Sing 2 Review: Matthew McConaughey & Scarlett Johansson's animated movie is an extravagant, joyful sugar rush

Sing 2

Sing 2 Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, Reese Witherspoon, Taron Egerton, Bono

Sing 2 Director: Garth Jennings

Sing 2 Stars: 3/5

When Sing released back in 2016, no one expected it to be as big a hit as it became, but after watching the movie, one can agree that the Illumination Entertainment work had all the ingredients intact to tingle the audience's "cheesy, slice of life" senses. I mean what's not to like? A bonkers dream vocal cast, Top 40 hits spanning across decades and goofy, loveable animals, who can sing like their life depends on it. Hence, it doesn't come as much a surprise that a Sing 2 exists. But does it manage to elevate the oscillating, distracted attention of its target audience? Let's find out!

Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), the koala who owns the Moon theatre with a "never quit" attitude assembles the musical rugrats, who we were enamoured by individually in Sing, into a group in a bid to make it to Redshore City, the animated LA-esque landscape for "the dreamers who dream, foolish as they may seem." After a slip of tongue, lamenting that he was pally with rock star lion legend Clay Colloway (Bono) (which he isn't!) and an aspirational, over the top pitch of a sci-fi musical, literally titled Out of This World, Crystal Entertainment mogul and wolf Jimmy Crystal (Bobby Cannavale), with his Donald Trump-esque avatar, agrees to have their musical running in three weeks times, alas, with conditions applied!

With the odds stacked against him, Buster, with the considerable help from punk-rock porcupine Ash (Scarlett Johansson), has to convince a reluctant Calloway (who has self-retired after the death of his wife and eternal muse) to join them while trying to keep up with the ginormous expectations from his musical. Moreover, through characters like Taron Egerton's adorable mountain gorilla, Johnny, Reese Witherspoon's pig, Rosita, Tori's elephant, Meena, and even Jimmy's spoilt daughter, Porsha (Halsey), we're shown how each of them has to overcome different bouts of stage freight to shine through when push comes to shove on D-day.

While Letitia Wright plays Johnny's amicable choreographer, an Iberian lynx named Nooshy (P.S. Adam Buxton as the monkey, Klaus Kickenklober, Johnny's stern, bully of a dance instructor is a hoot!), Pharrell Williams plays the sweet elephant, Alfonso, who is Meena's love interest while Eric André plays the pompous, self-centered yak, Darius, who Meena has to reluctantly sing a romantic duet with. Chelsea Perrett as Jimmy's saluki assistant is the initial party pooper, who tries to rain on Buster's parade.

With so many characters, Sing 2 doesn't even lift a finger to go completely out of the box with its narrative and sticks to the animated status quo of past similar genre films, even Sing itself. This could be a bit of a buzzkill because each action taken by any of these characters prompts yet another musical number rather than developing these genuinely interesting humanised animals and their backstories, which dampens the suspension of disbelief. However, the equation between Ash and Calloway is treated with such intimate empathy that you wonder why didn't Garth Jennings, who directed, wrote and voices in the movie, pay that level of equal attention to the rest of the characters.

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What Sing 2 does experiment with exponentially is the grandiose animation, especially in the finale, where Out of This World is presented to the crowd and each of the four planets is boisterous in its aesthetic visuals and compliments the vocal range of the phenomenally talented voice cast. It's truly "out of this world!" No pun intended. The most endearingly stunning of all is Calloway and Ash's Your Song Saved My Life (with Johnny's revenge rendition with Coldplay's A Sky Full of Stars deserves a special mention!), where Bono and Johansson's melodic, meaningful duet is given a deeper understanding by the stakes and theatrics of the sequence. Your Song Saved My Life, making it U2's first single since 2019 and also a potential Oscar contender for Best Original Song, also makes you wonder if Sing 2 would have been an even bigger, more cherished spectacle if all the songs were originals instead of relying on obvious crowd-pleasers like Shawn Mendes, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Cardi B, BTS and even U2, amongst many, many others.

Nevertheless, Sing 2 has a very obvious, direct motto, which isn't making a groundbreaking animated film like its competitors (Pixar, I'm looking at you!) and that's solely; to leave you with a smile on your face. And to that, I say, mission accomplished!