The studio that brought us Despicable Me, Minions and The Lorax returns with a clean, unpretentious musical that manages to tug at our hearts.
Sing does not have an innovative script, nor has its theme of “sing like nobody’s watching” been unexplored before.
But there’s something really endearing about a little koala called Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) running a theatre, trying to produce a hit show. Or a family of a dozen pigs that is functional because of their multitasking mother (Reese Witherspoon) who, through her gifted voice, wants to prove she’s not a plain Jane; a cockney-accented gorilla (Taron Egerton) who would rather croon than carry on the family business of crime; and a squeaky little, Sinatra-like mouse (Seth Macfarlane) with cockiness level set all the way to 10. And who ever thought porcupines would have a natural rock-and-roll flair with their bristles?
These character sketches are defined within the first five minutes in Sing, set in a nameless city full of anthromorphic animals. We know the drill: they all have to get on stage sometime later and perform beyond their own belief. There’s an audition, serendipitous selections and rehearsals that push them out of their comfort zones.
There is an element of confusion after Buster’s one-eyed chameleon secretary, Ms. Crawley (director Garth Jennings) types in a wrong prize amount for the winner of the singing competition. A sense of betrayal follows, as does a chance at redemption, replete with motivational quotes — “the great thing about hitting rock-bottom is that there’s only one way out. Up!” The formula of the reverse bell curve has been followed to the T: happy stability leading to letdowns and then back to unanimous cheer.
What we have otherwise is a cute, animated ode to the likes of Taylor Swift, Elton John, Carly Rae Jepson, Freddie Mercury and all those groovy numbers from a decade or so ago (there’s even a bit of The Ketchup Song somewhere). But at no point does the film get tiresome. It hops, skips and jumps over a myriad of emotions effortlessly (the animation and humour have not been downgraded just because there are noMinions).
It’s almost as if someone managed to make a mini– La La Land for children. The only niggling thing on my mind was this: were the 3D glasses really necessary?
(The article first appeared in The Hindu.)