August 2nd, 2021 
Jackson Murphy 
Kirk DeMicco received an Oscar nomination in 2014 with his co-director Chris Sanders for DreamWorks The Croods. Now DeMicco is the director of Sony Pictures Animation’s first-ever musical Vivo, which debuts this Friday August 6th on Netflix. DeMicco discusses working with songwriter and lead voice actor Lin-Manuel Miranda and the power of music in animation.
Jackson Murphy: It’s like seeing an old friend again. It’s been eight years. How have the last eight years been, Kirk?
Kirk DeMicco: Wow. Amazing. It’s just been a wonderful time. NO – IT’S BEEN CRAZY, MAN! We’re so excited about this movie. When we started in 2016 on Vivo, everyone was engaged and loving the story. And as time progressed and we got towards the pandemic… the amount of joy that this movie and these songs brought to us as a crew, I’m just happy to be able to share it now at this time.
JM: Absolutely. I’ve seen the movie. I love the music and the look. First of all, what kind of honor does this mean to you to be Sony Pictures Animation’s first musical?
KD: Oh, it’s pretty amazing. Having Lin-Manuel Miranda songs anytime, I think, is an honor. I would imagine it’s an honor for all of us. It’s a special movie in that he was one of the first architects of the movie and the idea. And it’s been with him longer than it has with me. He started in 2009. These songs have evolved and the characters have evolved, but the character of Vivo has been with him for a very long time. It’s a very interesting kind of unique position where it’s a musical where the singer/songwriter is also the star. He was always part of the storytelling part of the movie, plus the acting and the singing.
JM: Yeah. He does a great job with the songs, not only writing them but performing them. He is Vivo the kinkajou. So how was it being in the vocal booth with him as he’s doing dialogue for this main character of a major animated movie?
KD: It was great. He’s been doing a lot of acting and voice acting. He loves animation – feature animation and TV cartoons. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of that, as well as all things musical. It was a really fun thing because he was able to express parts of himself… I keep thinking of a scene on a boat where he’s super funny and goofy and silly and really having fun and being super frustrated and things we might not expect. And then the emotional digging into songs. Those are what we love. And the other part of him being in the booth was the sessions, which would be vocal sessions for scenes. He would also constantly be running as a songwriter and there would be opportunities where we were working on a scene we had written and then he’d be like, “This one might become a song someday.”
As we’re building the movie, we’re spotting areas that could be musicalized. That sequence “Keep the Beat” on the boat, that was a scene for two years in its entirety until last May when he wrote that song. And that song was very much inspired by leaning into the curve of the pandemic and all of us not knowing what’s next. He wrote that song from a great spot of inspiration and took what he thought was a fun, comedic scene and made it really emotional.
JM: Yeah. That’s one of my favorite parts of the movie. When I was young, I played the drums in 5th & 6th Grade and I can still really keep a steady beat. I remember auditioning in my elementary school to play the drums and the band teacher was looking at all of our feet and trying to see who could keep the best steady beat. I always thought that I did, and I did a good enough job to get one of the couple positions on the percussion portion of the band. So I really enjoyed getting to see through this movie that kids can really learn about music and finding a steady beat.
KD: Yeah. Bringing Gabi into the movie was an opportunity for Vivo to go from student to mentor. He was a student of Andres. Andres taught him everything he knew about music. It is a musical about musicians, their music and the power of music. That’d be great if kids understand to march to the beat of their own drum, but also… BUT ALSO… taking a lesson from someone who knows it. You do need to have some fundamentals, which is what we kind of did with Gabi. At the beginning of her relationship she’s “I know it all!”, as we all do. And then [Vivo] goes, “Let me help you a little bit” and she improves all the time.
JM: There are a lot of core relationships in the movie between two characters: Vivo and Andres, Vivo and Gabi, and Andres and Marta. As families watch this on Netflix, the WHOLE family can watch this. I feel like grandparents are gonna get something out of the Andres and Marta relationship. Do you really think about that as you’re making this – playing to ALL ages?
KD: Well on this one, it was built in. I don’t think you ever wanna stretch it but there was something already about the relationship with Andres.. and when we started talking about Marta, when Quiara [Alegria Hudes] and I started bringing Marta to the scene… it was the idea of a musical about romance. It wasn’t for everyone but you don’t wanna exclude one. If there’s an opportunity for it to make sense and you listen to the story… it was great for the studio and the great casting of Juan de Marcos and Gloria Estefan. You have this Cuban heritage that you want to pay great tribute to. Those characters are the heart of the movie. Vivo’s trying to be a great son. He’s trying to do a noble mission. He’s doing something on behalf of someone who gave him everything. That’s a message I hope everyone can relate to.
JM: You have Roger Deakins on board as a visual consultant. Two-time Oscar winner. He was nominated for so many years and then he finally wins it twice in a row! How was it having him? What made you want to bring him in to give this film a really distinct, really cool, visual eye?
KD: Oh thanks. The idea from the get-go was… because we had these musical numbers and the way Lin writes music, it’s very diverse. And it’s really nice because throughout the course of the film you’re getting changes of music. The idea was that we would have a song and each song would have a different look. There needed to be somebody who has a great visual sense to bring this all together and marry it into something. The songs have a lot of cinematic sweep. Roger was very excited by the story. He loved the idea of also making things a little more theatrical – more animated. Things have been getting more photoreal recently. We were going with a very musical style. This should be like a 1950s studio musical. Everything is design. Big colors. Big light. The idea of having him to help guide us along our way of trying to marry all these different looks into one coherent vision was priceless.
JM: I’m so glad he’s part of this. When you go into hand-drawn at a couple points in the movie, they’re gorgeous!
KD: The artists had done so much. We can do a lot of things in animation. You have to do the ones that are earned and the ones that are organic. The idea that it came from Andres’ idea of the world was THAT beautiful and his love of this woman was THAT beautiful… AND YET it would scare the heck out of Vivo that he would want nothing to do with him is really a fun opportunity.
JM: One of my favorite characters to look at is Lutador the python.
KD: Yes! Cool!
JM: His eyes. His mouth. That purple tongue. The way he glows in the dark. How challenging of a character was he to put together?
KD: Well not challenging for me. For the artists? Totally! I don’t know what I would be doing. Carlos Zaragoza, our production designer, and our art directors – the surfacing and diamond shapes and the way the visual effects supervisors and people at Sony Imageworks were able to build him. And for him to exist in two lighting set-ups: there’s the really dramatic lighting set-up where Vivo’s rapping to enrage him and trick him vs. the real life set-up of the jungle. It was a super big challenge. He was a character we were searching for a bit, and when Michael Rooker did the voice, it just came together because he has such style. He has this ease but it’s scary. It was a good match for that design and that voice.
JM: I love a little part of this movie with people on a bus… in Florida. They’re rallying around their bus driver. I’m thinking, “Gosh, that feels so real!” because I think we’ve all had these moments where you’re on a plane and you want it to land safely. You’re on a bus and you wanna get there on time. Did that come from real-life inspiration?
KD: The funny thing was: that kind of opportunity came from some storyboard artists. The idea was: we were talking about the tourists that come from Miami to Key West and go from Key West to Miami. You’re still in the party mode. You’re in Florida. People are having fun and a good time. Exactly to your point: if you’re circling around Disney World for four hours, when the plane lands, everyone cheers. It’s just the way it is. So they’re like, “Oh no! We’re not gonna make it!” And then they rallying around him… “Next stop, Miami.” I think it’s great you spotted that.
JM: Yeah. I could definitely relate to that. I think a lot of people will. So it’s been eight years since we talked. What are your plans for the next eight years – or if you don’t wanna look that far, maybe the next eight months?
KD: Eight months? Wow. Well right now we’re just so excited. This is a new experience having it come on Netflix and having this many people get to watch it. Like the way you enjoyed it: this is really cool, honestly, that you have this kind of reaction. Because I imagine you watched it at home on your TV. That is really special. With the way everything is right now – that we can get it safely to people’s homes. It’s been a while so we’re excited to see how it’s received!
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