Took me a while to come round to watching 'Sing'. It looked very interesting, and animation and musicals are things there is a real personal fondness for. Why did it take so long to watch it? Being behind with my film watching and hearing very divisive opinions on how good it was or not.
Seeing 'Sing' for myself finally with an open mind, from personal opinion it was an enjoyable film with many good elements but has a few things that stop it from being even better. It really does soar fantastically when it does work, which it does a vast majority of the time, but doesn't completely sing with a few things that weren't given quite enough attention. While opinions seem mostly mixed to positive, it is easy to see why people will find fault with it. As far as 2016 animated films go, it's a good one and one of the better ones but there are far superior ones overall.
Let's start with the positives, which are a great many. The animation is wonderful, it's bright, colourful, rich in detail and with slick character designs and some parts in the musical numbers have some imagination. Absolutely loved the soundtrack, which was incredibly varied which was great (from the Beatles and Katy Perry to Puccini and Stevie Wonder, amongst many others) and they are not just great songs on their own but the renditions of them have so much passion and heart (even remarkably fresh takes on songs that are done to death in talent shows).
Most of the writing is good with something for both kids (younger and a little bit older) and adults. Parts are very funny and others very heartfelt. Likewise with the story, simple and standard stuff but it entertains and it moves with very emotional and beautifully written back-stories for particularly Johnny and Meena. The portrayal of talent shows and the backstage drama, while not much new at all, is affectionate and with much heart instead of being cynical or exploitative. Its message is universal and is as easy to relate to as the best of 'Sing's' characters.
Enjoyed most of the characters, Johnny and Meena are instantly easy to relate to and the portrayal of the underdog with a heart of gold will also appeal greatly. The chemistry between them all is great. The voice acting is terrific, especially slick Matthew McConaughey, emotive Taron Egerton (really surprised me he did) and Tori Kelly and sassy Reese Witherspoon. John C Reilly is funny too.
However, as has been acknowledged, 'Sing' is pretty predictable in places and would have benefited from having less characters and richer depth to more of the back-stories, all interesting but some rushed and not explored enough. Some of the characters were too thinly sketched, and some could have been left out entirely (a shame when most were written very well).
For instance, count me in as somebody who found Mike an unpleasant and annoying character that will go over some children's heads and will make adults question about the message the character is meant to give out. Seth MacFarlane overdoes it in the voice acting too and considering the type of film needed to tone things down, this is a family film not the more adult-oriented 'Family Guy'.
On the whole, while not perfect 'Sing' is enjoyable family fun. 7/10 Bethany Cox
Seeing 'Sing' for myself finally with an open mind, from personal opinion it was an enjoyable film with many good elements but has a few things that stop it from being even better. It really does soar fantastically when it does work, which it does a vast majority of the time, but doesn't completely sing with a few things that weren't given quite enough attention. While opinions seem mostly mixed to positive, it is easy to see why people will find fault with it. As far as 2016 animated films go, it's a good one and one of the better ones but there are far superior ones overall.
Let's start with the positives, which are a great many. The animation is wonderful, it's bright, colourful, rich in detail and with slick character designs and some parts in the musical numbers have some imagination. Absolutely loved the soundtrack, which was incredibly varied which was great (from the Beatles and Katy Perry to Puccini and Stevie Wonder, amongst many others) and they are not just great songs on their own but the renditions of them have so much passion and heart (even remarkably fresh takes on songs that are done to death in talent shows).
Most of the writing is good with something for both kids (younger and a little bit older) and adults. Parts are very funny and others very heartfelt. Likewise with the story, simple and standard stuff but it entertains and it moves with very emotional and beautifully written back-stories for particularly Johnny and Meena. The portrayal of talent shows and the backstage drama, while not much new at all, is affectionate and with much heart instead of being cynical or exploitative. Its message is universal and is as easy to relate to as the best of 'Sing's' characters.
Enjoyed most of the characters, Johnny and Meena are instantly easy to relate to and the portrayal of the underdog with a heart of gold will also appeal greatly. The chemistry between them all is great. The voice acting is terrific, especially slick Matthew McConaughey, emotive Taron Egerton (really surprised me he did) and Tori Kelly and sassy Reese Witherspoon. John C Reilly is funny too.
However, as has been acknowledged, 'Sing' is pretty predictable in places and would have benefited from having less characters and richer depth to more of the back-stories, all interesting but some rushed and not explored enough. Some of the characters were too thinly sketched, and some could have been left out entirely (a shame when most were written very well).
For instance, count me in as somebody who found Mike an unpleasant and annoying character that will go over some children's heads and will make adults question about the message the character is meant to give out. Seth MacFarlane overdoes it in the voice acting too and considering the type of film needed to tone things down, this is a family film not the more adult-oriented 'Family Guy'.
On the whole, while not perfect 'Sing' is enjoyable family fun. 7/10 Bethany Cox