Buster Moon and his friends must persuade reclusive rock star Clay Calloway to join them for the opening of a new show.
The animated sequel to ‘Sing’ (perplexingly one of my partner’s favourites of the last few years!) does what most animated sequels do and takes the same premise and makes it bigger, with Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) and co. now looking to take their musical talents to the big stage after saving their local theatre in the first film. The star draw this time is an ageing and depressed rock star called Clay Calloway, who is voiced by none other than U2’s Bono, which gives the finale of ‘Sing 2’ a bit of a rock edge to go alongside the conveyor belt of hit pop songs that have led up to this point. We do also get an original U2 song which is frankly a dirge, but the classics are still the classics!
‘Sing 2’ begins with the gang attempting to impress a talent scout from nearby Redshore City to get themselves a shot on the big stage courtesy of Jimmy Crystal, an influential entertainment mogul (Bobby Cannavale). This inevitably fails but Buster is nothing but not perseverant and they manage to impress Crystal enough to get the chance to produce their own musical – on the key pretence that they can secure Clay to perform, something that Buster may have not been entirely truthful about. Like the first movie this is a jukebox musical and the budget must almost entirely go on securing the rights to songs, as there can’t be far off 50+ tracks at various points, most of which are well-known, recent and popular.
You know, I really wasn’t up for this heading in and for the first part of the film it didn’t get going for me, but it actually starts to become quite fun and the big sci-fi musical that takes up much of the last act is pretty entertaining. The voicework is solid, the script has a simple story but fills it with some funny moments, both sweet and slapstick, and it actually becomes quite endearing as the story progresses.
Rating: 3/5
Directed By: Garth Jennings
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Tori Kelly, Taron Egerton, Nick Kroll, Nick Offerman, Garth Jennings, Peter Serafinowicz, Halsey, Bobby Cannavale, Pharrell Williams, Chelsea Peretti, Letitia Wright, Eric Andre, Adam Buxton, Jennifer Saunders and Bono
'Feeling is not selective, I keep telling you that. You can’t feel pain, you aren’t gonna feel anything else, either’ Ordinary People (1980) 