CHICO & RITA is a notable achievement - an animated love-story that makes some trenchant points about the ways in which human beings were constrained during the Forties and Fifties.
In the tradition of the Spanish bolero, the main plot is a picaresque tale focusing on how Chico (voiced by Eman Xor Oña) and Rita (Limara Meneses) encounter one another at a nightclub, fall in love, and then keep falling out of love until they are finally separated in New York. Rita becomes a big Broadway and Hollywood star, while Chico remains a piano-player working most nights in clubs, until he accepts an offer to join Dizzy Gillespie's band on tour. As time passes, so the fortunes of both protagonists fluctuate, but the film ends happily when both are coming up to retirement age.
What sets Tono Errando and Javier Mariscal's film apart is the way in which they depict the political and social realities facing Cubans in the immediate post-war period. During the Batista era, Havana was swarming with Americans, who not only spent lots of money but treated the locals like dirt on account of their skin color. Chico experiences one moment of sickening racism from a tourist who objects to his 'harassing' Rita. When the two of them decamp to New York, the situation doesn't change much; like most people of color, they live segregated lives and have to perform for mostly white audiences, speaking English rather than their native Spanish. Chico's agent Ramon (voiced by Mario Guerra) appears to have forged a successful career as an agent, but even he is subject to the whims of his often capricious white counterparts.
Even when Chico returns to Cuba, he is still not free of discrimination. As the Batista regime collapses, and Fidel Castro takes over, he finds that he is no longer wanted; jazz music is symbolic of the so-called 'decadent' west, and hence no longer acceptable to the new government. He ends up having to eke out a pitiful existence as a shoeshine boy.
As a technical achievement, CHICO & RITA cannot be bettered. The directors make much of the contrast between the bright lights of the big cities - Havana, New York - and the seedy boardinghouses where Chico and Rita live. They spend their lives trying to entertain rich upper middle-class clients, but they themselves live hand-to- mouth existences, enlivened only by the occasional pick-up. The jazz music that forms a soundtrack to the film is a definite plus; together with the visuals, it reminds us of how the genre originated as a response to poverty and deprivation in the early part of the twentieth century.
In the tradition of the Spanish bolero, the main plot is a picaresque tale focusing on how Chico (voiced by Eman Xor Oña) and Rita (Limara Meneses) encounter one another at a nightclub, fall in love, and then keep falling out of love until they are finally separated in New York. Rita becomes a big Broadway and Hollywood star, while Chico remains a piano-player working most nights in clubs, until he accepts an offer to join Dizzy Gillespie's band on tour. As time passes, so the fortunes of both protagonists fluctuate, but the film ends happily when both are coming up to retirement age.
What sets Tono Errando and Javier Mariscal's film apart is the way in which they depict the political and social realities facing Cubans in the immediate post-war period. During the Batista era, Havana was swarming with Americans, who not only spent lots of money but treated the locals like dirt on account of their skin color. Chico experiences one moment of sickening racism from a tourist who objects to his 'harassing' Rita. When the two of them decamp to New York, the situation doesn't change much; like most people of color, they live segregated lives and have to perform for mostly white audiences, speaking English rather than their native Spanish. Chico's agent Ramon (voiced by Mario Guerra) appears to have forged a successful career as an agent, but even he is subject to the whims of his often capricious white counterparts.
Even when Chico returns to Cuba, he is still not free of discrimination. As the Batista regime collapses, and Fidel Castro takes over, he finds that he is no longer wanted; jazz music is symbolic of the so-called 'decadent' west, and hence no longer acceptable to the new government. He ends up having to eke out a pitiful existence as a shoeshine boy.
As a technical achievement, CHICO & RITA cannot be bettered. The directors make much of the contrast between the bright lights of the big cities - Havana, New York - and the seedy boardinghouses where Chico and Rita live. They spend their lives trying to entertain rich upper middle-class clients, but they themselves live hand-to- mouth existences, enlivened only by the occasional pick-up. The jazz music that forms a soundtrack to the film is a definite plus; together with the visuals, it reminds us of how the genre originated as a response to poverty and deprivation in the early part of the twentieth century.