'Sing' Review

I had the chance to catch Sing about a month early on November 26th for a promotional Sing Saturday event but decided to refrain from posting the review so that my readers would have my thoughts on the feature fresh in their minds before or after they see it.

'Sing' Review

In the world of Sing, animals coexist in a utopian society, think dumbed down Zootopia, and koala theater owner Buster Moon is facing the potential foreclosure of his grand establishment so Moon decides to put on a singing competition in hopes of saving his theater. The prize reward is accidentally advertised as $100,000 that Moon doesn't possess and the film follows the succeeding shenanigans.

For all intensive purposes it's like all televised singing competitions; The Voice America's Got Talent, or American Idol, but with animals. As amusing as it is to watch animals sing, it gets old fast as it's difficult to stay engaged when there's little story present and the film relies almost entirely on the spectacle of singing animals. Also almost every "surprise" or moment of interest was shown in the film's marketing material so you can't help but feel that you've seen the movie already if you've watched one of the trailers. There are admittedly moments of fun, where I laughed hysterically, but those are too far and few between to make up for the lackluster predictable story.

Writer and director Garth Jennings alongside co-director Chrisophe Lourdelet manage to develop interesting concepts but don't ever fully flesh them out. Jennings' screenplay is constantly trying to shoehorn emotional character arcs into the story but when there's so many characters for the story to follow, these arcs can't help but feel lost on the viewer. Lourdelet amasses an interesting bunch of creatures but fails to properly service any of them since he's constantly switching gears, which is really a shame considering the voice talent involved.

On that note the film features Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly, Tori Kelly, Taron Egerton, Nick Kroll, and the director himself voicing the exuberant koala, stay at home mother pig, mob mouse, apprehensive porcupine, lazy llama, shy elephant, gorilla reluctant to join the family gang, flamboyant dancing pig, and the clumsy lizard assistant respectively. It's great to hear these stars sing jukebox hits but the lack of any noteworthy or original music makes Sing feel run of the mill, there's so many songs that I won't bother listing any and am simultaneously wondering how much of the film's budget went towards acquiring the rights to all this music. Also, the animation in Sing looked fine but was nothing compared to superior animated efforts this year like Zootopia, Finding Dory, or Moana for starters. 

Overall, Sing is sufficient family entertainment but Illumination Entertainment doesn't dare to traverse the emotional depth or sophistication that Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios, or Dreamworks Animation often explore. Illumination appears to be a studio that's capable of churning out mediocre family-friendly content that children adore, leading to big box office returns and the development of even more animated projects from the studio. Illumination's biggest problem is that it plays everything too safe, leading to formulaic features that spread themselves thin with abundant characters and storylines and no means of servicing them all.

When it comes down to it, Sing finds itself in the same rut that plagued Illumination's other release this year, The Secret Life Of Pets, and when placed next to the other animated releases this year it will probably be justly forgotten.

Film Assessment: C-

'Sausage Party' Review

I walked out of Sausage Party wondering what in the world I had just watched, and that's coming from someone who had a general idea what he was in for. Essentially it's about marketplace food discovering what actually happens to food when it's purchased and the insane shenanigans that follow.

At it's core, Sausage Party clearly mocks many tropes of Disney/Pixar style animation opening with an outrageously humorous song composed by Alan Menken, known for scoring Disney films such as Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin, and Hercules, and borrowing the central idea of living inanimate objects and their lives from Toy Story but trust me, they are distinctly different in terms of appropriateness and quality.

Sausage Party is a raunchy animated comedy, and I feel that's something that's important and should be expressed if you plan on watching it, because this film doesn't hold back on it's jokes and crosses the line fairly quickly with no plans to tread backwards. If you are easily offended by racial stereotypes or inappropriate humor, this is not the comedy for you. Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon's direction lends itself perfectly to the filthy comedy as every creative choice is certainly a bold one.

The animation is sub-par and never near the heights of Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, or even Illumination Entertainment but that's no surprise considering Sausage Party had a budget of $19 M and the Sausage Party's aesthetic isn't the film's primary focus. It's purpose is to make you laugh and Sausage Party's biggest hurdle for me was that it's rarely as it funny as makes itself out to be.

The screenplay from writers Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir, Seth Rogan, and Evan Goldberg offers up some gags that had me laughing hysterically but not every joke landed. There are some sequences that offer up plenty of shock and awe as things unfold that are absolutely bananas, so I can give them props for daring to go that far, but at the same time I was very weirded out by it all. Surprisingly the screenplay does offer up some fairly smart social, political, and religious commentary, but once again not as high brow as it'd like to be since it juxtaposes these messages with some grungy jokes and racial stereotypes for cheap laughs.

However with that all being said, Sausage Party boasts a massive ensemble of comedic talent including Seth Rogan, Kirsten Wiig, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Edward Norton, Paul Rudd, Bill Hader, and Nick Kroll along with many, many more brilliant comedians. Some voices are instantly recognizable while others had me on the ropes and part of the fun of seeing the film is trying to figure out which celebrity talent is associated with which character so I won't discuss their performances individually.

Overall, Sausage Party is definitely not for everyone, but if you love raunchy comedy this will scratch your itch. Oh and please DON'T bring your children to see Sausage Party as it may appear to be a cute animation, it's nothing of the sort. I also didn't find the experience to be heightened by seeing it in a theater so if you're iffy on Sausage Party, wait for the home media release and check it out then. In conclusion, Sausage Party is a brilliant parody, but only a passable comedy. It offers up enough unique humor for at least one viewing, but honestly I don't feel as though I would ever watch Sausage Party again.

Film Assessment: C-