Sing (2017) - Film Review

Sing Film Poster

Sing is another one of those animated films starring animals but this time they are performing in a singing contest at a theatre which is under threat of foreclosure.

Illumination Entertainment, makers of the popular Despicable Me and Minions films and The Secret Life of Pets (2016), certainly know how to make films that hit a certain younger skewing audience.

It's written and directed by Garth Jennings (Son of Rambow, 2007) who has admitted that the plot elements aren't exactly the most original in this setting.

A Koala called Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) faces a crisis when his theatre is threatened with foreclosure.

Obviously, our wheeling and dealing koala has some smooth talking to do. He devises a singing contest which attracts a huge number of hopefuls thanks to a typo in the advertising flyer making the prize money look a lot more than the modest sum available.

Amongst the entrants are: A talented but arrogant mouse who channels Frank Sinatra (Seth MacFarlane, Tooth Fairy), an overworked mother pig with 25 piglets and a workaholic husband (Reese Witherspoon, Wild), and a teen punk porcupine with a difficult rock snob boyfriend (Scarlett Johansson, The Jungle Book), a gorilla who doesn't want to join his dad's criminal gang (Taron Egerton, Eddie the Eagle), and a shy elephant with a brilliant singing voice (Tori Kelly).

There's voice cameos aplenty to round out a storyline which holds few surprises and the original song that was assigned to Ash, Scarlett Johansson's porcupine character, ends up being overshadowed by the cover song performances by Johnny the gorilla (Egerton) and Meena the elephant (Kelly).

Sing is undemanding entertainment which will appeal to younger children while the dozens of songs used will help parents pass the time away trying to spot every single piece used.

Sing (U; very mild bad language, threat, rude humour; 108 minutes)

Summary: SING is an animated feature about a group of animals taking part in a singing contest.

Rating: ***