The Sony Pictures Animation musical film Vivo has received generally favorable reviews from critics. The movie follows a unique kinkajou (Lin-Manuel Miranda) as he embarks on an adventure to deliver a love song to Marta (Gloria Estefan) on behalf of his owner Andrés (Juan De Marcos). Featuring songs by Miranda, a score by Alex Lacamoire, and a screenplay by Quiara Alegría Hudes and Kirk DeMicco, Vivo is co-directed by DeMicco and Brandon Jeffords. The voice cast also includes Ynairaly Simo (Gabi), Zoe Saldaña (Gabi’s mother), Michael Rooker (python), Katie Lowes, Olivia Trujillo, and Lidya Jewett (three scout troopers), Brian Tyree Henry and Nicole Byer (two spoonbills), and Leslie David Baker (bus driver). The feature opened in select cinemas July 30 and premieres August 6 on Netflix.
Guardian (Benjamin Lee): A sweet and colorful musical adventure that isn’t quite sweet and colorful enough. … Like so many animated films, the narrative hinges on a manic quest … but it’s not one that feels imaginative or exciting enough for us to get carried along with it. The locations are minimal, the stakes medium, and the characters they meet along the way not quite amusing or distinctive enough. … The eye-popping gloss of Vivo will probably lure in impressive numbers … but in a genre that promises so much magic, the spell cast by Miranda and co is a brief one. 3 out of 5 stars
Hollywood Reporter (Frank Scheck): As with so many animated films, Vivo becomes more than a little frenetic. … All that mayhem is certainly lively, but the film’s real pleasures stem from its touching storyline and Miranda’s terrific songs encompassing Latin rhythms, hip-hop, pop, and Broadway-style ballads. … The film’s computer-animated visuals, vividly rendering such locales as Cuba, Key West, and the Everglades, are consistently arresting. But the joyous musical numbers and sentimental but never treacly tale at its center are what make Vivo such a winning effort.
Indie Wire (David Ehrlich): Vivo bursts out of the gate with a guajira-son banger that falsely suggests we’re in for something a bit more special than the “Hamilton meets Sing.” … The tunes grow less exciting in tandem with the visuals, as Vivo runs out of steam as it trades Key West kitsch for swampland wildlife. The script … amounts to a good setup and a mild payoff with a vast swath of nothing in between. … Schematic, box-checking energy — always manic, seldom funny — prevents Vivo from living up to the emotional dynamism of its best songs. Grade: C
Slash Film (Josh Spiegel): There’s nothing particularly wrong with this movie. … Vivo is plenty colorful, with a bright pastel palette both when the film’s action takes place in Cuba and in Florida. … It’s good, but not good enough. The same is true of the story, and of the songs. … There’s an extra step or two the film could have taken to reach the high notes, instead of sticking in a comfort zone. Good on Sony and Netflix for making and distributing a film focused on the Latin American experience. That this film exists is a good thing. If only it was great. 6 out of 10
Variety (Peter Debruge): “What difference can one song make?” asks Vivo, a super-saturated, instant-classic musical cartoon. … Vivo is strategically contrived to hit audiences’ pleasure spots, blending a grown-up-friendly story of a Latin-music couple whose careers took them in separate directions with all the hyper-caffeinated comedy action the kiddos expect from the medium. Plus, the songs build on one another, hooking in your head and snowballing as the movie develops. … It’s Miranda’s Latin-centered music that gives the project much of its personality.