Movie Review: 'Sing'
By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio 1060
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- We've already had Zootopia, The Secret Life of Pets, Finding Dory, and Ice Age: Collision Course this year, all animated and featuring talking animals
The next step, of course, is a singing-animal feature-length cartoon.
And here's one right on cue.
It's a family-friendly holiday movie called Sing, but it might just as easily have been titled Singing.
Because that's what this animated musical comedy offers: singing, then more singing, and finally some more singing.
And yet this audience-friendly offering, more of an anthropomorphic variety show than a linear narrative, does deliver for its audience,
That's because the singing is being done by cartoon animals and it fits right in in this era, given the popularity of talent competitions on television such as The Voice, American Idol, The Sing-Off, America's Got Talent and even Glee – just to name a few .
Sing features the voice of Matthew McConaughey as a charmer of a koala-bear hustler named Buster Moon, a struggling theater owner who decides, although the odds are stacked against him, to sponsor a singing competition to drum up interest and breathe new life into his entertainment emporium.
The American Idol-like event attracts an eclectic array of contestants in a script by British writer-director Garth Jennings (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Son of Rambow), whose background is in music videos and who hereby makes his feature animation debut – as does his co-director, Christophe Lourdelet.
The Necco wafer-thin narrative follows the fortunes and fills in the stories of five of the entrants, including a pig named Rosita (Reese Witherspoon), a harried mother of 25; a low-self-esteem teenage elephant named Meena (Tori Kelly); a sensitive gorilla named Johnny (Taron Egerton) with daddy issues; and a punk-rock-performing porcupine named Ash (Scarlett Johansson).
There's really no villain this time out, although Seth MacFarlane's egotistical and off-putting but obviously talented Mike the Mouse – who, truth be told, acts more like a rat and perhaps belongs in the Rat Pack -- comes the closest.
But the spine of this tuneful, toe-tapping 'toon is that each of the assorted wannabe performers is hoping for a shot at glory, and each is also, in a way, working out his, her, or its problems and conflicts in songs – all kinds of songs, pop through classic, from various time periods and a wide variety of genre.
Sixty-five of which have been cleared, and are "staged" and performed by the credited celebrity voices, many featuring interpretations of the lyrics and music that catch us off-guard and bring a quick and easy laugh.
It seems silly to complain about underdeveloped characters in a competition this shallow because that's not really the point. But the amount of satisfaction on hand ends up limited when compared to animated efforts with strong central linear narratives.
The plot of this jukebox musical, then, is a narrow concept, a virtual clothesline on which to hang musical performances.
That said, there is still plenty of upbeat entertainment to be had by a multi-generational audience as long as they appreciate inspired silliness, are ready for out-of-left-field sight gags, and, most important, get a kick out of funny animated segments of animals singing – and who doesn't?
As they say, nothing more, nothing less...than 2-1/2 stars out of 4.
One-note as it is – not literally, of course, but metaphorically – Sing is nonetheless energetic, warmhearted, and melodious enough to send everyone home smiling and humming.
