Viva Netflix’ “Vivo”

This post is also available in: Español

Lin-Manuel Miranda did it again in Netflix “Vivo”, an animated story anchored in Latin music.

In”Vivo”, Lin-Manuel gets a little help from his friends Gloria Estefan (glad to see the Latin music diva back at work) and Cuban maestro Juan de Marcos Gonzalez (Director of the Buena Vista Social Club and the Afro-Cuban All-Stars).

The story does a great job of interlacing typical Cuban music, framed with great scenes of Old Havana, with Lin-Manuel’s brand of rap along with a shift to South Florida (Key West and Miami). They manage all this without touching (not even implying) any political theme.

Lin-Manuel’s character “Vivo” brings the contemporary rap touch to this animated musical, in addition to writing the traditional songs as well.

All in all, my wife and I enjoyed “Vivo”, which provides great family entertainment in the context of traditional and contemporary Latin music.

Here’s an interview with Lin-Manuel, Juan de Marcos, and others in the cast about how “Vivo” came about: