"We got all the keys?" Logan asked as Gabriel and Adam's team joined the rest.
"We got it!" Adam replied, tossing the key in the air.
Gabriel caught it and combined all three items together, immediately opening up the portal to heart of Epcot. "You gotta wonder what kind of trap that Hex has Donald in," the raven said. "Guess we'll find out once we head in, huh?"
"You doing okay, Gabriel?" Sisu asked. "I thought you'd be more excited after cheering up Figment?"
Gabriel shrugged. "I've still got Jasiri on the mind."
"What you need is an actual break," Soren said. He looked into the portal and smiled. "And I think we've got some friends on the other side that can help with that!"
Everyone hopped in to see what the Jaquin was talking about. Once the light faded, it was revealed that on the other side was a bright city built between the coastline and the mountainside, with a large statue overlooking the entire thing. It was none other than Rio Janeiro, one of the biggest cities in all of South America!
"Oh yeah, now this gets me excited!" Logan smiled. "We have to go see the Blu Bird Sanctuary while we're here."
"I think there's another blue bird we need to look for first," Rachel said. "Poe, you have anything to help with that?"
"I believe finding Donald is a bit more straightforward than you might think," the sorcerer stated. He pointed up to the Christ the Redeemer statue, with the gang letting out a gasp as Donald was in its place!
"Hex made Donald into a giant statue!?" Silver said in shock.
"Yeah, we're going to need a lot of magic to fix that- or a giant crane," Adam stated.
"I think breaking whatever spell is on him will do us better," Gabriel said. He hopped on Sisu's back and pointed up at the statue. "Well, come on! Might as well get a closer look to figure out the full story!"
Everyone else used their own respective method to get over to the statue, then started looking around for answers to their problem. Unfortunately, even with a few Cast Bots around to beat up, there wasn't anything weird about the statue to find, magical or not. It wasn't until a very shrill scream was heard that the team found a lead.
"Wow that was ear-piercing," Silver said, wiping his ear.
"But I recognize that scream anywhere," Gabriel said. The team went over to the other side of the statue, where three birds were inspecting the thing. The tallest one was a rooster in a sombrero, the middle one was a Brazilian parrot carrying an umbrella, and the third one was a short pink bird with wild red hair.
"Come on, Ari, you're the best at this!" said the rooster.
"Indeed you are," the parrot added.
The pink bird, Ari, nodded, letting off another high-pitched scream before pulling out various hardware tools and going to work on the statue. Humming a catchy tune, Ari created a comical dust cloud around the statue as various construction tools sounds were heard. Once he finished the song, Ari came out of the dust cloud and wiped his hands, the dust settling to reveal… that nothing had changed at all. His friends have a sigh before Ari just shrugged, pulling out a lawn chair and sunglasses to soak up the sun.
"Well that didn't work, "the rooster said.
The parrot nodded. "Even my skills in black magic haven't had an effect."
"Hey you guys!" Gabriel called.
"Well will you look at that!" the rooster smiled. He went over and shook the raven's hand. "It's been too long since we last met. When was that, the Mexico Pavilion?" He looked over and saw the other Dream Keepers. "Ah, and these must be your friends. Hola, amigos! My name is Panchito Romero Miguel Francisco Quintero Gonzalez the Third, but you can just call me Panchito Pistoles."
"And I am José Carioca," the parrot introduced himself, giving a kiss on the hand to the ladies as he passed them.
"Oh my," Marian blushed. "Such a gentleman, but I must admit that I am a married a woman."
"All the best girls are," José sighed wistfully. "But anyway, we are the Three Caballeros! At least, once we get Donald out of this statue."
"Do any of you have a giant crane? That might help," Panchito suggested.
Rachel shook her head. "No, and we heard you say something about trying magic on this thing as well. I don't think we're going to have much luck."
"Unless," Adam hummed. He pulled out the Golden Atlas, which Panchito and José recognized.
"Hey, that's Xandra's book!" José noted.
"It's just a copy," Jake said. "Do you have someone in mind to call on, Adam?"
The cyborg shook his head. "It's more like an adventurer's intuition. If you can't find your way in a strange land, then just ask the locals. And when in Brazil, no one knows the city quite as well as the birds."
"This is true," José agreed. "I know my hometown like the back of my hand. There are a few friends we can go ask as well."
"Then lead the way," Silver said.
The group followed José and Panchito down Corcovado Mountain and into the city of Rio proper. Once down by Ipanema Beach, José held out a hand for everyone to stop. "if we're going to meet my friends, we'll all need to blend in with the locals. You could say that we're a bit too tall for entry."
"Oh, this'll be fun," Panchito grinned.
José rolled up his sleeves and then snapped his fingers, sending out smoke and lighting that surrounded the group. Once it cleared, everyone had been turned into a bird of some kind! Gabriel was a raven, as was Poe, Sisu was a Chinese flycatcher, Rachel was an eagle, Logan was a snowy owl, Destiny was a seagull, Maximus was an egret, Silver was a dove, Soren was a parrot, Marian was a sparrow, Adam became a condor, and jake became a wren.
"And we're animals again," Rachel chuckled.
"I'm a bird again!" Logan called.
"A world-class menagerie, some might say," Silver laughed.
"Let's go in and meet our friends," José said, he and Panchito having turned into regular animal versions of their usual forms. Inside the location was a secret club full of colorful Brazilian birds, all of them dancing to Samba music. In the middle of it all were a canary and cardinal, the two singing and rapping as they flew around the club. "Nico, Pedro! Over here!" José called.
"hold up everybody!" Pedro called. "You hot wings keeps those feathers up in the air, because it looks like we have some very special guests here!"
"How's it going, José?" Nico asked.
"We're here to get some advice on a problem of ours," Gabriel explained.
"Wait, aren't you that Dream Keeper guy?" Pedro asked. "That bird look is good on you."
"It's nice to meet you guys again," Silver said, giving a hug to Nico and Pedro.
"Aw, you guys already met them? Lucky," Logan groaned comically. "Hey José, you seem pretty popular around here. Why's that?"
"Why wouldn't this guy be popular?" one of the club birds asked rhetorically.
"Yeah, José is the Greatest of All Time!" another one piped up.
"He's the Mickey Mouse of Brazil!" another bird added.
"Please everyone, I'm just much a Carioca as the rest of you," José blushed.
Adam looked at José with a question on his mind. "'Carioca?' What's that mean? I thought it was just your last name."
"To be Carioca is to be from Rio itself," José explained. "It's an honor to represent such a wonderful city full of music!"
Gabriel got a bolt of inspiration from that sentence. "Wait, maybe that's it! We need to get Donald out of that statue, right? So what if we do what Brazilian birds do best and bring the city to life: literally! I think we have the musical talent to pull it off."
"Oh, I've always wanted to be part of a Rio musical number!" Logan cheered.
"It'll give us an excuse to look around the city as well," Destiny pointed out.
"We'll need all of our friends to help out for something like that," Nico said. "Pedro, let's go tell Rafael and the others!"
"This is going to be fun!" José and Panchito cheered.
As Gabriel looked around at all the birds getting excited for a big musical number, Adam and Rachel smiled as he demeanor changed to a positive one. "I think the Brazilian vibe is what he needed to brigten up," Rachel said.
Adam nodded. "Yeah, so let's make sure he can keep that feeling." He pulled out the Golden Atlas. "And coordinate the trip around Rio to gather up everyone!"
[***]
After a few hours, the sun was high in the Rio sky as birds flittered around. Everyone was back up at the Donald statue, and it was truly everyone that was there. The Spix Macaw clan from the jungle even showed up, with their jungle friends in tow. Blu's family was around, and surprisingly even Nigel was there.
"Are you sure we can trust a villain like him?" Logan asked, concerned by the cockatoo's appearance.
"When José Carioca asks you to help, you don't just turn down an offer from the biggest star in Rio," Nigel said. "Plus if it'll get Gabby off my back for a few hours that's fine by me."
"He sounds familiar," Poe said.
"Yeah, I think there was a giant crab I met with a similar voice," Destiny noted.
"Okay everyone, this'll be one of our biggest musical numbers ever!" Gabriel called, flying in front of them. "Are you all ready?"
"You bet!" the birds called back.
"Then let's hit it!" Sisu added, using her Dragon Gem with Gabriel's to send out a water orb up into the sky like a sparkling firework. A bit of Fantasia magic and music started fill the air, with the birds flying down the cliffs of Rio as they sang out.
(Yeah, tico, tico, tico tia!)
Oooh, ária raio
Oba, oba, oba
Oooh, ária raio
Oba, oba, oba
Flying down by Ipanema Beach, Nico and Pedro sat on top of a moving truck, with Pedro rapping as Nico played his bottle cap hat like a tambourine.
Pedro:
Mas que nada
The birds of Rio came to make it hotter
We be the party starter
Bubbling up just like lava
Like lava
The birds flew and danced over the beach, weaving between the beachgoers and ducking and diving between volleyball nets.
Nico:
Heated like a sauna
Penetrating through your body armor
Rhythmically we massage yeah
With Hip-Hip mixed up with Samba
With Samba!
Rafael and his toucan family flew down next to the fruit stands, where the old Samba king got to dance with lovely wife Eva.
Nico, Pedro & Rafael:
So yes, yes (yes ya'll, ya'll)
You know we never stop we never rest
(Yes ya'll, ya'll)
The birds of Rio keep it funky fresh
(Yes ya'll, ya'll)
And we won't stop until we get ya
'Til we get ya'll saying
The chorus came back in as the Dream Keepers flew over the city, heading back up into the jungles that surrounded Rio.
Everyone:
Ooooh, ária raio
Oba, oba, oba
Ooooh, ária raio
Oba, oba, oba
Suddenly Tiago, the youngest of Blu and Jewel's kids, came out onto the balcony of the Blu Bird Sanctuary and started rapping his own verse, with his sister Carla and Bia backing him up with dancing.
Tiago:
Peter Piper picked peppers
But Tiago rock rhymes of
1, 2, 3, 4, several more times of
Heavy rotation played by every kind of
Radio station blessing every mind of
Carla and Bia then took center stage, the two girls getting their own verse to sing.
Carla & Bia:
We crossing boundaries like everyday
To rock ya Robbie Bobbie beamer on the bay
We got, we got, Rio-Magnification
Rio-Magnify like everyday!
The triplets laughed as the birds of Rio danced around the sanctuary.
Triplets:
So yes, yes (yes ya'll, ya'll)
You know we never stop we never rest
(Yes ya'll, ya'll)
The birds of Rio keep it funky fresh
(Yes ya'll, ya'll)
And we won't stop until we get ya
'Til we get ya'll saying:
The Dream Keepers kept up with the beat, following Panchito and José as they went into the slums of the city. Even in the not-so-great parts of town, the music of Samba brought a life to the city.
Everyone:
Ooooh, ária raio
Oba, oba, oba
(La la la la la)
Ooooh, ária, raio
Oba, oba, oba
Up on one of the roofs, Nigel appeared and started rapping, overlooking some human children that were playing Football (Soccer to Americans). José and Panchito backed up the cockatoo, while also making sure he behaved.
Nigel (with José and Panchito):
Drop hot-hot be my daily operation
Gotta put in work in this crazy occupation
Gotta keep it moving
(That's the motivation)
Gotta ride the waves and keep a tight relation
Nigel walked over a hanging wire, the Dream Keepers following him as the birds of Rio danced around the city.
With my team keep it moving
And doing it right
Up in the lab every day 'til daylight
That's the way things move in this monkey businessi
"We took and old Samba song and remixed it!" José and Panchito exclaimed, surprising Nigel and making the cockatoo fall off the wire. The song suddenly cut off, with everyone looking down to see that Nigel had fallen into a chicken coop.
"Just as a reminder to you idiots, I still haven't grown my fight feathers back in!" Nigel grumbled.
"Sorry amigo!" Panchito called.
"Eh, anyway…" José shrugged, clapping his wings to start the music once more. It was the ladies' turn to sing, with Jewel taking center stage as she danced around with her husband, Blu.
Jewel:
Mas que nada
Sai da minha frente
Que eu quero passer
Pois o Samba esta animado
O que eu quero é sambar
The lady birds lead the male birds in a complex Samba, covering the sky in feathers as they did so.
Este Samba
Que é misto de Maracatu
É Samba de preto velho
Samba de preto tu
Landing back near the Donald statue, Gabriel got to do his part as the Dream Keepers followed the Brazilian birds in the dance.
Mas que nada
We gonna make you feel a little hotter
The beats of Sergio Mendes
Beating up Samba
Ba bada, do ba
Ba bada, do ba
(Sergio play your piano)
(Sergio play yo, a yo-yo-yo)
(Piano…)
With a bit of Fantasia, Gabriel turned his friends back to normal and conjured up a street piano that he hopped across, dancing Samba while expertly playing piano. It was quite a sight to behold, and all the music in the air was starting to surround the Donald statue as everyone got into the Samba. The raven smirked, doing a twirl of confidence as he pointed to the sky. "Check it out!" he shouted.
Everyone:
Ooooh, ária raio
Oba, oba, oba
(La la la la la)
Ooooh, ária, raio
Oba, oba, oba
(la la la la la)
Ooooh, aria raio
Oba, oba, oba
Taking to the front, Gabriel sang the last lines of the song in English.
Gabriel:
Yeah this Samba is a mix of Maracatu
A little bit of Africana
That old-time Samba tune
Yeah there is no song as cool as this Samba tune
And you know once I get to the end
You'll never want to stop
(la la la la la!)
With the last lines of the song, Gabriel waved his wings in a bow, and the Donald statue finally broke apart from all of the music. It was back to the normal Christ the Redeemer statue, though Donald himself fell over in front of everyone comically in a heap.
"Donald!" José and Panchito exclaimed, pulling their dazed friend off of the ground.
"Ow, what happened?" Donald asked.
"You got captured by Hex, and turned into a Brazilian statue," Panchito explained.
"But with the Dream Keeper's help you're all back to normal!" José exclaimed.
Donald then noticed all of the birds around the area. "Wait, did you guys have a siesta without me?"
"I think he means fiesta," Adam chuckled.
"Yeah, that too," Donald said, slumping over into his friends' arms. "I feel really tired from being a statue that whole time."
"And with that, I think our work here is done," Gabriel said.
"We had a lot of fun this time too," Logan said. "Although, do you think you could teach me the 'turn into a bird' spell, José? I want to come back and hang out here again some time."
"Hey, I can teach you that spell too," Rachel said.
"And I've more versed in black magic than this Carioca is," Poe added jealously.
José laughed joyfully. "Why don't I teach you all the secrets of Rio after you save the world?"
"You're welcome back here anytime!" Nico and Pedro added.
"See you all later!" Gabriel said, opening up a portal for his friends and Donald. Before they all left, Rachel, Adam, Soren, Silver, and Logan stopped him. "What's up, guys?"
"Well, we noticed that you were down ever since the thing with Jasiri," Silver said.
"And we got worried that you wouldn't be the same until we got her memories back," Soren added.
"But, after that big Samba song, you seem happier," Rachel said.
"And we just want to remind you that we got your back, dude," Logan gave a thumb's up.
"I'm not great with words, but you'll always be my third pick when it comes to adventuring," Adam said. The others gave him a disappointed look. "What, it's true! Melanie is pick number one, Jake is number two, so by default Gabriel has to be number three!"
"Don't worry guys, I get what he means," Gabriel laughed. "And I'm glad that you're all concerned for me, but I know everything will turn out alright now. That music definitely helped to lift my spirits up, that's for sure. So then, let's get back to base and plan our attack on the Magic Kingdom. We're so close to the end!"
Author's Note
And so, Donald is saved thanks to the power of Samba! Out off all the acquired properties that Disney got from the Twentieth Century Fox merger, I hope that Blue Sky Studios gets to have some of its film franchises brought back for either a show on Disney+ or a new movie. Rio is one of those movies that I hold dear to my heart, and it feels like a Disney movie already to me (though I really only hold that for the first movie: the less I say about the second movie the better. Good ideas, not-so-great execution and all that jazz…)
Obviously José and Panchito were here to help out, and the Aracuan Bird "Ari" makes a cameo from the Three Caballeros as well. This is technically the Adam focus, but his story has been ongoing over the entire story that it's more a last-hurrah for him using the Golden Atlas and his adventurer skills to gather up the birds.
The song this time is "Mas Que Nada" which was in the first Rio movie, though I based this version off of the Black Eyed Peas remix (which was in Just Dance around the same time the movie came out, ironically enough). Enjoy the cameos by the movies cast, and the Nigel voice joke is a reference to him sharing a voice actor with Tamatoa from Moana, Jemanie Clemont. Gabriel's last line that he sings in English is a translation done by myself of Jewel's Portuguese line. The song basically talks about how Samba is a mix of both native Brazil and African styles, and that the music is a representation of the mixed culture that made the country what it is today. Very neat!
Next Time, instead of a break back at the base with Oswald, let's see what Jasiri's been doing this whole time?