It always kinda sucks when you see a movie that has many elements that are rather thought-provoking and charming only to have them be brought down to a fault with okayish humor, characters, and storytelling. Sony animation’s latest movie Vivo looked promising from the trailers with plenty of talent associated with it including a co-director of The Croods Kirk DeMicco, Producer Rich Moore who worked on The Simpsons and co-directed Wreck-It Ralph and Zootopia respectively, and singer and songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda who stars as Vivo himself and is well known for creating the songs for Moana and Hamilton. This would be Sony Animation’s first-ever animated musical and while it doesn’t hit all the right notes, there are still plenty of good things that keep this film from slipping into the average animated movie trap.
Somewhere in Cuba, the unstoppable duo Andres (Juan de Marcos González) and his pet kinkajou Vivo (Lin-Manuel Miranda) are inseparable pair who go around town wooing audiences with their song and dance routine. One day Andres receives a letter from the love of her life Marta (Gloria Estefan) as a flood of memories comes back of how Andres never told Marta how much he loved her. All of Andres’s love was put into a song, but before he could make plans to travel to Florida where Marta is performing, Andres passes away in his sleep leaving Vivo as the only one who can fulfill Andres’s wishes to get the song to Marta in Florida. When arriving in Florida, Vivo meets Gabby (Ynairaly Simo) who would rather bounce to the beat of her own drum rather than abide by her mother’s (Zoe Saldana) wishes to be in the girl scout troops like everyone else. Together, Vivo and Gabby head out on their own to deliver the song to Marta while coming across many absurd obstacles in their path.
The thing that seems very polarizing with this particular movie is how it’s set up. The beginning and the ending of the movie I would consider to be the best parts of this movie as it can get very emotional at times and it’s where the heart and message really shine through. Where the movie falters is everything else in between. The adventure Vivo and Gabby go on is in no way bad, but it’s just a rather typical adventure with little creative moments and somewhat weird situations that just don’t match with the beginning and the ending tonal wise. I will say this though, the story surprisingly avoids some common cliches like the third act break up which usually plagues many animated buddy adventure movies. The thing I also will congratulate the movie on though is that the heart and the spirit were in the right place. There are plenty of moments of charm and emotion that are way better than most typical mainstream animated films, but the film could have benefited more with well-thought-out humor and more creative ideas.
Lin-Manuel Miranda is great as Vivo, his charm and character growth are the heart of the movie. They give him a great reason for going on the adventure he goes on and his character bonding with Gabby while uneven is rather sweet at times. Gabby can be a mixed bag in my opinion. Her humor can be hit or miss for the most part but much like the story, her attitude is in the right place there are still plenty of quirky personality traits that make her better than most other kid characters in animated films. The character that felt underused is Gabby’s Mom played by Zoe Saldana. Her character arc in this movie doesn’t feel satisfying in the end and we don’t really get to see her evolve into respecting her daughter for who she is. While she means well, it would have benefited the story more if we got to see more character growth from her.
The animation may not have the ambitious scale of Sony’s best movies, but it still does a good job of delivering a lively and vivid piece of work that is different from the company’s previous efforts. The CGI looks typical but still very pleasing to the eye. Vivo is an adorable character and his subtle movements and the way they animate him are downright precious. Where the movie really shines is when the movie goes into song as the visual becomes very abstract and creative. Sometimes the movie will feature 2D animated segments and they are some of the best bits of the movie because they showcase the most emotional and even sensational moments this movie has to offer.
The Music is interesting because this would be Sony Animation’s first ever musical so it’s great they managed to get none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda to make the songs for this movie. If there is a big reason to check out this movie it would definitely be the songs. They are all good and each provides a different experience depending on who is singing it. My personal favorite is “One of a Kind” but there are plenty of songs that make this movie much more entertaining than it has any right to be.
I wanted to love this movie so bad, even with a lot of great things such as great musical numbers and animation it was ultimately brought down with its mostly okay storytelling and characters. With Sony’s previous movies like Spider-Man Into the Spiderverse and most recently The Mitchells vs the Machines bringing the studio to a new level of animation storytelling I guess I expected Vivo to be on the same level as those films. The stuff that is spectacular though really does shine through, but the movie just sort of loses me at points especially during the middle of the adventure. Still, the songs are outstanding and the animation is very good that in the end I still would give a slight recommendation to at least check it out. I know kids will enjoy it and there will be plenty of things adults will admire as well. it may not be an instant classic, but it’s entertaining enough to watch.
(Final Grade: B-)