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Movie review: 'Chico & Rita'

The hot Latin jazz soundtrack and cool painterly animation liven up the formulaic story of “Chico & Rita,” a Spanish/British import that received a surprise Academy Award nomination.

One of two foreign language films to earn a berth in the Oscars' animated feature race, “Chico & Rita” is showing at 5:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art's Noble Theater. The museum will show the other, the French film “A Cat in Paris,” at 12:30 p.m. Feb. 26, the day the Academy Awards will be handed out. For more information on the screenings, call 236-3100 or go to www.okcmoa.com.

Oscar-winning Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba (1992's “Belle Epoque”) co-directed “Chico & Rita” with designer Javier Mariscal and animator Tono Errando. Trueba previously directed the acclaimed 2000 documentary “Calle 54,” which featured Cuban pianist and composer Bebo Valdes, who crafted the vibrant original music for the animated love story.

Set in the late 1940s and early '50s, “Chico & Rita” also includes exhilarating music from and animated cameos by Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Cole Porter, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Tito Puente, Chano Pozo and other jazz greats.

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