Vivo – Film Review

Vivo follows a one-of-kind kinkajou (aka a rainforest “honey bear,” voiced by Lin-Manuel Miranda), who spends his days playing music to the crowds in a lively square with his beloved owner Andrés (Buena Vista Social Club’s Juan de Marcos). Though they may not 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 (three-time Grammy-winning Latin pop legend Gloria Estefan), 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 apart, Vivo will need the help of Gabi (newcomer Ynairaly Simo) — an energetic tween who bounces to the beat of her own offbeat drum to fulfill his owner’s wishes.

There’s no denying that Lin-Manuel Miranda is one of the most talented songwriters out there, proving time and time again that he knows exactly how to write a handful of catchy tunes for musicals or films that will surely be stuck in your head days after you initially hear them. The fact that he wrote all of the wonderfully moving songs for Hamilton is remarkable and his work on In the Heights is quite the feat as well.

And as you can probably guess, his songwriting talent is on full display yet again in Vivo, somehow managing to strike gold with his lyrical content and catchy melodies. It’s truly remarkable how Miranda is able to write so many of these songs without ever hitting a rough patch. You’d think eventually he’d run out of ideas for songs to write but Vivo proves otherwise.

Sadly though, Miranda’s songs and musical prowess are the only things I truly really enjoyed in Vivo, as the rest of the movie is disappointingly hollow and offers nothing new or exciting that you can’t get in another, better film such as Disney/Pixar’s Coco.

The film touches upon themes such as family, loss, and having to deal with grief and learning to accept life’s ups-and-downs, but that’s just it – it merely touches upon these themes and never makes a solid effort to dive deep into them like a lot of animated flicks these days do, and to amazing results. Just last year, we had two movies do this expertly – Onward and Soul.

Most of those films revolve around grief and love and as a result, we feel an emotional connection to the characters and their plight by the time the story wraps up. But Vivo just feels like a bunch of fun and catchy songs strung together with an intriguing and moving storyline as an afterthought.

It’s definitely not a terrible film by any means, it’s just massively forgettable and far too hollow. I wouldn’t be surprised if I forgot this movie even came out a few weeks down the road because of just how disposable it is. Not even the strengths of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songs and writing can save this film from being a disappointing plop into the bucket of otherwise rich animated adventures.