appearance near the end of Estrella Morente, they are so insignificant compared to the whole of the film that Chico & Rita is still an exceptional film appealing to an extremely large audience.

Chico & Rita is an animated old-fashioned musical romance with a highly original aesthetic, a both refreshing and outdated love story and sublime original and adapted music.

Rating: 4.5/5.