Things Only Adults Notice In Vivo
This content was paid for by Netflix and created by Looper.
Like its title, "Vivo" is a film that's full of life. The animated adventure movie is filled with lovable characters, vibrant landscapes, and of course, a lot of heart. The film centers on its title kinkajou, Vivo (voiced by Lin-Manuel Miranda), a honey bear who's spent almost all of his life making music alongside his human friend, Andrés (Juan de Marcos González).
Together, Vivo and Andrés enjoy a pretty perfect little existence, entertaining their favorite fans with their songs each day. But when Andrés receives a letter from his former singing partner and the love of his life, Marta Sandoval (Gloria Estefan), he decides to pack up for Miami so he can finally tell her how he feels and give her the song he wrote for her years before. What follows is an adventure filled with tears and laughter as those precious lyrics make their way across an ocean and into so many hearts.
Both adults and kids alike will enjoy the sweet beats and amazing faces and places in the film, but there are a few details that the parental crowd is even more likely to pick up on in "Vivo." Here's a look at some of the things adults may notice in this new animated sensation.
A wary traveler
One thing we learn about Vivo right away is that he's afraid of travel and for good reason. The very first time he took a big trip, he was a helpless little baby honey bear who was accidentally kidnapped from his home in the rainforest after falling into a fruit crate. After being trapped for an untold amount of time, he was suddenly dropped into a concrete wilderness where two hungry street dogs were ready to make a meal out of him. Luckily, Andrés saved him from certain doom and gave him refuge in his nearby apartment, but for Vivo, the two-block commute between Andrés' home and their singing spot is the longest journey he wants to take from then on.
So once Andrés receives his reunion invitation from Marta and proposes a trip to Miami to reunite with her on-stage, Vivo has to overcome a lot of doubt and dread before he can agree to pack his bag for the trip. Once he finally does warm up to the idea of trekking to sunny Florida, well, his second journey is remarkably similar to his first, as he's unwittingly stuffed into a bag with only an accordion to keep him company. Not only are grown-up viewers bound to notice the parallels between those terrible travel experiences, but they'll also probably side-eye the security and customs agents who managed to let a live mammal slip through luggage check unnoticed. Whoops!
A terrible pet owner
Speaking of animals, Andrés' American niece, Gabi (Ynairaly Simo), is extremely enthusiastic about the prospect of taking Vivo back to her Florida home as a new pet the second she meets him. But after Vivo is abruptly whisked away to her house, he soon discovers the real reason why she's so keen on keeping him.
It's not just that she wants to take care of her uncle's beloved sidekick, but Gabi is something of a pet collector — with some pretty alarming results. Hidden in her closet is a full-on graveyard of lost pets, including empty tanks and headstones for her late hamster Enzo, her long-gone fish Dupree, and her dead lizard Spike. We don't know whether these critters perished from old age or owner incompetence, but judging by how resistant her mom, Rosa (Zoe Saldana), is to the idea of bringing Vivo home — not to mention, the fact that Gabi wanted to stuff Vivo in her backpack with little more than wipes to hold him over — this little girl might not be the most reliable pet owner. The Sand Dollars certainly seem to distrust her ability to take care of Vivo, and maybe they're not so out of line.
A long leash
While we're on the subject of the Sand Dollars, parents are also likely to notice that these three young ladies sure do seem to have a lot of freedom from their own folks. It's one thing for them to host the club's cookie-selling booth by themselves, but it's an entirely different story for these girls to have an actual boat at their disposal to go off scouring the Everglades for Gabi and Vivo with nary a grownup in sight.
Perhaps the reason they have so much leeway to do as they wish is that they're absolutely fearless when it comes to confronting adults. Since the Sand Dollars are incredibly committed to their mission of eco-consciousness, they don't hesitate to call out their customers or even teachers for making environmentally unfriendly decisions, like using a plastic shopping bag or driving a car for a two-block trip. So when they put their mind to finding and protecting Gabi's new kinkajou friend, there's probably just no one who'd dare to stop them. Sure, they might be pint-sized, but they're just that tenacious.
A quiet tragedy
Another subtle detail that adult audiences of "Vivo" are likely to pick up on is that Gabi and Rosa have endured a very difficult tragedy and have trouble seeing eye to eye as a result of their loss. When we first meet the mother-daughter duo, Rosa reveals that it was her late husband who was related to Andrés. Over time, the two drop hints that Gabi's father, Carlos, was just as musically inclined and free-wheeling as she is and that the two were very, very close when he was still alive.
In fact, it seems that Gabi's wild-style personality comes directly from her father, and Rosa struggles to connect with and understand her daughter throughout the story. Gabi, too, internalizes some severe pain over her father's passing because, as she implies in a tender moment with her mom in Miami, his death was so sudden that she didn't get the chance to say her goodbyes. While Rosa wishes she still had Carlos around to help her raise his daughter and personality twin, Gabi simply wishes he was around so she could tell him she loved him one last time. Gulp.
A beacon of self-love
Speaking of Gabi's big heart, one thing audiences of all ages are bound to cheer for is just how self-confident the girl is. If her electric hairstyle and boisterous personality weren't evidence enough, she also roundly rejects the idea of changing her attire – or her priorities — to fit in with the other girls in the Sand Dollars club.
Gabi even treats Vivo to a song about how proud she is of herself, with lines like, "I've always been a 'me' not an 'us,'" and, "I am a 'wow' in a world full of 'ho-hum.'" Gabi might still have some doubts about whether her father knew just how much she loved him, but she leaves absolutely no question about whether she knows and adores herself. That kind of unapologetic self-esteem is not only inspiring to the characters around her, but it's also a very positive message for impressionable audiences to take away from the film. So her can-do spirit is certainly something parents can appreciate while watching along with their own little ones.