Sing (Special Edition) (3D) [Blu-Ray]

Director(s): Christophe Lourdelet, Garth Jennings

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane (VOICES)

Release Date: March 21, 2017

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 7.5/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

Synopsis:

From Illumination, the studio that brought you The Secret Life of Pets and the Despicable Me franchise, comes an animated comedy about finding the music that lives inside all of us. SING stars Academy Award® winner† Matthew McConaughey as Buster Moon, an eternally optimistic koala who puts on the world’s greatest singing competition to save his crumbling theater; Academy Award® winner†† Reese Witherspoon as Rosita, an overworked and unappreciated mother of 25 piglets desperate to unleash her inner diva; Scarlett Johansson as Ash, a punk rock porcupine with a beautiful voice behind her prickly exterior; Taron Egerton as Johnny, a young gangster gorilla looking to break free of his family’s felonies; as well as Seth MacFarlane, John C. Reilly, and Grammy Award-nominated Tori Kelly. SING is the musical comedy event of the year!

The latest animated feature from Illumination Entertainment, the studio that brought you Despicable Me and The Secret Life of Pets, ‘Sing’ takes viewers into a world much like our own, yet populated primarily by various walking, talking animals. Koala Buster Moon (McConaughey) has always wanted to make his mark in show business, but when a significant shortage of income results in the likelihood of his beloved theater being shut down, Buster arranges one last hopeful event that he feels could save the theater and his hopes and dreams along with it. Offering a noteworthy prize for the winner, Buster gathers the most talented singers and dancers he can find for a monumental talent contest to end all other talent contests; if only he can manage to miraculously pull it off amidst the numerous (and often humorous) hurdles that are continually thrown into his path.

‘Sing’ is a fun, sweet and family friendly tale of friendship, struggle, and finding one’s rightful place within the world; all balanced by some catchy songs and boosted even further by a healthy supply of laughs and simplistic fun. While some may be unable to ignore the obvious similarities between other animated features such as Zootopia, ‘Sing’ wisely opts for making its own way in most regards and aside from the various animals living as humans within their own world, it shares few similarities. Smoothly guided by directors Christophe Lourdelet and Garth Jennings from a screenplay also penned by Jennings and featuring a star-studded cast that includes Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly, and a number more, this lighthearted ride should provide plenty of enjoyment for folks young and old. Most younger audiences and plenty of the older folks as well should have a great deal of fun with ‘Sing’ and the film’s enjoyment is only complimented all the more by a gorgeous 3D presentation that should have no trouble pleasing the fellow 3D enthusiasts with its detail, depth and numerous pop out effects that consistently compliment the animated fun. I would strongly urge anyone who enjoys similar animated features or anyone with young ones running around to make a point of checking out ‘Sing’ when you have the opportunity to do so, it should be a perfect candidate for a casual and lighthearted evening viewing with the whole family.

Overall, ‘Sing’ is a beautifully animated and often fairly humorous good time for the entire family. Filled with no shortage of laughs and plenty of heartwarming and just plain enjoyable moments that should have no trouble holding the attention of audiences young and old throughout its course, and it’s only complimented all the more by the talented folks that make up the voice cast and help it to work quite as well as it does. I would definitely recommend ‘Sing’ to any folks that enjoyed the previous Illumination Entertainment animated features and similar films, and of course to the family households. The fellow 3D fans will also want to make a point of giving this one a shot and should be quite pleased with the gorgeous 3D presentation included on the Blu-ray 3D release. It’s an easygoing, humorous and just flat out fun flick for the whole family that should be well worth the cost of a rental at the very least for those who might be hesitant to drop the funds on a blind purchase.

VIDEO:

The 3D Blu-ray release of ‘Sing’ features a full 1080p High Definition MVC encoded 3D presentation utilizing the film’s original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio. The 3D video presentation looks fantastic and offers a sharp, detailed and gorgeous 3D presentation from start to finish with no notable faults to be found within. It provides impressive depth and plenty of elements such as sidewalks and more appearing to leap right out of the screen; holding up admirably at every point throughout its course and never causing anything occurring on screen to ever become negatively affected, let alone rendered indiscernible. Overall, this is a wonderful 3D high definition video presentation that should easily thrill the fellow 3D fans out there.

The 2D Blu-ray release (which is also included with the 3D Blu-ray combo pack) features an AVC encoded full high definition video presentation also utilizing the film’s original 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio. From the few scenes I was able to scan through, the standard video presentation looks equally outstanding in its own right and offers a gorgeous, colorful and nearly flawless presentation that should have no issue satisfying those who aren’t 3D capable or simply aren’t fans of the format.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release (Both the 3D & 2D disc) features a Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 channel compatible) soundtrack. Please note that this review pertains solely to the lossless Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio presentation. This lossless multichannel soundtrack provides a crisp, clean and fairly aggressive audio presentation throughout. It consistently takes advantage of all seven available channels in order to fully immerse the viewer within the music, in addition to sending crowd chatter, car and action elements, plus plenty more throughout the various speakers, and never resulting in any dialogue which may be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered inaudible in the process. Overall, this is a top notch Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 compatible) soundtrack that contributes an additional layer of fun to the overall viewing experience and shouldn’t disappoint in the slightest.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The 3D Blu-ray release of ‘Sing’ includes a number of enjoyable extras which can be found on both the 3D & 2D disc, although as per usual they are all only presented in 2D. Included on the release are ‘3 New Mini-Movies’: ‘Gunter Babysits’ (running approximately 4 minutes in length), ‘Love at First Sight’ (running approximately 4 minutes), and ‘Eddie’s Life Coach’ (approximately 4 minutes), plus ‘The Making of the Mini-Movies’ Featurette (6 minutes). We are also treated to a collection of behind the scenes Featurettes, Music Videos and other fun videos, they include: ‘The Making of Sing’ (running approximately 5 minutes), ‘Finding the Rhythm: Editing Sing’ (approximately 3 minutes), ‘6 Character Profiles’ that include interviews/comments with the cast discussing their roles (approximately 12 minutes altogether), plus ‘“Don’t You Worry About A Thing” Music Video’ (3 minutes), ‘Making a Music Video with Tori Kelly’ (3 minutes), ‘”Faith” Music Video’ (3 minutes), ‘”Faith” Lyric Video’ (3 minutes), ‘”Set It All Free” Lyric Video’ (4 minutes), ‘Sing & Dance – “Faith” (7 minutes), ‘The Best of Gunter’ (1 minute), and a collection of fun faux news pieces and promo videos inside ‘The Sing Network’ which includes: ‘Gunter’s Dance Studio’ (1 minute), ‘The Moon Theatre’ (1 minute), ‘Rosita’s Babysitting Gizmo’ (1 minute), ‘Miss Crawly’s Matchmaking Service’ (1 minute) and a collection of ‘In The News’ segments (9 minutes combined).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. It should additionally be noted that for the purpose of convenience, the images present for this specific release represent the 2D version of the film, even though the review itself covers the 3D version. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

Film Rating: 7.5/10
Disc Rating: 8/10

The ‘Sing: Special Edition’ is Now Available to Own on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD & Digital HD from Illumination Entertainment & Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

You can purchase your copy of ‘Sing: Special Edition’ by clicking on the Amazon Cart Icon immediately below!