Movie Review: "Sing"

- by Steve Garcia, 6 January 2017

Written and directed by Garth Jennings of "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" fame comes Illumination Entertainment’s "Sing": an animated musical comedy featuring an ensemble cast of animals in a singing competition hosted by an ambitious Koala named Buster Moon. But was it any good? Well...
​

In a year jam-packed with both stellar animated hits and dazzling musicals, Sing was disappointingly average in both departments. In an unavoidable comparison to Disney’s Zootopia, for example, the anthropomorphic society downright lacked the imagination and attention to detail that a film so immersed in the art of theatre was begging for.
​
The lack of creativity also presented itself in the almost complete absence of original music in favor of covers to a plethora of pop songs, which could have turned passable scenes into something much more memorable. Being that its competition outdid everything Sing had to offer, it simply just couldn’t reach the bar that had already been set.
​

In addition to its artistic deficiency, another of Sing’s shortcomings was in the form of its pacing. While it indeed succeeded in giving each and every character in its colossal cast an equal amount of screen time, it failed to flesh out a majority of them enough to care about each of their arcs. 

​The characters that were fleshed out, however, such as Matthew McConaughey’s Buster Moon, were either off-puttingly abrasive, manipulative, and/or generally annoying. Silver linings did present themselves, however, as the voice acting and musical talents of Taron Egerton, Tori Kelly, and Scarlett Johannson were pleasing to the ear. 

Simply put, Sing just wasn’t up to par with its competitors in both the animation and musical categories. The blame for its completely average end product can be placed on its shortage of innovation coupled with its lack of focus, originality, and the charming characters that both genres require. While the character animation, choreography, and a few standout performances were admirable, it just wasn’t enough to leave a lasting impression. For those reasons, I present Sing with 5 out of 10 farting bulls. 

Have you seen "Sing"? Why? What did you think of it? Leave us a comment!

Tagged: movies & TV, Reviews.

blog comments powered by Disqus

---

Follow @TrashMutant