Vivo review – derivative musical stirs Lin-Manuel Miranda fatigue

It might be Lin-Manuel Miranda’s world, but it’s starting to grow a little tiresome to live in it. Vivo marks the musical return and animated debut of the writer and performer extraordinaire, who only last year gifted us with a small-screen recording of Hamilton, and brought his other Broadway hit to the big screen this summer with In the Heights.

Here, for some reason, he’s voicing a tiny kinkajou in Cuba called Vivo. The little rainforest animal, also for some reason, loves to play music and sings songs alongside his friend/owner Andrés Hernández, and all is well in the world until Andrés receives a letter and starts to plan a trip that could completely upend Vivo’s comfortable existence. It’s a story about facing your fears and making up for lost time – one that sees Vivo hit the road to discover more about Andrés, and himself, than he might have ever anticipated.

If you recognise some beats in that synopsis, you’re probably not alone – it’s unclear whether Vivo feels so repetitive because of the wealth of heartfelt, empowering buddy comedy road trip animations in recent years, or because it really is just pretty unoriginal. There’s nothing wrong with a story about two unlikely friends (Vivo soon meets and teams up with Andrés’ niece-in-law’s daughter – still following? – Gabriela) but when the competition is so fierce, forgettable characters and a lack of genuine heart cannot get away with things so easily.

Miranda’s music, too, naturally follows the same methodology both in his lyrics and melodies as so many of his other triumphs of recent years, but here there are no breakout hits to make the Vivo soundtrack stack up against any of his other historic work. Gabriela’s musical numbers are about as an unwelcome as a mosquito buzzing in your ear, and every one of Miranda’s solos sound like practice runs for his more inspired compositions.

There is some potential in a subplot between Andrés and his long-lost Marta that might haven given Vivo a poignant romance for us to invest in, but the film stays too focused on a lacklustre friendship between Vivo and Gabriela to recognise where the real emotion lies. Perhaps if we didn’t have Coco, if we hadn’t seen The Mitchells vs. The Machines, if In the Heights hadn’t welcomed us back to cinemas so warmly, Vivo might have stood more of a fighting chance. But as it goes, these underdogs are, ironically, overshadowed by their creator’s star-studded history.

Vivo is now streaming on Netflix.