Spanish/English co-produced animated film taking place in Cuba and New York between 1947 to the Communist Revolution in Cuba. Beautifully animated, great music with a soundtrack featuring Tito Puente, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Freddie Cole (acting as Nat King Cole) and much more. Some original, some recreations.

There is a UK Region B Blu-ray out already, which I recommend if you can handle region-B.

trailer

I don't know if this will play outside the UK, but here is Mark Kermode's Radio 5 review of the film from last November - he was a big fan of that film on its UK release and I think interviewed the directors for a Culture Show segment.

I wonder if the reason why the film is taking so long to get released in the US is due to the aspect the Kermode mentions at the end of that review - that strangely Chico & Rita was financed by Cinemanx, a film company based in the Isle of Man! (They have also financed the Richard Linklater film Me & Orson Welles along with Philip Ridley's Heartless and the, closer to home, TT3D film, (though the latter doesn't quite erase memories of No Limit!))

Although the narrative was relatively predictable, I loved the thick-line animation in Chico & Rita. Especially the way each city featured (primarily New York and Havana, but also Los Angeles and Paris) was rendered with a stunning amount of detail, which gave each setting its own distinct feel.

I just assumed Chico & Rita was never released in the US because of the single nude scene. In the US, it's assumed that all animated films are family-oriented. And while Chico & Rita is by no means sexually explicit, it treats nudity and sexuality in a frank, unembarrassed way that would no doubt outrage many parents who took their kids to a "safe" animated film.

I just picked up the film in the US, actually, and we've set theatrical release for early 2012. It will be playing some regional fests before then, Chicago, this weekend in DC at AFI's Latinfest, etc.

It's a really beautiful film; I'm not usually a fan of anything resembling a rotoscope style, but the juxtaposition of semi-realistic characters with these Mariscal acid-trip backgrounds is wonderful.

Co-director Fernando Trueba interviewed on Weekend Edition