FILM REVIEW: Sing – ‘Mild Entertainment and Little More’

Sing Review

When Illumination Entertainment made Despicable Me back in 2010, it placed them firmly as a potential rival to the infinitely popular and successful Pixar. The sequel, appropriately titled Despicable Me 2, was slightly less beloved but nothing short of enjoyable. Now, with Sing, they’ve proven – to me at least – that they’re only capable of mild entertainment and little more.

I honestly didn’t want this to be the case; with voice talent from the likes of Matthew McConaughey and Taron Egerton, it could have been a really memorable affair. The plot of a failing theatre putting on a singing contest to save themselves financially was good enough to get things going…but then they just refused to go anywhere interesting. Opening glimpses into Egerton’s ape character Johnny and his tenuous relationship with his criminal dad were promising, but the film prioritised cringey musical numbers over any sense of character or story.

Sing Review
Source: Screen Rant

And this was my first major problem with Sing: its main appeal of popular music being literally sung by the characters falls apart when you can just listen to the songs on YouTube for free. There: saved you two hours. Now, I get that this isn’t the only draw the movie has, but when you actually sit down and watch it you’ll realise that it doesn’t have much else in the way of memorable moments or features. There’s a smattering of character building moments dotted throughout (particularly in the opening slapdash of introductions), but these are so sparse that you’ll have forgotten most of the animal roles by the time the credits begin to roll.

I get it: this isn’t a film for me. It’s a kids movie, sure, but that doesn’t automatically give it a free pass to waste your time. It’s brought up every time people discuss kids movies, but the likes of Toy Story and even the recent Moana prove that studios can make films which successfully entertain children while appealing to those of an older generation. And Sing does indeed have a few laughs which genuinely got to me, but for each of those there’s a whole heaping of slapstick humour and eye-rolling punchlines.

Sing Review
Source: Slashfilm

I only very briefly touched on the plot earlier because, as mentioned, it’s so razor-thin that you’ll forget you’re actually meant to be watching a story. Seriously, by the time the credits rolled, I was surprised that the film had already ended. As much as I wasn’t enjoying it, Sing felt like it ran for little more than an hour before finishing – an hour of moderate chuckles and lengthy boredom.

Unfortunately I don’t have much more to say about this film, because it’s just so forgettable that there’s nothing much to warrant a recommendation. If you have very young children who would enjoy watching animals sing songs they’ve probably heard a thousand times, then it might be worth checking out. If you value your own time, though, and want to entertain your kids even more, then just go and watch Moana, or for an equally animal-filled time check out Zootopia. You’ll get more of a laugh out of it, and not be left on such a sour note.

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