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Vivo (2021)

Distributor: Sony Pictures Animation
Director: Kirk DeMicco
Cast: Lin-Manuel Miranda (Vivo), Ynairaly Simo (Gabi), Zoe Saldana (Rosa), Juan de Marcos Gonzalez (Andres), Gloria Estefan (Marta), Brian Tyree Henry (Dancarino), Nicole Byer (Valentina), Michael Rooker (Lutador)
Runtime: 99 min.
MPAA rating: PG (thematic elements, mild action)

This movie is about a little kinkajou named Vivo who spends his days as a performer with his beloved street musician owner Andres. After Andres gets a letter from his famous friend Marta Sandoval, saying she is retiring and wants him there for it, Andres wants to take his song there to finally express his true feelings but Vivo is not thrilled about this idea and leaves in a huff. He changes his mind the next day, but sadly Andres died in his sleep last night. Wanting to respect his now deceased owner’s wishes, he heads from Cuba to Key West, Florida in a bag of old musical instruments donated to Andres’s eccentric niece Gabi, who loves music more than being a girl scout. Gabi buys some tickets to get to Miami, but they miss the bus and wind up lost in the Florida Everglades. With the goal of going to Marta’s concert in mind, can Vivo and Gabi make it to Marta’s concert in time and deliver Andres’s swan song, without Vivo getting killed and Gabi’s mom grounding her forever?

Originally, I had reason to not trust this movie. Dating all the way back to 2010 when it was originally under development from DreamWorks, with Lin-Manuel Miranda at the forefront, it was supposed to be a musical that would be very Latin-driven. However, it was seemingly scrapped in 2015, when DreamWorks’s more recent animated films were seemingly failing hard; movies like Rise of the Guardians, Turbo and Penguins of Madagascar lost so much money that they had to cancel a bunch of projects, this being one of them.

Eventually, the rights to the film went to Sony Pictures Animation, so life goes on… unfortunately, Vivo would not be getting his big break on the big screen due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so Sony sold the rights to Netflix. So now that we finally get to see the little kinkajou with a flair for music after spending the 2010s in limbo, it’s time for me to give my honest thoughts on the movie.

I originally had reason to not trust this movie. I originally thought that based on the way it sounded, it would probably be either a dud, or at best as good as Rio. For what the movie’s story is, it is about Vivo and Andres’s niece Gabi wanting to honor his last request to take his swan song to his lover Marta before she retires from the music business. The story does not have any real surprises, but I will say the execution compensates. It is very Latin-inspired with a hyper colorful palette and it contains some valid themes involving remembering those you care for, the importance of honoring one’s wishes and that rhythm can speak louder than words. I will say though, the story is hardly perfect. I understand the themes and ideas that they convey, but for reasons I will explain, the movie can feel like it has more characters than it actually needs and there is no real villain. I guess the movie didn’t need an actual antagonist as the movie was supposed to be about Vivo wanting to get Andres’s song to Marta, but it probably needed to be addressed. The story does its job and does it reasonably well.

I will say this: it must be really difficult making an animated musical. You probably need to take into account whether or not the lyrics are memorable and the choreography as well. After all Hamilton got it’s critical acclaim due to its well-arranged story with the dance sequences and music. Or I remember how well a movie like Aladdin was received due the fact it feels like the images perfectly match the songs; when I saw the 2019 Aladdin it could not measure up mainly because the acting sequences and imagery doesn’t begin to compare with the 1992 film; it can’t compare to the original. This movie does have some very nicely recorded songs and I will not fault it for that, but the imagery, while colorful, never seems to truly come alive. It’s not without it’s charms, but I do enjoy some nice Latin-derived music. The choreography just… leaves something to be desired.

Now I will say the characters are an interesting bunch. For Vivo, he’s supposed to be the little kinkajou that is the pet-turned-messenger for Marta due to Andres’s wishes. He’s probably meant to be the character we gravitate towards but next to the human characters he isn’t all that interesting; I guess that may be what happens when you try to make a movie about the pet. He didn’t have a direction before Andres and is just like a messenger boy. He is not a bad character and can generate some good chemistry so again, the execution compensates. His owner Andres feels like a better realized character and he dies very early in the movie; being such an old timer he feels like he’s been through a lot and is the reason why he and Vivo are such a shining pair of street musicians. Gabi, Andres’s purple-haired, loudly dressed tween niece, is also on the hunt to honor her uncle’s wishes and she does come off in a reasonably entertaining matter. She would rather be a musician like her uncle than to be a girl scout and we could probably take that as meaning her family must have been close. Her mom doesn’t get to do much beyond get exasperated at her daughter for having this ‘me first’ attitude. Then we have the other characters, and they can be a bit excessive. The three Girl Scouts are nothing more than momentary enemies-turned-allies, the movie doesn’t feel like it truly needs them other than some hints of conflict. It also has no deep need for the lovelorn spoonbills or Lutador, the python meant to be a villain that is not related to the main story. He’s just an ‘in-the-moment’ for that is meant to provide the movie with at least some conflict. The movie has a lot of characters, and some are necessary more than others, but they are a worthy set.

Is Vivo a perfect movie? No, it does have its flaws but I found it to be a good movie that was overall handled well. I do think it’s nice to see Sony Pictures Animation getting their act together and making movies that are enjoyable for the family and not just kids. It’s not as good the The Mitchells vs. the Machines but I’m very confident it will be better than the fourth Hotel Transylvania.




Vivo (2021)
TreyVore rates it: B-