REVIEW: Sing

Sing is a predictable, but cute, and fun little production that gave me more charm than I originally expected to be completely honest. That's not to say it's one I'll flock to see again, but from what I thought it would be in the trailers, it was enjoyable enough. Again, even if it is a you know like the back of your hand. It's full of clichés you've seen a thousand times, they lead to plot points you can see coming from miles away, that honestly feel like they're more tacked on than anything. But a likable cast, fun music, and charming jokes that even had me chuckling now and then help you look past a few of these things the duration of the film.

The film focuses on this guy (and I do mean guy, despite the fact that he's a koala bear but more on that later) named Moon, who owns a stage theater, and is facing rough times financially because he just can't seem to draw in the crowds, so he decides to put together a singing contest which he hopes will put him back in the business. However due to a typo, his grand prize draws in hundreds of singers hoping to get their hands on the advertised $100,000 dollars, and you can probably see where this will end up. Everything kinda revolves around this "Liar Revealed" plot that doesn't really have that big a payoff. In fact once it happens, it's almost kinda just glossed over.  It's not a terrible story by any means, but I do feel that they don't really do much with it. In fact, by the end, I'm not sure I'm supposed to care because no one seems to learn anything.

What I mean by that is this film has a whole lot of characters. In fact as they introduce them all in the opening sequence, I couldn't help but wonder if I was in trouble with the sheer amount of characters, all facing common life problems, there were. You got a housewife pig who isn't fully appreciated at home, this street mouse that's a self centered egotistical jerk, this gorilla egos the son of a criminal mastermind who doesn't wanna be in his gang, this shut elephant who lives singing but isn't confident in herself, this porcupine ego isn't fully appreciated by her boyfriend, look it's all been done before, and they do nothing new with it. There is no twist, there is nothing you can't predict, it's all practically given away in the trailers for God's sake. By the time the big payoff happens, and each character's story comes to a close, I couldn't help but feel that there was nothing accomplished. The pig is suddenly appreciated because she sings and dances really good, the mouse is still a self centered, arrogant jackass...and he actually kinda comes out on top (nice message to teach the kids, be a huge jerk, be rude, be dishonest, and you'll still come out on top!), there really isn't a whole lot of closure in this film. The only sense of closure I felt was really there was Meena, as her story actually had a sense of buildup. But as she isn't exactly the focus of the movie, I found it rather underwhelming. Everyone else is just kinda there, and things just happen, because movie. Why does the pig's husband suddenly appreciate his wife more? Does the porcupine's boyfriend realize after seeing his girlfriend's talent how arrogant he'd been with her? Why did the gorilla's father have a sudden change of heart after simply seeing his son performing on a television from prison? These are just a few of the questions left unanswered.

I guess one thing I actually found I really enjoyed was the music of the film. The cast does a very nice job of singing some of the bigger hits of recent years, or even some of the classics from back in the day.  Even if a lot of the music is stuff I don't normally care for. They do a good job singing things from Katy Perry to Frank Sinatra of all things. I also really enjoyed an original song from the film sung by the porcupine character, "Set it All Free", which she writes to help cope with the breakup with her boyfriend. And I will say that the way they animate her as she sings it in the movie is really good. There's a certain emotion to her face that is really convincing.

And I also like the films climax to an extent. In a way it actually reminded me of the ending of a movie I like, entitled "Be Kind, Rewind". The way it's setup, the way it's executed, it gives off a feeling similar to that movie. It doesn't end exactly like that movie by any means, but for what it was, I liked the similarity. Even if the payoff isn't as strong, and is seen from a mile away. Makes me almost wish that it did end similar to that movie.

But one thing I feel the need to say is that I just don't see the reason for this movie's existence. What I mean here is that when I first saw the trailer for it, and the trailers really didn't do a good job of advertising this I might add, I couldn't help but just see a movie that was trying to cash in on a craze started by "Zootopia". I loved Zootopia. It was my favorite film of 2016. But one of the reasons I loved it so much was because in this world of anthropomorphic animals that they created, they made the world feel alive. They had fun creating their characters, making them so similar in behavior and traits to their actual animal counterparts here in reality, that it raised my bar for what I expect in these movies that feature anthropomorphic animals. Sing just didn't do that for me. It didn't even come close to those expectations. They didn't have much of a reason to be anthropomorphic. The only time I can remember in which they actually kinda acknowledge they're  animals, is in a few...bad puns. Like when Mike is singing "My Way" by Frank Sinatra, he replaces the word "man" with "mouse". The only real smart thing they did with any of these characters is that when the porcupine for excited or emotional, she could accidentally start shooting her quills out in random directions. That's it. They don't have fun with this concept. Unlike Zootopia, you could have easily taken all these characters out, and replaced them with humans, and you'd have the same story practically.

I'm giving Sing a two and a half star rating out of four. While it's not exactly terrible, and while I did have fun, some of my suspicions on this film were clarified upon watching it. I'm happy it gave me the fun it did, I'm happy I laughed when I laughed, even if a lot of the humor fell flat for me, and I'm happy I saw it. To be honest, it's probably more a film for the youngsters than it is for me, and I'm sure they will have plenty to enjoy in this film. But aside from some nice music numbers, and colorful animation, I would not exactly say this is one for the adults to look in too much on.

Please feel free to suggest any movie or film you'd like me to have a look at. Leave a comment down below expressing your own thoughts and opinions on the film, as they are most appreciated, and as always, thanks for reading.

Final Verdict: 2.5/4