Big Boss (Rio)

"As you know, my friends, this logging operation is a little…illegal. If those two nuts find those birds, we're out of business. And that's why you must put an end to their little bird-watching expedition. Find them, and get rid of them! The rest of you, go cut some trees. Who cares about a bunch of birds?"

- Big Boss explaining how Linda and Tulio are threatening his illegal operation. "It's a shame, really. You came all this way to protect the jungle. Let's see if it'll return the favor, tree-huggers."

- Big Boss, after capturing Linda and Tulio and tying them to a marked tree.

Big Boss is one of the two main antagonists (the other being Nigel) of Blue Sky's 9th animated feature film Rio 2. He is the traitorous leader of the illegal loggers who are destroying the Amazon rainforest. He also has a pet called the Emperor Tamarin.

He was voiced by the late Miguel Ferrer, who also voiced Shan Yu in Disney's Mulan, and Deathstroke in Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, and played Lloyd Henreid in the TV miniseries The Stand.

Role in the film
Big Boss is first seen watching the news on TV, and learning that Tulio and Linda are looking for rare macaws around the area his loggers are working. Angered by the realization, he throws the remote control at the TV screen, breaking it, and calling the couple "tree-huggers". He sends a voice mail to someone, asking for his boat. He then throws the lollipop he was sucking on into the tank of piranhas in his office and leaves. The piranhas aggressively eat the red lollipop.

Later, Big Boss reappears, arriving around the area by boat. The trees around there are all cut down. When he enters the tend of his workers, he sees one of his employees playing chess with their Emperor Tamarin friend. The monkey wins, so he says he had always known the man wasn't smarter than a monkey. He then shows the loggers a newspaper with a picture of Tulio and Linda, reading "Pássaros raros na Amazônia" (rare birds on Amazon). He explains that they are a threat to their illegal work. Caressing their variety of chainsaws suggestively, and finally grabbing an axe, he tells them not to let the couple "play on his backyard". He tells one of them to put an end to their "bird watching expedition", and the others to keep cutting down trees. Finally, he throws the ax on the map hanging on the wall and leaves. All his workers left very scared by his attitude.

Linda and Tulio end up encountering the loggers, and Tulio is held captive. Linda runs back to their camp, only to find Big Boss is there.

He has been led there by their little friend the emperor tamarin, who had found their camp earlier. Big Boss and his minions tie Linda and Tulio to a tree, he mocks them calling them "tree-huggers" once more and leaves. The tree they are tied to is marked with an "X", meaning it will be put down and Linda and Tulio along with it.

The loggers are frightened to see that they have been cutting down forests without knowing that the rare macaws had been living there all along, but Big Boss tells them they are only "pigeons" in a pejorative way, and demands them to keep cutting trees. The workers are then attacked and chased away by the flock and Nigel uses all of the chaos to his advantage, while Big Boss works by himself, setting dynamite to trees. When he lights them on fire, Blu arrives and grabs the explosives, taking them away. Big Boss tries to stop him, but was foiled by the vengeful and traitorous cockatoo, Nigel, who wouldn't let anyone steal his victim since he was planning revenge on Blu, his old enemy.

Big Boss reaches for his hat which rests on an anaconda (the same one that tried to eat Blu during his training with Eduardo earlier). He nervously offers a lollipop to the leering anaconda.

Later, the anaconda spits out a lollipop, with a full belly on the size of a human and Big Boss's hat over it, revealing that Big Boss was eaten alive by the huge boa. His emperor tamarin grabs the lollipop and sucks on it.

Personality
Big Boss is a cunning, greedy, dishonest and manipulative man who knows what he wants and knows how to get people to do it. He does not tolerate anyone getting in his way, and has no regards to the destruction of nature. When his illegal trade is put at risk by Linda and Tulio, he tries to get rid of them. He treats his workers poorly, frightens them, and takes matters into his own hands when he needs to.

He also seems to be addicted to lollipops, being seen consuming lots of them through the movie. He is also very arrogant, traitorous, argumentative, short-tempered; he is rather abusive, insulting, and opprobrious towards the other loggers, and has no respect for the animals in the Amazon, calling the Spix's macaws "pigeons" when they arrive at the logging site. However, he is loyal, nice, friendly, and enthusiastic towards his pet emperor tamarin, sharing lollipops with him.

Trivia

 * He is the second human to be a major antagonist. The first being Marcel.
 * Big Boss is the first Rio antagonist to have died.
 * Big Boss seems to be the darkest villain in Rio as he attempted genocide on the blue macaws, tried killing Julio and Linda, he also tried to kill Blu while Nigel only wanted to do the latter.
 * He and Marcel share some similarities: Both host illegal businesses for profit, and both have a pet whose personality reflects theirs.
 * He and his pet seem to be addicted to lollipops, as he is seen consuming a lot of them.
 * Interestingly, animal by-products are very prejudicial to the environment, which reinforces his personality of being anti-ecological. The trophy might very well be for the practice of livestock farming, since that is the primary reason for deforestation of the Amazon. However, it is possible that Big Boss is deforesting the Amazon only to make money.
 * Despite the fact that Nigel drove the plot in the sequel, Big Boss is the main antagonist because he was the bigger threat and had bigger plans than anyone else.