#but needless to say I'm happy I can watch clips for free on youtube

[frozenartscapes]

My Thoughts on “Sing”

There’s something I couldn’t put my finger on for the longest time, almost since I first saw a trailer for the movie Sing, and now that I’ve been able to watch some non-bootlegged clips on youtube of the movie - enough to get the just of what it actually is about - I think I’ve figured it out.

See, my problem with it before was that is was very obviously trying to ride Disney’s coattails by having a similar premise as Zootopia. Except...it wasn’t Zootopia by any means. It was no secret that Disney had that movie in the works for a while, and its wiki page and IMDb page were both vague enough that it’s entirely plausible someone at Illumination saw that and went off a similar idea: animals living like people in the modern world. And it drove me crazy because, at the time of seeing the first trailer, it didn’t even look like they were trying to make it look good. The character designs were awkward and at times weird to look at. Because of the song choices a lot of the actual sound syncing seemed off (think of that clip of that sheep singing “Kiss from a Rose” - it looks like the sheep was uncomfortably being forced to sing the song by some higher power). It looked like they were trying to rely solely on the fact that the characters were singing popular songs while plodding through one of the most overused story clichés of all time: the singing competition.

And, honestly, yeah, that’s what the movie still is. But that’s not the issue I have with it, and anyone who actually is a fan of the movie feel free to comment with your own opinion, but my question is:

Why did they have to do this movie with animals?

Having seen a good chunk of the movie now through clips, I’ve yet to see a definitive reason for why the world had to be set in one where all the humans were replaced by anthropomorphic animals. Aside from the odd joke or slight plot convenience, there isn’t a viable reason. And this is one of those things where I wouldn’t care so much if it wasn’t painfully obvious that it was in response to another more successful company’s movie.

And before the arguments come flying in, unlike Sing, Zootopia had to be set in a world of animals. First off, it’s called Zootopia, automatically giving some kind of sign that it was going to be about animals. But what’s more is that the world of Zootopia was creative and unique - it wasn’t our world but something that exists on its own. And the writers and animators did a fantastic job creating a world that cleverly incorporates animals from all corners of the world and all shapes and sizes and accounts for just about every question you might have about the world. From different sized doors on the commuter trains to districts catered to the specific biomes (and even sizes) of different types of animals, the makers of Zootopia created a world where it seemed like everything belonged. And, what’s more, is that they utilized the fact that their characters were animals to highlight a very human issue. The characters didn’t feel like they were human because they acted like humans, but rather because they had the emotions and the experiences of humans.

With Sing, it’s LA. That’s it. There’s been no attempt to make the world any more different than today’s. And in this case it works against the film because it’s leaving me wondering countless questions about stupid things like “How is that mouse driving that full-sized car?” or “So how do aquatic animals get around? Do they have to pay other animals to push their little fish tanks everywhere?”. This is distracting, plain and simple.

And ok, ignoring for a minute the fact that none of the songs are original songs and have a very Glee-like vibe to them, I will say this: I like the characters. And I do like the singing. They’ve got a very talented voice cast in Sing, and each of the characters have their own unique personalities that are entertaining to watch. But this comes back to my original question: why are they animals? To me, Sing would have been a much better movie had the creators chosen to not make the characters animals. First off, as overdone as the singing competition plot line is, I can’t think of many things outside of tv shows were its been done as an animated movie. Illumination is a good animation studio. They are capable of making unique character designs. Think of how much more interesting that movie might have been with a wide variety of human characters - from all sizes and ethnicities.

Sing had nothing new about it. The animation was the same stock animation we’ve seen from non-Disney/Dreamworks studios for a while now. The music was all songs from about three or more years ago. The story has been done a million times. And even the concept of anthropomorphic animals living with cellphones had already been done. Instead of trying to ride off Disney’s success they should have instead tried to produce something at least a little different. Would it really have been that much better? No, probably not by much. But the distracting questions about how the world worked would at least be gone. The point of the singing competition story is for marginalized people to see characters and find some kind of connection with themselves to those marginalized characters. That’s how Glee got as popular as it did. But it’s a lot harder to do when your characters who people are supposed to be identifying with aren’t people at all - but instead a shy elephant, or a housewife pig, or a British Danny Zuko wannabe gorilla, or a punk rock porcupine. Imagine instead a shy teenaged black girl, a working mother running a foster home, a British Danny Zuko wannabe who isn’t an awkwardly drawn gorilla, or a punk rock teenage girl coming into her own. All of these characters are written really well, but they’d be even more relatable if you weren’t getting distracted by the way the fur has texture but not fur texture.

For a story to work unnecessary things need to be cut out from it. And in Sing’s case, that would be the fact that the characters are animals. Unless there is an absolute, completely justifiable reason - and that doesn’t include: “we can’t have human women twerking to Anaconda in a kids movie so that’s why they’re bunnies instead” then that whole concept shouldn’t have been in the movie. Sing still needs major reworking but there are a few elements that would work if more effort was put into it. But I am seriously getting sick of people touting it as an incredible and motivational movie when I’m pretty sure there were episodes of Glee that had more emotional drive. And at least those were more relatable and weren’t filled with distracting questions like “How are those porcupines wearing shirts with all those quills sticking out of their backs?” or “Why do the pigs’ noses not have nostrils, but instead little round divots? How do they smell things?”