Movie Review: 'Sing 2' Provides Brand Extension for Illumination I.P

Sing 2 is a synergistic brand extension for the Sing I.P owned and perpetuated by Universal Pictures and the animation brand Illumination whose previous brand extensions include Despicable Me and The Minions I.P. The goal of Sing 2 is to maximize the visibility of the known I.P Sing into a viable franchise for future capitalization. Box office tracking thus far indicates that Sing 2 will be a quick win for Illumination, well above their budget pain point.

The Sing 2 I.P is being perpetuated further by including the brand of Matthew McConaughey, a well known product who, along with Reese Witherspoon and Scarlett Johannson, has proven to move the needle in the past for Illumination. In this brand extension, McConaughey returns to the role of music impresario, Buster Moon, owner of the Moon Theater. In the initial brand extension, Sing, Buster held a contest to find new talent. In this further brand extension, Buster is looking to take his new acts on the road.

Returning to further the impact of this latest brand extension are Scarlett Johannson as rock n’roll porcupine, Ash, Reese Witherspoon as devoted House-Pig and singing star, Rosita, and Taron Egerton as Johnny the Gorilla. With their show a hit in their relatively small town, Buster eyes a chance to move the show to the big time, a Las Vegas or Atlantic City stand-in called Redshore City. To get there, the team must impress a talent scout dog named Suki and voiced by Chelsea Peretti.

Suki is the gatekeeper to a major resort owner, a wolf named Jimmy Crystal (Bobby Cannavale). When our group of outsiders manage to sneak into his audition for his newest headline act, Buster and Ash make the mistake of promising that they can get a big star to bolster their otherwise star-less show. The two claim to have a link to a legendary reclusive rock star, a Tiger named Clay Calloway, voiced by U2 lead singer and rock icon Bono.

That’s far more plot than you need me to describe for Sing 2. The reality of reviewing something as empty and vacuous as another Illumination animated brand extension is that nothing I describe about the plot really matters. The plot is merely the vehicle that drives from one jukebox musical number to another. It’s not a particularly sturdy or reliable vehicle but it does enough to move from song to the next without completely breaking down.

Each of the featured stars has their own modest subplot and their own well known pop song to perform and that’s what Sing 2 is truly about, well known I.P songs sung adequately by well known movie stars or, in the case of Bono, a real life rock star capable of sharing one of his well known songs, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, with an equally well known celebrity, in this case, Scarlett Johannson’s Ash character.

Is the collaboration of Bono and Scar-Jo any good? Yeah, it’s alright. Johannson is a capable singer, she’s released her own record in the past, she can carry a tune and Bono is a generous partner, probably because he and his band are being exceptionally compensated for the use of the song. The performance of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For is a highlight but because the plot surrounding Clay Callaway is so slight and off to the side, it’s strange to have this song be the big pay off to the overall plot of the movie which centers more on the battles with the resort owner and the subplot struggles of Witherspoon and Egerton’s characters.

But going into the plot structure and offering a critique would indicate that I care about Sing 2 and it is impossible to care about Sing 2. The stink of profit taking I.P expansion is really what dominates the movie. Director Garth Jennings and this all star cast do seem to care about not making something completely awful but there is a distinct sense of auto-pilot to most of Sing 2, as if everyone knows this isn’t going to enrich the world at large, it will only enrich several bank accounts.

This is undeniably filler material intended to distract the 3 to 11 age demographic, maybe move a few toys and soundtracks, and get off the stage with as much money as can be gathered. And that’s it. If you’re alright with that, Sing 2 won’t offend you. It won’t completely bore you or upset anyone. There is nothing here that anyone will remember long after seeing it. It’s a proper brand extension that will maximize capitalization, create visibility for the brand, and do so without damaging the core competencies of the Illumination brand.

I feel my soul leaving my body as I write that. That must mean I am ready to join a marketing team. Sing 2 arrives in theaters on Wednesday, December 22nd, 2021.