By John Corrado

★★★ (out of 4)

The 2016 film Sing was a cute and colourful animated jukebox musical from Illumination, the studio best known for the Despicable Me movies. It was a crowdpleaser that knew exactly what it was trying to be; you know, a bunch of animated animals performing a variety of upbeat pop songs.

Now we have a sequel, Sing 2, which delivers more of the same, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Like the first one, this is a film that is completely aware of what it is trying to be, and has no real pretensions of being something more.

Despite slightly diminished returns, Sing 2 is another feel-good jukebox musical that presents an array of pop tunes performed by cute anthropomorphic animals, and delivers basically what you expect and want from a follow up to the first one. It also has the addition of U2’s Bono as a washed up lion rockstar, so there’s that as well.

Garth Jennings returns to direct this sequel, which opens with that cuddly showbiz koala Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) staging his new production of Alice in Wonderland. There is a talent scout in the audience, stuck-up dog Suki (Chelsea Peretti), who works for the media mogul wolf Jimmy Crystal (Bobby Cannavale) down in Redshore City, that they are trying to impress. She dismisses the show as frivolous entertainment, but it’s a crowdpleaser that makes people feel good. You know, kinda like an Illumination movie.

Determined to prove himself, Buster gathers his troupe of mommy pig Rosita (Reese Witherspoon) and her dance partner Gunter (Nick Kroll), porcupine rocker Ash (Scarlett Johansson), shy elephant Meena (Tori Kelly) and singing gorilla Johnny (Taron Egerton), and brings them to the bustling Redshore City, to audition for the Simon Cowell-like Crystal themselves. They end up promising him a sci-fi musical starring famed lion rockstar Clay Calloway (Bono). The issue is that Calloway is a recluse who went into hiding following the death of his wife and hasn’t been seen in fifteen years, and they are tasked with having to track him down and convince him to be in the show.

Even though we can see where it’s going from a mile away, and the film copies some of the same story beats as the first one, the search for Calloway and the staging of a massive musical provide a decent enough narrative backdrop for the film’s musical numbers and cartoon antics. There are some amusing gags involving Buster’s iguana assistant Miss Crawley (Garth Jennings), as well as some sweet moments between Ash and Calloway (including a nice acoustic cover of U2’s “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of,” one of several of the band’s songs on the soundtrack).

The film weaves in a number of subplots involving Crystal’s daughter Porsha (Halsey), as well as Meena developing feelings for another elephant (Pharrell Williams) who sells ice cream outside the theatre, and Johnny learning to dance with lynx busker Nooshy (Letitia Wright). These storylines, as well as the old and new characters, all come together in predictable but satisfying ways. No, Sing 2 is not exactly great cinema. But, like a good Buster Moon production, it’s a pleasantly diverting and upbeat film that offers cute characters, colourful visuals (that pop in 4K), and a selection of enjoyable songs.

Bonus Features (4K Ultra HD):

The 4K Ultra HD disc comes with a pretty big selection of bonus features. A regular Blu-ray disc and code for a digital copy are also included in the package, which ships with a slipcover.

• For Gunter’s Eyes Only (3 minutes, 44 seconds): Gunter gets hypnotized into believing he is a secret agent in this new short.

• Animal Attraction (4 minutes, 12 seconds): The conceded yak Darius (Eric André) keeps messing up his perfume commercial shoot in this other new short.

• Outtakes (2 minutes, 7 seconds): Clips of the actors goofing off in the recording booth.

• Meet the Animators (4 minutes, 34 seconds): The animators talk about working on the film, and how much they enjoyed animating the new characters.

• Super Sing-Alongs (Play All – 14 minutes, 51 seconds): A selection of the film’s musical numbers, with added on-screen lyrics.

• “Let’s Go Crazy” (2 minutes, 40 seconds)

• “Break Free” (1 minute, 6 seconds)

• “A Sky Full of Stars” (3 minutes, 34 seconds)

• “Could Have Been Me” (2 minutes, 24 seconds)

• “I Say a Little Prayer” (2 minutes, 3 seconds)

• “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” (3 minutes, 4 seconds)

• How to Dance & More (Play All – 17 minutes, 50 seconds): A dance tutorial followed by a collection of craft videos.

• How to Dance to Sing 2 (4 minutes, 48 seconds)

• Stage Design 101 (1 minute, 37 seconds)

• Make-Up (4 minutes, 53 seconds)

• Mics (1 minute, 40 seconds)

• Costumes (2 minutes, 20 seconds)

• Props (2 minutes, 32 seconds)

• The Voices of Sing 2 (Play All – 11 minutes, 26 seconds): Six of the returning cast members each talk about their characters and reprising these roles.

• Matthew McConaughey as Buster Moon (2 minutes, 1 second)

• Reese Witherspoon as Rosita (1 minute, 43 seconds)

• Taron Egerton as Johnny (2 minutes, 9 seconds)

• Tory Kelly as Meena (1 minute, 42 seconds)

• Nick Kroll as Gunter (2 minutes, 5 seconds)

• Garth Jennings as Miss Crawly (1 minute, 46 seconds)

• From the Drawing Room: A series of behind the scenes videos from the production of the film.

• Talent Talk with Tori Kelly (8 minutes, 29 seconds)

• Choreography (6 minutes, 55 seconds)

• Friends and Family (2 minutes, 8 seconds)

• Costumes by Rodarte (3 minutes, 24 seconds)

• Anatomy of a Scene – The Bus Sequence (1 minute, 46 seconds)

• Anatomy of a Scene – The Bicycle (1 minute, 40 seconds)

• From Scratch to Voice (10 minutes, 41 seconds)

• Singing (2 minutes, 2 seconds)

• How to Draw (Play All – 13 minutes, 42 seconds): Co-director Christophe “Zebe” Lourdelet teaches us how to draw several of the film’s characters.

• Buster Moon (2 minutes, 29 seconds)

• Ash (2 minutes, 21 seconds)

• Johnny (2 minutes, 40 seconds)

• Miss Crawly (2 minutes, 40 seconds)

• Clay Calloway (3 minutes, 0 seconds)

Sing 2 is a Universal Pictures Home Entertainment release. It’s 110 minutes and rated G.

Street Date: March 29th, 2022