Vivo (2021)

• Year: 2021
• Released: 06 Aug 2021
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 1 win & 17 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6338498/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/vivo
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/vivo
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English, Spanish
• MPA Rating: PG
• Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
• Runtime: 95 min
• Writer: Kirk DeMicco, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Peter Barsocchini
• Director: Kirk DeMicco, Brandon Jeffords
• Cast: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ynairaly Simo, Zoe Saldana
• Keywords: musical, animal, monkey, cgi animation,

	6.7/10
	66/100
	86% – Critics
	72% – Audience

Vivo Storyline

Vivo follows a one-of-kind kinkajou (aka a rainforest “honey bear”) who spends his days playing music to the crowds in a lively square with his beloved owner Andrés. Though they don’t speak the same language, Vivo and Andrés are the perfect duo through their common love of music. But when tragedy strikes shortly after Andrés receives a letter from the famous Marta Sandoval, inviting her old partner to her farewell concert with the hope of reconnecting, it’s up to Vivo to deliver a message that Andrés never could: A love letter to Marta, written long ago, in the form of a song. Yet in order to get to Marta, who lives a world away, Vivo needs help from Gabi, an energetic tween who bounces to the beat of her own offbeat drum, to fulfill his owner’s wishes.

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Vivo Movie Reviews

Way too many issues (for me)…

I think its becoming increasingly challenging coming up with interesting ideas and characters for animated movies. I was looking forward to a new animated movie, but – unfortunately – I was not overly impressed with ‘Vivo’.

Credit where credit is due: the animation is stunning! It is beautiful and colorful. The original musical numbers were also good. There were also some very funny moments, and there’s a great call to adventure.

So, why didn’t I like the movie then? It didn’t feel original. It felt like a ‘Coco’ wannabe, and the songs sounded all too familiar to the style of ‘The Greatest Showman’, as if they were hoping to create a ‘Greatest Showman’ type soundtrack. Regarding the titular character, Vivo, I wasn’t always sure whether it was meant to be a cat or a monkey. Turns out it is a kinkajou, but it doesn’t even remotely look like one. I also wasn’t sure whether this creature was actually able to talk, or just make sounds, and they added the dialogue for us to understand it better. Or could this creature talk?

So, the film is about an elderly man, Andres, who looks after a kinkajou called Vivo. Together they perform every day in the local plaza – until Andres receives a letter from Marta Sandoval – the love of his life, although he never told her that. Marta is now an accomplished singer, and wants Andres to perform at her final show. Uhm, this is where they start pushing the boundaries of believability. Why would she want him to perform? According to the story they haven’t seen (or spoken) to each other in 60 years. So, why after six decades would she suddenly want him to perform with her? And when she doesn’t hear from him, she’s so upset at her final show that she doesn’t even want to go on stage. Wha-a-a-a-at??? She hasn’t seen the man in sixty years, now she’s upset about him not coming to her show???

Sadly, Andres died a day before leaving for the show. (Off course, he didn’t even tell Marta he received her letter, and was interested in going. This film is set in modern day, so there are phones, and Internet, so what the hell?? If it was set hundred years ago, it would have made more sense). Vivo, in the meantime, made friends with Gabi – to score a free ride to Miami, where Marta is to perform her final show, and Vivo needs to take a song to her which Andres wrote (for her…). Oh, whatever, I’m done with all these conveniences and coincidences. Let’s just say there are too many reasons why I didn’t like this film.

Also, some scenes were cartoonish and silly and definitely more for a young audience.

Would I watch it again? No.

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Gloria Estefan

Vivo is a kinkajou monkey. He works the tourists in the Havana streets with music legend Andrés Hernández. After Andrés’ death, Vivo goes on a mission to deliver his last song to his old musical partner Marta Sandoval in her last performance in Miami. He sneaks into the luggage of little girl Gabi on her way back to Key West.

This is a Lin-Manuel Miranda animated musical with a healthy dash of Gloria Estefan. The animation comes from Sony and shown on Netflix. It’s Ice Age level animation. I actually got into the simplicity of the quest which has a compelling heart. There is a catchy song although the earworm is rather repetitively annoying. The songs are all very Lin-Manuel Miranda if you know what I mean. It’s good but he’s also over-saturated by now. All in all, this is good but it doesn’t hit that hard.

Jumbled

This film is definitely not the sum of its parts. The emotional core of the story can’t really be identified among its messy composition – is it the bond between Vivo and Andrés? The tension between Gabi and her “friends”, or between her and her mother? The prior relationship between the singer and Andrés? The swamp animals? The new relationship between Vivo and Gabi? The plot bounced between these so much that none of them fulfilled their full potential, even if the individual moments were enjoyable to watch and punctuated with lively musical sequences (brash, but lively). Gabi is quite loud and seems like an annoying comedic relief sidekick elevated to the status of main character, which makes it much harder to watch. This ultimately felt like a series of talented skits barely stitched together. By the end, I was wondering “what was that really about?”