Vivo

Over the past few years, Sony Pictures Animation Studio has made a name for themselves by creating some visually striking and intelligent animated features such as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and this year's The Mitchells vs. the Machines.  Their latest film, Vivo, is more conventional than those were, but it still has an attractive look, plenty of heart, and a slew of memorable songs.  

That's because the songs were written and largely performed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also provides the voice of the title character.  Vivo is a kinkajou, a rare rainforest mammal, who has spent his life living with and making music alongside his elderly human companion Andrés Hernández (voice by Juan de Marcos González) in Cuba.  The two don't understand one another, as even though when the audience hears Vivo speak, we hear Miranda's voice, all Andrés hears are little chirps coming from him.  However, they have bonded over music over the years, and now perform together every day in the local plaza for tourists.  This leads to the first of many tuneful and energetic musical numbers that, while not as strong as the stuff Miranda provided for In the Heights or Hamilton, are still worthy to listen to more than once.  They're probably some of the more memorable to be featured in an animated film in a while.  

After a performance that makes up the film's opening number, Andrés receives a letter from a lost love, the singing superstar Marta Sandoval (Gloria Estefan), whom he used to perform with in his younger years.  He wanted to tell her how he felt about her, but she became a global star before he got the chance, and he did not want to hold back her success, and could only express his love for her in a song he wrote after she left.  Now Marta is giving a farewell concert before she retires, and she wants Andrés to perform with her in Miami, Florida.  Vivo is initially against making the trip, as he has never left Cuba before.  But when his dear friend tragically passes away in his sleep, the little kinkajou becomes determined to make the journey to Miami and deliver the love song to Marta.

His only means of travel, as well as the only one who believes in his mission, ends up being Gabi (newcomer Ynairaly Simo), Andrés' tween grandniece from Key West, who is quite unconventional and "dances to the beat of her own drum".  While Gabi's mom (Zoe Saldana) would love for her daughter to be happy selling cookies with her friends in a Girl Scout troop, Gabi is more interested in doing her own thing, and right now that thing is helping Vivo get to Miami in order to deliver the song.  They try to get there by bus, but when that falls through, they end up taking a makeshift raft through the Everglades, where the two encounter a variety of other animals, such as a pair of lovesick spoonbill birds, and a deadly python (Michael Rooker), whose coils are cleverly animated.

Vivo is the sort of film that doesn't really do anything new, but it does so with plenty of energy and warmth so that both kids and adults can be wrapped up in its simple story.  There are some occasional big laughs here, such as how the Girl Scout troop who constantly harass Gabi to join them are depicted as an over the top parody of social justice warriors.  I also greatly admired the film's visual style, which features a clever mix of clean, well done CG animation for most of the film, but will switch to fluid 2D animation for the fantasy and dream-like sequences.  The variety of real world environments are also represented well here, while the human characters are given cartoon-like exaggerated features that are pleasant, yet identifiable.  

More than that, the screenplay provided by director Kirk DeMicco (The Croods) and Quiara Alegría Hudes (In the Heights) is quite emotional and handles some difficult themes (such as Andrés' passing, and Gabi's loneliness since the death of her father) in a way that younger viewers can identify with, and adults will find appropriately touching.  Even when the film switches to the format of a buddy road trip adventure for the middle portion of the film, the characters never lose their unique attributes and remain likable.  It provides plenty of humor for the kids without getting too silly, and it also maintains the heart and grace that I was enjoying during the first half.  And despite containing 11 songs (a large number for an animated feature), they never slow down or stop the action.

In all honestly, I enjoyed Vivo more than the recent Pixar effort, Luca, simply because I was more involved with the characters here.  It may not be the most daring animated feature out here, but there's more than enough to grab adult fans of animation, and is bound to be hard for most kids to resist. 

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