Lin-Manuel Miranda has been making great strides in Hollywood, with the cinematic adaptation of In the Heights coming out earlier this year, and now with Vivo, an animated musical featuring himself as the main character as well as the main songwriter. Don’t think that Vivo is just riding on the coat-tails of his success: Miranda pitched this to DreamWorks all the way back in 2010, and now it has ended up with Sony Animation.
Vivo (Lin-Manuel Miranda) is a kinkajou who lives with the elderly musician Andrés (Juan de Marcos González) and performs every day in a plaza at Havana, Cuba. Andrés receives a letter from his old love Marta (Gloria Estefan), who had left Cuba years ago to become a famous musician in the US. She asks him to come to her last concert. Andrés is determined to give her the song he wrote for her. However, things go awry and it falls to Vivo to deliver the song to Marta as he smuggles away with Andrés’ great niece, Gabi (Ynairaly Simo), who is also a musician but not very good at it yet.
The music is definitely the highlight of the movie. They are catchy and memorable, ranging from a bopping anthem about standing out from the crowd to sweeping serenades. The visuals change and accommodate the different moods conveyed by the songs.
Another big plus is the gorgeous animation. Director Kirk DeMicco (The Croods) and his team of animators bring Havana, West Keys and the other locales to life with vibrant colors. The legendary Roger Deakins also helps lend the film a photorealistic lighting, like he did before with the How to Train your Dragon trilogy.
Vivo takes a lot of detours, and not all of them are enjoyable. Early on, a group of girls meant to evoke Girls Scouts pursue Gabi because they think she is endangering Vivo. The head of this troop is gratingly conscious about the environment, and she is quick to berate those she feels are violating her standards. However, this detour soon turns into a ride through the Everglades, which leads to a storm and Vivo encountering a hapless romantic bird and a dangerous snake. Thankfully, by the end of the Vivo, the focus is squarely back on Marta and Andrés, as she sings the song he wrote for her during her last performance.
At the end of the day, Vivo is still an enjoyable romp that doesn’t quite land on its feet. It could have been an emotional story dealing with grief, the way Pixar films like Up and Inside Out manage to do so even with adventure and hijinks. Thankfully, the visuals and tunes will keep you too occupied to be bothered with the thin plot.