Nico (Rio)

Do-Gooder
Full Name	Nico
Alias(es)	None
Origin	Rio (2011)
Occupation	Samba Club Owner (co-owner with Pedro)
Powers / Skills	Talented singer Lyrical artist Skilled thrower with his bottle cap hat
Hobby	Singing with his best friend Pedro Samba
Goals	Help Blu and Jewel fall in love, later rescue the two of them from Nigel and the smugglers (succeeded) Locate the Blue Spix Macaw tribe in the Amazon to get inspiration for their Carnival Show, Amazon Untamed and drive out loggers (succeeded)
Family	No information
Friends / Allies	Pedro (best friend) Rafael Luiz Blu Jewel Carla Bia Tiago Eduardo Roberto
Enemies	Nigel Mauro Marmosets Loggers
Type of Hero	Animal Hero

“	Party in the Ipanema baby!	„
	~ Nico

Nico is a major character of Rio and one of the tetartagonists of its 2014 sequel Rio 2. He is a small yellow canary who wears a bottle-cap on his head for a hat. He also uses it as a boomerang-weapon and a tambourine. He is best friends with Pedro, but they are different in some ways.

He is voiced by Jamie Foxx, who also portrayed President James Sawyer.

Personality

Nico is very much like Pedro: a nice, friendly, sociable and outgoing type of bird. He's very brotherly when it comes to his best friend Pedro. He loves music, partying, dancing and likes to samba as much as Pedro, but he is shown to be sensitive about it; he gets upset when somebody says they hate samba; when Blu said so, it made Nico cry. 

Nico loves life in Rio and the Amazon, yet when they were first in the Amazon jungle, Nico, alongside Rafael, Blu and Pedro, was shown to be rather nervous in the unfamiliar surroundings. He is confident, and loves being the center of attention and being in the spotlight. He likes to help whoever he can and is a supportive kind of bird who likes giving advice and loves to live life how he wants to and to the fullest.

Role

Rio

Nico and Pedro first meet Blu when he arrives in Rio de Janeiro. Upon hearing that he's there to meet a girl, they give him some advice on how to attract her. They then attempt to free Blu from the cage, but Blu dissuades them. They meet again in the marketplace, where Rafael took them to see Luiz. They inform Rafael that Luiz left on a trolley, but that they can catch the next one. Nico and Pedro then take the two blue macaws to a birds' samba club. Nico starts to sing "Hot Wings (I Wanna Party)" together with Pedro. Suddenly, they were attacked by the marmosets, led by Mauro. During the fight, he and Nico use grapes to hit the monkeys. Kipo, a Roseate Spoonbill, help Blu and Jewel escape from some marmosets by grabbing their chain and carrying them to the trolley. When the marmosets try to stop them by forming a chain and grabbing Blu, Nico throws his bottlecap at the lead marmoset, knocking him off. Eventually, the birds escape onto the trolley and set off to Luiz's garage.

On the way to Luiz's garage, Rafael decides to "set the mood" for Blu to confess his love to Jewel. Nico starts to sing "Fly Love" while Pedro plays the trolley's cable strings as a guitar while Rafael knocks off cherry blossoms from the trees. Blu blows the moment by saying the wrong things and being choked by a flower petal getting stuck in his throat. Watching this, Pedro gets Nico to stop singing, and Nico imitates a falling bomb, as they see Jewel giving Blu the heimlich maneuver to save him.

The group meets with Luiz, who turns out to be a bulldog, and he tries to break the chain by using a table saw. After a series of chaotic events, Blu and Jewel are released when Luiz's drool lubricates the chain. Nico, Jewel, Rafael, and Pedro fly off together, leaving Blu depressed. After Blu decides to go back to Linda instead of staying with Jewel, he gets into an argument with Jewel, culminating in Blu saying that he hates samba, which makes Nico start to cry. Hardly believing that Blu said that out loud, he begs Pedro, "Make the mean bird (Blu) take it back!" When Jewel flies off, Nico and Pedro follow, witnessing her being captured by Nigel. Together with Blu and Rafael, they go to the Carnival to look for her and they find her in a "weird chicken float." Nigel catches them all, including Rafael.

While in the smugglers' plane, Blu manages to escape from his cage and helps Jewel escape from her cage to be able to free the other birds too. After breaking out all of the birds, Blu opens the plane's hatch, which lets them escape to freedom.

Nico and Pedro make their final appearance in the film during the "Real in Rio" reprise

Rio 2

Nico has a minor role in Rio 2. He and Pedro are seen celebrating New Year in the beginning of the film. Later, he and Pedro are seen warning Blu, Jewel, and their children about the dangers in the Amazon.

Pedro and Nico are later seen when Blu meets Eduardo. Eduardo takes off his bottlecap hat, because this object belongs to a human. Pedro and Nico are later seen in the song "Beautiful Creatures" dancing with the other animals. Nico and Pedro are also seen during the final battle against the loggers and later in the ending song "Amazon Untamed".

Sources

Nico on Rio Wiki.