Vivo (2021) review

Adorable kinkajou Vivo (voiced by Lin-Manuel Miranda) goes around Havana with his partner Andrés (Juan de Marcos González) entertaining the crowds, but when Andrés passes away before playing one final gig with his old flame Marta (Gloria Estefan), Vivo takes it as his mission to travel from the Land of Castro to Miami - with the assistance of Andrés' grand-niece Gabi (Ynairaly Simo) - to bring her the last song Andrés wrote for her.  As a strictly for-the-kids animated movie, I didn't expect them to hint at the problems taking place in Cuba right now - it disguises the poverty of the nation as "festive" and "quaint" - but most of it is just one tedious chase sequence - more than once I was reminded of the PS4-era Sonic the Hedgehog games - in which Vivo darts around avoid this and dodging that.  At the conclusion, it's begging for your sympathy and to try to make it "human" just like Pixar's Up ... but they forget that they're just simple craftsmen and not poets.