YMMV / Vivo

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Is Andrés Born in the Wrong Century and that's why he decided to not stay in Miami with Marta? Until one sees the smartphones in Havana, a viewer could mistake the story for taking place a few decades earlier given the Organ Grinder trope is discredited. It's shown that he doesn't have a smartphone (but then, being a street musician doesn't allow for purchasing fancy technology), and if he even had a landline, Andrés could have dialed Marta to let her know he was coming to see her. Vivo mentions that he finds Miami intense, and that's before he and Gabi race to the concert hall to deliver the sheet music.
  • Vivo lampshades this one; why did Marta wait for sixty years to reach out to Andrés, rather than dial his phone (if he has one) or visit Cuba between tours and concerts? Were they Twice Shy, that Marta also wasn't sure if Andrés returned her feelings? Did her managers push her to focus solely on singing, to the point that she didn't have the time? Could she have not felt comfortable about returning to Havana, given Andrés says that she might've felt obligated to stay there if he'd confessed his feelings for her?
  • Rosa's reasons for putting her daughter in the Sand Dollars, despite Gabi protesting that the girls aren't nice and she isn't a good fit with wearing a uniform or selling cookies. She says it's because Gabi is lonely and needs friends, but there are hints that with Gabi's father having died recently, Rosa is worried that Gabi doesn't have a proper outlet for her grief or socialization. Gabi's song "My Own Drum" has her deny that she's lonely and she doesn't need anyone, which may lend credence to this view.
• Awesome Music: Even people who criticize the movie for its plot agree that the musical numbers are very catchy and well-composed, as it should be expected from Lin-Manuel Miranda. Case in point...
  • "One of a Kind" features Andrés introducing Vivo for another performance in the Havana square. Vivo proceeds to kick it up a notch when the audience is unenthusiastic, inviting them to talk selfies with him and his human while dancing around. We also get a soft bridge where Vivo reveals how Andrés rescued him from wild dogs and adopted him.
  • In "Mambo Cabana", Andrés starts playing his instruments while telling Vivo about the Mambo Cabana, how it's a magical music hall where anything can happen. Vivo tries to interject, but Andrés reassures him not to be afraid of change. It's chaotic but also classically arranged.
  • "My Own Drum" shows that Gabi is an avid rapper if not the best at musical intonation. She sings to Vivo about how she's her own person and doesn't want to conform to societal or parental explanations. The off-key recorder even gets a few moments.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: One of the clips released makes it a point to mention that kinkajous are wild animals and should not be kept as pets.^note They're actually not the worst you could do as far as exotic pets go, just incredibly expensive and high maintenance.
• Moe:
  • Gabi is an adorable Genki Girl who is Wise Beyond Their Years and determined to be like her Cool Uncle. While Vivo thinks she's too energetic for his liking, she wins him over with sincerity.
  • There are some scenes with baby Vivo. He's small, furry, and chirpy. You can't blame Andrés for taking him in as his music partner.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • In-universe, Gabi's "petting zoo" is this for Vivo. She's kept graves for all of her former pets in her closet.
  • Vivo and Gabi falling through the crack in the rising bridge; they would have died from the impact of falling into the Atlantic Ocean from that height, and by luck landed on a barge with a sand pile. Worse is the Sand Dollars aren't worried that Gabi could have gotten hurt or killed; Becky gains a Death Glare and says they need to follow to "save" Vivo, without even addressing him by name.
  • Lutador is a monstrous constrictor snake residing in the Everglades, with a sharp-toothed Slasher Smile and Glowing Eyes of Doom. He gets very close to eating first Vivo, then Gabi and the Sand Dollars. What's makes him worse is when you realize just how monstrously big he is when he goes after Gabi and the Sand Dollars as when he first interacted with Vivo he appeared large but relatively normal for a python.
  • Your pre-teen child has boarded a bus to a city several hours away, and once you realize what they did you do all you can to catch up. Once you do, you confront the driver... who insists that they never got on the bus and would've recognized them if they did. Rosa has a horrified Oh, Crap! expression on realizing that she was on a Wild Goose Chase before heading for Plan B: find Gabi at the Miami Beach concert hall.
  • They're just doing their job in stopping a concert crasher, but there is something scary about the security guards trying to corral Gabi and Vivo when they hop the line in their desperate attempt to reach Marta and deliver the music. One gloats about grabbing her by her backpack before Vivo scares him off.
• So Okay, It's Average: The consensus seems to be that the plot meanders and it's not the best, but the music and animation are superb.
• Viewer Species Confusion: People watching the trailers often mistook Vivo for a monkey (as kinkajous are very rarely featured in media and Vivo looks and sounds more like a monkey than an actual kinkajou). This clip was released to clarify the confusion.

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