‘Vivo’ delivers one of the best animated musical soundtracks in years

Posted on August 27, 2021

By MARK VIOLA

I won’t pretend that I’ve been a big fan of actor/writer/composer Lin-Manuel Miranda for years, because that’s simply not true. It’s not that I didn’t like what he had done. It’s just I didn’t get a chance to experience his most-celebrated works until more recently.

I finally got to see “Hamilton” on television thanks to the filmed production that debuted on Disney+ last summer, and earlier this year I saw the theatrical adaptation of his earlier musical, “In the Heights.”

I had seen “Moana,” for which he helped compose some of the music, but as I would later find out, those songs were much more in line with the traditional Disney Broadway show tunes than the hip-hop stylings of his own stage productions.

To be honest, I’ve been mostly underwhelmed by the songs from most of the animated musicals we’ve been given over the past several years. Sure, there are a few individual hits here and there, but it’s been a long time since I can remember watching an animated musical in which the songs were as memorable as everything else.

Enter stage left, “Vivo,” the first musical from Sony Pictures Animation (“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” “Hotel Translyvania”), complete with songs written by Miranda, who also voices the main character.

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