What happens to your viewing habits for movies like Sing 2 when your young child has aged out of animated features? You bring in your husband to watch it with you.
He’s been known to “stop for a second” in front of the tv when cartoons are playing and two hours later, he peels himself from the couch and his eyes from the tv. Animated features will suck him in even more, especially if there’s a good story. This is where my preferences come in.
I’m actually a fan of animated movies with a few big caveats:
- It has to be quality animation. I love Pixar and Disney Animation and Illumination, the animation studios of Universal – the animation house behind Sing 2.
- It has to be a good story. I don’t mean an Academy Award-winning screenplay but it has to have a protagonist, antagonist, and a general storyline that could stand on its own if it wasn’t an animated feature.
- The humor needs to be appropriate. What I mean is that it should be funny and simple enough for kids to like it and get it but with a layer of complexity that will keep their parents interested.
Sing 2 actually met all of the above criteria with one big plus. The story and humor were captivating without being too WINK-WINK-NUDGE-NUDGE THIS IS KID HUMOR BUT IT’S REALLY A DOUBLE ENTENDRE FULL OF ADULT HUMOR, GET IT?
That’s my biggest pet peeve about today’s animated features. And I’m delighted that Sing 2 finds the right balance of story, humor, and animation.
What is Sing 2 about?
The cast of Sing is back and this time, they’re performing a successful (and musical!) adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. While it’s a visual and audio delight for the audience (both on screen and in person), it fails to impress a talent scout in the audience from Redshore City (the animated equivalent of Las Vegas).
Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) is determined to impress by weaseling (or koala-ing) his way into a spot producing a show for Mr. Crystal (Bobby Cannavale), a big bad wolf, er, I mean, investor who gives them a spotlight. But it may come at a cost.
Buster must convince aging recluse rockstar, Clay Calloway (Bono) to come out of retirement or Mr. Crystal will pull the plug, and their shot at performing in Redshore City.
Do you need to see Sing before seeing Sing 2?
Absolutely not. Sing will introduce you to the characters that show up in Sing 2 but, as you might expect, there’s no complex continuing storyline that you need to follow. It is a kids’ movie, after all.
But just in case you need a quick synopsis: In the first movie, a nice little down-on-his-luck koala named Buster Moon decides to hold a singing contest at his ailing theater. Because of a typo, he advertises a prize of $100,000 instead of $1000, which attracts large crowds (think American Idol).
He ends up finding several diamonds in the rough like Rosita (Reese Witherspoon), the overworked stay-at-home mom of more piglets that we can count, Meena (Tory Kelly), the reluctant and shy elephant with a large-than-life voice, Johnny (Taron Egerton), the British gorilla that wants to be a singer instead of working in his father’s gang, and Ash (Scarlett Johansson), a porcupine rocker who wants to step into the spotlight.
All of the characters need to overcome their own personal obstacles to realize their potential in Sing. In Sing 2, it’s more story-driven than character-driven with the biggest growth for Buster Moon, himself.
Who is Sing 2 good for?
As you might expect, this movie is good for kids. But it’s also good for families looking for something to watch together over the holidays. There’s nothing that would give me caution for younger kids. They’re only limited by their attention span.
And you might even get your teens to sit through it with you since it includes a lot of music from the 80s (appealing to the parents) up to current hits.
The sweet spot for this film is probably ages 8 to 12.
Sing 2 Review
This was an all around well done film and thoroughly enjoyable. I only have a few head scratchers when it comes to this movie.
The music. I’m left wondering why they didn’t create original music for the film unless the more modern, recognizable music is the draw in this era of TikTok lovers. I just cringe thinking about the licensing costs for the songs!
The actors. They have some pretty heavy hitters voicing this film: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Nick Offerman, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Letitia Wright, and Pharrell Williams, among others. Although it’s fun to try to recognize the voices if you don’t know who they are, it’s still a wonder why they don’t hire talented voice actors (not that these actors did a disservice at all!).
The singers. Are all of these A-list actors really A-list singers as well? It’s tough to say. The cast list only lists the voice actor and when the music rolls in the credits, there is no “Performed by” section that you see in literally every other movie. It makes me wonder if they had singing doubles. If so, give credit where credit is due. If not, let us know these actors have pipes!
Overall, it’s worth the trip to the theater and, dare I say, even more enjoyable than the original Sing.
