by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
In the interest of transparency, I was supposed to review Sing 2 weeks ago, but around the time the movie came out, we had a COVID incident that caused us to have to isolate for 10 days. The day we finally saw Sing 2, we had to decide if we wanted to see it in theaters or if we were going to rent it on iTunes for our weekly Family Movie Night. We decided it was our reward for getting out of isolation, so we decided to go see it in theaters.
Animated sequels are not always easy to pull off (in all fairness, sequels in general are not easy to pull off). There’s a fine balance that is usually struck with a sequel that tries to progress stories forward while also introducing new elements like worlds or characters to keep people interested. Animated sequels sometimes don’t have things as hard because with kids being the target audience, story sometimes gets sacrificed for flashy moments and interesting set pieces. To be honest, it’s been a long time since an animated sequel blew me away.
Sing 2 was entertaining enough while simultaneously not really bringing much of anything to the table.But before we get in to the hits for Sing 2, let’s do a quick recap of where we’re at.
Previously on Sing:
Troubled theater owner Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughy) devises a plan to get more people through the doors by holding a singing competition. Contests include housewife Rosita (Reese Witherspoon), shy Menna (Tori Kelly), rocker Ash (Scarlett Johansson), adjacent criminal Johnny (Taron Egerton), and crooner Mike (Seth MacFarlane). With the help of friends and coworkers, Moon does what he can to keep his theater open while providing an entertaining show.
The original Sing was the first movie my daughter saw, so there’s a soft spot in my heart for it. It capitalizes on covers of songs that are catchy and make animals cute and entertaining. It’s got a good mix of jokes for parents and flashy numbers to keep kids entertained. Five years later, we have Sing 2 repeating a lot of the same story as the first one.
Sing 2 brings back a lot of the cast and has Buster Moon again attempting to put on a show through semi-deceitful means in order to prove that he has what it takes to be successful. This time, it’s in a Las Vegas-esque town through an entertainment company run by Mr. Crystal (Bobby Carnavale). The big draw of the show will be the reemergence of reclusive rocker Clay Calloway (Bono). Shenanigans ensue, songs are sung, and characters generally get over their anxieties about something about their role in the show (called Out Of This World) that generally plagues them.
Putting all the characters in a flashy new town provides some interesting new wrinkles. Mr. Crystal is a worthy adversary that shows the plights of being in the entertainment industry. He really tries to have his cake and eat it too in terms of being an entertainment conglomerate, while still being a bit of a jerk about things. Bono gives a great performance as Calloway, who is tortured away from the spotlight due to personal trauma. The new show they put on is also a visual treat. This did make the theater going to experience worth it because the flashy colors and brilliant animation was definitely a sight to see on the big screen. The songs were also great and well sung too. There’s no doubt my daughter will inevitably add the soundtrack to her Spotify rotation.
The issues that come up are typical of sequels, though. Sequels have a choice to make: do they go with a bigger and grander story, or do they focus on the characters we already have and putting them in new situations? Sing 2 does a little bit of both unfortunately. We’re giving most of the returning characters a manufactured conflict to overcome while also expanding the returning-character-to-new-character ratio (patent pending) way too far. For each returning character, there are one or two new characters that are introduced as a way for them to get over whatever it is ailing them. The issue we run into here, though, is that with so many characters to keep track of, there’s just not enough time to spend with anyone for me to actually care about anything going on. Calloway’s arc was by far the most interesting, but it gets lost in the shuffle with all the other people.
The other big issue is with Buster Moon’s character. It’s a bit of a rehash of what happened in the first one. Buster gets to put on a show deceptively and he somehow pulls it off while learning a lesson about what it means to be an entertainer. The only real difference is we’ve added a clear villain that is thwarting his show. Even my daughter said to me during the movie, “didn’t he already do this?” meaning she even remembered that Buster puts on a show with the same people and ends up learning a lesson while also getting let off the hook for the shady way he put on the show in the first place.
This was entertaining enough for my four-year-old that she said she liked it. She liked the music and animals, which is basically why she liked the first one. She got scared of Mr. Crystal, while also saying he wasn’t being very nice and he should treat people better (proud parent moment for me). However, for me as a parent, there are too many new characters that don’t get enough of a focus and doesn’t really bring anything different to the table besides manufactured conflict and an allegory about why the entertainment industry isn’t that great. Your kids will probably like it, but parents will be mixed.
Grade: C-
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