Sing

The French animation studio Illumination struck gold, or at least glowing yellow with Despicable Me and the lovably goofy minions. Without those squeaky voiced bunglers, the company's releases are missing something.

There are some choice moments throughout Illumination's latest offering, Sing, but it's fitting that like the American Idol-like series it spoofs, viewers have to sit through a few William Hungs before an Adam Lambert emerges.

The competition at the heart of Sing emerges because the koala named Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) who runs the once grand theater in a city populated with critters is desperately low on cash. With the $1,000 he can scrounge, he can make enough in receipts to get his operation back in the black.

Unfortunately, his maladroit lizard of a secretary Miss Crawly (writer and co-director Garth Jennings, who made the charming Son of Rambow) types a few extra zeros into the fliers promoting the sing-off, drawing lots of contestants but making Buster's bid for redemption more desperate.

Some contestants with genuine talent emerge. There's a busking mouse named Mike (Seth MacFarlane) who can sing like Frank Sinatra and play sax like Charlie Parker and whose abrasive personality makes larger animals want him dead.

There's also a sow housewife named Rosita (Reese Witherspoon) who can wail a storm but has trouble getting away from her enormous family and her absent-minded husband (Nick Offerman).

The cockney gorilla Johnny (Taron Egerton) looks scary because he's the son of a feared gangster, but his voice has real potential. It's too bad his old man (Peter Serafinowicz) wants his services as a getaway driver instead of as a vocalist.

There's also a duo of punk-rocking porcupines named Lance (Saturday Night Live's Beck Bennett) and Ash (Scarlett Johansson). While Lance claims to be the visionary and the star, his supportive girlfriend is the one who actually has the musical chops.

One final contestant is a shy giraffe named Meena (moonlighting singer Tori Kelly) who has a great voice but is so shy she can't bring herself to get onstage and winds up trying to assist Buster in organizing the event, which gets more chaotic as opening night gets closer.

Jennings has some gags that demonstrate Son of Rambow wasn't a fluke. For example, Rosita creates a series of Rube Goldberg devices that help her accommodate her enormous brood and her spouse without them noticing she's gone. Jennings also proposes a new system for lighting that has probably not been featured in a movie before.

Curiously, for a film called Sing, the musical offerings are not as inspired as they should be. While it's a pleasure to hear the titanic voice of Jennifer Hudson covering the Beatles or MacFarlane's accomplished crooning, the tunes don't add much to the story or seem all that well selected.

The soundtrack features songs that have been popularized by everyone from Taylor Swift to Carly Rae Jepsen, but the offerings seem haphazardly chosen, and the actors who perform bring nothing to the melodies that the original hit versions lack. Like Mama Mia!, Sing is another example of actor karaoke.

McConaughey plays yet another charismatic hustler, but his quest isn't that engaging this time. Also some of the gags seem a little eerie for children's fare. Miss Crawly has a glass eye that falls out of her head at inopportune moments. It's more unsettling than funny.

There's a legion of familiar voices featured in Sing, but they aren't used that judiciously. It's hard to appreciate an all-star voice cast when the material doesn't give them much to do.

MovieStyle on 12/23/2016