**The following review is solely based on my personal beliefs and opinion
s as a mom who is trying to raise non criminals who recognize their value is intrinsic because of their humanity and not based on their success.**
Every time we fly I purchase the newest kids’ movie and download it so that I can “preview” it during our flight. This month I purchased “The Good Dinosaur” (which I am waaaaaay behind to just now be watching) and “Sing”.
I started Sing looking forward to a light hearted musical, hoping for a cute and innocent flick with family centered messages like Despicable Me, which is a favorite here.
It opened by introducing all the very cute characters, with a cute Koala bear set up as the main character. His opening scene had him “escaping” a crew of workers who he was witholding wages from because he had hired them with no money to pay them. He took his bicycle through the city haphazardly, knocking people and carts out of his way and never looking back to acknowledge the damage he was doing.
That made me instantly incredulous. Not a role model… a criminal. With a cute backstory and a passion.
Then we started meeting characters
— a mommy pig with a hoard of piglets whose bored husband didn’t look at or acknowledge her other than to tell a child that she “used to be” a good singer.
A teenager porcupine living with her depressed, manipulative, glory hogging boyfriend.
A super shy elephant whose grandfather was shaming her for not singing in public.
A rude, demanding, nasty little mouse who beat up and stole from a passerby who didn’t put enough money into his saxaphone case. And, btw, when he was beating the crud out of this person who GAVE money to him, not a single person passing by bothered to stand up against him. And he was allowed to keep the guy’s cash. All of it. Just because.
A teenage gorilla who was being used by his dad and a gang of criminals as a “look out” while they pulled off a heist.
So the cast of characters is unloved and suppressed with nothing to live for.
Fast forward and the little koala is broke. He needs a show. So he piles $900 and some odd junk into a trunk, chains it shut, and tells his secretary to print up flyers for a contest with a $1k prize. (never mind that honest workers have put their hours into working for him and he hasn’t bothered paying them) But a typo makes it a $100k prize and the flyers blow out the window. Innocent mistake, right?
All of our abused characters dream big and decide to try out. Along with a few extra characters who have no back story at all.
As the story goes on the abuse gets worse for each character. The gorilla is shouted at by his dad that he never should have existed because he’s trying to make it as a singer. The pig makes a machine to replace her and isn’t even missed. The porcupine’s boyfriend cheats on her and she kicks him out. The mouse takes out a loan against his presumed win and cheats at poker to impress a random lady mouse, which means the mob is chasing him. The elephant becomes a stage hand but her family thinks she’s a contestant.
Then the lie is exposed. There’s no prize, the theater gets demolished, everybody is sad…
But the criminal koala who has cheated everybody doesn’t JUST get off scot free.
No, everybody comes together to save his dream. Because no matter how terrible you are, if you commit crimes and lie and use people because it’s all for the sake of your passion, then no matter how big the harm, it’s still no foul.
I was way beyond done by that point, but wait, there’s more.
Being a talented celebrity on TV makes people love you.
Um, wait, what did I just say?
Well, the only character who wasn’t abused, just loaded with expectations for something she didn’t want to do, the elephant, pulled off a success with a real talent. Go girl. Turns out her family was just encouraging her.
But everybody else? The mouse gets the girl and escapes the mafia, even though he’s rude, demanding, belittling, disgusting and assuming. In fact, he aces his performance and proves what a talent he is.
The gorilla, the one whose Dad has been sitting in prison refusing to talk to him after screaming at him that he shouldn’t be alive, breaks out of jail when he sees his son succeeding on tv to go give him a hug and tell him how proud of him he is.
The ignored pig mamma whose hubby hasn’t looked at her in years pulls off a sexy little butt wagging performance where she throws away all the dirty laundry and her apron and the dad drops everything to jump up on stage and kiss her passionately.
The porcupine shows the boyfriend what for by writing her own song and becoming a hit. She won. Because of celeb status.
Now, you turn this on for your kids and don’t bother explaining to them as they watch that you will ignore, shame, manipulate, and even throw them away until they suceed as a pop star. Because the movie will do it for you.
Way to push superficial value based on popularity and opinion, Illumination Studios.
You suck.
And my kids aren’t watching this one. Because they don’t have to pull off a smash hit performance for me to hug them and tell them I’m proud of them.
