Sing movie review & film summary (2016)

Don’t go into “Sing” expecting it to be some kind of cartoon answer to “La La Land” with animal wise-crackers stepping in for snappy human toe tappers, despite its similar heartfelt portrayal of the highs and lows of showbiz and sunny candy-hued cityscape. But, luckily, its makers know all too well how to fully exploit the power of a catchy pop song. There are more than 65 dynamite ditties—from the Beatles and Irving Berlin to Beyonce and Carly Rae Jepsen—exploited to their full crowd-pleasing potential as the choices smartly span the decades. 

On the surface, this story of koala bear impresario Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey, nicely capturing this pint-size showman who is part huckster, part dreamer and part the actor’s exuberant strip-club emcee from “Magic Mike”) who decides to give his run-down theater a boost by staging a talent contest is simply plugging into the ongoing popularity of reality shows such as “American Idol” and “The Voice.”

But director/writer Garth Jennings (live-action cult faves “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy," “Son of Rambow”)—expanding upon a concept conceived by Illumination CEO and founder Chris Meledandri (whose animation house was also behind the summer success “The Secret Life of Pets,” and the Minions phenom)—relies on an even older tradition. Namely, those “Hey, let’s put on a show” movies from the ‘30s and ‘40s that paired a youthful Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney as they saved the day with song and dance. There is a reason it’s a tried and true underdog formula, and it mostly works here. 

Turns out there are plenty of amateur hopefuls looking for a break in “Sing,” whose balmy palm-tree-lined urban setting is never named, especially after Moon’s elderly assistant Miss Crawly (a crone-like stooped green lizard with a glass eyeball whose comical croak is provided by Jennings) mistakenly ups the prize ante on a flier announcing the competition from $1,000 to $100,000.

The ark’s worth of would-be contestants that storm the theater to audition range from a trio of bunnies who twerk their fuzzy behinds to the naughty “Anaconda” to a Teutonic pig nailing “Bad Romance” in a tight gold-glitter jumpsuit. Buster quickly whittles down the choices to five finalists and, just as they do on every TV singing contest, they all have an emotional back story to share. 

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s7vGnqmempWnwW%2BvzqZmq52mnrK4v46soKefXWd9coI%3D