Which Film is Better, Sing 1 or Sing 2?
Image courtesy of Forbes
By Joe Frederick
There’s no doubt that film studio Illumination has animation down pat; the amount of emotion the studio is able to convey through the animals in the Sing duology — through both facial expressions and body language in some characters — is amazing. What animators are able to convey through animation looks real enough for the medium and makes viewers empathize with the characters.
The soundtracks in both Sing movies are strong in their own right, and the use of “Chop Suey!” by System of A Down in Sing 2 was as surprising as it was appreciated. I do have to say that the soundtrack of Sing 2 pulls more weight than its original; the use of songs like “Heads Will Roll” to reintroduce Ash, along with artists such as Billie Eilish, Eminem, Drake, U2, and Aerosmith, among others make for a truly diverse soundtrack to reflect the diverse characters in the movie.
What truly sets these two movies apart is how they develop the characters themselves, and how those characters impact the plot. Sing is entirely a character-driven movie, as opposed to the plot-driven one in Sing 2. The interpersonal stories for each character in Sing are great. The lack of support Reese Witherspoon’s Rosita has from her husband is hard to watch, but great to see overcome. Scarlet Johansson’s Ash has relationship problems, like having her boyfriend gaslight her, having no support from him, and how the relationship ends with him going behind her back to perform with another girl porcupine. Taron Egerton’s Johnny fights with nature versus nurture which puts him and his father in conflict. Seth MacFarlane’s Mike is an arrogant schmuck who learns to do things for himself rather than to impress a woman or for the sake of money. Tori Kelly’s Meena gets over her stage fright and shyness and by the end has enough confidence to perform in front of an entire theater of people. Matthew McConaughey’s Buster Moon has just as much character development as the rest, if not more. You learn that he has received advice about life and dreaming from his father, but that he does not truly believe any of it. He is scared that he is just a failure who can not live up to the expectations he has set for himself. All of these very human issues and relationships are anthropomorphized into animals in the Sing series.
Unfortunately, Sing 2 does not have as much character growth as the first. The problem is that all the characters are beholden to the plot of the movie, which is more structured than the first. The main antagonist, Bobby Cannavale’s Mr. Crystal, is a hotel owner and a one-dimensional evil businessman in a parodied version of Las Vegas; the character does not have more depth than that. Even when his daughter is put in the show produced by Buster Moon and Co. and thinks she is fired, he really only cares as a matter of pride. He goes as far as to insult the cast on television when that information is made public. It is because this strict plot weighs down the second movie that I have to say that Sing is the better movie, for character arcs alone.
