'Rio 2' Director Carlos Saldanha Gives A Taste Of His Native Brazil And The Amazon

When conceiving the first installment of “Rio,” writer and director Carlos Saldanha wanted to give viewers a taste of his native Brazil — the culture, the sounds, the flavor, all through the fresh eyes of Blu, a blue macaw raised and domesticated in Moose Lake, Minnesota.

“(It) was all about that foreign eye to Brazil,” Saldanha told Fox News Latino. “When you come for the first time, what do you expect? What is the culture? They have very little idea of the culture.”

In “Rio 2,” out in U.S. theaters on April 11, the 49-year-old director takes Blu and his family – a fiercely independent blue macaw, Jewel, and their three children – on a trip into the unknown: the Amazon forest. They are looking for more blue macaws like them.

“It was awesome (to get back to filming and writing),” Saldanha said. “We didn’t have much of a break with this one and the other one so it was the continuation of that joy of making the movie.”

Read full story here: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/entertainment/2014/03/21/in-rio-2-director-carlos-saldanha-gives-taste-his-native-brazil-and-amazon/