Metacritic reviews

When the big show finally happens at the end of the picture? You can’t help but smile.

While there are no profound life lessons to be found in these subplots, Jennings and his cast manage to deliver a steady supply of laughs, while respecting one of Illumination’s core principles: It’s OK to be silly.

This is the kind of movie "Trolls" set out to be and with this kind of innovation in animation, it succeeds on far more levels as well. There are just so many laughs to be had but there's also plenty of warmth with a lot of focus put on each contestant's family.

When the characters hit rock bottom, the movie quietly gets more emotional and more sure-handed.

Sing is colourful, yet at almost two hours, it is also long. Still, if kids aren’t drawn to one singing animal (or familiar voice), there’s always another around the corner, holding up the tentpole.

God, it’s so obnoxious. And the worst thing is that it works. I was smiling and applauding at the end, then I had to take a long walk alone to wonder what was wrong with me.

Illumination’s latest plays to the company’s strengths, with inventive character and background design, hyper-rendered animation that pushes the technology envelope, especially in the realm of lighting and cute sight gags. But just as with, for example, The Secret Life of Pets or Minions (and let’s not even go there with Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax), storytelling remains the outfit’s weak spot.

It turns out that Sing’s myriad irritations are a lot more eclectic than its long, long playlist of pop hits.

In Sing, musical theater is simply an excuse for the filmmakers to deliver an animated version of American Idol.

Sing is the Platonic ideal of an Illumination movie. It’s a profoundly soulless piece of work that shines a light on the mediocrity they foist upon the children of the world.