written and directed by Garth Jennings
There's something almost cynical about how today's animated films from the leading studios are made and packaged. They're either highbrow, blatant Oscar-bait like Pixar's products (or poor facsimiles of highbrow Oscar-bait, like Finding Dory) or lowest-common-denominator idiocy designed to sell toys, like Minions or The Secret Life of Pets. While I was pleasantly surprised by the earnest, entertaining and intelligent Zootopia, which seemed to step out of comfort zones a little bit, but not quite as pleased with Moana, a film which leaned heavily on formula, even as it purported to be iconoclastic with its brown-skinned heroine.
While, arguably the most daring animated film of last year was the stop-motion spectacle Kubo and the Two Strings (with my personal favorite being Zootopia), I also found myself enjoying the ensemble musical-comedy Sing, which really doesn't have awards aspiration and which, at the same time doesn't pander purely to six-year olds. It's content to be its own thing.
Sing, which features the voices of Hollywood heavyweights Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johanson and Reese Witherspoon, is a story about reaching for one's dreams, even when it seems too late or too improbable. It begins with Buster Moon (McConaughey) a koala who has been in love with the stage since his childhood, but whose beloved theater is about to shut down, making one last-ditch attempt to save his theater by staging a singing competition. Due to a printing error by his geriatric personal assistant Ms. Crawley (an iguana voiced by the director Garth Jennings), the prize money offered is One Hundred Thousand Dollars instead of the One Thousand Dollars Buster actually has on hand. The contestants include exhausted homemaker Rosita (Witherspoon), a pig who has to take care of 25 piglets, the flamboyant Gunter (Nick Kroll), another pig who isn't much of a singer but is a consummate showman, teenage gorilla Johnny (Taron Egerton), son of a career criminal who doesn't want to follow in his father's footsteps, porcupine Ash (Scarlett Johansson) a rocker whose boyfriend is used to hogging the limelight, street hustler Mike (Seth McFarlane) street-hustling mouse with a talent for crooning, and Meena (Tori Kelly), a shy elephant who can belt out tunes with the best of them, provided she can get over her stage fright. Buster doesn't have the prize money but hopes to impress Nana Noodleman (Jennifer Saunders) who used to be the top-billed actress at the theater and happens to be loaded, in order to get her to sponsor the show.
High jinks ensue, and while things don't quite turn out as planned, in the end all that talent comes together for something really special.
My favorite release of Illumination Pictures remains to be the original Despicable Me, which really surprised me with its refreshing bad-guy-turned-instant-daddy story, which immediately got old by the second movie. This film, unlike any other film in Illumination's catalog since its breakout smash, actually has some of the heart that made Gru's inaugural adventure so appealing to me, and it's in large part to the vocal performances. While McConaughey has the lion's share of voice/screen time, the rest of the ensemble gets its opportunity to shine; in particular the stories of Rosita and Johnny stood out, though Meena, voiced by real-life singing sensation Kelly, got the musical spotlight late in the film.
It's a properly silly film; there are plenty of questions that can keep nitpickers in the audience busy, like why is Rosita stuck at home taking care of her two dozen plus one kids when she's actually a genius-level inventor? How are people not screaming in agony when Ash flicks her quills everywhere while on stage? How did Buster Moon and crew build a tank just by slapping together all the thin glass panes they could get their hands on? It is a lot of good fun, though, and all of the musical numbers, which are the film's true highlights, deliver the goods.
The good news for parents is that, while this film was clearly made with kids in mind, the little tidbits about chasing one's dreams after it may be too late may yet resonate with some from the slightly middle-aged set. And some of the tunes may ring a bell with more than just the Taylor-Swift-adoring crowd.
7.5/10
