Remarkably ordinary in concept and execution, "Sing" is the sort of syrupy animated musical that will appeal to few viewers other than young talent-show fans and their doting parents. It has assembled a menagerie of silver-throated film celebrities to play animals competing in a wildlife version of "American Idol." The result is a random collection of golden oldies that works fine as melody but falls clumsily short of a story.
The title tells the tale. In a cartoon copy of Los Angeles, show business koala Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) is sad and confused. The old theater he inherited from his father is failing to draw crowds like it used to. His strategy to save it is to stage a singing competition with a $1,000 prize and make enough money in ticket sales to keep the playhouse open. When his eccentric secretary accidentally adds several zeros to the winner's reward on the publicity sheets that are printed to blanket the town, it draws enough talented contestants to fill a safari park. And quite a few with no talent at all.
The endlessly sincere and optimistic impresario can't use every would-be star, and a fair amount of time is devoted to his polite rejections. He can't seem to shake off a girl group of cats that sing Japanese jabber and resemble Hello Kitty characters, which makes for a mildly amusing running joke. But others overstay their welcome. Nick Kroll, the gifted comedian playing Gunter, a German swine who busts dreadful dance moves in a gold lame tracksuit, can't add much to his one-joke role. As Rosita, a fatigued hog with 25 piglets to supervise at home, Reese Witherspoon makes a game effort in a paper-thin part. As Mike, a tiny rodent with a high and mighty personality, Seth MacFarlane contributes concert-level singing. What the film really needed from him was a rewrite that would lift it to the level of his "Family Guy" TV series. There's not a presence here as layered and memorable as Stewie Griffin.
The "Let's put on a show" spirit encounters plenty of corny roadblocks on its way, as does the film. British writer/director Gareth Jennings, who did delightful work with the clever live action kids' fantasy "Son of Rambow," here underperforms. The world is hackneyed: animals that act human. But while recent films like "Finding Dory," "Zootopia" and "Kubo and the Two Strings" made that familiar idea fresh and fascinating, "Sing" lacks the essential abracadabra. We never get a persuasive reason to care about a pachyderm too introverted to sing in public, or a teen gorilla hoping to move away from his family's criminal gang.
If the song-studded soundtrack played into these issues, the animals' various troubles might have felt like valid concerns. I say this as someone who was almost driven to tears by the animated story of a blue tang who suffers from short-term memory loss. Lacking that level of imagination, humor and heart, a mix tape of well-chosen greatest hits might have musically saved the day. While the collection here is purest platinum _ including full versions of the Beatles' "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight," Stevie Wonder's "Doncha Worry 'Bout a Thing," Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and countless snippets from random pop anthems _ none feels connected to the story line.
Determinedly family-friendly, "Sing" may be just the thing for many clans bored out of their skins over the long holiday. For me, it was that annoying scratch sound of a needle being carelessly moved across a vinyl record.
