Illumination gave us more animation with animals in the main role. This time we have a bunch of animals with their life problems and dreams.
The movie starts with Buster Moon, a young koala, who falls in love with everything about theatre and gets enough money to buy his beloved theater. Nonetheless, the business is not going well. He decides to run a sing contest to save what is left, with a “generous” reward for the winner. This is when we are introduced to the other main characters, all having different personalities and paces of life. The story line is well-known - characters are given
a chance to change their live, all doors are opened till they hit the rock bottom. Then they have to raise up, get stronger, open up and walk forward. Simple enough for kids.
The animation is appealing. There are fluid movements, characters, depends on their species, have their own way of moving. For instance, Meena, the elephant, flattens her ears whenever she doesn’t feel confident or Rosita, the pig mother of twenty-five, who walks with small steps, straight, insecure … well, at the beginning. All the characters, by the way they move, show their personality.
Although I loved the animation, there is, in my opinion, few flaws. The design of the characters from same species are sometimes too similar. I was twice confused with the characters. Gunter – Piggy Power – is too similar to Rosita’s husband, I actually thought he was the latter until he presented himself. The same occurred to me with the bouncer at the disco; he is an ape similar to one the ape in Johny’s Father’s gang.
The studio has also done a really good job with the dialogues rather than ‘gag’ actions. Also the characters like Mr. Moon’s extremely old chameleon assistant or Japanese’s dancers were droll. The chosen songs were nicely interpreted and matching with the character’s emotional state. Despite all of that, I would make an exception with Beyonce’s song in the chasing scene in the club which I didn’t like, "Run the World (Girls)"... girls... Not an arrogant mouse running away from angry bears, which in comparison to other songs and timing just doesn’t match.
In my opinion there are also two other issues with the movie. One father-child-relation-drama for a movie is enough but this time there are two. First, we have Johnny who just wants to find himself, follow his own path and be appreciated by his father. Right, this is nice. Secondly, Buster Moon – optimistic and deluding himself – who gets his theatre with the money collected by his father and his father only. I find that this was unnecessary knowing that later, he is failing to manage his businesses and looks for other ways of getting support, but never gives up! All of that to say that maybe one day someone loaded will see how visionary are your ideas and might help you to achieve them.
Overall the movie is nice. We are given divers characters in different stages of their life. Action. Singing makes it even more enjoyable and appealing. You can't be bored.
