Film: Sing

Another film about the world inhabited just by animals; this sounds more appealing than ever in 2017.From the people that bought us Despicable Me and The Secret Life of Pets, this cartoon has a koala, Buster Moon trying to keep his theatre going. He decides to organise a singing contest to put bums back on seats and tries to get some investment. He’s got the extra layer of guilt in that his parents worked so hard to invest in this for him and this is his last chance before the bank takes it back for money owed. (A good lesson, kids).Due to an administrative error by his assistant and only employee about the prize, he has a queue around the block. From the auditions, the giraffe is out because it would be too awkward to talk to him all the up there and a different set of communication problems existed with a persistent and cute Japanese quintet of I don’t recall what.From the hugely entertaining auditions, Moon picks the following for his show:

• a Porcupine goth who’s the talented half of the duo with her boyfriend who gets rejected
• a gorilla mobster (the one I was obviously rooting for) who’s trying to break free from the family business into the music business
• a snobby street musician mouse with ideas above his stature
• a shy elephant completing lacking in any confidence to sing in front of strangers but encouraged by her grandad
• a pig who when not singing is looking after her 25 piglets and struggling to get back into work post-maternity leave

I was probably the only person teary eyed in this kids film. There are a couple of moments that got me; one about courage and one family. It won’t have the same effect on the kids I shared the theatre with on a Sunday afternoon but every second of this film was as enjoyable as the trailer implies.8/10 @RickieWrites