Sing 2. (12A.)
Directed by Garth Jennings.
Featuring Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Bobby Cannavale and Bono. 103 min.
Can’t say I had any great hopes for this animated sequel but the opening sequence – a musical version of Alice In Wonderland with an Elephant as Alice and an animal cast performing Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy – gave me more pleasure than anything I’ve seen in the cinema for a good few months. The last thing the world needs now is another jukebox musical, another selection of old standards belted out with gusto; unless the performers are animated animals. There’s something inherently hilarious about three chicks dressed as chimney sweeps performing Eminem's My Name Is, or a horse with long blonde hair being buzzed off stage after the first word of an Adele song.
The original Sing was a send-up of audition shows. This time, the Koala impresario Buster Moon (McConaughey) gathers up the gang from the first film to take them to the animal world version of Las Vegas, where he falls in with a gangster (Cannavale) who promises to stage his show, a lavish sci-fi musical called Out of This World. But on one condition: that they get reclusive rock legend Clay Calloway, who hasn't performed in over 15 years, to be in it.
I should issue a trigger warning here: Calloway is voiced by Bono and some of you may reasonably feel that you don't wish to support the project because of this. Fair enough, but maybe you could appreciate the sly irony in getting the world's most overexposed rock star to play a man who has turned his back on the limelight. And you hardly notice it's him at all.
Epping-born Jennings started out as a Terry Gilliam wannabe, but after neither Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy nor Son Of Rambow took off, he buckled down and reinvented himself as an animator working for Illumination Entertainment, the studio built on the popularity of the Minions. On many levels, this is a slick Hollywood product. The barrage of songs is unrelenting and takes in everything from the sixties onwards and all musical styles. There's so much noise and action the kiddies won't have time to get bored. But beyond the cold hard yank of entertainment, there are the odd quirky touches and moments of charm. You wouldn’t say no to a Sing 3; shine on Buster Moon.
Directed by Garth Jennings.
Featuring Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Bobby Cannavale and Bono. 103 min.
Can’t say I had any great hopes for this animated sequel but the opening sequence – a musical version of Alice In Wonderland with an Elephant as Alice and an animal cast performing Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy – gave me more pleasure than anything I’ve seen in the cinema for a good few months. The last thing the world needs now is another jukebox musical, another selection of old standards belted out with gusto; unless the performers are animated animals. There’s something inherently hilarious about three chicks dressed as chimney sweeps performing Eminem's My Name Is, or a horse with long blonde hair being buzzed off stage after the first word of an Adele song.
The original Sing was a send-up of audition shows. This time, the Koala impresario Buster Moon (McConaughey) gathers up the gang from the first film to take them to the animal world version of Las Vegas, where he falls in with a gangster (Cannavale) who promises to stage his show, a lavish sci-fi musical called Out of This World. But on one condition: that they get reclusive rock legend Clay Calloway, who hasn't performed in over 15 years, to be in it.
I should issue a trigger warning here: Calloway is voiced by Bono and some of you may reasonably feel that you don't wish to support the project because of this. Fair enough, but maybe you could appreciate the sly irony in getting the world's most overexposed rock star to play a man who has turned his back on the limelight. And you hardly notice it's him at all.
Epping-born Jennings started out as a Terry Gilliam wannabe, but after neither Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy nor Son Of Rambow took off, he buckled down and reinvented himself as an animator working for Illumination Entertainment, the studio built on the popularity of the Minions. On many levels, this is a slick Hollywood product. The barrage of songs is unrelenting and takes in everything from the sixties onwards and all musical styles. There's so much noise and action the kiddies won't have time to get bored. But beyond the cold hard yank of entertainment, there are the odd quirky touches and moments of charm. You wouldn’t say no to a Sing 3; shine on Buster Moon.
