Angry Birds Join Upcoming Film Characters In Angry Birds Rio

In a new game, Rovio's Angry Birds are joining characters from an upcoming film from the makers of the Ice Age animated film franchise. The upcoming film, Rio, stars Macaw parrots -- so Rovio says it will release Angry Birds Rio, which casts the popular Angry Birds alongside Rio's starring avians. The Rio feature film is in production at Ice Age creator Blue Sky Studios, a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox. As something of a cross-promotion, Rovio is developing Angry Birds Rio for smartphones and tablets, due to release worldwide beginning in March this year. The film will center on a domesticated Macaw living in Minnesota that never learned how to fly. Blu's owner takes him to Rio de Janeiro to find him a female counterpart, but the Macaw and his new lady friend are soon captured by "a group of bungling animal smugglers."' The game will launch with 45 new levels, and will feature the same gameplay as previous versions of Angry Birds, with references to the film. Including free and paid downloads from the App Store, Android platform, Palm WebOS, Symbian^3 and the Nokia N900, Angry Birds has been downloaded 50 million times. The Angry Birds series has seen a number of iterations since its introduction on iOS devices in late 2009, including Halloween- and Christmas-themed versions. The Finnish developer recently revealed that it would be producing an Angry Birds animated series for television or the web.