This is a weird flick.
Judging the cover, Sing should be at least decent. Great cast [McConaughey, Witherspoon, Johansson…], a Christmas opening date and it’s a cartoon about talking animals from the studio that brought you Minions and Despicable Me.
Sounds good. But now let’s discuss what it’s about. There’s this koala bear named Buster Moon (an excitable McConaughey) and he owns a theater. He needs a hit so he puts on a singing competition. Right there is the first major misstep. Singing competitions reached peak popularity about 7 years ago. Old news. So right out the gate, the film seems dated.
So Buster holds auditions and if the sight of computer generated animals singing songs tickles your funny bone, this while get you rollin’ in the aisles. I found it cute for a little while. But it gets old very quick. One note; one joke.
Then we meet the ragtag group that makes the show. These subplots are completely disconnected from the central plot. You have the Mother Pig, Rosita (Witherspoon) who has 35 kids and an unsupportive husband. She sneaks away to singing practice by building giant Rube Goldberg machines to cook and clean for her family. Too much of a stretch and simply not funny.
There’s Johnny, the crooning gorilla who doesn’t want to rob banks like father. There’s Mike the mouse who cheats at cards so a group of Russian bears are trying to kill him.
All of this feels out of sync. Pointless. Filler.
Regarding the kids. I would imagine most kids under 8 will not make it through this movie without some protest. The novelty wears off and at 1 hour and 50 minutes, Sing is too long. Wait for the Blu-ray if you have to check it out.
