The act of seeing this film was more stressful than it should have been, for me at least, but of the two films we watched, I was personally more excited about Sing, I like animations, and after having my nerves shot by a tense thriller, I was in the mood for some music and talking animals, so let's go.
The film opens in a fitting manner, with our struggling theatre owner Buster Moon narrating the origins of his passion for the theatre. Sing doesn't focus on any one character as much as it focuses on one larger story featuring several smaller characters; arguably the main character is Buster, like most characters in this film, his story follows a particular and predictable pattern, as he struggles to keep a brave face as his theatre rots around him, his optimism is a big draw for his character, especially as it gets more and more obvious how hard he's taking the situation. Ms. Crawly serves more as a comedic side character to Buster, an elderly assistant with such amusing quirks as a glass eye. The singing competition brings in many faces from around the city, perhaps most notable is Johnny, a kid whose dad is a gangster, but who wants to escape his dad's criminal life to become a singer, his story is perhaps the most pressing of the film, and it's ark the most emotionally satisfying, as his dad is disapproving of his life choices, preferring that he be a part of the family business. Rosita's ark is much tamer, a stressed out stay at home mum, while Ash is a punk rocking teenager whose boyfriend is an 'artist'. Possibly the third most interesting character besides Buster and Johnny is Mike, an arrogant jazz loving musician whose escapades get him in deep with the mob, and he sings Frank Sinatra, which is probably a reason I like him so much. The film focuses pretty fairly on all of these characters, and while some do shine more than others, no character comes across as particularly uninteresting; aside from maybe Buster's rich partner and the Bank lady that's after repossessing the theatre. Like all of its characters, who are all just parts in this film's larger story, the story doesn't do anything massively brave; from the moment the film starts, you know exactly how things are going to play out, and you'd be right, it has all the tried and true highs and lows of this sort of comedy, and to that point it matters less what kind of story it's telling, but more how well it's telling it, and with it's fun characters, it does a good job. It also helps that the music is pretty good, and very varied, ranging from Elton John to Frank Sinatra to Queen, and, unfortunately, Taylor Swift, fucking hell, but aside from Swift, it's all good stuff for the most part, and it makes the film much more enjoyable when the songs are blaring and the figurative action is going down. And when the film goes through the predictable motions, it's still effective enough, as the fun characters and good music sucks you in. Unlike the last film I saw; Split, this film is one I'm nowhere near as concerned about spoiling, as I don't know if it's possible to spoil Sing, but it's still fun to watch the shenanigans ensue as the big day gets closer.
So far, minus the introduction, I haven't mentioned that this film is animated, or is about talking animals, but it seems that after totally not stealing from Pixar with Despicable Me and Secret Life of Pets, now they're totally not stealing from Disney with Sing. I bring it up because at one point during this film I asked my friend if he thought this film would be any different if it was live action, and ultimately, minus a few things, it wouldn't, even the biggest shenanigans of the film are something live action comedies have done in the past, films like Mousehunt. To that end, I was wondering why this film was animated in the first place, and I have mixed feelings on it. First the negatives; if this film was live action, it would be a dime a dozen musical comedy, but instead it's animated, which arguably still makes it dime a dozen, but does make it easier to market since you can market it to kids and families, but on the flip side, Illumination is an animation studio I kind of like, and this film is full of vibrant colours and fun animation, and it is some really nice animation at times too, so the film is certainly more fun to watch as an animated film about talking animals than it would be if it were live action. As mentioned previously the music is good for the most part, and even when you see them coming, the film's more emotional tones do work well, most notably one scene I can't get out of my head, a scene towards the end of film that is the conclusion of one of the film's multiple story arks, and I can't really describe it in any other way than beautiful. It's difficult to explain what I referred to as 'the feeling' when talking about the film with my friends, but it's the moment in a film where I personally stop liking a film and start loving it, and I really mean loving it. It's a feeling that I can never describe, but when a film can pull it off, that is a great film right there, and this film already had me with its fun characters and good music. All in all, I'll admit that this film is unoriginal, from the outset, you know exactly where this film is going and you just hope it can at least be enjoyable, and it is. It has a fun line up of characters, and some unremarkable but enjoyable comedy, but it has fun, if unnecessary animation, great music, and a few really satisfying and emotional character arks, I found myself loving Sing, and I'd very, very highly recommend it.
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