Sing 2016

RATINGS

IMDb- 7.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes- 69%

My Reviewal- 3.5/5

PLOT

In a world of anthropomorphic animals, optimistic koala Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) owns a theater, having been interested in show business since his father took him to his first music show as a child. Facing financial troubles, Buster tells his friend Eddie Noodleman (John C. Reilly) that he will host a singing competition with a prize of $1,000. But Buster's assistant Ms. Crawley mistakenly appends two extra zeroes, and the promotional fliers showing $100,000 are blown out of Buster's office into the city streets.

Animals from all around the city gather for auditions. Those selected include: housewife and mother of 25 piglets Rosita (Reese Witherspoon); street musician mouse Mike (Seth MacFarlane); mobster son gorilla Johnny (Taron Egerton); and punk-rock porcupine Ash (Scarlett Johansson). Shy elephant Meena (Tori Kelly) bombs her audition out of stage fright, while Ash's boyfriend Lance is dismissed from the contest. Rosita is paired with another pig contestant named Gunter for a dancing routine. Although Buster discovers the flyers show a prize of $100,000, he remains optimistic. Buster convinces Eddie to arrange a visit with Eddie's grandmother and former opera singer and theater actress Nana Noodleman to persuade her to sponsor the prize money. She is hesitant to contribute, but agrees to see a private screening of the show.

Encouraged by her grandfather, Meena tries to ask Buster for another chance, but ends up helping him as a stage hand instead. After an incident where a group of singers leave the competition due to conflict and another singer is injured, Meena is reinstated into the show. The performers' individual problems begin to hinder rehearsals. Rosita flounders in her dance routine with Gunter, having been distracted by her parenting duties that have fallen into disarray. After discovering Lance has a new girlfriend and evicting them from her apartment, which causes Lance to lose all respect for her, Ash is heartbroken and in no mood to sing "Call Me Maybe", the cheery song assigned to her. Johnny is torn between having to help his father as the driver of the getaway car in a heist and making the practices; when he tries to do both, he does not show up for the planned pickup, and his father and his gang are arrested. Meena still has stage fright. Mike, assuming the prize money is as good as his, buys a fancy car to impress a girl mouse, and swindles a group of Russian-accented bears in a card game at a nightclub.

The day of the screening, the bears interrupt the show, demanding the money from Mike, who in turn, points to Buster. The bears open the chest containing the prize money, but see a small amount of cash totaling less than a thousand dollars plus items that Buster was planning to sell. The glass tank full of luminescent squids that Buster got to light up the theater breaks from the bears' aggressive actions, and floods the theater, which then literally comes crashing down. Buster, who had been living in his theater's office desk, takes up residence at Eddie's place (his parent's pool house). Although the contestants visit him and try to cheer him up, Buster is too despondent to listen to them. He tries to start over by opening a car wash, using the same bucket that his dad had used to earn money for Buster's theater.

When Meena goes to the theater's rubble lot and sings Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", Buster hears her and is inspired to reinstate the show without the prize money. They perform in front of Rosita and Meena's family members. As Rosita and Gunther perform "Shake It Off", more animals are attracted to the scene as the show is broadcast on the news. Johnny amazes his father with Elton John's "I'm Still Standing" who then escapes from prison to reconcile with him. Ash impresses Lance with her original rock song, "Set It All Free". Mike, who bailed out when he heard there was no prize money, returns when his peers make fun that he wasn't able to sing like the ones on TV, singing Frank Sinatra's "My Way". Meena finally overcomes her fears and sings Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing". As she finishes, Buster looks out and finds Nana in the audience, whereupon she later buys the lot and rebuilds the theater.