First Take: Sing- fun for the family, but not for the critic

SYPNOSIS: In a city of humanoid animals, a hustling theater
impresario’s attempt to save his theater with a singing competition becomes
grander than he anticipates even as its finalists’ find that their lives will
never be the same.

Illumination have had a very varied run over the years- from
the brilliant Despicable Me films to the generally decent Secret Life of Pets,
they have shown their knowledge of animation. But with Sing, it feels like they
are rushing out ideas to compete with Disney and DreamWorks, and as a result,
this film is hit hard.

Garth Jennings’ script has the humour and charm you’d expect
from a film like this, with a plot that is very relevant to the ‘X Factor’
generation that we’re living in, and with this script, Jennings (and
co-director Christophe Lourdelet) does a decent job crafting a film that will
tide audiences over as we wait for the big animation push during February half
term. But, when it comes to the pacing, the film will test younger audience members, especially as it is a 1
hour 48 minute film- and it did feel like a long film at points.

Performance wise, Matthew McConaughey leads the cast with
ease, and of course, with the talents of Taron Egerton, Reese Witherspoon and
Seth MacFarlane (who surprisingly keeps his sort of humour restrained to keep a
U certificate) on board, there is nothing to fault. It is animated brilliantly
as ever, and the score from Joby Talbot keeps things rolling along nicely.  However, my main issue with the film was the
fact that this style of story has been done thousands of times before- casual
audiences won’t have this issue, and of course, while this film has the look of
another box office hit, I left the screening with a look of disappointment, as
there is a lot of untapped potential.

THE VERDICT

Sing is an adequate film from Illumination, but with the
same generic narrative tropes we’ve seen so many times before, I am legitimately
worried that their next film (Despicable Me 3 no less) will suffer the same
issues. However, the performances and the music keep this film from getting a
full rant, and that just about says it all.

RATING: 3/5