Review: 'Sing' Hits the Right Notes for Kids but Not Adults

— -- Rated PG

Starring Scarlett Johansson and Matthew McConaughey

Two out of five stars

If there’s ever been an animated film that feels as if it was blatantly engineered to appeal to children, it’s "Sing." It’s cute animals who sing proven hit songs. The pandering is so obvious, quite a few adults will probably find it annoying.

Even more annoying is that the entire script is basically exposition until the final act. And I’d be OK with that, except for a particular scene in which every major character nearly drowns, in one of the most ridiculous plot devices you’ll ever see in a film aimed at kids.

Matthew McConaughey is the voice of Buster Moon, a theater-owning koala bear who dreams of being the greatest showman ever. The problem is, Buster’s actually a terrible showman. His theater is failing, he owes the bank money, and he’s dangerously close to losing his business unless he has a hit.

Buster’s idea? A talent contest in which he’ll give away $1,000! But his elderly lizard assistant accidentally types $100,000 on the flier, and every animal in town lines up to win the prize.

A number of somewhat adorable animals audition by singing familiar pop hits from the past. Most of your children won’t appreciate “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-a-Lot, but they’ll likely think the three bunnies in dresses, wiggling their tails and singing “Oh, my God, look at her butt,” is hilarious. So might the adults, if you haven’t already seen the trailer and commercials.

Like on “American Idol” and “The Voice,” the contestants all have backstories. There’s the pig Rosita (Reese Witherspoon), a frustrated, underappreciated stay-at-home mom; Mike the mouse (Seth McFarlane), the busking hustler; a porcupine named Ash (Scarlett Johansson), a high school punk rocker dumped by her boyfriend; Meena (Tori Kelly), a talented elephant with crippling stage fright; and Johnny (Taron Egerton), a young gorilla who’d rather sing than be the getaway driver for his father’s bank-robbing crew.

These aren’t well-thought-out storylines. Everything in this movie feels like it was designed with the sole purpose of finding a way to have animated animals sing pop songs. In fact, the creative team would have been better off if that’s all they’d done: create a movie that’s just one long talent competition with animals singing songs.

“Sing” lacks the emotional impact or storytelling power of the two other animated offerings out now, “Moana” and “Trolls.” But as intended, kids will like the singing animals and the music.