Illumination fell short with its newest film.
While “Despicable Me” and “Minions” are what I’d call witty and clever, “Sing” was slow-paced and lacked originality.
Every movie has a memorable moment — there’s a catchy song or a character you’d want as a best friend.
“Sing” lacked originality in both character and song. In a town inhabited by a variety of animals, there lived an unsuccessful theater owner, Buster the koala. Owing a great deal of money to the bank, he avoided phone calls. To keep his theater from being seized, Buster sought to host a singing competition.
Animals of all shapes and sizes auditioned, and only a handful were chosen. The characters are likeable and funny enough, but nothing stands out as remarkable. The songs sung ranged from Taylor Swift’s, “Shake it Off” to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
Disney’s “Moana” debuted recently, and I received very different vibes from children in the theater.
By the end of “Sing,” children were ready to go, and parents followed suit. When “Moana” ended, adults were humming the tunes, and one little girl asked her mom for a Moana costume for Christmas.
“Moana” encouraged viewers follow their dreams, and it still engaged the audience with humor, faster-paced scenes and a well-developed plot. “Sing” tried to convince audience members to follow their dreams by begging others to bail them out of their troubles.
A koala lied to his contestants and still managed to rebuild his theater. He worked hard to a degree, but his character isn’t strong enough to be the center of a movie.
The film lacked an inspirational factor. At the end, children didn’t leave believing that being an astronaut was a possibility, and adults didn’t leave wanting to get their lives together — they merely giggled, enjoying only the very beginning, middle and end scenes.
I didn’t feel an emotional connection to the film at all, and maybe that’s the problem. There were a couple of “aww” moments, but there were very few “I relate to that feeling” moments.
It’s a movie you rent rather than buy because you only need to see it once. It’s cute, but if I poured thousands of dollars into a movie, I wouldn’t want it to be called cute. I’d want it to be jaw-dropping.