Sing review

Director: Garth Jennings
Voice Cast: Matthew McConaughey,  Reese Witherspoon,  Seth MacFarlane,  Scarlett Johansson,  John C. Reilly,  Taron Egerton
Rating: U
Release Date: January 27th, 2017

Optimism is an ongoing theme throughout cinema at the moment. With the uncertainty in the political arena and various countries throughout the world questioning their own infrastructure, audiences will inevitably turn to art and entertainment to fulfil a missing need, particularly when it comes to the big-screen.

Illumination Entertainment’s latest Universal release, SING, is the latest animal animated offering, following ZOOTROPOLIS and THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS, that is more than adequate entertainment for kids and families, heightened by incorporating the Saturday Night vibe provided by the likes of THE X-FACTOR and STRICTLY COME DANCING.

Echoing also (slightly) Mel Brooks’ THE PRODUCERS and A CHORUS LINE, SING tells of music theatre owner Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), who is on the verge of collapse due to never having had a hit in his venue, who hits on the idea of having a singing competition, with the grand prize of $1000. However, his assistant, a bug-eyed, senile green iguana, Ms. Karen Crawley (Garth Jennings), causes confusion when, in the process of typing up the flyer to send out, adds a couple of extra zeroes to the figure, making it $100,000. A fan blows the umpteen flyers out the window and – presto – hundreds of wannabes turn up in the hope a la X-FACTOR to win the prize.

sing review

Among them are a pig, Rosita (Reese Witherspoon), a mother of 25 piglets with a great voice, an elephant named Meena (Tori Kelly), street musician mouse Mike (Seth Macfarlane), who plays saxophone with the voice of Old Blue Eyes, punk rock chick Ash (Scarlett Johansson), a porcupine (or is that PUNK-upine?) guitar player, and gangster’s son gorilla Johnny (Taron Egerton), trying to be interred into his criminal father’s enterprises, but with a Timberlake talent for vocals. Let the competition begin….!

As with the other animal-minded animation this year, SING sets everything up nicely at the start and let’s the story and characters take care of the rest. It’s a simple, entertaining tale of big dreams, hopes and getting your lives back on track. Adults will enjoy some of the X-FACTOR references, whilst the music (which features classics from the likes of Stevie Wonder and Carly Rae Jepson‘s CALL ME MAYBE) will have people toe-tapping away.

If there is one thing that works against it, it is perhaps that the market has been saturated with another animal animation film, competent and cutely done as the animal characters are. However, like STRICTLY BALLROOM, the plot is as predictable as can be, yet doesn’t diminish the fun of the film. Like those Saturday night talent shows, it is the fun of watching people trying to make their mark on the world. The actors are perfectly cast in their respective roles and the animation remains as consistently faultless as ever.

If you are a fan of the other Illumination offerings like DESPICABLE ME and MINIONS, go forth and SING your heart out with your family and other cinemagoers.

Verdict

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Film and TV Journalist Follow: @Higgins99John Follow: @filmandtvnow