Vivo will work just fine as toe-tapping cinema for youngsters

 

Remember four years ago when Sony Pictures Animation unleashed The Emoji Movie on the unsuspecting public? That felt like a nadir moment for the studio, an indication that they'd given up doing anything remotely interesting as a creator of Western animation. Then Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse happened followed closely by The Mitchells vs. The Machines. Suddenly, The Emoji Movie was a distant memory and replaced with a new creative direction that suggested genuinely bold animation. Vivo isn't up to par with Spider-Verse and Mitchells, but it's another sign that Sony Pictures Animation is certainly more ambitious than it used to be. Thank God, I couldn't have survived The Emoji Movie becoming a franchise.

The title of Vivo refers to a kinkajou (voiced by Lin-Manuel Miranda), whose plenty content singing and dancing in Cuba with his owner Andres (Juan de Marcos González). However, their lives get switched around when Andres gets a letter from his old crush, Marta Sandoval (Gloria Estefan). She wants this elderly musician to come to his final show. The prospect of leaving his cozy surroundings makes Vivo anxious, but he knows he has to help Andres. This is especially true when it falls on his shoulders to get a song Andres wrote for Marta to this singer all the way in Miami, Florida. To accomplish this trek, Vivo will have to team up with precocious youngster Gabriela (Ynairaly Simo).

Believe it or not, a project starring Lin-Manuel Miranda makes time for plenty of elaborate musical numbers. The screenplay by director Kirk DeMicco as well as Quiara Alegría Hudes (the latter of whom previously worked with Miranda by writing the book for In the Heights) has plenty of vibrant tunes, which also offer a chance for the most memorable pieces of animation in the whole production. Several of these ditties inspire characters to be accompanied by hand-drawn animation or stylized CG imagery that provide a pleasing departure from Vivo's definition of visual normalcy. Hooray for musicals that aren't afraid to get over the top!

If there's a problem with the writing, though, it's whenever it gets bogged down in familiar territory for animated kids' movies. The first act is pretty sturdy in both pacing and delivering unique character dynamics, not to mention delivering actual emotional beats that aren't afraid to just be sad without any jokes undercutting the mood. But then Vivo gets to Florida and this is where the plot gets wobblier. The introduction of a trio of antagonistic Girl Scouts around the 40-minute mark begins to take Vivo into more derivative terrain. How many times have we seen these kinds of characters before as well as a big loud chase scene set through suburbia? 

Once Gabi and Vivo get lost in a swamp, the proceedings take on an episodic quality as Vivo encounters a handful of other critters, like lovestruck spoonbills and a villainous snake, that seem to be around just to ensure there are more characters that marketers can make toys out of. Worst of all, the songs are less present here and what tunes we do get don't make use of stylized animation. Vivo isn't bad in its middle-stretch but it's a lot less creative and fails to utilize the melodies it can really croon to. Luckily, things pick back up for a third-act mad rush to Marta Sandoval that's formulaic but at least fits the tone of the earliest scenes and deliver some catchy ditties to tap your toes to.

While Vivo will be a touch too predictable to be the next Soul or Wolfwalkers for grown-ups, it's easy to see that this will at least strike a chord with youngsters, who will probably turn Gabi's self-confident musical number My Own Drum into their new go-to power anthem. Plus, the whole thing looks pretty to the eyes and the voice cast is uniformly solid, with Ynairaly Simo and Zoe Saldana being the standouts as Gabi and Gabi's mother Rosa. The entirety of Vivo could've risen to the quality of Miranda's best musicals if director Kirk DeMicco had been bold enough to follow its own melody more often. But at its best, Vivo does deliver some enjoyable musical entertainment, and at its worst, well, at least Vivo remains painless even then. It's certainly a step up from The Emoji Movie!