Sing 2

Voices of: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Tori Kelly, Jennifer Saunders, Garth Jennings, Peter Serafinowicz, Nick Kroll, Chelsea Peretti, Bobby Cannavale, Nick Offermen, Adam Buxton, Eric Andre, Bono, Halsey, Letitia Wright, Fisher Stevens (uncredited)
Directed by: Garth Jennings, Christophe Lourdelet
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Musical
2021

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) and his group have a chance to put on a major production, but they need to convince the reclusive Clay Calloway (Bono) to join the show first.

Review:

Tim: So Illumination Entertainment managed to deliver 1 good movie out of their first 10. No surprise why I truly believe they're the worst and most overrated animation studio. That one good movie? Sing. You can make that 2/11, because Sing 2 is another solid movie, a win for this awful studio. I sincerely hope I never see another terrible Minions movie again, but I'd absolutely be rooting for this to turn into a trilogy.

Sing 2 succeeds because it stays very true to the spirit and tone of the original, while broadening the scope of the story. It also manages to hit us in the heartstrings a bit, which no other Illumination movies have really been able to do. Once again here, the combination of popular songs with anthropomorphic animals is too good a combination to pass up. I enjoyed the movie, as did my 7 year-old son and 3 year-old daughter. This is definitely a colorful, entertaining film that works for the whole family.

I thought the story here was fairly effective. Buster Moon wants to put on a show in this world's version of Las Vegas- we get an underdog story as their ragtag band of local players tries to break into show business on one of the larger stages in the world. They're dismissed and discounted, which certainly provides them with ample obstacles to overcome throughout the course of the movie. Since we know these characters, that familiarity makes it very easy to root for them. This is especially true when the film's villain is so dastardly unlikable.

Jimmy Crystal is a fantastic villain and Bobby Cannavale does terrific work bringing him to life. He's kind of the perfect antagonist for a movie like this, especially given the real-world wolves that have been smoked out of Hollywood over the previous years. He's everything we've seen and hated about entertainment big shots. Even without the characters we know, we'd want this evil character to get his comeuppance. That is a big driver of the story. Now, I've complained about Illumination's characters for many years- they're mostly all terrible. Jimmy Crystal is definitely a standout villain.

On the opposite side of this, I loved the character of Clay Calloway. Honestly, I'm kind of stunned Illumination was able to come up with a character this good. He's the exact opposite of Crystal- he's an extremely talented character who has suffered great tragedy and is in deep pain. He is really the heart of the story and delivers an emotional impact that matters. It helps that the animation of Clay is done brilliantly- I loved how he looked. He's the noble lion (as opposed to the sly Jimmy Crystal arctic wolf) and he just looked like an aged rock star. Bono gives a shockingly good performance as Calloway. I really did love his character.

A big reason why this movie succeeds is that it does deliver good characters like Clay and Jimmy. They are significantly better than all the original ones. Buster Moon is fairly solid, but there's a drop off from there. Ash is fine. Rosita is a terrible character... a pig named Rosita, voiced by Reese Witherspoon... she's one of the more bland, forgettable characters I've seen. Johnny is okay, but a boring character voiced excellently by Taron Egerton. Gunter isn't a funny character. I liked Suki, voiced strongly by Chelsea Peretti. Like the first movie, the voice cast is excellent, but the characters are mostly average.

I thought the story here was fine. The cast is a bit too big, so not everyone gets enough screen time. The animation is effective and the music will keep your toes tapping. It's mostly an entertaining film- it might be just a few minutes too long at 1 hour, 50 minutes.

Now, as much as I enjoyed Sing 2 and want to praise Illumination for their rare achievement of making a movie that wasn't disappointing, I do want to keep this in context. If Pixar made a movie like this, it would feel like a major step down. This is a good movie, but it's multiple ballparks away from being anywhere near the upper echelon of animation movies. It's not even remotely close to being a classic. It's a perfectly fine, mildly entertaining movie. It's good and a huge win for Illumination, but it's also pretty sad that a middling film for another studio creates this much excitement for Illumination.
Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets, The Lorax, Hop, The Grinch