Sing (2016)

Sing is a movie that has a lot of great songs, and is also visually appealing but, it has unlikable characters which downgrade the movie. During it's slow parts it is very slow. But at it's fast parts it's a fun a lovable movie for the kids. 5/10

Buster Moon, seeking to save his failing theatre, stages a talent contest. The competitors include dancing housewife Rosita, teenage delinquent Johnny, undervalued songwriter and ace guitarist Ash, cocky crooner Mike, shy songstress Meena etc. And each of these has personal and domestic issues to be resolved.A synopsis makes it clear that there is very little originality here as regards story. This sort of tale dates back to the 1930s, to early sound musicals with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. And even though the characters' assorted problems can be viewed as more modern - Johnny's Dad is a bank robber, Rosita's husband undervalues her, Mike is tied up with organised crime - they still won't come as a surprise to any adult who has watched films since childhood.But let's factor in that these characters are all anthropomorphised animals, and that this is a CGI movie with kids as its primary audience, and the familiarity of its plot becomes considerably less important.Since marvelling at Toy Story, and then Shrek, there have been so many CGI features that one can more or less take it as read that character and product design, animation and voicework will all be first rate, and that is the case here - one expects accomplishment, and a film which falls short in these areas is far more noteworthy than one which doesn't. So we can take it as read that Sing - largely put together by the French Despicable Me production company - is as visually striking as we would expect it to be.Where it succeeds is in the musical numbers, both in how they are staged, and in how emotionally they are integrated into the narrative. I'm a sucker for music which grips me by the throat, either in its own right or by reference to how it is presented, and a lot of the music here does just that. I'm not going to give examples because, if this movie is your sort of thing, then I don't want to spoiler any of the delights in store for you.The music, from across the musical spectrum, is well-chosen and well-used, whether in its or original form or as rearranged. I had never realised that Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight was so sad.So don't see it if you hate musicals, CGI, or movies with no surprises. But if you're OK with all that, you'll love it.

It is a true delight for both kiddos and parents, a real fun musical movie that gets you wanting to dance and sing along.

There were some genuinely entertaining moments here, but they were strung together with a plot and characters that were just too undeveloped. The end result is a movie that feels more like a series of animated comedy sketches than anything else. Towards the end, the story finally got some momentum, and I found myself wondering how this would have worked in the hands of Pixar. My answer? Better. They just needed to make some hard choices and establish a clearer protagonist. Close, but not quite.