Sing Review

PG: Some Rude Humor and Mild Peril

Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment

1 Hr and 50 Minutes

Voice Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly, Tori Kelly, Taron Egerton, Nick Kroll, Nick Offerman, Garth Jennings, Peter Serafinowicz, Beck Bennett, Jay Pharaoh, Leslie Jones, Jennifer Hudson, Rhea Perlman

REVIEW: In this year of 2016, you can say a great majority of our animated films has been centered on animals that could talk.  Zootopia, Secret Life of Pets, Finding Dory, Ice Age: Collision Course, the list goes on and on. And now, with Illumination Entertainment’s second film released this year, Sing shows that there are much more things animation can do with anthropomorphic animals and can keep everyone smiling.

THE GOOD: If you’re wondering where that one billion dollar profit from Illumination’s Minions went, it went straight to Sing. It’s as if Illumination heard audiences leaving Minions and going “it was good and all, but it’ll be nice to see the studio do something outside Despicable Me,” and Chris Meledandri replied, “challenge ACCEPTED.” This year they have released not one but two films (which is the first time they’ve had ever done that) with Secret Life of Pets and now Sing.

Sing is unlike anything Illumination has ever done. Well first off, this film is all from an original screenplay by Garth Jennings who is known for directing a ton of music videos and an underrated 2005 film The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Second, the film is their longest animated feature when a majority of them are barely over 90 minutes for this pushes to nearly 2 hours. And third, it is the best musical comedy Universal Pictures ever released since Pitch Perfect.

The film acknowledges that theater musicals and singing competitions have been played out as it embraces it and tries to make it fun. It embraces different elements from musicals of the past and incorporates it here. Think of this as Fame meets Cats Don’t Dance meets The Muppets (2011). The film features 85 songs with music varying from times of old orchestral opera to modern-day hip hop. It just can’t go on for a full five minutes without a song being played. It is just so eager to play a song that the music and energy make the film going breathing life every second. In one way or another, you’ll break and start bopping your head.

The animation is great. I don’t wanna be that guy that compares it to Zootopia because another anthropomorphic animal movie, but it does have its own rich look in the character’s designs and production. It doesn’t try to be as bright and colorful as your average family film but instead incorporates settings that are lit in a way it resembles our own world. It doesn’t try to have animals live off in their own environment so you make their own little areas. It has animals in homes that are just homes very close to ours. This could’ve been a live action film cast with people, but it would come off as childish. Yet with animated animals it works.

Unlike a lot of animated films that goes from shot to shot, Sing does a lot of pans to show off the world that is created especially inside Buster Moon’s broken down theater. There are a ton of brilliant one-shots that are smooth and cut well. You get a total Birdman vibe from time to time. Even when introducing the film’s main characters it zooms into different areas to capture their daily lives. It is amazing to see that in a film like this because you just wonder how long the rendering must have taken to get this shot completed. 

With this being Matthew McConaughey’s second animated role this year, he puts on a voice that is very unrecognizable. You wouldn’t expect it to be an actor like him to voice a small koala like Buster, but yet it fits just perfectly. The rest of the voice cast are great as well especially when they have to sing. One of my personal favorites is Seth MacFarlane as Mike who is a sleazy little mouse who acts like a rat. Both his voice and his character goes from a mixture of Quagmire and Mr. Pewterschmidt. But you know if you have Seth MacFarlane in a musical he will go sing some Frank Sinatra in a quick minute. But actors like Taron Egerton and Tori Kelly has that voice that makes you get up and go “my baby can SING!” Especially when the last act comes into the play for the big show, you feel as if you’re watching an amazing season finale of The Voice.

THE BAD: If your setting is a place that is not the Buster Moon Theater, the animators does not care about you. It does some inventive stuff with the houses and homes of the main characters especially Rosita the pig, but it's the clothing stores and supermarkets they don’t care about. The setting next to Moon Theater is just a store entitled “store.” Its that simple really. Even at the supermarket, the cereals are just labeled mixed cereal or just cereal. It's odd, but it isn’t important at all.

The film follows a story that though acknowledges how played out it is,  gets played out. It has its predictability where you know everything will be alright but then it surprises you in the worst ways. It gets to that depressing level you would not expect. It has elements of a simple story but it is the characters and the music that tells you, “hey don’t worry about it. You're here and we're going to give you a good time.” We see these character’s lives and stories and how they all resemble people with kind hearts that you want to see grow as the film progresses. It's genuinely emotional when it needs to be that when the last act comes into play it thoroughly tugs on your heartstrings.

THE RENDY: So a majority of the songs played are covers but here’s the thing. Sometimes they play the pre-existing song by an artist on a radio, with a character singing with it. So it begs the question, do these singers exist in this all animal world? There is a scene where Buster and the teenage Porcupine Ash are singing Carly Rae Jepsen’s "Call Me Maybe" which is playing on a radio. Is Carly Rae Jepsen there? Does she exist in that world? It’s a thought that you question while watching, but you’re too invested to say it out loud.

LAST STATEMENT: Illumination’s Sing is an energetically warm-hearted musical that has enough music and character to have your head bopping while being another cinematic proof that Illumination has more stories to tell outside the realm of Despicable Me.

Rating: 4.5/5 | 92%

Super Scene: The Big Finale