12 New Movies 2024: #2 Sing

 In many of the Special Ed classes I sub in they have what is called Fun Friday, an enjoyable activity in the last couple of periods of the day.  Often this is a kids movie.  In February the class I was subbing for watched Sing, an animated film from 2016.  Because of my previous job at a local movie theatre, I had seen quite a bit of it's 2023 sequel Sing II.   But since I didn't work there until 2019 and did not end up taking my own children to it, I had never seen the original.

Matthew McConaughey at the premiere of Sing. 2016 Toronto Film Festival , 

CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

A Stagecoach West bus leaving Gloucester bus station on route 30 to Coleford. It is a Scania N230UD with Alexander Enviro400 body, registration mark MX08 GHY, fleet number 15451.

I would give Sing a rating somewhere between 2.75 and 3.25 stars.  Matthew McConaughey lends his voice to theatrical producer Buster Moon who is in fact a koala bear, (All of the characters are animals) in this film which is part Zootopia and part High School Musical.  Moon's theatre is about to be repossessed by the bank, and he needs to put  a successful show to avoid losing the theatre.  He decides to put on a singing contest, and the rest of the film centers on the contestants and Moon reevaluating and achieving their dreams.  Taron Egerton, Reese Witherspoon, and Scarlett Johansson all voice contestants.  I really liked the musical numbers in the film.  The animation and the music blend together beautifully. If  the film overachieves in it's musical numbers, it certainly underachieves when it comes to plot and overall direction of the film.  Sing II is a good film that could have been a great one, if the plot would travelled on a more interesting trajectory.  If you like musicals about musicals and movies with animated animals, Sing could well be your jam.