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Sing 2, the Illumination Studios animated film, released Dec. 21, 2020, 5 years after the first movie’s debut in 2016. The uplifting comedy/musical features a variety of music from multiple artists.

The story follows the dreams of a koala bear, Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) along with others like, Johnny (Taron Egerton), Ash (Scarlett Johansson), Meena (Tori Kelly), Rosita (Reese Witherspoon), Gunther (Nick Kroll), and Miss Crawly (Garth Jennings), an old lizard who helps them out. Moon dreams of hitting it big in the world of musicals. In the first movie, Moon was determined to start up a musical and gathered a rag-tag team of animals who all shared a passion for music. After their show was a success, they became a big hit in their town.

The second movie begins a month after the events of the first, opening with the group operating another show. The show is extremely important, as they need to impress a scout for big shot musical producer Jimmy Crystal (Bobby Cannavale), however, they fail to do so. Moon is determined that they produce a show good enough for Jimmy Crystal.  To do this, Moon devises a plan to sneak into live auditions that Crystal himself would be judging. 

Featuring a variety of music like, “Let’s Go Crazy”, by Prince “Can’t Feel My Face” by The Weeknd, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John, “A Sky Full of Stars” by Coldplay, “Could Have Been Me” by The Struts, there is something for everyone. This is one of my favorite aspects of the movie. I was surprised by some of the songs they used. For example, when “I Like It” by Cardi B started to play, it definitely shocked me due to the inappropriateness of the song. 

Once in the auditions, the team began to perform, but Crystal does not like the idea of their performance. Moon changes it midway, going with Gunther’s theme: outer space, something big, amazing, and  “out of this world!” Crystal ended up loving the idea and gave them a shot, under one condition. They were required to get famous singer Clay Calloway (Paul David Hewson), who has been absent from the music industry for 15 years, to perform in their act.

The preparation for the musical begins. The pressure each of the cast members feel is portrayed, as they each overcome fear, anxiety, or self-doubt. 

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Rosita is chosen to play the main character, a space astronaut traveling to four different planets looking for a lost explorer, who is supposedly going to be played by  Calloway. Each of the planets has a different theme: war, joy, love, and despair. In order for Rosita to play the lead role, she has to jump off a high place and suspend in the air by a harness and wire to imitate floating through space. Once Rosita attempts to do so, her fear of heights overtakes her and she is not able to jump. Jimmy Crystal then brings his daughter, Porsche Crystal to be in the play, taking Rosita’s spot. 

Porsche is amazing at singing, but terrible at acting. Rosita is eventually given her role back after some discussion with Porsche, who realizes that she is only performing to impress her dad. Porsche gets a new role of just singing and finally gets to be herself.

Meena is a shy introvert. In order for her to perform her part on the planet of love, she has to dance with someone. She isn’t comfortable with the idea, and her dance partner is unhelpful and narcissistic. Meena then meets a kind elephant her age. She develops a crush on him, seeing him more often. Meena realizes the only way for her to perform the dance is to imagine her dance partner as him. Meena finally overcomes her nerves and nails the dance.

The story has good pacing and sends an inspiring message to the audience. Each character’s arc is very motivating, but Johnny’s is  my favorite. 

Johnny struggles with the choreography in his part on the planet of war. He must perform a dance fight, but his instructor is very strict and picks on Johnny telling him that he is not good enough to play the part. No matter how hard Johnny tries he is not able to grasp the dance, until he meets a break-dancing lynx, Nooshy (Letitia Wright). Nooshy helps out Johnny, making a bet with the professional choreographer that Johnny can learn the part under her training. Through Nooshy, Johnny learns control, starts to overcome anxiety, and improves. In time, Johnny has the entire dance down because of Nooshy’s training. Johnny had conquered the judgment of his instructor, finally understanding that he is good enough no matter what others think.

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While this is all happening, Ash is working on getting the famous Clay Calloway to perform in their act and learns why he quit the music business. The death of his wife has caused Calloway to withdraw from the world. Ash begins to help Calloway confront his feelings and reintroduce music to him by playing one of his songs, dedicated to his wife. This softens the bitterness in Calloway’s heart and he eventually agrees to sing in their act. This is huge, the one piece that Moon needed to complete their performance.

During this time Jimmy Crystal discovered that Buster Moon lied to him about Clay Calloway and also had made his daughter cry by accident. Crystal became very rageful and ended up canceling the show. Everyone was disappointed but Moon was not going to let this happen, as they had worked hard and accomplished a lot for this performance. He decided to put the show on behind Jimmy Crystal’s back, which caused Crystal’s dark side to come out. While the show was being put on, he tried to kill Moon. He was blinded by his own ego and greed that it irritated him when someone else surpassed him.

Seeing Jimmy Crystal be so dark in the movie is a little surprising. It really shows how greedy and evil he is. The performance went smoothly, and ended up being a well-liked success. Crystal was exposed for his madness and arrested. 

The visuals of the movie were extremely pleasing. The animation was crisp, and the fur and details on the animals seem realistic. I believe the studio did an amazing job animating. Your eyes were always drawn to the screen, the colors and lighting match perfectly to the mood of the film.

In the end, the power of music and friendship overcame everything. Even though the theme of the story was a little cliche, the simplicity of it made it easy to follow. I might’ve enjoyed “Sing 2” better than its original “Sing.”  It’s an uplifting story, and great to watch at any age. 

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