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Chico and Rita Movie Review

Chico and Rita is a 2010 Spanish animated romance film directed by Fernando Trueba among others. It’s a beautiful Oscar nominee that is unique and very lively.

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“That’s Chico. Unknown,

but he’s the hottest piano player in Cuba“

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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 is very tumultuous and filled with separation until finally they reunite decades later. I adored that final sequence. It was earned emotionally because we’ve spent the whole film with these two being together and getting separated over and over again, so the final reunion felt incredibly touching. It was a perfectly poetic way to finish this romantic film.

The entire movie is exceedingly romantic. In fact, I haven’t seen a film be this romantic in quite a while, making it a must see for all those romantics among us. Yes, there are admittedly those standard soapy Latin elements, such as cheating and arguing, but those were still reduced to a minimum, and the end result is a film that can appeal to everybody, regardless of their interest or lack thereof in Spanish culture.

This is a period piece that is set in the late forties in Havana, Cuba. Thus, we get a strong examination of racial politics of the period without ever hitting that theme overly hard. Our couple is black, but that is not the most interesting thing about them. Both are so passionate in their interest in music as well as in the love that they share for each other. Other characters come and go, and are mostly not that memorable, but these two are the core of the movie, and the main reason why it works as well as it does. The voice acting is also terrific.

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Chico and Rita isn’t a musical, not by a long shot. But it is a movie about music itself, and for anybody who is interested in Latin music, this will undoubtedly prove to be an absolute auditory treat. Bolero, the Latin ballad is the most present genre here, and I adored it. There are a lot of iconic pieces in that genre to be heard here and all elevate this film to incredible heights.

The whole movie is immensely authentic culturally speaking. Rarely have I seen such a strong emphasis and homage to Latin culture at large. The energy in this music, the passion and the heart are all present, and the same goes for the lively dances and the beautifully animated character movements. The whole thing is very much alive, which I highly appreciated.

The animation in Chico and Rita is also wonderful. It’s more simple, but it works as it is so artistic in character designs and in the backgrounds in particular. Havana looks absolutely mesmerizing with gorgeous color work and stupendously realized locations into the story itself.

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Some may argue that this film did not need to be animated, but I would argue otherwise as the lyrical quality to it would hardly be portrayed as successfully with live-action. The editing is great, and although the second act was less interesting, most of the movie played out in a riveting fashion. It actually garnered an Oscar nomination, which made it the first ever Spanish animation to be nominated by the Academy, and it should have won in my opinion.