Sing 2 runs the same game plan for ages 5-9

When Sing came out in 2016 it was a pleasant treat. The story about a group of underdog, singing animals seemed earnest, cute, and was genuinely entertaining. Granted a majority of the ‘earnest’ label was provided by Buster Moon, voiced by Matthew McConaughey. That character’s can-do, optimistic demeanor still delivers in this film’s sequel, Sing 2. Actually, most of Sing 2 will still deliver, assuming that the audience is in fourth grade or younger. That’s not meant to be a slam or a pejorative, it’s just the way it is, especially having just seen the film with a fourth and sixth-grader.

The story in Sing 2 follows the same blueprint of the first film. Insert ‘big Las Vegas-style show’ instead of ‘performing at their city’s theater’ and the basic elements will simply fall in line. Again, that’s not a bad thing. If you’re nine years old and seeing Sing 2 you’ll most likely love it. Your sibling, who is a mere two years older than you will suddenly morph into a middle school film critic at best, or at worst, resume their sullen ways and utter “meh” or “not really”, when you ask them if they liked the film.  They’ll then go back to their cell phone (if they have one), complain about not having a cell phone or saunter about looking for a video game to play.

Sing 2 is a beautiful film. The colors are bright and it seems like more screen time is occupied by music than not. This is a children’s movie, albeit it a big budget one, that will entertain the narrow age range of five through nine years old. However, even within that spectrum, the younger ages will get bored and want to move around. If there’s something that the COVID pandemic taught family moviegoers it’s that every animated film doesn’t need to be seen in the movie theater.

A large part of that is due to cost. If the entire family sees Sing 2 in the theater they’ll spend at least $35, if they see it in a smaller market and don’t get any concessions. And, even in that situation, those who are older than 10 will wish that they’d seen something else. Now, as an adult seeing the film there are some problems with it. The final act and its build-up is far too long. Even our 10-year-old started losing attention in the first song of the final act-and the final act consisted of 4 songs. At one hour and 50 minutes, the film feels far too long and could’ve cut an easy 20 minutes from it for the better. Also, the addition of Bono as the reclusive Clay Calloway added nothing. His voice was almost unrecognizable and it seemed more like an opportunity to introduce kids to U2 than to add a worthy character to the film. Having said that, the overt commercialization is a close second to the annoying levels that Space Jam 2 created. In Sing 2 it’s the music. There’s so much that it has as much in common with a musical than an animated song with background music.

The songs in Sing 2 run the gamut from new to old, and will annoy people, agitate others and please some. It seems like every genre of music except for classical and blues are represented. If The Bad Guys by Billie Eilish annoys you, then gird your loins because it’ll be the villain intro song for comedic animated films for a long time to come. She’ll make a mint off of the licensing rights to this song based on Sing 2 and The Bad Guys, the animated film.

Is Sing 2 worth your money? If it’s a cloudy, cold, or rainy day those kids through fourth grade will enjoy it enough. Assuming that’s the case then it’s only a matter of seeing which adult draws the short straw and has to see it with them. As it stands, Sing 2 is a movie that could be seen at home or on your phone and pass the time for those elementary kids, but is one that they’ll do just fine having not seen it at all.

Sing 2 is rated PG.