Netflix’s Vivo – A Mediocre Musical Animated Feature (Early Review)

Following in the footsteps of April’s The Mitchells vs. The Machines, Vivo marks the second Sony Pictures Animation acquisition by Netflix. While it certainly won’t make nearly as big of a splash as the former, this musical tale is sure to leave viewers humming many of its songs written by its star and executive producer Lin-Manuel Miranda. However, these songs are likely to have more staying power than the actual story itself. Also bringing plenty of bright and colorful animation to the table, the story isn’t new by any means and fails to connect its many songs together in a compelling enough way. That being said, the film still finds a way to get by, hitting enough emotional notes to still make a decent connection overall though its subject matter is clearly geared towards younger viewers who are likely to connect with it more. While the story is a mess that took some time to find its footing, the one constant was of course Miranda. Beyond the songs, his performance as the titular kinkajou was the best part of the film, bringing energy to a derivative experience.

As mentioned, Vivo follows a kinkajou named Vivo (Miranda) who spent most of his life just playing music with his owner Andrés (Juan de Marcos González), entertaining the crowds along the streets of Havana, Cuba. Despite not speaking the same language, the two bonded over their love of music. Unfortunately, their time together was cut short as tragedy struck Andres following his receiving of a latter from the famous singer Marta Sandoval (Gloria Estefan), inviting him to her farewell concert in Miami to reconnect. What made this even more sad is that he would never get the chance to finally tell her that he loved her, hiding his true feelings for decades in order to not hinder her then blossoming singing career. Wanting to share with Marta a love letter in the form of a song that he wrote for her, it seemed that all hope was lost. Wanting to perform his late friend’s final wishes, Vivo would embark on a journey to deliver the song to Marta in time for her farewell concert.

Making the trek from Cuba to Florida would be a dauting task for anyone let alone a kinkajou. Luckily, he wouldn’t have to do it alone as he joined forces with a young girl named Gabi (Simo), an energetic tween who moved to beat of her own drum, much to the dismay of her mother Rosa (Saldana). With aspirations of a life in music, Gabi’s ability arguably didn’t match that passion. This made for an interesting contrast in relationships but this difference also made for a contentious relationship. Gabi will likely be a polarizing character though just like for Vivo, viewers had to find a way to deal with her whether he wanted to or not. While this of course got better as the film went on, there wasn’t as much of them as one might expect. Instead, the film seemingly opted to go at it alone with Vivo, giving him a moment of introspection in the form of a useless detour. Regardless, the result was never in question as the film consistently follows the same derivative structure, making it on the highly-predictable side.

Vivo may be a mediocre film but that can’t be said about the animation which was definitely not mediocre. Bringing bright colors and considerable detail within its cartoony characters and environments, the film was certainly a nice one to look at. Meanwhile, the music was also a highlight. Hitting for the most part, the songs were often catchy and/or added emotion and/or energy to scenes. Besides Miranda’s songwriting ability, he is also a good singer and rapper and he put both those skills on display here while the rest of the cast were no slouches either. Beyond the singing, Miranda’s performance as Vivo was full of energy and personality, making him fun to watch in spite of the mediocre material. The same could be said for Simo to a lesser degree as she could have toned down her performance by a few notches.

At the end of the day, Vivo isn’t a revolutionary animated film by any means but it will do the job but just about any other film will do more or less the same.

still courtesy of Netflix

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.