When a friend can no longer complete a promise made to a past sweetheart, you decide to take his place and set out on a wild adventure to fulfil your friend's lifelong dream. For computer-animated and musical films, this premise is nothing new and you have seen it countless times, especially in Pixar movies like Up (2009), Inside Out (2015) and the Toy Story franchise.
Yet these types of stories are still being made into movies year after year since they resonate with people of every generation. Sony's latest animated musical film, Vivo, about a kinkajou who embarks on an exciting journey filled with wonderful music, is doing just that. Despite its mediocre and predictable storyline, the film constantly makes up for those flaws with beautiful visuals and the backdrop of Cuban and Latin flavoured music and a wide array of pop songs that should stay in your head for days.
Vivo is the third film by Sony Pictures Animation to be released exclusively on Netflix this year after other successful features like The Mitchells Vs The Machines and Wish Dragon. The film is about a one-of-a-kind kinkajou monkey named Vivo (Lin-Manuel Miranda) living in Cuba with his owner Andres (Juan de Marcos González), who regularly performs music to the crowds in a public square on the streets of Havana. Though they may not speak the same language, Vivo and Andres are the perfect duos through their common love of music.
Vivo and Andres in Vivo. (Photo: Netfix Thailand)
One day Andres receives a letter from the famous singer Marta Sandoval (Gloria Estefan) -- who is hosting a farewell concert in Miami, Florida -- inviting him to take part in the occasion. Andres sees this as a second chance for him to confess his love for her due to missing out several decades prior. He has even written a song specifically for the occasion of confessing his love for her. However, tragedy strikes shortly before the journey begins and it becomes Vivo's task to deliver the letter and song that Andres never could. Andres' relative Gabi (Ynairaly Simo) teams up with Vivo as they go on a journey together to Miami to try and hand Andres' last song to Marta before her final concert ends.
First of all, Vivo is genuinely beautiful and impressive. The colour palette really stands out and is vibrant. The character designs and all other imagery just pops in a pleasant way. The visuals are smooth and they look great for 3D computer graphics, however, they also mix in some 2D art in some of the scenes as well. The animation team also does an amazing job of capturing the essence of classy Havana, swampy Florida and the glamorous Miami. But when it comes to the story, Vivo is perhaps not the most compelling animated movie you will ever see. The film falls flat in various aspects because, in my opinion, it feels much like a watered-down version of Pixar's film Coco (2017) or Soul (2020). Sony is probably trying to take on these adult themes but it never really knows what it wants to be, so it kind of feels scattered. The movie questions humanity and your true passions in life, which is also a lot like Soul. It worked for me for the first 30 minutes since we see this heartfelt relationship between Vivo and his owner Andres, which is the heart and soul of this movie.
The rest of the story is a pretty simple adventure with Vivo going on a trek to deliver a song his owner wrote for his lover. Along the way, he encounters obstacles and difficulties. However, as the story progresses, the movie turns into this dull adventure with predictable scenarios and becomes silly, which is when the movie just falls off a bit for me. Apart from cutesy little scenes and a few humorous narratives, I don't really know what this movie is going for from a talent perspective or even as a take-home message. However, families watching with kids are not going to care because you're going to have such a good time with the music and every scene has one or two moments that will resonate with you either way.
(Photo: NETFLIX)
A big portion of the movie is all the songs and they are mainly composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, known for making Broadway musicals like Hamilton and In The Heights. The soundtrack in this movie feels different and unique, ranging from Latino pop music to the average orchestra score that you might recognise from a typical Walt Disney movie. There are even cheesy rap songs thrown in for good measure.
Overall, despite not having a strong premise, Vivo still does its job as an entertaining watch about love and friendship, all with a variety of catchy, sing-along tunes to boot. If you enjoy animation, musicals and comedy and you want to see all three of those wrapped up in one package, give this a try.
- Vivo
- Starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ynairaly Simo, Zoe Saldana
- Directed by Kirk DeMicco
- Now streaming on Netflix
