Josh Reviews Vivo
In Vivo, the new Netflix animated film, Lin-Manuel Miranda voices the titular Vivo, a singing kinkajou who lives in Havana, Cuba, and performs on the street with his friend, the musician Andrés Hernández. One day,Andrés receives a letter from Marta, the love of his life who went on to be a big star. Marta asks Andrés to come to Miami and perform with her at her farewell concert. Andrés is excited for the opportunity to finally tell Marta how he feels about her, and to play for her the last song he ever wrote, decades ago, about his love for her. When tragedy strikes, Vivo sets out to Miami to somehow deliver this song to Marta. He’s forced to rely for help on Andrés’ young grand-niece Gabi, a girl with an iconoclastic style all her own who, at first, rubs Vivo entirely the wrong way…
The main selling point for this film is the involvement of Hamilton collaborators Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alex Lacamoire. Mr. Miranda stars as Vivo and wrote the songs, while Mr. Lacamoire (the music director, orchestrator, and conductor for Hamilton) composed the score and produced the film’s music. Mr. Miranda is a delight as the energetic, music-loving Vivo, and there are some great songs in the film. My favorite, quite to my surprise, was the infectious ear-worm of an anthem that Gabi sings called “My Own Drum”. That song is incredible; very original and very memorable. Beyond that, I was a little surprised there weren’t more songs that stuck in my head after the film. (By contrast, I still remember many of the songs from the animated Moana from several years back, a film for which Mr. Miranda worked on quite a number of memorable songs.)
The film centers on Vivo and Gabi (voiced by Ynairaly Simo). I really loved both characters and their relationship. Vivo is a great vehicle for Mr. Miranda’s propulsive energy and charm. Gabi is a wonderful creation, a weird and unique little girl who proudly goes her own way and creates her own style in everything she does. Ms. Simo does beautiful work bringing her to life. The movie is called Vivo, but to me Gabi was the heart of the story.
There’s an ensemble of talented performers voicing the other characters in the film. Juan de Marcos González (a Cuban musician) plays Andrés. Zoe Saldana (Avatar, Uhura in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek films) plays Rosa, Gabi’s mother. Michael Rooker (Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy) plays Lutador, a menacing Python. Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta, Joker, Eternals) and Nicole Byer (Trudy Judy on Brooklyn Nine-Nine) play Dancarino and Valentina, a pair of falling-in-love roseate spoonbills.
And yet, outside of Vivo and Gabi, I was surprised by how flat the other characters in the film felt for me. It emphasized for me just how special the Pixar and current Disney films are, and the processes that create them. There’s nothing bad in Vivo, but when I think about those supporting characters like the two spoonbills, or the three Sand Dollar girls (a play on Girl Scouts) who start out as Gabi’s nemeses, I feel like in a Pixar film those characters would have been much more fleshed out, and I’d have felt a much deeper attachment to them and love for those characters by the end of the film.
There’s so much time and effort that goes into creating an animated film, and I’m always excited when creators and studios outside of the Disney empire get into this game. There’s a lot for viewers of all ages to enjoy in Vivo. At the same time, I wish the film dug a little deeper into the characters and this world and this culture of Cuban (and Cuban-American) musicians.
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