A sequel to 2016’s hit animated musical comedy, Sing 2 revisits the cuddly animals who just want to put on a show, and takes them on the road to the Las Vegas-like Redshore City.
Koala Buster Moon (McConaughey) is dreaming of big things for his collection of singing stars – including pig Rosita (Witherspoon), rock porcupine Ash (Johansson), gorilla Johnny (Egerton) and elephant Meena (Kelly) – so convinces media mogul wolf Jimmy Crystal (Cannavale) that they can produce an amazing sci-fi musical for his casino. Crystal is only interested if Buster can get legendary – and reclusive – rock star Clay Calloway (Bono) to star, and Buster soon realises that Crystal will be very unhappy if his wish is not granted.
Featuring some new characters, including Crystal’s spoilt daughter Porsha (Halsey), street dancing lynx Nooshy (Letitia Wright) and kindly elephant Alfonso (Pharrell Williams), this follows a similar formula to the first movie, mixing hit songs with comedy as Buster tries to get his show ready for the stage and his star out of retirement.
Unfortunately, Bono’s performance is something of a disappointment – his lion character Clay has little dialogue and has a monotone, mid-Atlantic accent – though his performance of a classic U2 song at the climax is one of the film’s musical highlights.
Sing 2 is not desperately original or exciting – and with a running time of nearly two hours it’s quite long for an animated family film – but kids who liked the first movie should find enough to enjoy in this follow-up, while grown ups will at least be amused by a bonkers Alice In Wonderland-themed production of Prince’s ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ and a rather sweet elephant duet of ‘I Say A Little Prayer’.
Is Sing 2 suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
There is one scene, in which Crystal dangles Buster over the edge of a high rise balcony, that may upset very young children, but it is over quickly and Buster is shown to be fine.
If you like this, why not try: