Sing ¡Ven y canta!

I knew I was in for a good music movie when the first song gave me chills.

I went into this movie expecting lots of songs and gags, and they are there, but I didn't expect to start caring about the characters and their stories. SING brings together a talented cast and writers for a movie that transcends some of the animated movies out there. The whole family loved it so feel free to bring anyone from 5 on up. Even the younger ones may enjoy it when it's available at home.

Every voice actor delivers and the animators nailed it. The pacing and directing are also very well done. In fact, I could have done with even more of the "auditions" at the beginning.

Illumination Entertainment jumped into the animation game in 2010 with "Despicable Me" to challenge DreamWorks and Pixar and they made a big splash. They released some rather flat movies after that, but they'd already established that they could make a hit. "Sing" is proof that they only needed the right story with the right characters and they could be back in the conversation without a "Despicable Me" derivative.

In "Sing" a koala named Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) was a struggling theater producer. He was trying to keep his dream afloat of running a successful theater, but he kept producing terrible acts. Then, with his back against the wall and his theater in danger, a brilliant idea coupled with a typo gave him the talent needed to make a hit.

"Sing" was comical, upbeat, and had great music. With actors like Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly, and others lending their voices, the names were certainly there. But it would be the singing voices that stole the show. It's something about the right musical numbers that makes everything come alive.

An immensely enjoyable & likeable animated comedy, Garth Jennings' Sing is extremely entertaining to children and adults. The film may not, however, leave a lasting impression as the tale of a singing competition and its animal competitors does little to stand out. Characters are cute, and voice-talent is strong; but both the narrative and the animation lack depth. Sing is fun, but it rarely hits any high notes.

It's a cute film, despite the overbearing typical modern themes of "you're special," "you can do anything you set your mind to", and "follow your heart". Plot development and execution is extremely predictable and "cookie-cutter", but the good stuff is all in the details: the humor, the characters, the animation, and sure, even the music.

One may think the movie is purely a platform upon which to showcase all the current, popular musical artists, with almost no thought or heart going into everything else, but thankfully this is not the case. It's not perfect, and yes, there is heavy "music placement", but it should be obvious even to the most skeptic of critics that a lot of work went into creating a fun, family-friendly movie for all.

The actors & singers do a great job too, and on a personal note, it's a great way for anyone unfamiliar with Seth MacFarlane's singing abilities to see just how friggin' talented the guy is, despite their opinion of him.

I went into this movie not expecting very much. I had recently seen Zootopia and Pets, both animated movies set in worlds full of solely animals, and had similar expectations. Sing, however, had much more of a plot than I had expected. The animals go through some real issues and struggles faced by people who own small businesses or businesses related to fine arts. This is a good movie to take the kids to as it is animated, full of songs, and family friendly in its humor. The outstanding cast full of big names in the must industry makes the movie more inviting to parents as well. Overall, this movie was worth the watch.