Sing

Whether in karaoke bars, television singing competitions, or uploaded YouTube videos, it seems that no one these days can refrain from bursting into song. And what’s good for human beings turns out to be good, too, for the bipedal, talking (and trilling) animals that populate the world of Sing, the latest animated movie from Illumination Entertainment (Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets). Matthew McConaughey stars in a mostly non-singing role as a koala named Buster Moon, who stages a vocal contest as a last-ditch attempt to save his old theatre from foreclosure. The plot is pretty bare-bones, moving from one song-and-dance interlude to the next. Some cute visual gags, such as a snail singing its heart out while balanced atop a microphone, bring smiles. Directors Garth Jennings (Son of Rambow) and Christophe Lourdelet have fashioned a pretty sweet movie, despite dousing it with overkill. The effect is “a little pitchy, dawg.”