You have to come into Sing, Illumination’s newest animated feature following the successful Secret Life Of Pets, knowing what to expect. I feel it has the misfortune, as a family film featuring talking animal characters, of following the pop culture phenomenom Zootopia. It doesn’t have anywhere near the nuance or biting social commentary of Disney’s furry dramedy, more than content to simply be a screwball comedic musical.
It’s the kind of story that probably could have been told with human characters, one gets the sense they’re animals for the purpose of visual gags and enhancing the emotion of the characters. Fortunately, most of the cast is generally likable and interesting enough to keep the film entertaining. If I had one real issue with this movie, I guess it’s that it doesn’t take too many risks. If you’ve seen old films from the golden age of Hollywood which were pretty much just musical performances on film framed by a basic plot, that’s basically what this is, in animated form. But in spite of that, I can tell a lot of love and passion went into this project, and in a few moments it does show.
Buster Moon, a sweet shyster koala who’s as optimistic as he is cute and cuddly, is desperate to save the live music theater his father passed down to him. Undaunted by a past streak of failures, he organizes a singing competition and exaggerates how much prize money he actually has for the winner (spoiler: it ain’t much).
Aided by a strong performance by Matthew McConaughey, he’s easily the heart of the film in spite of his flaws. At times he seems eerily reminiscent of Johnny Depp’s lead performance in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood with how hopeful he is in the face of constant setbacks (and even in some of his voice inflections).
On its own that’s a pretty thin plot, but luckily the crew of talent he assembles each have their own side stories, which gradually come to a head as the big night approaches. Tori Kelly voices a shy elephant named Meena who struggles with stage fright, and Reese Witherspoon is appealing as housewife pig Rosita who has a hidden desire to perform.
Nick Kroll gets some good laughs as her encouraging piggy dance partner Gunter, while Taron Egerton plays the sympathetic teen gorilla singer Johnny, who wants to distance himself from his criminal family. As the wise-ass crooner mouse Mike, Seth MacFarlane gets to display more charisma than he has in quite a while, and Scarlett Johansson channels the teen angst of punk rocker porcupine Ash.
The humor style of Sing isn’t cerebral or especially sophisticated. Many of the gags are well animated and the expressions of the cast are nicely drawn, but as a whole it’s content to play itself safe and appeal mostly to the kids in the audience. Still, there’s enough grace in its tone to where I don’t feel it’ll insult the intelligence of any parents, and the musical performances of the cast are actually pretty good- particularly MacFarlane, who is a natural ham.
Overall, I feel Sing is a familiar, sometimes clichéd story- but it’s told quite well at many points, and it has some fun gags and nicely timed jokes. The progressing of the various character arcs gradually played out exactly like I expected them to, but many of the performances are strong enough to where I was still enjoying myself. One scene in particular made me want to pick up Buster and give him a hug. So credit goes to not just McConaughey, but also some good directing and writing by Garth Jennings to make that such an effective moment.
As it moves towards the climax, it does become more emotional. But I expect small children to get the most out of it, while for many adults it’ll probably be “just okay”. Personally, I’m glad I saw it. Based on a likable main character, good visuals and decent song covers I will recommend it, mostly for families.